Santiago de Cuba

Saturday, January 23, 2016
Santiago de Cuba, Cuba
Even though tourism in Cuba is now open to Americans, it is not cut and dry like traveling to other countries. US citizens have to have a purpose and a reason for wanting to visit Cuba. There are 12 reasons you can list, but the most common one is education....wanting to learn about this communistic country. To do this, you must go with a group that can accommodate this for you. We have chosen a company that works directly with a program called "People to People". Part of the agreement is that we must partake in tours and seminars throughout the cruise that will teach us almost everything we would ever want to know about Cuba.

Our first port is Santiago de Cuba where we take a bus tour and get our first history lesson from a Cuban source . We were taken to 3 important locations; the Memorial of Antonio Maceo, San Juan Hill (where Teddy Roosevelt and his rough riders defeated the Spanish in 1898), and the Moncada Barracks where Fidel and Raul Castro started their revolution against the Batista regime. Not to be left out was the old Bacardi Rum Factory and, although that was one of my personal favorites, I found the Barracks to be the most interesting. It is now converted to a museum and the story about the attack is very interesting. As you can see by the picture of the yellow building, the massive bullet holes are still left there. I'm sure it's on Fidel's honeydo list to fix them.... he just hasn't gotten around to it yet.

After a full morning it's back to the ship for lunch and a couple of presentations that are part of the "People to People" program. The one on the Visual Arts in Cuba puts me to sleep in no time, but the one on How to Dance like a Cuban wakes me right back up. Maybe it was the subject matter, but maybe the culprit was the rum tasting and lunch. We have a day at sea and our next stop is Havana. How exciting!

Comments

E&S
2016-02-05

Interesting!! Didn't realise you were needing to be educated in Cuban Communism along the way. Always good though to have an insight into how the other half live and know how lucky we are. XX

Marleen
2016-02-05

Do you remember the two old lady dancers?

Lynne
2016-02-05

Did you learn new dance moves?

Paul
2016-02-05

When will the tour take you to a cigar store to meet Fidel?

keith
2016-02-05

You know that for all Canadians who travel to Cuba, we just need to relax and drink without the "education" sessions you are getting.

We look forward to all of the new reports and extend our best wishes to all of our South American cruise gang.

Franky Waters
2016-02-06

Thanks for sharing your travels. Cuba is on our list.

2025-02-13

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