New Tampa Flight

Charter starting new Cuba flight as demand rises

 

BY JAMAL THALJI,

TAMPA -- Island Travel & Tours operator Bill Hauf said that in November his company will add another weekly flight to Cuba from Tampa International Airport.

That’s significant because air travel to Cuba is at its strongest during the summer months, when school is out and Cuban-Americans can take their kids with them to visit relatives.

So adding Cuban flights in the offseason may be a better indicator of the growing demand for flights from Tampa to Cuba. Those visitors include many non-Cubans traveling to the island for educational trips and other purposes authorized by the U.S. government.

Island Travel & Tours will add a Friday flight starting Nov. 1. So during the offseason, the company will offer round trips to Cuba on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays.

“We still see the demand growing by American groups as well as Cuban-Americans here in the Tampa region,” Hauf said. ”We think it’s time to add a third flight. We’re in the middle of a strong season, but we expect to keep at it after the season is over.”

Tampa International was allowed to resume commercial flights to Havana in 2011 for the first time since the trade embargo took effect half a century ago. More than 75,000 people have since used the airport to visit Cuba.

There are now five flights a week from Tampa to Cuba. Island Travel & Tours offers a flight to Havana on Wednesday and two on Sunday. ABC Charters Inc. of Miami offers Tampa-to-Holguin on Tuesdays and Tampa-to-Havana on Saturdays.

When the peak summer travel season ends next month, Island Travel & Tours will give up one Sunday flight. ABC Charters Inc. will also stop its Holguin route, according to its website.

But when Island Travel & Tours starts up its Friday route to Havana, that will still give Tampa International four weekly flights to Cuba during the offseason.

Tampa has a base of about 80,000 Cuban-Americans that provides a steady stream of customers to fill airplane seats to Cuba during the summer.

But the real potential to grow the market lies in non-Cubans. The U.S. government doesn’t allow Americans to go to Cuba for tourism. But it does issue “people-to-people” licenses that allow Americans to travel to Cuba for educational, cultural, religious and humanitarian reasons.

Hauf said that’s the market that’s growing. He’s also trying to get permission from the U.S. and Cuban governments to book flights to the Cuban cities of Santa Clara and Cienfuegos.

“All those people that can legally travel to Cuba are the impetus for growing the business,” he said. So, in three years Hauf has added three different flights to Cuba. ”We’re adding one once every year,” he said. ”The business is growing. More Cuban-Americans are traveling and traveling more frequently, and more Americans are traveling, all of which is good news.”

http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/07/29/3529073/charter-starting-new-cuba-flight.html

********************************************************8

My comment:

The key to expansion of flights by non-Cuban Americans is for President Obama to grant general licenses to all non-tourist purposeful travel. That will end OFAC's bureaucratic obstacles and allow lower cost self-organized programs, including staying in privately owned bed and breakfasts, renting cars and using public transportation.

The President needs to hear from the two-thirds of Americans who support unrestricted travel by receiving this message http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/beyonce-jay-z-vs-cuban?source=c.url&r_by=945311.

John McAuliff

Fund for Reconciliation and Development.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/07/29/3529073/charter-starting-new-cuba-flight.html#storylink=cp

y

Vinales in Depth Enjoyed by a Canadian Visitor

Welcome to Cubano country

 

The interior of Cuba provides a more authentic view than the touristy coast

 

BY ELAINE O'CONNOR, THE PROVINCE JULY 28, 2013

 

 

Cool morning mist wisps across the valley as our horses wind along red clay roads through flowering tobacco fields.

The heat is rising slowly, but it still outpaces my dawdling white horse, who is more interested in grazing than keeping pace through the majestic Valle de Viñales.

"Vamanos, Palomo!" Jose Luis, a sturdy rancher in a chambray shirt and black cowboy hat, calls again to the sluggish steed. It does little to inspire speed. But then, there's no reason to rush in the Cuban countryside. A visit here is as relaxing as week on the beach, and offers a more authentic experience.

After an hour roaming in the shadow of the mogotes - high rounded limestone karst hills that surround the valley - Jose Luis coaxes Palomo up to a shack on a hill where a farmer welcomes dusty visitors with cold naranja juice.

The horses snort softly, resting under the shade of orange trees, their reins threaded through branches. Outside, the farmer slashes sugarcane with a machete, then grinds the juice with just-picked bitter oranges for a frothy treat.

We sip them on his porch, tipped back on hand-hewn chairs, and watch him roll cigars from cured tobacco leaves on his knee - a rural take on the traditional Cuban habaneros.

We enjoy a smoke and take in the valley: Emerald tobacco fields dotted with oxen, red-earth trails and views for miles. Finally, Palomo and I are in tune: I don't want to move, let alone leave.

Cuban vacations conjure images of white sand beaches, and the majority of the island's three million visitors each year do head to Varadero's resorts, with Havana, the crumbling colonial capital, a close second.

But there is a whole other side to the island to be found in the lush interior. In rural communities like Viñales, in the western province of Pinar del Rio, cool valley breezes replace trade winds, and quaint tobacco farms stand in for ornate villas, bringing visitors into close contact with the real, rural Cuba.

The Viñales Valley was deemed a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999, and has since seen an uptick in tourism, but the town, home to 30,000 Cubans, retains its sleepy character.

Its natural beauty and proximity to national parks makes it an excellent base for outdoor enthusiasts who come to cycle, hike, birdwatch, climb, go spelunking, or ride through countryside on horseback.

Birders come to spot Cuban Grassquits and Greater Antillean Grackles. Gardeners enjoy the half-wild Casa de Caridad gardens, or, further afield, Soroa's el Jardin Botánico Orquideario, an estate that boasts hundreds of species or orchids, some that smell like chocolate.

Cavers can explore for hours inside 45 kilometres of underground galleries in the Gran Caverna de Santo Tomas or in any number of smaller caves.

Climbers have access to some of the best rock climbing in the Caribbean, and can choose from over 60 routes, many on the stunning Mogote del Valle. Tours of tobacco plantations and secaderos (traditional drying houses) are offered at La Casa del Veguero, just outside town. Swimmers can join locals for a picnic and a dip at the Los Resbalosos waterfall and swimming hole.

A day at the beach is just a day trip away from Viñales: There is a seven-kilometre stretch of white sand on the island of Cayo Jutias and scuba-diving along the reefs off Cayo Levisa. Further afield, visitors can arrange afternoons of exploring the towns of Pinar del Rio or San Diego Los Banos en route to the rich biodiversity of the westernmost tip of Pinar del Rio Province.

There, a 400 square-kilometre UNESCO biosphere reserve, the Parque Nacional de Guanahacabibes, is home to a stunning array of wildlife including 172 species of birds, plus 140 archeological sites. In just a few hours with our guide Abel Sosa Prieto, we spotted the world's smallest bird, the bee hummingbird, giant mangrove crabs, leathery iguanas, feral pigs and crocodiles. Not far from Guanahacabibes, Maria la Gorda hosts a quiet scuba diving resort, the perfect place to recharge oceanside by snorkelling or sunbathing under swaying palms.

To the east of Viñales, visitors can also make jaunts into the capital to wander through the old quarter of La Habana Vieja, or to visit the ecocommunity Las Terraza and its former coffee plantation.

But the serene beauty of Viñales remains the highlight of the region. 

After we return from our ride and Palomo is watered and happily still again, we choose a somewhat more modern form of transportation to continue exploring. We rent a circa-1950 cherry red Chevy that tops out at 50 miles per hour for a cruise through the countryside. At the Cueva del Indio cave we escape the heat with a tour of the damp stone galleries and float down an underground river searching for shapes in the stalactites. Nature is not the only highlight here. Cuba is famed for its music and dance, and Viñales offers a chance to experience culture like a local. Residents offer Spanish language and salsa lessons, but immersion is free. Sunday afternoons, locals gather for an hours-long nocharge variety show at the Centro Cultural Polo Martinez, an outdoor venue by the town's central plaza, a hub for the community.

We kick back with Havana Club Cuba Libres and watch Cuban youth perform pulsing reggaeton - Latin-inflected hip hop - and dance troupes twirl in unison to Cuban salsa and rumba, while toddlers shimmy to the beat on the sidelines.

Dinner follows at our casa particular, Casa Maira y Pipi, one of the many family-run lodgings in the region, which usually offer superior service to state-run tourist facilities.

Owner Maira Hernandez prepares a meal of traditional Cuban rice and beans, Moros y Christians, as well as pollo ajillo, a chicken stew, with fried manioc, boiled yucca, cucumber and tomato salad, and a dulce de leche flan.

We end the night back at the Centro Cultural, which transforms into a salsa club after dark, and, only slightly saddle-sore, dance through the night to the rhythm of Cuba's heartland.

G Adventures (gadventures.com) offers weeklong trips through Western Cuba, including the Valle de Viñales, through their Cuba Libre tour.

© Copyright (c) The Province

http://www.theprovince.com/travel/Welcome+Cubano+country/8718049/story.html

Conflicting House and Senate Bills Restrict and Expand Travel

The prevailing belief in Washington is that the President will force removal of the House Appropriations Committee anti-travel language as he did last time.  While I think that is likely, I strongly believe a passive approach is a mistake.

Given the contentious relations between the President and the House of Representatives manifested in the current budget crisis and partial shut down of the US government, it is risky to assume anything about Obama's influence or willingness to use it.  If the President's diplomatic strategy with Syria and Iran succeeds, I am more optimistic, but he cannot control all of the forces in play.

The President is more likely to act to protect existing opportunities for travel, and even to go further in use of his authority, if he senses there is a grass roots movement supporting him! 
While activist groups will at least endorse his action to save travel, by ourselves we have too little impact.  The Travel Service Providers and People to People licensees must also mobilize their clients.  These companies have financial resources based on profits from work with Cuba.   More importantly they have in their data bases the e-mail addresses of virtually all legal travelers to Cuba since the President partially opened the door, the people most likely to express an informed and motivated opinion. 

At a minimum every TSP and P2P for its own economic self-interest, if for no other reason, should inform people to people clients of the legislative threat to the kind of trip they made to Cuba and ask them to contact their Representatives and Senators, with a copy to the White House.  (Because of the high cost of people to people trips many participants are upper-middle class with potential political experience and influence.)

It would be nice if TSPs and P2Ps also endorsed the idea of a general license for all purposeful non-tourist travel, and the elimination of  required Travel Service Providers, but that seems less likely for short term reasons even though it would greatly expand the number of US visitors.

Current general license travelers (Cuban Americans, universities, religious organizations) do not have the same self-interested reason for concern but will be sympathetic.  The only systematic way to reach them is through TSP lists.

The Senate Appropriations Bill contains positive language that could allow a limited amount of US organized conferences and conventions in Cuba but it will presumably be removed if the House language is.  Nevertheless, it shows an idea is in play which could open new channels of engagement.  A general license for all purposeful travel ought to allow any US group to organize conferences in Cuba as well as permit Americans to freely attend Cuban conferences.

John McAuliff

******************************************************************************

Petition text:

Protect our right to visit Cuba with "people-to-people" programs, just like Beyoncé and Jay-Z. Open the door wider by extending to all Americans a general license for non-tourist purposeful travel.

Sign the petition here and please circulate this link to personal and organizational lists:  http://tinyurl.com/travelCuba

*****************************************************

Senate Appropriations Bill

§ 7209. Requirements relating to certain travel-related trans-
actions with Cuba
(a) * * *
* * * * * * *
(b) Prohibition on travel relating to tourist activities
* * * * * * *
(c) The Secretary of the Treasury shall promulgate regulations
authorizing by general license the travel related and other trans-
actions ordinarily incident to professional research by full-time pro-
fessionals and their staff; attendance at professional meetings or
conferences in Cuba if the sponsoring organization is a United
States professional organization; and the organization and manage-
ment of professional meetings and conferences in Cuba if the spon-
soring organization is a United States professional organization, if
such travel is related to disaster prevention, emergency prepared-
ness, and natural resource protection, including for fisheries, coral
reefs, and migratory species.

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CRPT-113srpt80/pdf/CRPT-113srpt80.pdf


House Appropriations Bill

SEC. 124. None of the funds made available in this

20 Act may be used to approve, license, facilitate, authorize,

21 or otherwise allow, whether by general or specific license,

22 travel-related or other transactions incident to non-aca-

23 demic educational exchanges described in section

24 515.565(b)(2) of title 31, Code of Federal Regulations.

.

1 SEC. 125. The Secretary of the Treasury shall pro-

2 vide a report not later than 90 days after the enactment

3 of this Act regarding travel pursuant to sections

4 515.560(a)(1), 515.560(c)(4)(i), and 515.561 of title 31,

5 Code of Federal Regulations. Such report shall include,

6 for each fiscal year beginning with 2007 under the afore-

7 mentioned category of travel: number of travelers; average

8 duration of stay for each trip; average amount of U.S. dol-

9 lars spent per traveler; number of return trips per year;

10 and total sum of U.S. dollars spent collectively in each

11 fiscal year

http://appropriations.house.gov/uploadedfiles/bills-113hr-sc-ap-fy2014-fservices-subcommitteedraft.pdf   pp 22-23

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The Executive Committee of CAFE, Cuban Americans for Engagement, would like to express our severe dismay over the recent language introduced by representative Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL) to the House Financial Services Appropriations Bill for the fiscal year 2014 that would reverse important advancements in U.S.-Cuba relations.

 The language contained in sections 124 and 125 of the bill, which was passed by the full committee on Wednesday, would adversely affect two major policy changes of the Obama administration that have brought about improvements in the relations between the citizens of both nations over the past four years.

Section 124 would effectively dismantle the "people-to-people" licensing program, allowing American citizens to travel to Cuba for educational purposes, by defunding the program. These licenses have allowed U.S. citizens to legally visit Cuba and experience the island first-hand, ending their reliance on the skewed portrayals of Cuban reality by either the U.S. government or the corporate-controlled media.

 These visits have also allowed Cuban citizens to interact with average U.S. citizens and to discover that most people in the U.S. desire normal relations with their Cuban neighbors. These educational exchanges have served to reinforce the similarities of both peoples and to express our shared interests.

The provisions in section 125 are particularly disturbing because they negatively affect thousands of Diaz-Balart's own constituents and their families in Cuba by requiring OFAC to monitor and report details on Cuban American travel to Cuba and on all remittances carried to Cuba, whether by Cuban Americans or others.

 These remittances that have been taken to Cuba in the past years have helped to bolster the nascent mixed economy and allow Cubans on the island to start and maintain small businesses. Without these much needed investments Cubans wouldn't be able to participate in this new paradigm. The regulations imposed by this legislation would require a costly and intrusive monitoring system and would ultimately lead to diminished monetary support for the limited, yet increasing, free enterprise that is now possible in Cuba and less humanitarian and other donations to Cuba's religious NGOs.

 It is extremely hypocritical and downright un-American of Diaz-Balart and the Republican controlled Appropriations committee to discourage Cuban Americans from taking advantage of the economic reforms taking place in Cuba. These are the same public figures that decry the communist, authoritarian government's control over the economy. These remittances have been the lifeblood of recent reforms in Cuba and Diaz-Balart's shortsighted and malicious attempt to curtail such funds is an affront to the American way of life.

 CAFE will join others in fighting to keep this hateful language from ever making it to the president's desk and we hope that Diaz-Balart's mean-spirited tactics will be met with negative results at the polls on Election Day in November of 2014. Diaz-Balart's attempt to control the American citizenry's right to travel and sabotage his own constituent's efforts to contribute to the welfare of their extended communities in Cuba is a disgusting act of political posturing that shouldn't be accepted by any sector of the American government or society.

 CAFE advocates an end to the unconstitutional restrictions on travel to Cuba imposed by the U.S. Congress and exhorts the U.S. State Department to at least, in the mean time, establish a single general license to cover all currently permissible categories of travel to Cuba. We also support the unlimited investment by Cuban Americans in Cuba and the end to the embargo that prohibits individuals and companies subject to U.S. jurisdiction from most trade and economic transactions with the island.

https://cafeporcuba.squarespace.com/news/press-release-of-cafes-denouncement-of-mario-diaz-balarts-attempt-to-dismantle-people-

OFAC Blocks Use of Ships by Road Scholar

No sailing to Cuba: Road Scholar cancels U.S. trips by ship

By Beth J. Harpaz

Associated Press

POSTED:   07/26/2013 08:05:39 PM PDT | UPDATED:   A DAY AGO

A U.S.-based organization on Friday canceled people-to-people trips to Cuba that would have transported U.S. citizens there by ship.

Road Scholar canceled the programs after receiving an amended copy of its people-to-people license from the U.S. Treasury Department specifically excluding travel to Cuba "aboard a vessel."

"Travel to and from Cuba, whether originating or terminating in the United States or a third country, may not be aboard a vessel," stated a provision written into the amended license, which Road Scholar received a copy of on Thursday.

Road Scholar, based in Boston, had previously announced trips from Jamaica and Miami with stops in Havana and other parts of Cuba.

Most travel by U.S. citizens to Cuba is outlawed, but tens of thousands of Americans now visit the island legally each year on people-to-people tours, which are licensed by the U.S. Treasury Department. People-to-people trips must have educational and cultural exchange itineraries in order to be approved by the U.S. government.

Typically people-to-people tours fly from U.S. airports to Havana on chartered planes.

In originally announcing the tour July 18, Road Scholar's director of international programs, Yves Marceau, had said it was his understanding that "nothing in the regulations or guidelines" precluded traveling by ship on a people-to-people tour.

Marceau said Friday that "as a result of this new information, we withdrew" the three ocean voyages to Cuba.

Road Scholar, a not-for-profit educational organization that offers guided trips to many destinations, continues to offer land-based people-to-people tours that fly in to Cuba.

Positive News on Licensing

More Cuba licenses approved

By Gay Nagle Myers

The logjam earlier this year of license renewals for companies operating people-to-people programs to Cuba appears to have loosened, as the licenses now are rolling in at a steady clip.

The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, is charged with evaluating each license application, whether new or a renewal, to confirm that each operator and each itinerary meet the guidelines and regulations for approved cultural people-to-people programs from the U.S. to Cuba. 

Within the past two weeks, five companies received the go-ahead from OFAC, including Abercrombie & Kent USA, which had tried to enter the Cuba market in September 2011 but pulled its programs pending a review and clarification of Cuba regulations issued by OFAC earlier that year.

A&K’s first departure is now set for Sept. 6, with additional departures later this year and into 2014.

Two companies received two-year license renewals. Insight Cuba’s programs in partnership with General Tours World Traveler now run through 2015.

“We’re thrilled to receive our renewed license and look forward to our continued relationship with General Tours to send even more guests to Cuba,” said Tom Popper, president of Insight Cuba.

Calling the two-year license renewal “fantastic news for us and the agent community,” Bob Drumm, president of General Tours World Traveler, said that agents can book clients “even further in advance with complete peace of mind. A key message that agents need to relay is that now is the time to visit and experience Cuba before it changes.”

And Tauck Tours’ first departure under its renewed license is set for Oct. 6. Additional departures through 2013 and going forward to mid-2015 will be announced shortly.

The company’s return to Cuba follows its launch in 2012, one of the most successful itinerary launches in Tauck’s 88-year history, according to CEO Dan Mahar.

Tauck’s initial license to operate in Cuba expired at the end of 2012, and although the company submitted its renewal application at the earliest opportunity, OFAC requested more documentation. That, plus staff shortages at OFAC, resulted in delays, according to Mahar.

Boston-based Road Scholar will launch its people-to-people programs in December and will run through March.

Although most programs use charter flights from Miami to Havana, Road Scholar will use a cruise ship operated by a Canadian company.

Canadians and Europeans will make up most of the 1,000 passengers on the vessel, with the Road Scholar group limited to 24 participants. It will adhere to its own itinerary of educational and cultural interchanges and interactions with Cubans when the ship is in Cuban ports.

California-based Universal Travel System received its license to operate the people-to-people programs, which start in October. The company previously had operated the programs from 2000 to 2003 before President George Bush ended the run in 2004.

http://www.travelweekly.com/Caribbean-Travel/Insights/More-Cuba-licenses-approved/

Latest OFAC Overreach Hits American Express

US Treasury Civil Penalties Release

American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc. (“TRS”), New York, NY, has agreed to pay $5,226,120 to settle potential civil liability for apparent violations of the Cuban Assets Control Regulations, 31 C.F.R. part 515 (the “CACR”).

From on or about December 15, 2005, through on or about November 1, 2011, TRS dealt in property in which Cuba or its nationals had an interest when its foreign branch offices and subsidiaries issued 14,487 tickets for travel between Cuba and countries other than the United States, many of which had adopted “antidote” measures (blocking statutes) prohibiting compliance with the CACR, without authorization from OFAC.

OFAC determined that TRS voluntarily self disclosed this matter to OFAC and that the apparent violations occurred “subsequent to agency notice” in 1995.

TRS was investigated by OFAC in 1995 and 1996 for similar apparent violations of the CACR arising from the provision of travel services to and from Cuba by a recently acquired subsidiary
at the time. OFAC provided written notice to TRS that such conduct constituted apparent violations of the CACR. Under the Cuba Penalty Schedule, 68 Fed. Reg. 4429 (Jan. 29, 2003), the base penalty for the apparent violations is $3,629,250.

The settlement amount reflects OFAC’s consideration of the following facts and circumstances, pursuant to the General Factors under OFAC’s Economic Sanctions Enforcement Guidelines, 31
C.F.R. part 501, App. A (the “Guidelines”):

(1) TRS demonstrated reckless disregard for the CACR, as evidenced by the apparent violations occurring subsequent to notice by the agency in 1995, the lack of oversight by U.S. management
of TRS’ foreign offices, and the continuing failure to implement effective mechanisms for detecting Cuba travel bookings until late 2010, after having informed OFAC in OFAC’s investigation of TRS in 1995 and 1996 that it would do so;

(2) TRS’ U.S. management should have known that the conduct resulting in the apparent violations would or might take place;

(3) the apparent violations caused significant harm to U.S. sanctions program objectives regarding Cuba;

(4) TRS is one of the largest and most sophisticated travel service providers (TSPs) for authorized Cuba travel;

(5) TRS has a significant sanctions history during the five years preceding these apparent violations;

(6) at the time of the apparent violations, TRS’ compliance program was inadequate, given the nature of TRS’ operations, to detect and prevent Cuba travel bookings, particularly from
countries that had adopted antidote measures;

(7) without authorization from OFAC, TRS continued to book travel to and from Cuba for many of its corporate clients during a “wind-down period,” following its 2010 disclosure of the
apparent violations to OFAC; therefore, TRS’ initial remedial response to the apparent violations was inadequate;

(8) a substantial civil monetary penalty in this case is warranted to clearly communicate to participants in OFAC’s Cuba TSP program the seriousness with which OFAC takes compliance
with the CACR;

(9) TRS has not received a penalty notice or Finding of Violation from OFAC in the five years preceding the date of the transactions giving rise to the apparent violations;

(10) while TRS implemented a number of remedial measures in response to the apparent violations, including measures to prevent unlicensed Cuba travel bookings, the mitigating effect of these remedial measures is diminished by TRS’ representations to OFAC in OFAC’s 1995 and 1996 investigation of TRS that it would implement similar remedial measures, which TRS apparently never implemented;

(11) TRS provided substantial cooperation to OFAC by agreeing to toll the statute of limitations in this case, by producing records and information to OFAC in a clear and organized fashion,
by cooperating with OFAC’s requests for supplemental information, and by engaging in numerous conversations with OFAC regarding the transactional data;

(12) OFAC also considered as a relevant factor the legal obligations placed on TRS by U.S. law and antidote measures adopted by many of the jurisdictions in which TRS’ foreign branch offices and subsidiaries operate, but, given the facts and circumstances of this case, did not assign any mitigating or aggravating weight to this factor under the Guidelines.

Abercrombie & Kent to Offer Cuba Travel

July 18, 2013By: Newswire

 

---

This September, Abercrombie & Kent USA will begin offeringConnections small group journeys, limited to just 24 guests, that enable Americans to discover Cuba through a combination of authentic and surprising personal encounters designed to transform their understanding of the people of this enigmatic country. Abercrombie & Kent USA has been granted a license by the U.S. Department of the Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control to offer People-to-People educational exchange programs to Cuba.

Abercrombie & Kent’s inaugural departure of Cuba: People to People is Sept 6-15, 2013, followed by additional departures throughout 2013 and into 2014. All departures are guaranteed to operate with a minimum of 2 guests. Land arrangements for 10 days from $4,995 per person, double occupancy (when booked by August 15, 2013*), plus international charter air ($525) and visa ($75).

“Much of Cuba’s allure comes from the mystery surrounding an island lost in time,” explains Abercrombie & Kent USA President Phil Otterson. “But from my own personal experience, I can say its real charm is found in the culture, art, cuisine, music and personal stories shared by the people who live there.”

The program will go beyond Havana to Caibarién in northern Cuba, and west to the rural countryside and lush farmland ofViňales with the chance to experience Cuban culture, architecture, agriculture, music and cuisine during one-to-one educational exchanges with local residents.

Guests will meet the artists of the Proyecto de Arte Por la Costa, local musicians during a private Buena Vista Social Club-style concert and cultural discussion and participate in a private salsa lesson and one-on-one talk with a Cuban salsa instructor, as well as with artist Salvador Gonzales.

In Havana, guests will explore on foot with a local architect and dine at a paladar (family-run restaurant), where they can discuss what is involved in running a private business in Cuba - an opportunity that, historically, was all but unheard of, Abercrombie & Kent said. Travelers will also join Cuban painter and ceramicist, José Fuster on a neighborhood walk, followed by a discussion of the role of the arts in contemporary Cuban culture over dinner at his home.

Guests can also pay an interactive visit to a cigar factory, where local craftsmen teach guests their craft; then, discuss how life is actually lived on a working tobacco farm during a discussion with the farmers. Explore La Terraza eco-community with resident specialists for a better understanding about Cuba’s environmental commitments at this unique UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. Engage in a conversation on fishing practices with a local fisherman, an experience revealing the industry’s impact on the local community.

Compare the distinct differences and similarities between Cuba and the United States with a briefing on the history of U.S.-Cuban relations by a Foreign Service scholar in Havana. Gain insight into Cuba’s well-regarded public health care system during an informal, yet engaging conversation with a local physician; discuss everything from physician training to research and production during an exchange of ideas or issues around the subject. Learn about Cuba and America’s great shared passion — baseball — at a game where you meet the players and have the opportunity to play a few innings with them.

Visit www.abercrombiekent.com/cuba

Prostitution Controversy Provoked by Miami Herald Article

Prostitution exists everywhere in the world where there are people with more money who pay people with less money to have sex with them. However, let's not forget that anonymous complaints could easily be fabricated or orchestrated by forces who wish to disrupt Cuba's tourism industry. The whole point of the bombing of Cuban hotels was to discourage travel to Cuba for tourism. The purpose of protests in Miami against tourist travel to countries who have normal relations with Cuba is to punish countries which maintain normal ties with Cuba.

Walter Lippman
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/

===============================================

Re: Notes on Canadians in Cuba and Island Prostitution

This story was released on the morning (July 16) and so far has been picked up by 48 news outlets and blogs using the same headline. It has another 51 citations using variations on the headline.

What is the story? Juan O. Tamayo of the Miami Herald trolls TripAdvisor and discovers a bunch of very recent, negative reviews posted anonymously. He then reports it as news.

How do we know these anonymous reviews weren't planted in an effort to fabricate a story? Such an approach is typical of the Miami Herald and its handful of shill "independent journalists" in Cuba. Many of these "journalists" are in the employ of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, rightwing NGOs in Europe, and USAID (United States Agency for International Development), the latter of which operates via rightwing anti-Cuba groups based in Florida and other U.S. states.

TripAdvisor has great reports on foreign destinations posted by smart, sensitive travelers willing to sign their names to their stories. The site also has a ton of schlock posted by unnamed sources; anybody can complain about any touristic issue anonymously. There are zero guidelines in place to prevent abuse. The only posts on TripAdvisor that should be taken seriously are those by contributors willing to identify themselves.

Juan O. Tamayo's article is part of a long orchestrated series going back to March 2013 attempting to damage Cuba's reputation as the tourist destination of choice for Canadians. Canadians go to Cuba because it is warm, friendly and economical. We go to escape our protracted freezing winters. We go with our families because it is safe, drug free, and less dangerous than visiting the United States. Canadians go to have a deserved good time and to warm up. We represent the biggest sector of foreign travelers to Cuba, about 1.2 million a year -- nearly half of all international travelers to Cuba. In fact, one in thirty Canadians go to Cuba every year. That means nearly one in ten Canadians have been to Cuba this century.

What could be more effective in damaging the Canadian travel market to Cuba than suggesting the island is overrun by foreign (mostly Canadian) pedophiles, youth prostitutes and potential child sex slaves?

There is no doubt that among the 1.2 million annual Canadian visitors to Cuba there are some bad guys. But it is a minuscule fraction of the tourists that travel there each year. Certainly the overwhelming majority of travelers do not condone the exploitation of Cuban youth for sex for pay. We abhor it.

Juan O. Tamayo's fabricated story serves three purposes:

1. Scare away Canadian visitors to Cuba.

2. Accuse Canada of sending pedophiles to Cuba to abuse local youth so the U.S. government will put pressure on the Canadian government to condemn Cuba. Canada is the only country in the world that has had unbroken normal diplomatic and trade relations with Cuba this century and last.

3. To give the Obama administration ammunition to recharge the blockade against Cuba.

Prostitution, like Walter says, is a sad reality for many impoverished people who are forced to sell themselves to survive. The Cuban government recognizes the harm caused by human exploitation, and goes after the pimps and johns who abuse, torture, and harm victims of both sexes and all ages.

Our experience working in Cuba over the past 16 years gives us reason to question the motives and sources behind Juan O. Tamayo's Miami Herald series. What he describes has not been the experience of our staff (Canadian, American and Cuban) nor of the thousands of North Americans that we have sent to Cuba over the past several years.

I encourage you to take a critical look at the posts on TripAdvisor quoted in Tamayo's article. I am confident you will see what I did: all posts are recent, anonymous, and written in a manner that is too elaborate for the first time Cuba visitor. This article is but one more piece of the U.S. campaign against Cuba.

Marcel Hatch, Education Director
Cuba Education Tours

===============================================

MIAMI HERALD

Posted on Tue, Jul. 16, 2013
Cuban hotel guests complain of prostitution

By Juan O. Tamayo
jtamayo@ElNuevoHerald.com<mailto:jtamayo%40ElNuevoHerald.com>

Most online guest reviews of beach resorts mention the quality of the sand, the water, the food and the towels and linens. And the Club Marea del Portillo and adjoining Club Farallón on Cuba's southeastern coast are no different.

But many of their guests also have complained about the young Cuban prostitutes at the three-star hotels, favored by Canadians looking for a cheap vacation - as little as $645 for a flight and one week's stay, all-inclusive.

The Marea del Portillo, in the municipality of Pilón, a remote part of Granma province, was home to James McTurk, 78, a Canadian convicted of child sex tourism with Cuban girls as young as three, for seven visits between 2009 and his arrest in Toronto last July.

Following are some of the guests' complaints about prostitution, most of them written anonymously. Two hotel administrators hung up the phone when asked about the complaints.

* "The worst part was the sex trade. I am used to seeing prostitution in Cuba now, but when they are 13 & 14 year old girls ... that's just gross."

* "If you don't want to watch obvious prostitution happen right in front of your eyes do not book at this resort."

* "Very young prostitutes are allowed to be brought in as guests for some older customers. They kiss openly and behave seductively in public."

* "The resort has some sort of arrangement with local prostitution, as we saw more than a couple 'escorting&#39; guests at both hotels. They wandered the premises quite comfortably."

* "[<* Repeat customers "consist of old men returning often to visit their young Cuban girlfriends that have their children and in some cases another on the way © If you like witnessing young women being exploited then you might enjoy your stay."

* "Is it prostitution? What you see at Marea you're going to see anywhere in Cuba. The rules have changed and Cubans are now allowed in the hotels. If they're paid for, they have every right to be there."

* "Now that Cubans are allowed to visit the resort (and I am happy about this, any new freedom for them is welcome) a lot of Canadians are hiring prostitutes and bringing them to the resort, often to stay on-site with them for the full week. This activity wasn't limited to fat old ugly men either, there were a lot of women of all ages with their boy toys.

"I find this behaviour absolutely disgusting! What the hell is the matter with these Canadians that they have to fly to Cuba to take advantage of these people, make them sell their souls, just so they can have a romp in the hay?"

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/07/16/v-print/3501723/cuban-hotel-guests-complain-of.html#storylink=cpy

Special Situation of Artists

Cuba's '1 percent' is not who you think it is

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 Published: Friday, 19 Jul 2013 | 7:00 AM ET

By: Michelle Caruso-Cabrera | CNBC Chief International Correspondent

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Justin Solomon | CNBC

In most parts of the world, artists struggle to make a living. In Cuba, they're part of the wealthiest 1 percent of the population.

Two quirks of fate have led to an explosion of well-paid artists on the island: an exception to the U.S. embargo on Cuban goods that allows Americans to spend money on Cuban art, and an accident of Cuban history that lets artists keep the money they earn.

Dionel Delgado, 29, is emblematic of financially successful Cuban artists. His new gallery is in an apartment he just bought in a prime ground-floor location in old Havana that gets lots of tourist foot traffic.

As he painted a large, lush landscape of the Cuban countryside, he told CNBC, "A big part about my work is about the landscape. The love of my country, my space, my dream space."

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Don't try to buy the work however—it's already sold to a Mexican gallery for $10,000. He said that, on average, he sells a painting every two months.

Thousands of Americans travel legally to Cuba every year under what the Treasury calls "people to people" licenses. Remember Jay-Z and Beyoncé's trip? On such junkets, American tourists are prohibited from buying any kind of souvenir—except for books, music and art.

As a result, as one moves through old Havana, some of the most prevalent items for sale aren't T-shirts, hats or magnets, but paintings. In fact, the government put up a new building a few years ago expressly for art vendors.

An accident of Cuban history

Justin Solomon | CNBC

A false magazine cover painting from Cuban painter Dionel Delgado

Vendors there don't have to be as successful as Delgado to make a good living. Most of the paintings for sale to tourists are $100 or less. Selling just one a month, a painter makes more than double the average Cuban, who earns only $19 in a government job.

Artists have held a special place in the Cuban economy since the early 1990s—an extremely difficult period in which the Soviet Union cut off the billions of dollars in subsidies it had supplied to Fidel Castro's government. Even food was hard to come by. During that time, the government carved out a special exemption for musicians and artists, allowing them to travel freely in and out of the country and, more importantly, to be self-employed as artists and to keep the money they made.

The exemptions made them rich compared with other members of Cuban society, as well as more cosmopolitan.

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Abel Barroso Arencibia, 46, who specializes in wood carvings, agrees that artists are lucky to hold a special place in the Cuban economy.

Barroso is in the middle of a major renovation on his apartment. Two museums in New York—the Whitney Museum of American Art and Museum of Modern Art—hold his pieces in their collections. He has traveled all over the world, from the U.S. to Japan, and was able to do so long before other Cubans, who received that right only at the beginning of this year.

Critical of the government? It's up to the viewer

Justin Solomon | CNBC

A Delgado magazine-cover painting

Also remarkable is that the Cuban government seems willing to tolerate art that could be interpreted as critical of it. Barroso, for example, is working on a woodcut of a tablet computer. It obviously doesn't work, but the "apps" on the wooden machine are all related to emigrating from Cuba.

Barroso makes many woodcuts of communication devices. He calls the work an "ironic" commentary on technology. When asked if it's a criticism of the government—given that most Cubans don't have a cellphone or access to the Internet—he responds, "How it's interpreted is up to the viewer."

Besides landscapes, Delgado has created a series of large-format paintings that depict fake magazine covers. He said he was inspired by Norman Rockwell, famous for painting real magazine covers that portray an idyllic American life.

One of Delgado's magazine cover paintings shows people preparing to jump over the malecon—the famous seawall in Havana—in inner tubes. It's a scene repeated by thousands of Cubans who, desperate to leave, took to the open ocean.

When asked if the painting is intended as a criticism of the government, Delgado said no, adding that "it talks about the troubles of Cuba."

"It's normal for all the Cubans to have this constant on our minds," he said. For a Cuban, the sea means "one way to take his dreams out there, the American dream," he added. "It's a reflection of ... how many people take this option, you know? For finding a way, you know?"

—By CNBC's Michelle Caruso-Cabrera

Editor's note: Michelle Caruso-Cabrera owns works of Dionel Delgado, among works of several other Cuban artists.