Chicago Tribune Review of Travel

Getting to Cuba

Liberalized rules make it easier, but just don't call it a vacation

February 07, 2012|By Josh Noel, Tribune Newspapers

During her recent two-week trip to Cuba, Linda Rivers of Hayward, Calif., visited museums, walked along beaches, sipped rum and watched a professional baseball game.

Just don't call it a vacation.

Counter to conventional wisdom, Americans such as Rivers can get to Cuba legally and quite easily. In many cases, there is no wait for a visa, license or government approval. All that's required is a signature and payment.

The wrinkle is that the words "vacation," "tourism" and "leisure" aren't to enter the equation.

Though the United States maintains a prohibition against travel to Cuba — or, more accurately, spending money in Cuba, which is why such travel is regulated by the Treasury Department — there are still several legal avenues for getting there.

Among the most common are group "people-to-people" trips like the one Rivers joined. When you dig slightly below the surface, it's clear these trips are not so different from what people usually do on vacation.

What is mandated is "meaningful interaction" with Cuban people. Though that might cast doubt on scuba diving or sunning yourself at the beach, is dancing late into the night in a Cuban jazz club meaningfully cultural? Or taking in a baseball game where frenzied locals dance and beat on drums? For Rivers, the answer to the latter was an obvious "yes."

"It did give me more appreciation of the culture," she said. "We don't have a lot of drumming and dancing at baseball games in the States."

As part of her person-to-person trip in a group of 16 mostly Bay Area residents who work in affordable housing and academia, she also met with cultural and government officials from across Cuba to discuss the arts, racism and housing. But it was far from a fully programmed trip without freedom, mobility or choice.

"It was not a standard trip to any country, but I didn't feel hemmed in by the guidelines," said Rivers, 45. "They stuck close to the itinerary at times, but part of it included free time to talk to people and go to places you want to see."

People-to-people trips began in 1999 under President Bill Clinton, ended under President George W. Bush and were restored last year under President Barack Obama.

Yet they remain a hot-button issue. As recently as December, Republican U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, whose parents moved from Cuba before he was born (and before Fidel Castro came to power in 1959), castigated person-to-person trips as "outrageous tourism, which, quite frankly, borders on indoctrination of Americans by Castro government officials."

Such watchful eyes make organizations with person-to-person licenses take pains to promote the educational aspects of their trips while playing down tourism. But it's still there.

"The purpose of the person-to-person program from our point of view is to get as much face-to-face time with local people as possible," said Sandra Levinson, of the New York-based Center for Cuban Studies. "That doesn't mean going to a lot of lectures or meeting with a lot of government officials. It means being involved in activities where you meet and greet a lot of Cubans."

But operators also acknowledge that despite full itineraries, travelers become free to do as they wish at some point in the day — usually in the late afternoon or after dinner. That might involve smoking a Cuban cigar or taking a walk on the beach.

"As I tell people, it is an island; you're surrounded by water and sand," said Savina Perez, senior marketing manager for New Rochelle, N.Y.-based Insight Cuba, which runs about 100 person-to-person trips per year. "In the evening, when you want to stroll down the Malecon, you can. You always see Cubans sitting there, hanging out after dinner."

Groups such as Insight Cuba offer several itineraries — "Cuban Music and Art Experience Tour" and "Havana and Colonial Trinidad Tour," for instance — but can tailor trips for smaller groups that can be as small as a gathering of extended family. They also can gear trips toward many activities in many regions.

Though the United States largely stands alone on restricting travel to Cuba, a stance taken since the communist revolution, most travelers, regardless of where they originate, go to Cuba with a group. The reasons are many: Poor infrastructure makes it difficult to get around; a hotel shortage can make accommodations difficult to come by; the cost of getting around the island, especially renting cars, can be prohibitive; and the dialect can be tricky even for Spanish speakers.

But Cuba does get an increasing number of solo travelers. From the U.S., that includes people who qualify for general licenses (journalists, academics, people with religious purposes and those with "close relatives" in Cuba, which is the vast majority of U.S. residents who travel to Cuba); they can go as easily as drawing up an itinerary, signing an affidavit through a Travel Service Provider (there are dozens, mostly in Florida) and swearing they'll keep to it. Those travelers do not need to interact with the Treasury Department.

A person who does not qualify for a general license can apply for a specific license, requiring a more laborious process that involves applying through the Treasury Department. That can take weeks.

The ease of traveling there alone "depends on the individual and how comfortable you are as a traveler," said Bob Guild, vice president of Marazul Charters, which sent 38,000 Americans to Cuba in 2011, mostly Cuban-Americans visiting family.

"It's a different kind of experience," he said. "Roads are not great. There can be potholes when you're not thinking about it and no lights on roads late at night. … But it's one of the friendliest places on Earth. Cubans have always made a distinction between the U.S. people and U.S. government."

The mechanics of actually getting to Cuba also are restricted: The only way to get there legally from the United States is on a sanctioned charter airline, as arranged through a Travel Service Provider. Flights leave daily from Miami and elsewhere in Florida and less often from larger cities, such as New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.

Because of the strict regulation of individual travel, most curiosity-seekers stick to group trips, which can cost as little as about $3,500 (for seven to 10 days) or as much as $5,500, depending on the provider. Such costs usually include airfare, hotels, some meals, transportation within Cuba, admission to various venues such as museums, and a guide who doubles as a translator.

Rivers plans to take the trip again. "You take off, see the Keys and — boom — you're in Cuba," she said. "It was amazing. It seemed too close not to be able to go there more easily."

Trip providers

A few of the many agencies with people-to-people licenses providing travel to Cuba:

Center for Cuban Studies (cubaupdate.org

Insight Cuba (insightcuba.com

Cuba Cultural Travel (cubaculturaltravel.com

A few of the many agencies with Travel Service Provider licenses facilitating individual (and often group) travel to Cuba:

Marazul Charters (marazul.com

C&T Charters (ctcharters.com

Cuba Travel Services (cubatravelservices.com

More information about traveling to Cuba can be found at treasury.gov.

jbnoel@tribune.com

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

My comment:

1)  Authorized travelers only have to use Travel Service Providers and charter airlines if they want to fly directly from the US.  It is completely legal to make your own bookings and travel on a scheduled airline from a third country, e.g. Mexico, Cayman Islands, Nassau, Panama, Dominican Republic, Jamaica and Canada.

2)  Many Canadians, Europeans as well as Americans who ignore license requirements, go on their own, rather than with a group.   There is a good public bus system and Cubans are helpful to foreign drivers who get lost.  Only these travelers can stay in hospitable privately owned casas particulares (bed and breakfasts).

3)  It would be far easier, and less expensive, to visit Cuba if the President used his authority to give all Americans, and not just Cuban Americans, a general license for non tourist people to people travel.

4)  The President can also increase jobs in the travel industry by allowing all agents and tour operators to sell flights, hotels and programs in Cuba not just 250 mostly Florida mostly Cuban American Travel Service Providers.

St. Olaf Student Program Completes a Family Circle

History student heals father's past in modern Cuba

By James Daly '13
February 22, 2012

When Allison Rodriguez '13 applied to participate in History 244: Revolutionary Cuba, an abroad course offered this past Interim, she told only her father. He first arrived in the United States 50 years ago via Operation Pedro Pan — a secret evacuation program run by the U.S. State Department, the C.I.A., and the Catholic Welfare Bureau of Miami that brought Cuban children to the United States to escape the Castro regime. Lasting from November 1960 to October 1962, it brought more than 14,000 children to this country.

Allison Rodriguez '13 (right) meets the current occupant of the apartment her father lived in before he was sent to the United States at the age of 7.

Rodriquez's father does not like to talk about his experience. In fact, it wasn't until her first year at St. Olaf when he began writing about his experience. Nonetheless, he was "elated" when she told him of her decision to visit Cuba as part of a class. But when other relatives found out, some initially expressed concern and dismay. One even asked her to reconsider.

"They're still very upset about the revolution," says Rodriguez. "There are a lot of deep-rooted emotional issues." But she was resolute in wanting to break the psychological barrier in her family that has impeded them from traveling to Cuba during the past half century. "I adamantly wanted to go to my family's hometown. I wanted to be a representative for them and see things for them and take pictures for them," she says.

And as part of the second generation of the first wave of Cuban exiles, she also hoped to explore her roots. "It's always been fairly difficult for me because I don’t look Cuban," she explains. "I wanted to cement what I have been feeling for 20 years as a strong part of my heritage."

In 1961 Ubaldo Rodriguez was sent to the United States at age 7 because his parents, like thousands across Cuba, feared that the Cuban government would take away their children. The catalyst for his journey came in late 1960, when a C.I.A.-operated radio station began broadcasting false claims that the Castro regime was going to take away parents' patria potestad ­— the legal authority over their children.

After arriving in Miami, the young Rodriguez was placed in an orphanage for several months before being sent to Detroit, where he lived four years with a foster family. He was then reunited with his mother (his father had since died in Cuba) and they settled in southern California.

"You can imagine a young boy from Cuba who didn't speak English going to Detroit to live with a foster family. I'm sure that a lot of who my dad is has been affected by that," his daughter explains.

Making it real
Due to travel restrictions that have only recently been eased, eight years have passed since History 244 last visited the island nation. While in Cuba, Rodriguez and her classmates, led by Associate Professor of History Jeane DeLaney, made a day trip to the Rodriguez family's hometown of Ciego de Ávila. There, Rodriguez located her family's church, the last apartment where her father lived, and the family store. The excitement of the day was tempered only when she found her grandfather's cemetery, but was unable to locate his grave.

Rodriguez leaves the cemetery where her grandfather is buried.

Back at home in California, Ubaldo Rodriguez hosted a large family party for his daughter to show her photos. Some 40 of her relatives crowded into a room and watched in excitement as she narrated the images. It was a profound moment for the family, who knew very little about modern day Cuba, and it gave Rodriguez a chance to reflect on what the trip meant to her.

"Now I feel more confident in my heritage," says Rodriguez. "I met so many Cubans who were excited by my story, and they openly accepted me as a Cuban."

And in uncovering her own roots, Rodriguez helped her father approach coming to terms with his. "My experience made it real to him. He feels conflicted in his Cuban identity because he had to Americanize very quickly. He was so excited when he found out I was going. That to me is the biggest indicator that he is emotionally ready to visit Cuba and wants to do it. I'm going to work on getting him to go. A trip like that would be amazing."

Contact David Gonnerman at 507-786-3315 or gonnermd@stolaf.edu.


http://www.stolaf.edu/news/index.cfm?fuseaction=NewsDetails&id=5263

Pope's Visit Prompts Pilgrimage from Miami

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/02/19/v-print/2647152/pilgrims-to-cuba-hope-popes-visit.html#storylink=cpy

Posted on Mon, Feb. 20, 2012 Pilgrims to Cuba hope pope’s visit will signal change By Ana Veciana-Suarez aveciana@MiamiHerald.com Al Diaz / Miami Herald Staff Hoping to visit Cuba, Carlos Saladrigas, a well-known Cuban businessman, is planning to return to the island for the Pope's visit in March. He will travel with the archdiocese when Pope Benedict visits the Cuba in March. Here is Saladrigas at his home in Miami. For the businessman who has changed his politics, the Miami priest who tends to an exile flock, the retired college math professor who has searched her conscience for guidance and the lawyer who has long advocated reconciliation, the pilgrimage to Cuba next month represents more than an opportunity to see Pope Benedict XVI celebrate Mass. The trip signals hope. Hope that the island will open itself up to freedom. Hope that Miami’s Cuban-American community has matured enough to consider other approaches. Hope that the pilgrims’ presence, and that of their religious leader, will show the world that change is possible. The pope’s three-day-trip, which will commemorate the 400th anniversary of the appearance of Our Lady of Charity, Cuba’s patron saint, is bringing together faithful from all walks of life who share one belief: Benedict’s visit to the communist island, the second by a pontiff in 14 years, marks one more step in the long journey of bringing the Cuban people together. “This,” says Cuban-born Rev. Fernando Heria, pastor of St. Brendan’s Catholic Church, “is an opportunity to break myths on both sides. This is a pilgrimage of love.” Many agree. “Our presence is the best testimonial,” says Margarita Cuervo, a parishioner at Epiphany Catholic Church and a professor emeritus at Miami Dade College. “I’m going to express my solidarity and share my faith and hope with the long-suffering people in Cuba.” And from Miami attorney John de Leon, who calls his first trip to his parents’ homeland in 1992 life changing: “The pope is sending an incredibly important message to the world, and it’s a message that the Vatican is willing to keep engaging Cuba, that the world needs to open to Cuba and Cuba to the world.” The Archdiocese of Miami is sponsoring the trip to Cuba during the pope’s visit, March 26-28, led by Archbishop Thomas Wenski. Hundreds have applied for the trip. Most pilgrims are from Miami, but faithful are coming from all over the country, including New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Tampa and St. Augustine. It’s not yet clear how many other pilgrims, both Cuban and non-Cuban, will visit the communist island on flights through independent charters. One thing appears certain, though. The opposition that bedeviled Pope John Paul II’s historic visit to Cuba in January 1998 is not as large or as vocal. Back then, the Archdiocese was forced to cancel a cruise ship charter that was scheduled to take thousands of the faithful to the island. Now, 14 years later, “we as a community have matured,” says Andy Gomez, a senior fellow for the Institute for Cuban and Cuban American studies at the University of Miami. “I think we’re more realistic.” Much has changed, too, on the other side of the Florida Straits. Fidel Castro is no longer in power, having ceded the reins to his more pragmatic brother Raul. And the Catholic church has become a social force in the island’s society, brokering the release of political prisoners and lobbying to halt the harassment of some dissidents. “Democracy is not going to happen overnight,” says Gomez, who will be in Cuba for the pope’s visit. “But the church also realizes it can play an important role in the changes that are going to come.” In Miami, Gomez, adds, some of the entrenched hard liners have either died or evolved in their stance. A growing number of Cuban-Americans are questioning a 53-year-old failed policy of isolation. What’s more, the sight of enthusiastic throngs greeting Pope John Paul 14 years ago proved to be an eye-opening experience for some exiles — those who were there to witness it and those who refused to go but watched from Miami. Businessman Carlos Saladrigas was one of them. He spearheaded the opposition to the church-sponsored cruise in 1998. But “after I saw the images on television and I heard what was being said, it was clear to me that I had made a mistake. I realized I wanted to be there,” he says. Those powerful images got him thinking — and talking. He spoke at length with Father Jose Conrado Rodriguez, an outspoken priest from a parish in Santiago de Cuba. Father Rodriguez is best known for the 2009 open letter he sent Raul Castro condemning the restrictions on freedoms and the harassment of his parishioners. “He convinced me it was necessary to seek a neutral process,” Saladrigas said — a process the Catholic church could facilitate. Saladrigas and wife Olga, practicing Catholics who met as teenagers teaching catechism classes in Miami, will be in Cuba for Benedict’s visit. He defends the church’s position against those who claim that a religious institution should not play into Castro’s hands. “The church is doing what it always does,” he adds. “It provides moral guidance. It spreads the gospel. This is about evangelization, about hope.” Saladrigas echoes the words of other pilgrims, who say the gradual opening of a totalitarian government bodes well. De Leon, president of the Greater Miami Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, says Benedict’s trip — the second by a pope to the small Caribbean nation in less than 15 years — signals an opportunity to engage the Cubans on the island. De Leon also went to Cuba for Pope John Paul’s 1998 visit., a trip, he says, that made an impact on the island. “The pope is serving as a force for reconciliation,” says de Leon, who will be representing la Asociacion Cubana de la Orden de Malta, a charitable Catholic group. “I’m very much a believer that when you open up doors to faith and religion, miracles happen.” That’s also the message Cuban-born Felipe Estevez, bishop of the Diocese of St. Augustine, is spreading to the dozen faithful who will accompany him to the island in March. He calls the visit a viaje de re-encuentro, a trip of reunion. “It’s time to heal the separation between families, between Cubans,” says Estevez, who has been back to Cuba as a priest several times. “Cuba is more than a political party. It’s a people, a society.” Estevez says he understands why some exiles have vowed to never return to the island as long as the Castros are in power. “There’s been a lot of oppression, a lot of hurt. But at the same time, the island doesn’t belong to the party or to one man. It belongs to the people.” For some pilgrims, the trip back is expected to be very emotional. Cuervo, for instance, hopes to visit a cousin, whose son is now a priest. She also hopes to stop in on the nuns from Religiosas del Apostolado, the religious order who taught her in Cuba. “This is a religious pilgrimage,” she says. “It’s an opportunity to find out how we can be of help and to be blessed in a special way by Our Lady of Charity and our Pope.” In 1998, she debated whether she wanted to return to the island. Wenski, at the time not yet a bishop, gave her this piece of advice: “Let the spirit guide you.” She did and applied to go on a one-day charter flight, but a visa mix-up kept her stranded in Miami. When she finally went several months later — the first time she had returned to her homeland in more than 35 years — she distributed rosaries and prayer cards. “There was such a spiritual hunger,” she recalls, tears welling. She expects to see the same in March. Not all pilgrims going to the island are Cuban. Ralph Gazitua is is Chilean, a devout Catholic ordained as a deacon 25 years ago. Accompanying him will be his wife, Maria Elena “Cookie,” a Cuban whose parents came here before the revolution, and one of his two sons, Luis Andres,a lawyer. Though they have no family on the island, they hope to connect with the Cuban people through their faith. “The real focus of the trip for me is to bring a spiritual message,” Luis Andres says. “This can be the start of a cultural, political and economic renaissance on the island.” Ralph Gazitua,has led the prison ministry for the Archdiocese of Miami for more than two decades and sees some similarities between his work in those institutions and efforts to spread the gospel in Cuba. “I’ve seen amazing things happen through the force of prayer,” says Gazitua, who has visited the Vatican several times. “Our message as a group of pilgrims should be clear. Through strong faith, everything is possible.” http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/02/19/2647152_p2/pilgrims-to-cuba-hope-popes-visit.html [Note that any religious organization can send members to Cuba for the Pope's visit.  They have a general license, requiring only a letter from a responsible official on the organization's letterhead.  For more information, contact director@ffrd.org]

Americas Media Initiative Announces Summer Cuban Film Delegation

CUBAN CINEMA BEYOND FRESA Y CHOCOLATE
 June 30 – July 8, 2012

 

Americas Media Initiative (AMI) announces their summer Cuban Film Delegation, CUBAN CINEMA BEYOND FRESA Y CHOCOLATE, a unique opportunity to study the history of Cuban Film and interact with young Cuban filmmakers. The delegation will spend four days at the world famous International Film and TV School (EICTV) located 45 minutes outside of Havana in the town of San Antonio de los Baños. Participants will take part in a 3-day intensive course on the history of Cuban film and 3 days in Havana meeting with young Cuban filmmakers. The delegation will be small so applications are accepted on a first come first serve basis.

AMI has developed a close relationship with EICTV and they have organized for us a special three-day course, CUBAN CINEMA BEYOND FRESA Y CHOCOLATE that will be taught by Luciano Castillo, renown Cuban film critic, researcher and film historian. The course will provide a unique opportunity to screen and discuss Cuban films beginning at the turn of the 20th Century up to today. EICTV has one of the most important and extensive Cuban film libraries and all films will be subtitled in English. Delegates will participate in the course during the day and in the evening have the chance to interact with the Cuban filmmakers who work at the school.

The last three days will be spent in Havana where the delegation will stay in Cuban homes (casa particulares) instead of a hotel and visit young Cuban filmmakers in their workplaces and homes. This is a very rare opportunity made possible through the relationship AMI has developed with these filmmakers. The filmmakers work in all fields and genres: animation, documentary, fiction, experimental. We will screen some of their work with them and engage in discussion around topics such as: what does it mean to be a filmmaker now in Cuba? How are independent films financed and produced? The delegation will also meet with staff of the Young Directors Film Festival (Muestra Joven) in the ICAIC that is now recognized as the most important showcase for young cinematic talent in Cuba.

The cost of the delegation is $3000 and includes RT plane fare from Miami to Havana, housing, transportation and all meals except for dinners in Havana.
 

Some partial scholarships are available on a case-by-case basis.

For more information please contact info@americasmediainitiative.org

americasmediainitiative.org

Tulane Restores Summer Program

Stone Center revives Cuba student abroad

POSTED: FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2012 6:45 AM | UPDATED: 6:51 AM, FRI FEB 3, 2012.

STACEY NEVE

The Stone Center for Latin American Studies will offer a new summer study abroad program in Cuba beginning in 2012.

The Stone Center had a popular Cuba program until 2004, when regulations tightened and schools were no longer allowed to have programs of less than 12 weeks in Cuba.

"But we kept our eyes on Cuba," said Valerie Marshall, Stone Center director of planning and management. "When [President Barack] Obama rolled back regulations, we jumped on it."

The four-week program is based in Havana but includes trips outside the capital to show students more of the country.

"The idea is to bring our students there to learn about the culture and the history of Cuba," program manager Natalia Porto said.

The Stone Center believes in the importance of having a program in Cuba in spite of the challenges it poses. Lauren Toppenberg, an alumna of the Office of Study Abroad's Cuba semester program, agrees.

"My interest was first sparked when my dad went on a legitimate trip to the island when I was 8 and promptly had his souvenirs destroyed by Dallas customs on his way home," Toppenberg said. "Finally, after taking many classes on Latin America and Cuba itself, I realized that I was never going to be able to actually understand Cuba without going there myself."

Even with lowered restrictions on travel to Cuba, maintaining a program there is still difficult.

"It is really hard to run a study abroad program with a country where you can't use a credit card," Marshall said.

In addition to the Cuba program, Tulane is introducing several other study abroad summer locations, which will send students to Cadiz, Spain; Cape Town, South Africa; and Paris.

"There is a definite need for summer programs," Director of Study Abroad Peter Alongia said. "We send a lot of students out on summer programs by other providers, and we recognized a need to have our own Tulane Study Abroad summer programs."

The summer programs run for four weeks.

"All of the programs will take into account the setting of the country they are in and are geared to that location in some way," Alongia said.

In Cape Town, for example, students will take a class in Xhosa, one of the official languages.

Porto said both the Stone Center and the Office of Study Abroad are dedicated to giving students more options to study in a foreign country.

"It can help you learn a new way of living," Porto said. "Without being exposed to different ways of life, you just aren't getting today's world."

http://www.thehullabaloo.com/news/article_39f8c36e-4e65-11e1-a14d-001a4bcf6878.html

USC: An Example of a Student Trip

EDHE 832: Comparative Higher Education


This will be an exciting once-in-a-lifetime learning experience. See the itinerary on the left side of this page.

Trip Highlights

Highlights of the trip include (exact itinerary details subject to fluctuation):

1. •Lectures by professors at the University of Havana, including ones about Cuban history by director of the center for Cuba USA Studies and others about modern Cuba and a tour of the University (founded in 1728).
2. •A day focused on en environmental education including lecture by the national environmental education from Cuban Ministry of Education followed by an afternoon at the Parque Metropolitano, an ecological park  being studied by Havana schools and universities, 
3. •A day focused on the history of Cuba with site visits to Habana Vieja (Old Havana) to learn about historic restoration projects followed by an afternoon with Dr. Delio Carrera, historian of the University of Havana  and professor of history and law,
4. •A day focused on life in urban Cuba with a visit a local organic farm El Vivero in a populated neighborhood, followed by lunch hosted by a ceramist and painterJose Fuster,
5. •A day at the Technical University of Havana, including lunch with students from various faculties (colleges) of the university,
6. •Overnight trip to Cienfuegos and Perché to see other parts of Cuba and learn about Colonial Cuba (including a UNESCO heritage site), about city conservation and restoration, as well as having plenty of free time to explore, and a night of dinner and dancing,
7. •We will wrap in Havana with free time to explore, closing out our time with a farewell dinner at the famousGato Tuerto restaurant,
8. •Free time will allow you to explore more about the universities, the cities we visit, and sites like Ernest Hemingway’s house…

 

The Class

The dates for the trip coincide with Spring Break: March 1st – 10th.  We will meet as a class during the regular Thursday evening class slot on Thursday evenings and then not have class meetings, except one at the end of the semester, after the trip. Jennifer Engel, director of Study Abroad and Ph.D. candidate in higher education, will be the program assistant. She has been to Cuba once before, and describes Cuba as being the most complex and contradictory place she has traveled to. Like me, she is fluent in Spanish. Language proficiency is not required for the trip.

 

A Unique Opportunity

As you know, the history of Cuban-American relations is complex. The U.S. government recently eased restrictions on academic travel, which is what allowed us to make this trip happen. When further restrictions on general travel will be lifted is unknown; regulations could also change in the future with a change in U.S. president and restrict American academic travel again. As such, this will be a unique opportunity to see and experience a country restricted to most Americans.

 

I had a similar experience by traveling to the U.S.S.R. in 1988 as Gorbachev was introducing his policies of Glasnost and Perestroika that began to open up the Soviet Union internally and to foreigners. Very few Americans had been to the Russia at the time I visited and it was a fascinating snapshot in time of a society on the brink of change. (The U.S.S.R. collapsed in 1991.) Of course, I can return to Russia an the Ukraine, but I can never return the Soviet Union.

 

We hoped to make this announcement right at the beginning of the semester. However, finalizing the itinerary and arrangements has taken longer than expected because of how the Cuban government handles approval of these requests.

 

Cost

The other delay has been in trying to finalize the cost. The cost is $2,990 (including flight, hotel, excursions and entrance fees, gratuities, group land travel, and many meals). We negotiated as low of a price as possible (the original quote was considerably higher). This cost is due to a few factors out of our control. First, the only way to travel to Cuba from the United States is by charter flight from Miami so flight prices are not competitive. Second, the Cuban government requires we have a host with us at all times for the visits on our itinerary (but not for when you have free time), which is helpful, but also costly. And finally, the Cuban government sets prices for tourists and they adjust prices based on the country of origin and, not unexpectedly, set the highest price for Americans. 

The Spring Semester 2012 HESA Study Abroad Program is headed to Cuba!

Date: March 1 - 10, 2012 (during USC’s Spring Break)

Open to: Any USC graduate student. Priority is given to HESA Master’s and Ph.D. students. (Seniors in their final semester may also be eligible.)

http://web.me.com/christiankanderson/Academic/HESA_Study_Abroad_2012.html 

Joining the Pope in Cuba

Deadline Friday for Cuba pilgrimage

Pope heading to Cuba in March

Published On: Feb 01 2012 08:27:42 AM EST  Updated On: Feb 01 2012 09:03:57 AM EST

MIAMI -

Friday is the deadline for anyone interested in joining Archbishop Thomas Wenski on a historic pilgrimage to Cuba.

In January, Wenski announced he would be leading a group of Catholics from South Florida to Cuba to attended the masses given by Pope Benedict XVI. The pope will be in Cuba this spring. He is the second pontiff to visit the island since Pope John Paul II in 1998.

The 1998 trip carried much opposition, unlike this year's announcement. Archbishop Wenski hopes enough Catholics would want to come to fill at least two airplanes.

If you are interested in joining the trip to Cuba, Cuba2012.org will be accepting applications for the pilgrimage Friday, Feb. 3rd. The pilgrimage departs from Miami on Monday, March 26.

The itinerary is as follows:

• March 26 - Departure from Miami to Santiago. The group will travel by bus to the "Plaza de la Revolucion Antonio Maceo" where Pope Benedict XVI will celebrate Mass for the Solemnity of the Annunciation. After Mass, the group will travel by air to Havana.
• March 27 - The group will be in Havana for a Mass at the cathedral with Archbishop Thomas Wenski.
• March 28 - The group will travel by bus to the "Plaza de la Revolucion Jose Marti" where Pope Benedict XVI will celebrate Mass.
• March 29 - Departure from Havana to Miami.

The pope's visit comes in celebration of the 400th anniversary of the discovery of the statue of the Virgin of Charity, patroness of Cuba.

• Copyright 2012 by Post Newsweek. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
  
  
  http://www.local10.com/news/Deadline-Friday-for-Cuba-pilgrimage/-/1717324/8576044/-/17jv6dz/-/