American(s) in Cuba

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

I'd be too scared to travel to ANY Police State (China, North Korea, Iran, Syria, Venezuela...Cuba all come to mind.) Americans have no special protections/human rights there and no rule-of-law or recourse if the govt decides to grab you off the street and charge you with anything they want, you are totally screwed!

So far we have been talking about what the american police state will do to you for going somewhere that everybody else can go to without problems.
Is it fair - no.
Is it right - hell no.
Is it the law - yes.
Is the law right - no.
If the law isn't right, is it right to overthrow the government - it depends, but probably not (but it did work back in 1776)

Michael
 
If you can get Pesos, Canadian Dollars or Euros, you will save yourself a 10% fee for exchanging American $$$. As mentioned above, I would not use a credit card. I have read where others have gotten caught and fined because they were going to Canada in the winter and come back with tans. Doesn't sound like that will be the case. I wouldn't bring back any souvenirs, though. You also might ask the Panamanian passport people to stamp your passport to/from Cuba.

I wanted to go this past March, and did a lot of research about going. But the other couple we travel with work for international corporations. Traveling to an embargoed nation is not something they can do.
 
Half of my family is British, the other half American. Some of the British half has lived and worked in Cuba and when I first learned of this was shocked. It was a nation of “devils” as we learned this in school. Well what a surprise to find out the rest of the world doesn’t see it the same way. Just maybe we Americans are the ones with the slightly skewed outlook. As for some of the other “bad” countries, it’s interesting that they are not bad if their is a financial interest for US companies or we can buy cheaper clothes etc if we buy from companies that rely on cheap labor. My son who works for a US company has many trips to China, Korea, etc and loves the culture and people he has met. How does it work? They are bad so we shouldn’t try to learn about them or explore, but if they can make our lives easier and cheaper we can exploit them as much as possible. Mmmm! There are many folks including Americans who go to Cuba for work. They use credit cards, fly back and forth on visas, etc. I am sure they still have US bank accounts and brokerage accounts. It is also quite eye opening to know how many US companies are just waiting to get their hotels and resorts up and running on the beautiful pristine beaches. Being a US person conducting any financial transactions outside the US is under huge scrutiny but it doesn’t mean there are not legitimate reasons. What did all those Americans stationed in Cuba do? And interesting that it was okay to actually have a base there where activities could be carried out that could not have been in the US. Something is very wrong with this whole scenario.
 
Good? Bad? Fair? Unfair? Legal? Illegal? I'm still going At the end of this month and hopefully coming back a week later...with cigars and whatever rum I like the best!

Learning curve #1- my bank charged me $20 to get $1000 US in Canadian dollars, the non-maple scented ones. Their broker also charged me 5% so the total transaction was over $70. Probably should have just exchanged US dollars at the Havana airport....

I'll post a full report when I return. Viva Cuba!!

Jay
 
I have no desire to travel to or support any communist dictatorship. Hell, I won't even travel to Kalifornia any more.

It isn't the people who are bad, it is the government. No country is full of devils.

Why would anyone support a violent communist regime so set on oppressing its people? Hey, half this country wants the same thing, so what do I know.

Ask the protesters in Hong Kong how they feel about the largest communist dictatorship.

#Freedom #Liberty
 
You 'Mericans understand that we Canucks and most of the rest of the western world have been travelling to Cuba for years, right? It's widely regarded as being much safer for us than going to a big city in the US.

I do not endorse their politics, but tourism is one way you can help the average Cubano with little gratuities and gifts. I've not been for years, but I have many friends that return year after year and love the country, people and culture.

If you're interested in going, I suggest checking with one of the Canadian tour operators... come to Toronto and fly from there. Makes for a dirt-cheap vacation.
 
American living in Cuba here.... Of course I am in Guantanamo Bay :wink: Just got open water certed. And I love it!
How hard is it for you to walk off base? And if you can walk off base, how hard is it to get back on base? Cuba has great diving, I'm not sure that it is to found in the treaty area of Guantanamo Bay
 
No one is allowed off base. There was apparently plans to change that, but it got nixed.
 
No one is allowed off base. There was apparently plans to change that, but it got nixed.
So much for buying you a beer...... Thank You for your service! I can toss a beer over the fence.....

Jay
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/peregrine/

Back
Top Bottom