I’m going to Cuba!
One week from today I’ll be visiting Cuba as part of an Authentic Cuba Travel, People to People tour. I’m going with a small group put together by Mario Gallardo, an art professor from Gadsden State Community College. I decided to join this tour group after seeing some amazing photographs and video taken by Dr. David Cummings. I can’t wait to get down there and take my own photographs of what visually looks like a blast from the past with all the cars from the 1950s and the early modern architecture in places like Old Havana.
Here’s peak at the itinerary Authentic Cuba Travel has planned for our People to People tour.
People to People Cuba Real Tours
Traveling to Cuba is a time capsule discovery adventure. A vast, wonderful island of white sand beaches like no other in the Caribbean, Cuba offers lively streets inundated by the roar of 1950’s American cars; Spanish colonial buildings and cobblestone squares overwhelmed by tourist busloads; and one-time middle-upper class neighbourhoods full of 1950’s skyscrapers, mansions, hotels and restaurants.
But Cuba is also a changing communist nation, and visitors are totally taken by surprise by the vibrant, emerging entrepreneurial atmosphere charged with the innovation and ingenuity of the Cuban people. From decentralizing control over Government-run companies to making easier for Cubans to open private business ventures, it seems the island is slowly but steadily adjusting to market driven economic reforms.
Cuban fine arts have always been acclaimed internationally. Cuban artists, who struggled in the past with the censorship of state-control official art galleries and cultural institutions, are now exhibiting in private art galleries where free expression is the norm, and sales are dictated by market demands.
Cuba travel is all about wandering colonial streets, exploring “modern” architecture, discovering an emerging, strange art scene. But most importantly is about getting to know the Cuban people. Visiting Cuba is also a good excuse to sip mojitos, smoke Cuban cigars, dancing salsa and partaking in Cuba’s sensual night scene.
People to People Cuba Tours
Quick Facts & Highlights
- People-to-people OFAC General License issued by US Sponsor.
- 5 Nights at Hotel Riviera (E), Presidente (U) or Hotel National (P).
- 2 Nights at Hotel Los Jazmines in Vinales Valley.
- 14 Meals: 7 Breakfasts, 4 Lunches, and 3 Dinners Included.
- Private Transfer-in and Transfer-out.
- Luxury Air-conditioned Coach Transportation & Professional Driver.
- All Activities, Speakers, and Meetings as Described in Itinerary.
- 24/7 Dedicated Cuban English Speaking Expert Guide.
- Ongoing support from Authentic Cuba Travel’ Staff.
- Official Asistur Cuban Health Insurance Coverage.
- Full Tour of Old Havana, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
- Tour of Cuba’s First UNESCO Biosphere Reserve.
- Tour of Vinales Valley & Village, UNESCO World Heritage Site.
- Explore the Las Terrazas Ecological Community.
- Tour Tobacco Plantations in Pinar del Rio.
- Private Visit to Cuba’s Experimental Printing Workshop.
- Exclusive Receptions at the Studios of Leading Cuban Artists.
- Visit Cuba’s Trendiest Chic Art Galleries.
- Full Tour of the Cuban Museum of Arts.
- Full Access to the Cuba’s Higher Art Schools.
- One on One with Important Cuban Musicians.
- Explore Cuba’s Private Restaurant Scene (Paladares).
- Follow the Trail of American Ernest Hemingway in Cuba.
- Full Tour of Finca La Vigia, Hemingway Residence for 20 Years.
- Shopping in Cuba’s Best Art and Craft Markets.
Your Authentic Cuba Travel tour guide and bus driver will welcome you and take you to the Riviera Hotel (E), Presidente Hotel (U) orNacional de Cuba Hotel (P), both centrally located in Havana’s entertainment district, Vedado. Your guide will provide you with Cuba travel tips and overall orientation during the 20 minute bus ride to your hotel. Please, take notice of the location of your hotel’s restaurants and other amenities, and remember that breakfast is complimentary on daily basis.
Morning: a guided tour of the Scale Model of Old Havana is a brilliant way to start the exploration of Havana’s historical centre. Our Cuba tours for Americans feature a presentation by renowned Cuban architect Miguel Coyula. The model makes it easier to understand the development of the city by color coding each building according to distinct construction periods.
In 1982, Old Havana was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO and its arguably the best preserved colonial city founded by the Spaniards in Las Americas. Since we are up to a good start, our Cuba tours continue with a full walking tour of this area. We will visit all important historical squares, streets and buildings.
Cuba tourism is mainly concentrated in the large beach resort areas outside Havana, but busloads of tourist to Cuba descend everyday upon Old Havana on daily excursions. Nowhere in the old city is it more evident that in the Square of Arms, the site of foundation of the city by the Spaniards at the beginning of the 16th century.
Flanked by the Fortress of the Royal Fortress, the oldest military castle in Cuba; the Palace of the Captain Generals, and the Palace of the Vice-Governor of the Island, the Square of Arms was the epicenter of Spanish authority, military ruling and governance of the Cuban colony right until the end of the 19th century. Today the magnificent buildings around the square contain important cultural institutions, libraries, and museums such as the Museum of the City and the Museum of Natural Sciences.
A new wave of paladares (private family-run restaurants) has recently swept the Cuban dining scene offering excellent food and charming ambient. Today we’ll enjoy a welcome lunch at the stylish Cafe Laurent at the penthouse terrace of a small 1950s apartment building.
Afternoon: the Cuba travel experience also include a visit to the Cathedral Square surrounded by noble colonial buildings such as the Palacio de Los Marqueses de Aguas Claras, Casa Lombillo, Palacio de los Marqueses de Arcos and the Cathedral of Havana, designed by Italian architect Borromini. Dating from the second half of the 18th century, the Cathedral contains a beautiful marble altar and numerous artworks worth visiting.
Just up the southwest corner of Plaza de La Catedral, we find the Experimental Printing Workshop. People-to-people meaningful exchange in between the US travelers and the Cubans is quite an unforgettable experience of our Cuba tours and travel. Next you will meet a cooperative of young artists who work tirelessly, shirtless in an airy, spacious colonial building where you can see original prints being created.
Founded at the mouth of the pocket-shaped Bahia de La Habana, and at the mouth of the Gulf of Mexico, San Cristobal de La Habana soon became the gathering place for the Spanish fleets. All gold, silver, and other goods from Mexico, Peru and other Latin America nations made their way into Havana were all was stockpiled until the annual transatlantic treasury fleets sailed to Spain.
Soon Plaza de San Francisco, the next colonial square we will visit, became the center of the city’s commercial life- a role to be played until modern times. In 1909, a commodities market was built here, La Lonja del Comercio– this domed building was fully restored at the turn of the 20th century, and it currently serves as the headquarters of foreign firms with joint ventures in Cuba. Tours to Cuba from USA provide a rude awakening for Americans on the fact that Cuba has been able to establish trade relations with many countries despite the US Embargo in place.
Your Cuba tour will end up in the Old Square. Due to its proximity to San Francisco Square, it served as the largest open air marketplace in Old Havana until the mid of the 19th century. Most of the historic buildings surrounding the square have been fully restored. Today they contain some of Cuba’s main art galleries and cultural institutions such as the National Photography Gallery, The Center for the Development of Visual Arts, and La Casona Art Gallery that we will visit as part of your Cuba tours and travel experience.
Since we are in the area, we will pay a visit to the San Jose Warehouse, one of the largest harbour side facilities in the Bay of Havana. Today, the San Jose warehouse serves a different purpose though. It contains the largest arts and handicraft handicraft market of the entire island. It also provides a space for children cultural activities such as theatre performances and art exhibits. Real Cuba Tours provide ample time for shopping for “legal” items. This is, those you can legally import back in the US such as paintings, drawings, sculptures, photographs and books.
Evening: this evening we will visit the home of a Cuban, Elsa who has managed to create a unique cultural project in the rooftop of an Old Havana dilapidated building. Elsa, the leader of a popular musical band that will play live tonight, will teach Cuba tour participants to play and to dance to Cuba’s most popular rhythms such as Son and Salsa. This is another great chance for American visitors to learn firsthand about the daily life of ordinary Cubans.
Morning: people-to-people Cuba tours usually expose American citizens to the rich cultural life of the country. Our Cuba Real Tours go one step further. American visitors to Cuba will be granted access to Cuba’s Higher Institute of Arts, ISA, to exchange with young Cuban students and faculty. This exchange will certainly shed lights on the challenges and opportunities of artistic education in Cuba. We will also tour the art schools and learn about the history of this architectural landmark.
At Authentic Cuba Travel, one of the Cuba travel tips we always give our American travelers is to visit local communities off the Cuba’s tourism beaten track to discover the authentic Cuba. And that’s what we will do next. US visitors will meet ordinary Cubans whose lives have been positively impacted by the artwork of theCaribbean Picasso– a nickname Cuban artist Jose Fuster is commonly given. We will visit their homes at the seaside village of Jaimanitas, the epicenter of Jose Fuster street art gallery project. Here dozens of humble homes are covered in amazing, wildly ceramic murals, and other artworks. Complimentary lunch will be hosted by the artist himself in his personal residence and studio.
Afternoon: our Cuba travel services include private visit to the studios Cuba’s high caliber artists. Those whose artwork is collected and exhibited by the most important European and North American Museums of Contemporary Arts and chic galleries. While most Cuban painters, photographers and sculptors sell their art happily at very low prices in the tourist full packed streets, private galleries and markets of Old Havana, the well-established artists avoid these sort of establishments, and exhibit in the most prestigious art galleries and museums in Cuba and abroad only. Usually their art pieces sell for thousands of dollars and a permit of export is usually required to take their art out of the country.
This afternoon, American travelers to Cuba will visit the studios and personal art galleries of some of them such as Alicia Leal, Juan Moreira, Yamilis Brito and Jacqueline Brito in the middle-upper-class Vedado neighborhood.
Evening: US citizens traveling to Cuba with Authentic Cuba Travel engage in an array of people-to-people and cultural exchanges of high caliber. And tonight is no exception. We will meet with popular Cuban songwriter and musician Frank Delgado at Cafe El Madrigal to talk about the nueva trova movement in the Caribbean island and enjoy a musical performance.
El Madrigal is the brainchild of Cuban filmmaker Rafael Rosales who transformed this 19th century Vedado mansion into a whimsical, bohemian paladar (local term for privately owned restaurant). The life and work of Rosales himself, as a filmmaker for over 20 years, is artistically on display through personal memorabilia, artwork, movie posters, pictures, and photographs. Cocktails and tapas are included in the price of your Cuba travel services tonight. Enjoy!
Learning about Hemingway’s life in Cuba seems almost like a mandatory task for most Americans visiting Cuba. And this morning, US travelers will have the chance to follow the trails of the famous American author in Cuba. We will start with a visit to the lookout farm, Finca La Vigia where Hemingway made his home for over 20 years. Here he wrote 7 of its most famous books such as Islands in The Stream and The Old Man and The Sea. Hemingway was beloved by the humble, ordinary Cuban people he like to spend time with. Hemingway loved the Cuban people back. In 1954 when he was awarded the Nobel Prize, he donated it to the Cubans as a gesture of gratitude.
Then we will go for a bus ride to another of Hemingway’s favorite hangouts, Restaurante La Terraza in Cojimar. This is the very spot featured in The Old Man and The Sea as The Terrace, and where the American novelist spent countless afternoons drinking with local fishermen like Anselmo Hernandez, the man who inspired him to create Santiago, the main character of his 1954 Nobel Prize novel. Lunch is optional at this place/ not included in your Cuba tour costs.
But Cojimar, a fisherman village founded in the 17th century at the mouth of the Cojimar river, was also the harbor where Hemingway kept El Pilar, his famous wooden boat and pretty much the model of the fishing village that serves as the backdrop of The Old Man and The Sea. After lunch we will go for an exploration of the village. There’s even small plaza named after Hemingway near the Cojimar waterfront which is centered by small gazebo and a bronze bust of the American author.
Afternoon: A majority of Americans traveling to Cuba show a sincere interest in learning more about the African component of the Cuban culture. The working-class town of Regla, just across the Havana Bay from Old Havana is renowned among locals for the practices of Afro Cuban religions. We will take a ferry boat across the bay, and meet with local Regla residents Magia and Alexey, from jazz band Obsesion to learn their viewpoint about race and gender equality in Cuba today.
Evening: following the locals is the approach Cuba Real Tours follow in the creation of meaningful people-to-people Cuba tours to achieve maximum exposure of American visitors to the local culture. And tonight we are going to follow the hundreds of Cubans that meet at La Cabana Fortress every night to attend one of the most authentic ceremonies in Cuba, the Fire of the Cannon of 9 O’Clock.
To travel to the authentic Cuba is to take time to visit Cuba countryside and to explore picturesque, colorful towns and villages. For the next two days we will be touring Pinar del Rio, the third largest province in Cuba, famous for its tobacco plantations, its Guayabita del Pinar rum, and its good-nature, easy-going people.
Our Cuba tours and travel will make several stops along Cordillera de Guaniguanico, Pinar del Rio’s spine, which extends some 180 km long from east to west and contains some of Cuba’s most wonderful natural attractions such as the Vinales Valley, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and Sierra del Rosario Mountain Range, Cuba’s first UNESCO Biosphere Reserve.
Thriving in the heart of Sierra del Rosario mountain range, we find Las Terrazas community, our first stop en route. Excessive logging, shortsighted agricultural techniques, and fires had completely caused the deforestation of this area prior to the early 1970’s. Then in 1971 a man-made reservoir was constructed, and a new village started taking shape. Named after the terrace system planted with pines and eucalyptus in the denuded hillsides, today Las Terrazas village is inhabited by nearly one thousand inhabitants today whose main source of income is Cuba’s tourism.
We will visit the houses of locals in the area. It will make easier for the American visitor to Cuba understand the life in the countryside and interact with the Cuban people. American travelers will meet with Cuban artists the likes of famous Lester Campa at their studios. US visitors will also tour rural schools and medical facilities to talk to Cuban teachers and doctors firsthand. The USA Cuba travelers will finally enjoy free time to swim with the locals in the crystal clear fresh waters of the various rivers that run through this tropical paradise.
As part of your included Cuba travel services, Cuba Real Tours participants will tour 19th Century Coffee Plantations and Estates; tour Cuba’s first ecological hotel, La Moka; and enjoy a delicious complimentary lunch in a local restaurant that specializes in the authentic Cuba’s country cuisine.
In the late afternoon, we will say goodbye to the people we have met in the area and head westbound toSierra del los Organos Mountain Range. Overnight will be at Los Jazmines, a privileged located hotel in theVinales Valley. Cuba visitors from USA will be treated to breath-taking panoramic views of the famous mogotesfrom their very own hotel rooms.
Morning: when American visitors open up their balcony’s doors in the morning to soak in the 360 degree panoramic views of the valley, they may get the impression they woke up in China! This is due to the fact that the limestone hills (mogotes) of Vinales Valley are very similar to those found in the Quilin region in southern China. But soon they look down and see the unmistakable tobacco plantations that cover the fertile plains and they come to the realization this place is unique in the planet. No wonder the Vinales Valley and Village were included in UNESCO’s list of World Heritage Site.
After enjoying a complimentary breakfast, our tours to Cuba will introduce USA travelers to local peasants that have been growing the finest tobacco in the world for centuries. In fact, Pinar del Rio’s tobacco accounts for almost 70% of all tobacco produced in the Caribbean island. Ask any Cuban cigar connoisseur and they all agree it is the best quality.
Our tours and travel to Cuba continues with a meeting with the owners of a local “Room for Rent” business. After Cuba’s open up to private enterprise, renting rooms and houses have become one of the most popular activities among Cubans. Even Vinales town, tucked away in Sierra de Los Organos, is not immune to the entrepreneurial fever overtaking Cuba these days. And private accommodation businesses are booming in the village of Vinales.
Our tours to Cuba for Americans feature a delicious traditional lunch at the Mural de La Prehistoria restaurant, a lively venue that offers authentic Cuba’s country music live and the best views of the Prehistoric Mural, a huge painting that covers the entire hillside of one of the unique limestone hills. Cuba tourists arrive by busloads to take pictures, but it is still the best food in town.
Cuba tourism is also drawn to Cueva del Indio, an underground cave that we will visit next. The cave system of the region is among the largest in Cuba; therefore, some cave exploration is worthwhile. The participants in our Cuba tours will go some 400 meters on foot into this cave, once a burial site for Cuba’s native inhabitants, and then take a boat ride through an underground river that emerges at the other side of the mogote.
The American visitors will also enjoy free time to explore at their own leisurely pace the Village of Vinales, and the numerous authentic Cuban attractions and activities of the area. To mention some, the Vinales botanical garden, the arts and crafts markets; the town’s main square and parish, and other sites. This is also a great time for US citizens to meet Cubans informally and learn more about each other. Cubans are as eager to learn about life in North America as you are about learning the Cuban ways.
Complimentary dinner at Los Jazmines hotel.
Morning: after having breakfast at the hotel, we will return to Havana City.
Late morning: housed in an airy, spacious building in Old Havana that used to contain a paper factory, there’s a chic art gallery known as La Factoria. With its industrial interior decor, high ceiling white walls and iron columns, La Factoria art gallery has become the trendiest art gallery in Havana. This morning Real Cuba Tours participants will be treated to a visit to this fashionable gallery for a presentation on the current exhibition and discussion with young Cuban artists.
Afterwards we will go for a short walk to visit one of Cuba’s oldest and best established art institutions, theCuba’s Photography Art Gallery, La Fototeca de Cuba. It’s not only a photography gallery that promotes national and international photography; but a museum that treasures the largest collection of Cuban photography in the world. Another treat of our Cuba tours is a private meeting with museum curators and leading Cuba photographers to discuss about latest trends in Cuba photography work.
Optional Lunch: with the help of your Authentic Cuba Travel guide assisting with individual bookings, lunch time serves as a good opportunity to try a local paladar (family-run restaurant), a business that has flourished in the city in the last 2 years since the Cuban government opened the door to private enterprise.
Afternoon: check in at the Hotel Presidente.
Cuba tours and travel that aimed at delving into Cuba’s vibrant visual art scene should make ample time for a visit to the Cuban Museum of Fine Arts. And this afternoon we will enjoy a sort of crash course in Cuba’s art history as we tour the largest collection of Cuban artwork in the world. We will start in the upper level which showcases Colonial Art done in Cuba from early colonial times until the turn of the 19th century. Then we will visit the lower levels containing art pieces from distinct periods and artistic themes such as The Art of the Academy, The Emergence of Avant-garde Art; and others.
Optional Evening Venue: located in the Vedado entertainment district, we find the most popular, exciting Jazz venue of the Cuban capital, La Zorra y El Cuervo Jazz Club. Foreigners and Cuban music fiends descend every night on this smoky, electric underground spot that hosts Cuba’s best Jazz Musicians every night from 10:00 p.m. until….
After breakfast and check out this morning, we will say good bye to Vinales Valley and Cuba. The Authentic Cuba Travel bus driver and tour guide will escort the US citizens back to the Havana City’s international airport for taking flights back to North America. We wish your travel to Cuba to be among your most rewarding travel experiences ever!
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