Not Getting Enough Mail? Join a Trip to Cuba

Let's pretend Google didn't already have all 10,467 searches I've done, listed day by day, back to February 2006. How else might I disclose personal information to strangers?

Consider a trip to Cuba.

Here's what came in the mail when we signed up to join a Person to Person exchange trip to Cuba. You'll get things like a Participant Profile Check-List and questionnaire, agreement and release forms, travel affidavit including liability release statement and air travel application.

Send those, money and various photocopies of passports, and you'll get back more goodies:

 

You'll get a visa, air charter tickets, a license to travel to Cuba from the Department of Treasury, a letter of authorization to travel to Cuba, hotel reservations and the booklet Cuba: What you need to know about U.S. sanctions against Cuba from the U. S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control.

I've set this to publish on Monday, which is a travel day back to the farm for us. We ought to have much more from Cuba, including photos, any time now.

 

People to People to Cuba

Most of my email after the radio interview Friday was about Cuba. I mentioned that in a couple of months we’ll visit Havana and stay at the venerable Hotel Nacional.

As I understand it, the Clinton administration instituted a “people to people” exchange program, which was suspended by the Bush administration and has now been reinstated.

Certain travel agencies have been approved to conduct these tours and trips resumed last August. In general, the idea is that each trip should include engagement with the Cuban people, so no just-lay-on-the-beach trips are allowed.

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I think sometimes our American hubris leads us to think that because we embargo Cuba it must be neglected, an outcast and a wastrel.

Not so. Flights landed at Jose Marti airport last Saturday from Santiago, Caracas, Cancun, Mexico City, San Salvador, Milan, Moscow, Paris, Amsterdam, Madrid (3), Toronto and Panama City (2), among other places.

An American with family in Cuba wrote: “It is unfortunate Americans are the only ones who cannot freely travel to Cuba. We were in Old Havana for Christmas and I felt my cousins were the only Cubans walking around the city! Everyone else was either European or Chinese.

I have reservations about traveling with a group (could be up to 16). That's something we’ve never done. But we ultimately decided seeing Cuba while it’s still free of American cars and Chick-Fil-As has enough caché to try it.

We’ll see if we’re right.

Government Sanctioned Photo Trip to Cuba

Photographers who fancy a trip to Cuba: Painet, the picture resource service for photo buyers, sends this, which I pass along in its entirety:

"Successful travel and stock photographer Bill Bachmann will be directing another Cuba Photo Mission from March 28th thru April 9th, 2010. This trip is Bill's third 13-day directed trip with the opportunity to see time stand still in Cuba from the 1950's before the embargo started. This will be a wonderful opportunity to take photos of all the old Classic 50s autos, colorful people, colorful music, and fabulous old buildings before the embargo gets lifted and Cuba changes forever.

His group will have a special Humanitarian Visa to fly directly via 45-minute charter American Eagle flight to/from Miami to Havana. Bill has traveled extensively throughout Cuba four times and several Painet shooters just returned from a wonderful adventure with his last trip in October, 2009. The price is right and we also will bring much-needed medical supplies to this colorful country and people.

This trip will fill up quickly, so for more information, look at Bill's website http://www.billbachmann.com . Bill is on assignment this month in Tunisia in the Sahara Desert, so if you want all the information about the trip, email him at his traveling email billbachmann@yahoo. com and he will get back with you with the itinerary, pricing, and all other information. This is a rare opportunity, so don't pass it up."

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