Thursday, March 13, 2015

Today is the last day of our magical Cuban adventure. We begin the day at the Fine Arts Museum. Sorry, no pictures to show you. Photography is not allowed, presumably because the flashes might affect the paintings. The charming curator, Omar Diaz, gave us a detailed tour of the galleries, which was a visual lesson in the history of art in Cuba and all the phases it’s been through, including a phase with heavy European influence. At the end of the tour, Omar said he would be in Albuquerque to give a talk in the fall about Cuban art as well as visit his cousin.

Some of us ate lunch at the Hotel Seville, accompanied by live music and dancing.

After lunch we wandered around in the huge Arts and Crafts market, where we saw carvings, paintings, T shirts with pictures of Che Guevara on the front, and all sorts of memorabilia.

Our afternoon treat was a performance by the National Folkloric Company, spontaneously put together for our group. With the light coming from behind, the shots only give you a suggestion of what the performance was like with this group of talented young people.

We are on our own now until the evening when we’ll have a farewell dinner and a good-bye party organized for us by some of the people we bonded with, like the dancers who gave us lessons, and of course our tour guides whom we became fond of.

I’m going to spend this time wandering the streets for the last time. Come wander with me as I say good-bye.

Hasta la próxima vez, mi querido Cuba.

Below is one last photograph, in honor of the person who made this trip happen, Celia Lopez-Chavez, professor of Latin Studies at UNM. Celia is the perfect trip leader—calm, well organized, and with a big Latin heart, a good sense of humor, and ability to adjust to changes in the schedule.

Thank you, dear readers, for going on this trip to Cuba with me. I loved knowing you were with me and I loved your comments. I hope you get a chance to experience this wonderful country firsthand before too much time passes. If that’s not possible, well, at least you had this virtual trip.

The travelogue nature of the blog postings is over until the next trip. Now the blog postings will be more sporadic, and more about musings in general, current and controversial topics in medicine, and excerpts from the memoir I’m working on.

Bye for now.

I’m at my desk now in Santa Fe, back in the saddle seeing patients. I promised to provide some information to people who might be interested in going to Cuba. Everything is changing rapidly, including the stringent requirements for visiting Cuba, so be sure to check before you make your plans.

The name of our hotel is Park View. It is in Old Havana, not far from the sea, in a lovely location. No internet as of now. The address is Calle Colon #101. Phone number within Cuba is 7861-3293.

Some of us traveled SW Airlines from ABQ to Ft. Lauderdale for $600, then took a shuttle to Miami Int. Airport. We spent the night in Miami and flew out the next morning.

The total cost of the trip, including Cuban visa, airfare, excellent food, transportation, tour guides, cultural activities, excursions, health insurance, and fine lodging was close to $3000 for the nine days. 

At this moment you still need to take Euros or Canadian dollars into the country. You cannot convert dollars in Cuba as of our visit. At the airport you can change your money into CUC, which are Cuban pesos used by tourists.

Due to the current complexity of traveling legally in Cuba, Estevez Travel Agency in Miami was hired to make all the paperwork and legal issues easy for us. www.estaveztravel.com  They were responsible for: 1) getting our visas and copies of our People to People license, 2) health and travel insurance, 3) Copies of all the travel regulations, 4) arranging for accommodations, meals, transportation and program activities according to the itinerary, 5) arranging flights from Miami to Havana, 6) assigning a full-time coordinator while we were in Cuba, 7) providing guides. The travel agency did a fantastic job.

Of course you have the option of traveling illegally from some place outside the US, like Cancun, to Havana, but I can’t speak knowledgeably about that mode of entry. If you wait long enough, travel to Cuba will surely become much simpler. But don’t wait too long.

Your faithful reporter,

Erica