Cuba forums on Poorbuthappy.com

any jobs there in cuba ?

By geoff71 on Jun 7, 2009, 10:25.

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traveling to Cuba ?

By calcars1 on May 6, 2009, 09:11.

Any gringos going around the end of May ? Fun guy looking for travel friends for his first trip there

'Illegal' Casas and Restaurants in Cuba

By sebjac on Apr 25, 2009, 04:02.

Hi My girlfriend and are planning to go to Cuba in October, and need to do it on a budget. We wont be taking a tent nor a cooking stove, which is obviously the cheapest way to go about things, and I'm wondering what is the next cheapest way to do things. This is the best site I've found for doing Cuba on a budget. They cover the practicalities of traveling around, but they have a tent and stove, so are a little more hazy about casas and restaurants. http://www.followtheroad.com/en/cuba-with-low-budget-a-short-guide.html Simply put, I dont think we can afford to spend $30 a night on legal casas, and $7 per dinner at a licensed restaurant. I'm interested in details and experiences on how we could get into illegal casas and restaurants. I hopefully would have learned basic Spanish by then. How much does accommodation and dinner usually cost this way? I dont mind eating at markets, but sitting down at a family table every once and a while does sound a lot better. Cheers, Seb

Cuba readies for possible influx of U.S. tourists

By STEVENYCER on Apr 14, 2009, 15:36.

Cuba readies for possible influx of U.S. tourists Sun Apr 12, 2009 1:10pm EDT By Jeff Franks VARADERO, Cuba (Reuters) - Behind the mangroves that skirt the blue waters of Cuba's Bay of Cardenas, a 1,500-slip marina is taking shape as the island's tourism industry braces for what could be its biggest challenge yet. The Americans are coming -- or they may be, soon. Rock jetties jut out into the bay and beyond them a plot of land the size of several football fields is taking shape, reclaimed from the water as part of a big new marina project at Varadero, a beach resort 80 miles east of Havana. "The Americans will come here in their yachts and they'll put them in the marina," said a security guard, gesturing to the earth-moving and sand-dredging behind the mangroves. "It's so close, they're expecting a lot of them," he added, referring to the United States just 90 miles away. The United States and Cuba have been separated by a wide ideological gulf since Fidel Castro's 1959 Revolution. For most of that time, Americans have been prohibited by their own laws from traveling to the communist-led Caribbean island under a 47-year-old U.S. trade embargo. But that may change. Legislation to free travel by Americans to Cuba is pending in the U.S. Congress, and backers expect it could be approved in what they see as a developing thaw in U.S.-Cuba relations under U.S. President Barack Obama. "If the travel ban is lifted, you'll probably see hundreds, hundreds of American yachtsmen going to Cuba the next day," said Timothy Ashby, a former U.S. Commerce Department official who studies Cuban commercial issues. Cuba's government and people have been anticipating this moment for a long time, but questions about their readiness for an onslaught of American visitors are being raised. The doubts focus on the capacity and quality of Cuba's tourist infrastructure, but also on possible political effects on an island that has resisted U.S. influence for 50 years. After years of animosity with the United States, Cuban leaders do not like to say that developments such as the Varadero marina, and other big golf and leisure projects, are being built with the American market in mind. The official line is that Cuba is preparing for visitors from the whole world and if that includes Americans, so be it. But the United States is the natural market for Cuba, whose economy is reeling from the damage inflicted by three hurricanes last year and the ongoing global financial crisis. CONTROLLING A TOURISM BOOM A study for the International Monetary Fund estimated that as many as 3.5 million Americans could visit Cuba annually if the travel ban was lifted. But travel experts say 500,000 is a more likely maximum the Cuban government would allow in the early years because it does not have enough facilities for more. "Cuba is ready to absorb another half million visitors a year, but not another million, just because of hotel capacity," said a foreign businessman in Cuba's travel industry. "I'm sure they will try to control as much as they can in order to avoid a boom that nobody can control. Every country in the world would try to do the same," he added. One of Cuba's biggest sources of cash in recent years has been foreign tourism, which brought in 2.3 million visitors and $2.5 billion in revenues in 2008. According to government statistics, the island had about 55,000 hotel rooms in 2007, the last year for which numbers are available. At least 10,000 more are under construction, and others are on the drawing boards. Experts say Cuba will need more four- and five-star hotels for Americans, but also more and better restaurants, shops, rental cars and other tourist amenities. Before Fidel Castro took power on January 1, 1959 in a guerrilla uprising, Cuba was a U.S. playground where Americans swilled booze during Prohibition and gambled and partied the night away in Mafia-built casinos and nightclubs in the 1950s. They came in boats and planes, and ferries carried them back and forth across the Straits of Florida from Key West. They filled up Havana hotels like the Plaza and the Inglaterra and hung out at Sloppy Joe's bar or the Tropicana night club. "AMERICANIZATION" DEBATE In 2007, Cuban government figures show just 40,000 people visited from the United States, although the overall figure is said to be far higher because many come to the island through other countries on visits that are illegal under U.S. law. By comparison, 660,000 came from Canada, the top supplier of tourists to the island, followed by Europe. Opponents of the Cuba embargo hope more American visitors could open up future opportunities for U.S. investors in a Cuban market now dominated by Europeans and Canadians. "I think there's going to be a lot more pressure from the likes of Marriott and Hyatt and Starwood and others to allow U.S. investment," said Ashby. Because of its proximity, travel experts say it is inevitable the United States will one day dominate Cuba tourism again. Within 10 years, said one industry source, perhaps 70 percent of the island's visitors will be American or Canadian. When that happens, said Nigel Hunt, head of Cubaism Ltd, an Internet travel sales site, Europeans who currently make up about 40 percent of Cuba tourists may go elsewhere. "If Cuba becomes Americanized, it would probably be less attractive to Europeans ... That's what makes Cuba interesting, modern American culture is not so pervasive here," he said. The possible "Americanization" of Cuba is a selling point in Washington for lifting the travel ban. Supporters say the more Americans who visit the island, the more pressure there will be for an economic and political opening on the island. While Cuba's leaders may fret over the prospect of large numbers of Americans arriving, ordinary people in Varadero who depend on tourism for a living seem much less worried. "Not one person here has anything against the Americans," said hotel cook and taxi driver Jorge Mendives as he puffed on a cigarette outside the stately Mansion Xanadu hotel, built in the 1920's by U.S. millionaire Irenee du Pont de Nemours. "Let them come to Varadero in their boats or whatever because for us the Americans mean one thing -- more money". (Additional reporting by Nelson Acosta, Esteban Israel and Rosa Tania Valdes in Havana and Pascal Fletcher in Miami; Editing by Pascal Fletcher)

Beginning of the end of the embargo?

By jorgegdiaz on Apr 13, 2009, 12:07.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090413/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_cuba;_ylt=An230xvsPt3JtDL1sl2TiKSs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTI5MWc1OWpiBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMDkwNDEzL3VzX2N1YmEEY3BvcwM0BHBvcwMxMwRzZWMDeW5fdG9wX3N0b3J5BHNsawNvYmFtYXRvYWxsb3c- WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama is allowing Americans to make unlimited trips and money transfers to family in Cuba and easing other restrictions Monday to usher in a new era of openness toward the island nation ruled by communists for 50 years. The formal announcement was being made at the White House Monday afternoon, during presidential spokesman Robert Gibbs' daily briefing with reporters, a senior administration official told The Associated Press. The official spoke on condition of anonymity before the announcement. With the changes, Obama aims to lessen Cubans' dependence on the Castro regime, hoping that will lead them to demand progress on political freedoms, the official said. About 1.5 million Americans have relatives on the island nation that turned to communist rule in 1959 when Fidel Castro seized control. Obama had promised to take these steps as a presidential candidate. It has been known for over a week that he would announce them ahead of his attendance this weekend at a Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago. "There are no better ambassadors for freedom than Cuban Americans," Obama said in a campaign speech last May in Miami, the heart of the U.S. Cuban-American community. "It's time to let Cuban Americans see their mothers and fathers, their sisters and brothers. It's time to let Cuban American money make their families less dependent upon the Castro regime." Other steps taken Monday include expanding the things allowed in gift parcels being sent to Cuba, such as clothes, personal hygiene items, seeds, fishing gear and other personal necessities. The administration also will begin issuing licenses to allow telecommunications and other companies to provide cell and television services to people on the island, and to allow family members to pay for relatives on Cuba to get those services, the official said. Last May, former President George W. Bush announced a new policy that people living in the United States could include cell phones in gift parcels sent to Cubans. At the time, Bush aides said that U.S. residents could pay for the cell service attached to phones they send. However, though American cell phones with service contracts from the U.S. work on some parts of the island, service is not always reliable and depends on the phones' specifications. Sending money to senior government officials and Communist Party members remains prohibited under Obama's new policy. Restrictions imposed by the Bush administration had limited Cuban travel by Americans to just two weeks every three years. Visits also were confined to immediate family members. Francisco Hernandez, head of the exile group the Cuban American National Foundation, was once a staunch supporter of travel restrictions but supported Obama's announcement, saying he hopes it will inspire both sides to reconsider long-held positions. It will help Cubans become more independent of the state "not only in economic terms but in terms of information, and contacts with the outside world," said Hernandez, who was imprisoned by the Cuban government for nearly two years after participating in the 1961 failed Bay of Pigs invasion. Miami travel agent Tesie Aral said her phone has been ringing nonstop in anticipation of the announcement, with a tenfold increase last Friday alone. "People were already planning to travel more based on their ability to go every 12 months," said Aral, owner of ABC Charters. "Whether they can travel more frequently than that depends on the economy." Also in that Miami speech nearly a year ago, Obama promised to depart from what he said had been the path of previous politicians on Cuba policy — "they come down to Miami, they talk tough, they go back to Washington, and nothing changes in Cuba." "Never, in my lifetime, have the people of Cuba known freedom. Never, in the lives of two generations of Cubans, have the people of Cuba known democracy," he said then. "This is the terrible and tragic status quo that we have known for half a century — of elections that are anything but free or fair; of dissidents locked away in dark prison cells for the crime of speaking the truth. I won't stand for this injustice, you won't stand for this injustice, and together we will stand up for freedom in Cuba." He also promised to engage in direct diplomacy with Cuba, "without preconditions" but with "careful preparation" and "a clear agenda." Some lawmakers, backed by business and farm groups seeing new opportunities in Cuba, are advocating wider revisions in the trade and travel bans imposed after Castro came to power in Havana. But the official said that Obama is keeping the decades-old U.S. trade embargo, arguing that that policy provides leverage to pressure the regime to free all political prisoners as one step toward normalized relations with the U.S.

help with going to cuba please

By payner on Dec 28, 2008, 19:24.

whats the better way for an american to go to cuba, through cancun or jamica? also, you have 2 entry stamps in your passport for mexico(if you go through cancun) what else should i know? thanks!

Russian warships bound for Cuba in new show of strength

By babygirl on Dec 16, 2008, 19:43.

I thought this was really interesting. All politics aside, I'm a bit of a geek and would love to actually check out the ships. http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5htJufkYGJjgHUKe_6dWL6mj3XdmA

‘Obama Effect’ Highlights Racism in Cuba

By babygirl on Dec 16, 2008, 15:01.

I found this article online and I thought it was an interesting read. I actually had to sit here and try to remember hotel staff, club / restaurant staff, just hospitality industry staff in general and think about how many were white Cubans holding these highly coveted positions. My first reaction was, BULLSHIT, as I do have black Cuban friends that work in the hospitality industry. Now, thinking back, they really are a small percentage when compared to the white Cubans I've come across in the hospitality industry. http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=7b4ef8e52790034e043a37d170243f0f

mmmm food!

By babygirl on Dec 10, 2008, 19:15.

Why do I do this to myself? I mean, check out recipe sites this late in the evening! Now I'm starving after looking at some of these recipes on this Cuban site I found. There's even drink recipes too. Sigh. Well there's some yummy stuff on here. The only thing that seems to be missing are the little sandwiches that taste so great after a night of drinking, you know the ones with the special sauce? It took me a while to figure out that it was ketchup..haha. I hate ketchup ;) Well, check the site out! http://www.cubanfoodmarket.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=TREC&Store_Code=CFM

Question.... who's actually been to Cuba?

By babygirl on Nov 26, 2008, 18:11.

Just curious. I think a lot of the people on this site are American, so I was wondering who's actually been to Cuba and where did you go? I've been 7 times myself.

U.S. air-security rules cause Canadian turbulence

By babygirl on Nov 26, 2008, 06:47.

Check this out.... http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081123.wflights1123/BNStory/National/home ....OTTAWA — New American rules intended to beef up air security threaten the privacy of Canadians, pose financial headaches for small airlines and could disrupt the plans of sun-seeking travellers, critics say. The U.S. Transportation Security Administration is pushing ahead with plans to collect personal information about air passengers on flights passing through American airspace, even if the plane never touches down on U.S. soil. The name, gender and birth date of Canadians flying from Toronto to destinations such as Cuba, Mexico or Europe will be transmitted by airlines to the TSA under its Secure Flight program, to take effect next year. The agency will then vet the names against security watch lists aimed at keeping dangerous people on the ground. Washington recently published rules for the initiative – which flows from recommendations of an inquiry into the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks – following consultations with parties including the Canadian government. U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff says Secure Flight, which transfers the task of watch-list screening to the TSA from individual airlines, will reduce the number of false matches and clear up mistakes more quickly. Roch Tasse of the Ottawa-based International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group considers the program a threat to Canadian sovereignty. “It's the United States having control over which Canadians are allowed to board a plane or not,” he said. “So it's a big political conundrum. It's a Kafkaesque situation where our Charter rights will be breached by another country.” Mr. Tasse argues that sprawling U.S. watch lists could ensnare numerous Canadians – or activists, immigrants and refugees who want to fly to Canada from Latin America or Europe but must travel through American airspace to do so. For Canadians, the new program amounts to a “loss of personal information, and sets a nasty precedent,” said Mike Skrobica, interim president of the Air Transport Association of Canada, which represents many airlines that fly over the United States. Charter airlines and smaller outfits that lack sophisticated computer systems will have to invest in new technology to meet the new demands, he said. “It will cost a lot of money to put this into place.” The security program could also put a crimp in last-minute travel plans because passenger information must first be relayed to Washington, ideally 72 hours in advance, under the rules. “It will affect us because it will delay flights,” Mr. Skrobica said, noting the U.S. no-fly list has been known to include tens of thousands of names. He planned to attend a meeting of interested parties in Virginia on Monday to express concerns about the rules. But he wasn't counting on changes. “I'm pessimistic that this administration is at a stage where they are willing to listen to any kind of reason or modify their position,” Mr. Skrobica said. Though a new U.S. president is poised to take office, Mr. Skrobica expects it will be months before the next homeland security czar turns his or her attention to the nitty-gritty of air-security rules. Secure Flight will take effect in two phases – early next year for domestic U.S. flights, and late 2009 for international flights. In a submission to Washington in November of last year, Canada expressed concerns about privacy, redress for travellers mistakenly prevented from flying, and possible vetting of names for purposes other than keeping air travel safe. Transport Canada spokeswoman Maryse Durette said Ottawa “continues to be in discussion with the U.S. on Secure Flight in order to minimize the impact of the program on Canadian air travellers and ensure that the security and privacy interests of both nations are respected.” Ms. Durette could not elaborate on the talks, saying only that they were occurring at a “high level.” Mr. Skrobica said he is disappointed by Ottawa's efforts. “The Canadian government has been very quiet on this.”

flights from Cuba

By JimmyInPhnomPenh on Nov 19, 2008, 06:35.

Hi, I was in Cuba earlier this year and had a great time. I met a new friend there and would now like her to join me in Cambodia for a few months holiday. I have sent the letter of invitation etc to allow her to get passport and other documents for travel. I want to send her some money for the passport etc, that i can do. But i want to book her flight online and out of Cuba which I am having great difficulty doing. Does anyone know the best/easiest/cheapest way to do this. Any help greatly appreciated. Jimmy

Cuba welcomes 2 millionth tourist

By Peter on Nov 18, 2008, 03:40.

Cuba's 2,000,000th tourist arrived, going for a record year in 2008: http://www.worldhum.com/weblog/item/bienvenido_a_cuba_2_millionth_tourist_20081117/

Leftwing traitors

By kalder on Nov 6, 2008, 04:49.

Such as the smarmy Ken Livingstone and the really quite evil George Galloway are taking part in a dictatorship love-in come December. I hope the projector doesn't work and someone nicks the sandwiches. http://www.cuba-solidarity.org/events.asp?EventID=219

Am I in trouble for traveling to Cuba?

By worriedflyer28 on Sep 7, 2008, 21:11.

I'm REALLY hoping this group can help calm my worries... I'm not a US citizen but have been living there for the last 3 years. I'm on a dependent-spouse kind of visa and so I thought it was fine for me to travel to Cuba. I went thru Canada and I realized too late that they stamped my passport TWICE, once each time I entered Canada. So now I'm worried that when I enter the US again, they'll look at my 2 entry stamps to Canada and ask me where I went in that intervening time. I guess I'll need to tell the truth since it's apparently a crime to lie to a federal agent. If that happens, do you think it will get me in trouble? 1) Could I get my green card application denied? (I'm thinking it shouldn't have any bearing on this, but still worried...) 2) Could they fine / jail me? 3) Will they just not care since I'm not American? (I'm confused as some sites say the travel ban applies only to US citizens and green-card holders and other sites say it applies to "anyone living under US jurisdiction." Anyway, I'm insane with worry, so thanks a lot for your insight...

US Cuban Policy

By on Jun 14, 2008, 17:18.

I really haven't understood our policy toward Cuba for a few years, ever since the cold war ended....In the midst of American Cuban/Cuban politics, I think we lost the big picture.. I don't thinke we can effect much change, as a people with diologue.... i would love to hear if anybody can offer any pros or cons concerning our foreign policy vis a vie Cuba...

when will Americans

By jonny305 on Jun 12, 2008, 22:00.

have the right to go to Cuba?why cant they go?

Cuba's changing?

By Peter on Jun 4, 2008, 03:15.

My father in law went to Cuba recently, and he found a lot of the typical Cuban things: the son music, the countryside, the old cars and buildings etc. But is it changing rapidly now that Fidel is mostly out of the picture? Any experiences?