Kevin Danaher, Co-Founder of Global Exchange

The following post was written by Global Exchange Co-founder Kevin Danaher.

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There is a broad range of opinion about Cuba here in the United States. Some people think it is one big prison. Others think Cuba is further down the road to sustainability than the United States. That range of opinion is also present in Cuba: there are people who love their system, people who hate it, and many in between.
 
This is not to say that Cuba is not a threat. It is. But it is not a threat against the United States per se; it is a threat to the elites who run our country. If millions of people from the U.S. were to visit Cuba and see free neighborhood medical clinics where the nurse and doctor live in apartments above the clinic and go out on house visits every afternoon, the visitors might think, “why don’t we do that?”
 
Cuba has many problems as a poor nation under the thumb of the most powerful country in the world. But Cuba also has things we can learn that have application at home. For example, the first time I visited one of the many elder centers where neighborhood elders hang out with each other, playing checkers, exercising, and getting regular checkups by the doctor and nurse on the staff,  I noticed an abundance of young children playing with the elders. When asked the director of the center who organized these children to be there he said, “These are just neighborhood children who come in and out as they please.” Try to find an elder center in the United States where that happens.
 
The Cubans may be recycling everything and promoting urban agriculture because they are poor and have to conserve resources. But when you are on a huge farm in the middle of the capital city, Havana, and see crops spreading out toward the horizon, you are convinced of the rightness policies that promote sustainability.
 
Global Exchange has been organizing group tours to Cuba for 24 years, so we are well acquainted with the pluses and minuses of Cuban socialism. The best way for you to cut through the debate over US policy toward Cuba is to go there and see for yourself.
 
What I learned the first time I went to Cuba in 1979—and many, many times since then—is that our role is NOT to tell Cubans how to run their society. No, it would be much more appropriate for us to focus on changing our own society, especially the economic embargo our country has imposed for over 50 years against a small Caribbean nation that NEVER harmed the United States.

Malia in Oahu

Update 11/28/12: A few photos of our bon voyage Malia staff lunch are now posted on Facebook.

“If you come here to help me, you’re wasting your time. If you come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.” —Lilla Watson

In 1991 as a graduate student of International Relations, I signed up for a Global Exchange Reality Tour to Cuba. I wanted to learn about the impacts of the U.S. embargo on Cuba and understand what the current socioeconomic realities of the Special Period were on the nation. That trip dramatically expanded my understanding of the power of travel.

While I had backpacked to over 30 countries before that Reality Tour, I had never experienced that type of life sharing journey before. I engaged with grandparents, doctors, teachers, artists, musicians and politicians. In effect Reality Tours changed my life.  I experienced connection and insights, and returned to the United States committed to advocate for sane U.S. foreign policy. Once home, I promptly cut out and placed Lilla’s quote (see above) on my fridge. Little did I know that six years later I’d start working at Global Exchange, where Lilla’s quote found a new home on the Global Exchange office wall.

Visiting Art and Hope in Cuba, with Ethical Traveler

Today it is my bittersweet honor to announce that after almost 16 vibrant years I am transitioning out of Reality Tours. Being the Director has been a true vocation. I’ve had the unique opportunity to combine my skills as an educator, social justice activist and alternative travel business woman to build up Reality Tours’ travel destinations, themes and reach.

Looking back I sit and smile thinking of all the talented, opinionated and solidarity minded people that ebbed and flowed through the Reality Tours department in San Francisco. And I think of the everyday heroes in the U.S. and all around the world whose  generosity of spirit welcomed us, collaborated with us and compelled us to meet them as brothers and sisters. We learned about their struggles, successes and aspirations which inspired us to seek changes in U.S. foreign and economic policies.

Princeton University in Mostar, Bosnia, 2012

I know the model of socially responsible travel to educate and inspire advocacy works. In fact, I could fill volumes based on my personal experiences and those often brilliant, joyful and incredibly painful moments of learning.

From the jungles of the Amazon and the struggle of the Sarayuku nation, to the healing and rehabilitation efforts in IDP camps of Northern Uganda; from facilitating thousands through migration in Havana and sharing the incredible tenacity of spirit of Cuban’s through the “fruits” of their Revolution and in their models of sustainability post “peak oil” to learning about how poachers become conservationists in Tanzania; from the smiles and solemn survival stories of children saved from the sex tourism industry in Cambodia, Nepal, Peru & Thailand to the important organizing efforts of elders training the next generation of leaders in Argentina, Brazil, South Africa and Vietnam… I leave Reality Tours personally and professionally enriched with memories and experiences, and breathtaking vistas.

Malia with Yury, Ecuador Reality Tours program officer

To each of the program officers who so diligently work to take care of every creature comfort, airport transit, hotel reservation, and days and days of program confirmations, thank you for your solidarity!  It is such necessary work, yet it is painstaking and not so glamorous. When Reality Tours runs a 100 departures a year and 98 go off perfectly, nobody knows how much work it takes to make that happen! You are all stars.

Reality Tours would not exist without our members and supporters. Sometimes I’ve called you strangers, then associates and later friends, collaborators, teachers and alumni. I’ve shared some of my deepest human connections beside you, and cultivated some of my closest friendships.

Some of you “serial trippers” know I will miss traveling with you! Again, I could write volumes on what I have seen as humans blossom, when we disconnect from the phones, computers and to-do lists and when we truly spend time to talk, share and push our comfort zones to be and to grow. How many times have I lead a group when each person typically required 1-2 feet around them to have their “zone” of comfort, only by the end of a tour to see everyone touching arms and hugging their new friends good-bye? There are so many surprising rewards on a group travel experience.

Suffolk Univeristy group visiting an orphanage in Busia, Uganda

For those of you I giggled with trying to find a bathroom to wash my fingers after blue ink was all over my face in Tehran, or scrambled to find  “relief” in the fields of Nagpur, India or tried out bartering in crafts markets in Amman knowing but a few words in Arabic, I thank you. To those I cried with, flooded by the power of the human spirit hiking through the Cu Chi and the Sarajevo tunnels; trying to get through check points from the Occupied Territories in Palestine into Israel; and being permeated by the horrific human costs of war in the War Remembrance Museum in Ho Chi Minh City and in Pyong Yang, the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg… I thank you. To those I just held hands with as we heard the testimonies of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Arusha, and walking through the Killing Fields, I thank you. And, for those that I dragged out to teach salsa dancing to over and over, ya tu sabes, gracias.

Kevin and Reede being “Good Sports” as my sons dress up

Words cannot express my deepest appreciation to the Global Exchange founders Kevin Danaher, Kirsten Moller and Medea Benjamin to whom I  have been so blessed to work with. They each are hard working visionaries and phenomenal human beings, yet they are also friends, babysitters and cuddlers, and mentors. How I love and admire each of you!

Global Exchange has been a family to me. To all the members and staff, and especially to those that serve and have served on the Board of Directors, you are brothers and sisters and I thank you for your commitment to make this world a better place. Because of your tenacity and persistence, I know “another world is possible”.  I am who I am because of my years at Global Exchange, and I  look forward to moving forward pa’lante and continuing to using my life in service to humanity and to the planet, because its liberation is bound up with mine!

With Aloha,
Malia Everette

In another major change in Cuba, the Cuban government has lifted unpopular restrictions on its citizens who wish to travel abroad.

Cubans were thrilled to learn last week that cumbersome, bureaucratic hurdles to travel will be scrapped for most travelers starting January 14th 2013. A note in the island’s Granma newspaper announced that the much reviled “carta blanca” or “white card” and exit visa will no longer be required for travel abroad.

All most Cuban travelers will need is an updated passport and a visa for the country to which they will travel, if one is required.

For many years Cubans have loudly complained about the costly requirement of securing a letter of invitation from the country to which they were traveling as well as a “permiso de salida” from Cuban Immigration that cost some $170.00 USD, about what the average Cuban earns in six months.

Obtaining the expensive documents also required multiple visits to banks and government agencies where the long lines often meant hours of waiting.

Another important change announced, was that Cubans may now stay abroad for 24 months without giving up their property and other rights in Cuba. They can also apply for longer stays if necessary. Previously, they were only allowed to stay outside the country for 11 months without sacrificing those rights.

Though the liberalization of travel restrictions will affect most Cubans, the announcement noted that Havana reserves the right to restrict the travel of some individuals for national security reasons and to prevent the loss of qualified professionals needed by the country.

Since the island boasts one of the finest education systems in Latin America, it has produced many qualified professionals over the years and has grappled with how to prevent the”brain drain” that is plaguing the developing world.

Photo Credit Global Exchange

Another obstacle that potential Cuban tourists and travelers will face is the difficulty in obtaining entry visas to industrialized nations like the United States, since the great majority are poor compared to those in developed countries.

One of the many contradictions of US policy concerning Cuba, is the “wet foot, dry foot” prevision under the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act. That gives any Cuban citizen who manages to get to US territory the right to permanent residence in the United States. At the same time, the US State Department regularly denies Cubans on the island permission to travel legally to the United States, which prompts many to attempt to make the dangerous journey to the United States by sea, or by other illegal means.

We will have to wait until the new policy goes into effect next year to see exactly how this exciting change in the island’s immigration policy will affect the majority of its citizens.

TAKE ACTION!

For more information on the work of Global Exchange in Cuba and to learn how you may qualify to travel to Cuba please give us a call (415-255-7296 ext. 211) or email drea@globalexchange.org.

Walter Turner at the 2012 Global Exchange Open House

The following is a guest post by Walter Turner, President of the Global Exchange Board of Directors and appears in our Winter/Spring 2012/13 print newsletter. Become a member of Global Exchange and have articles like these delivered to your mailbox!
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New U.S. Regulations Slow Travel to Cuba

In 1989 Global Exchange took its first delegation of American citizens to Cuba. I remember being on that delegation and sitting on the top floor of the Hotel Presidente discussing how to begin the process of ending the decades old U.S. blockade against Cuba.

Enacted in 1962 during the Kennedy administration the economic, social, and political blockade (El Bloqueo) has long outlived its supposed usefulness.

Year after year U.S. government officials have developed new formats for strengthening the blockade and preventing two countries that have a shared history – and are only geographically 90 miles apart – from having normal political and economic relations.

Over the last 20 years Global Exchange has facilitated travel to Cuba for tens of thousands of U.S. citizens. Educational delegations have provided a big window for Americans to see and learn about Cuba which highlight the world recognized environmental, ecological, medical, and social accomplishments in this developing country of 12 million people. Many of these people traveled to Cuba under the Office of Foreign Assets and Control (OFAC) imposed General License.

In May 2012 the efforts of millions of Americans to normalize relations with Cuba took a step backward and to the side. In early 2011, when President Obama took office, People-to-People licenses (more liberal than the General License) were granted to over 100 organizations as part of a new “dialogue” with Cuba. However, this spring the U.S. State Department and OFAC began a “slow down“ policy on granting and renewing the People-to-People licenses.

In addition to affecting People-to-People licenses in May, and again in July, the administration has backslid on pronouncements that the Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility would be closed. On the other hand, the U.S. government has implemented changes in travel guidelines for Cuban Americans and loosened constraints on the transfers of remittances.

The new regulations are confusing, complicated, and laden with bureaucracy. Applications for the renewal of People-to-People licenses have been backlogged with OFAC. New guidelines for People-to-People license holders, Travel Service Providers (TSPs) like Global Exchange and charter flight companies are now encumbered with more paperwork and process.

Many of the organizations that were given one-year People-to-People licenses have had to cancel dozens of educational travel delegations while waiting to hear whether or not their licenses will be renewed. These renewal applications are often cumbersome and convoluted, sometimes reaching 400 pages in length. Essentially, travel to Cuba by American citizens has been slowed for the next several months.  It’s clear that these are political decisions.

During the 1990s Global Exchange was among the leaders of the national Freedom to Travel Campaign. Several delegations of American citizens traveled to Cuba and risked arrest and heavy fines to fight the U.S. administration’s travel restrictions and stand up for the right to travel anywhere in the world without restrictions. Global Exchange along with other organizations and individuals are once again speaking out on the new more cumbersome regulations and urging citizen action.

The Cold War ended years ago. Its time for American policy to reflect the rights of its citizens to be able to travel to Cuba and engage – unrestricted – with the people of Cuba. Its time to normalize diplomatic relations with Cuba, end the 50 years blockade against Cuba, remove Cuba from the list of countries supporting terrorism, and free the Cuban 5.

As a Travel Service Provider (TSP) Global Exchange is authorized to take U.S. citizens to Cuba who qualify under the General License. We have also worked with hundreds of Americans who organized customized delegations with us, and were able to travel to Cuba during the last year under the People-to-People licenses.

TAKE ACTION!

For more information on the work of Global Exchange in Cuba and to learn how you may qualify to travel to Cuba please give us a call (415-255-7296 ext. 211) or email drea@globalexchange.org.

Photo Credit Global Exchange

New regulations by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) regarding legal travel to Cuba were released in July that contain a number of new guidelines and directives for organizations that are licensed to provide travel to Cuba, including Global Exchange.

While these new regulations are leaving people confused and unclear about what this means for future educational travel to Cuba, Global Exchange along with many other organizations are thoroughly reviewing the regulations so as to be in compliance.

So why are OFAC’s new guidelines problematic?  As Anya Landau French, Director of the New America Foundation’s U.S. – Cuba Policy Initiative and the editor of The Havana Note explains:

Restricting contacts in the first place is a bad idea, but this sort of ‘Big Brother is watching’ approach to people to people engagement is counterproductive (and more than a little ironic). Providing a full itinerary, explaining how contacts with the government helps to make people more independent of the government, and so on, is an odd way to try to open up what many consider a closed society. And therein lies the problem: the objective of such travel is to open up Cuba, instead of to foster mutual understanding, a principle that should stand on its own. In this way, the Obama administration has backed itself into a policy corner.

Ellen Creager of the Detroit Free Press also offers us a critical look at the challenges that may lie ahead despite the few positive changes that have come in the last year.

While here at Global Exchange we continue to review these new regulations, the Cuba section of our Reality Tours website will be “under construction.” Please feel welcome to contact us should you have questions, since we do retain our license as an authorized Travel Service Provider to Cuba.

TAKE ACTION!

1. Direct OFAC and the State Department to carry out President Obama’s Cuba policy - Sign this petition!
2. Keep updated about Cuba travel regulations, subscribe to our Reality Tours blog and sign up for the Reality Tours email list to receive regular updates.

Kids in Cuba. Photo Credit: Global Exchange

The following is a guest post by photographer Ron Herman, who has lead three customized Global Exchange Reality Tours to Cuba. But first, worth checking out are these articles about recent changes in the Cuba travel industry:

• DETROIT FREE PRESS: Is door slamming shut for travel to Cuba?
• THE HAVANA NOTE: Will OFAC Pull the Plug on People to People Travel to Cuba?
  

To keep up-to-date about Cuba travel news, subscribe via RSS to our Reality Tours blog for future updates.

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Photographer: Bill Scull

“The Universal Language of Photography” by Ron Herman

Looking back on the three customized reality tours I have led to Cuba thus far, one of the things I like most after arriving in José Marti Airport is watching the trip participants’ eyes light up on the bus ride into Havana Vieja. As the sights, sounds, and smells, that are so distinctively Cuban, whirl by the bus window, it hits them that they finally made it to Cuba. And with that realization, smiles emerge on their travel worn faces……and the camera shutters start to click.

Photographer: Don Wheatley

I have led photo workshops in various other countries, but it is the people that keep drawing me back to Cuba. Unlike any other destination I have traveled to before, I find the people in Cuba to be more warm, open, and willing to engage with the camera. Even though many trip participants weren’t able to speak Spanish with the Cuban people they photographed, they were able to communicate through the images that they shot and then showed them on their camera’s LCD screen.

Photographer: Ron Herman

Many of my alumni have commented that because of the embargo, they didn’t know how Cubans would greet Americans. They quickly realized that Cubans differentiate between American people and the politics between our two governments, and that they are as curious about us as we are about them. Often you can find American flags or other American symbols displayed in local shops.

Several photographers have returned with me on subsequent trips to Cuba. They too have fallen in love with Cuba. Over the course of multiple trips, we have developed relationships with the people we met and photographed. Many of the alumni and myself have returned to Cuba with prints of the images that we shot of them and their family, which are always warmly received.

Cuban friend receiving prints shot on a previous trip. Photographer: Mary Ellen Kaschub

After returning home, it is always great to share our travel stories with each other and relive our Cuban adventure through each other’s images. Even though we were photographing in the same locations together, it is always fun to see how differently each person saw and visually recorded the experience.

I am looking forward to returning to Cuba this Spring to lead another exciting customized reality tour for photographers (March 30 – April 13, 2013) in addition to a LGBT trip (May 9-19, 2013) centered on IDAHO (International Day Against Homophobia) and its related events in Havana and Cienfuegos.

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TAKE ACTION!

Check out this lively video about Ron Herman’s Cuba trips:

• For more information on Ron Herman’s trips to Cuba go to: www.hermanphotography.com/tours.html.
• Global Exchange is a licensed Travel Service Provider for Cuba trips. For more information on Customized Cuba delegations please visit our website for details or email leslie@globalexchange.org.

Ron Herman is a photographer and Chair of the Photography Department at Foothill College located in Los Altos Hills, CA.

Jane in Iraq, Embedded with the Marines in Anbar

Our guest blogger today is Jane Stillwater, a woman whom the folks here at Reality Tours have known for over a decade. We might tease her as being a “serial tripper”, and tell her not to worry about sending in  her registration as she is in the database, but in all seriousness we honor Jane for her adventurous, compassionate spirit and for being a true citizen diplomat!

It’s wonderful to read on Jane’s blog about how each journey has impacted her. Her blog begins with: “Imagine a world where EVERY child is wanted, nurtured, protected and loved.” Jane is preparing to take her 6th Reality Tour this summer.

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In the last ten years, I’ve participated in five different Global Exchange Reality Tours  and each one of them has been both awesome and jaw-dropping. GX has taken me to Cuba, Afghanistan, Iran, North Korea and Belfast! And I’ve gotten to see places and meet people there that nobody, not even the locals, hardly ever get to see or know.

Jane Stillwater, Reality Tours Alumni

And I’ve also been able to come back home and write about what I have seen and to help tell other Americans that Iran, Cuba, Afghanistan. etc. are not filled with evil terrorists and boogeymen but rather with just ordinary people like you and me, trying to make a life for their families just like we do.

So when Global Exchange recently announced that it was sponsoring a new trip to Uganda on July 2, I was SO there! Signed up immediately. The trip will focus on efforts in Uganda to stop human trafficking and eliminate the use of child soldiers — what’s not to like about that?!

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Jane, you are a welcomed addition to any Reality Tours trip!

TAKE ACTION!

• You can read more about Jane’s hopes for our upcoming Uganda Reality Tours trip on her blog.
• Learn more about our powerful advocacy delegations that examine human trafficking, child soldiers and human rights.
• Interested in going on a Reality Tours trip but low on funds? Here are 3 free resources to help you fundraise:

1. Financial Scholarship Application  
2. Fundraising Tips
   
3. Fundraising Pack

Photo credit: David Deriso

It’s true, you can travel to Cuba this summer with Global Exchange and the Center for Cuban Studies! From August 7 – August 14, 2012 anyone can  join this people-to-people licensed, educational trip to explore the ‘Greening of Cuba’. Sign up here!

Throughout the 20th Century, Cuban agricultural production mainly centered on large industrial farms producing crops (mostly sugar) for export while food has been imported.  Prior to the Cuban Revolution in 1959, the largest market for Cuban sugar was the United States. After the Revolution the Soviet Union became the primary purchaser. With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc in the early 1990’s, imports plummeted as did the guaranteed market for Cuban sugar. Cuba began to transform its agricultural infrastructure out of necessity.

Photo credit: Laura Lee

One success of the Cuban Revolution was giving every Cuban the chance to have an education. For the first time children of farmers could aspire to a university education, but this has created unexpected challenges as well. With the movement from industrial, mostly mechanized, farms to organic small farms and cooperatives, there is a shortage of people who want to live and work in the countryside. This delegation will meet with Cuban farmers, experts, and policy makers who will provide an in depth view of the movement towards organic farming in Cuba, its successes, and the challenges it faces.

Program Highlights may include:

• Visit the Antonio Núñez Jiménez Foundation
• Visit with a representative from the Ministry of Agriculture
• Visit to the UNESCO designated biosphere reserve of Las Terrazas
• Visit to the National Botanical Garden
• Visit to an organic farming cooperative in Alamar
• Visit a tobacco plantation in Viñales
• Meeting with National Urban Agriculture Group

Cost:
$2,900.00

Price Includes:

• RT flight:  Miami/Havana/Miami
• Cuban visa and required Cuban health insurance
• Double room accommodations
• Two meals per day
• Conference fee
• Site visits
• Translation
• Transportation (with group)

Global Exchange is thrilled to offer this unique, co-sponsored Reality Tour with the Center for Cuban Studies and hope that you will join us! Please call Carol Steele for more information at 415.255.7296. Sign up here!

Read more about traveling in Cuba and learn more about traveling on a Reality Tour.

Vaya! A l o Cubano

Many of our  Reality Tours Cuba  alumni will remember Karen McCartney. Karen lived in Cuba for years and regularly facilitated Global Exchange groups. Today Karen shares one of her memories about Cuban chivichanas while leading a Reality Tour trip we used to call “Following Che’s Footsteps”. 

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Chivichanas in Cuba: Tour Facilitator Karen McCartney Shares her Story by Karen McCartney

Elizardo, the ICAP represententative takes the microphone from our driver and turns to face our tour participants:

“Where we are going today is historic, for it was here, in the heart of the Sierra Maestra mountains, that President Fidel Castro, his brother Raúl, Che Guevara and their band of guerrilla fighters waged the battle that brought down the dictatorship of Fulgencia Batista and ushered in the Revolution. That was back in 1959. It took them three years to succeed and we are going to take this opportunity to retrace their steps. We’ll go into the mountains and see their headquarters for ourselves.“

Looking out at the Hotel Nacional, Havana

Just then our driver, Juancito, calls Elizardo over to him. They confer for a minute or so. From the concerned looks on their faces it is apparent that something is wrong. They beckon to me and Diana. It turns out that our coach is an older model and Juancito is doubtful about its ability to climb the hills that lie between us and our hotel in the tiny mountain village of Santo Domingo. We stop at the base of the steepest hill I have ever seen. Someone a few seats behind me mutters that the gradient would be illegal in the United States.

“What we really need is a fifth gear for the ascent and hydraulic brakes for the descent. Our coach has neither,” whispers Juancito.

“So what do you recommend?”

He looks up at me apologetically.

“Walking.”

We agree to let Juancito drive on at his own pace and for us to follow on foot. It will take a couple of hours longer but it’s safe. The students are elated at the prospect of getting out of their seats and eagerly rush toward the exit.

Joining in the Dance at Love and Hope, Pinar del Rio

All twenty-five of us set off, walking on occasions at an angle of what must be about 65º to the perpendicular tilt of the road. The landscape is undoubtedly the most magnificent that I’ve seen so far in Cuba. Lush vegetation springs from sheer drops, and abrupt upward sweeps arrest the gaze and guide it skyward into the clouds. The sky is shrunk, framed by verdant peaks. I too am shrunk, made delightfully small, humbled by the power of these mountains. I remind myself that I am in the east of Cuba, somewhere between the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico, surrounded by topography which has not changed in millennia. All of us are quiet now, content to pay homage to the moment, knowing that it will never come again. Around us there is birdsong, insistent calls produced by exotic creatures I cannot see and cannot name.

An ugly clattering, suggestive of metal colliding with concrete, intrudes on my reverie. It is getting louder, faster, and it’s coming toward us. From around the bend – at speed – comes a chivichana, a guider steered by an elderly campesino, his face frozen into a grimace. G-force, or perhaps the immensity of effort required to keep his vehicle under control at such speed? It’s not clear. Both hands are on the reins, pulling hard now, and his heels slam against the front wheels, jamming them to a halt a few metres away. Mules and home-made guiders are the most common forms of transport in the Sierra. The students are already gathering around enthusiastically. I stay back, content to watch and let the encounter develop under its own dynamics. A few words are exchanged in broken Spanish between the wizened, bright-eyed sprightly driver and his admirers.

“Qué lindo. What a beautiful guider. Did you make it yourself? What speed do you go? Is it dangerous?”

And then, inevitably,

Delegates Laughing with Cuban Architect, Miguel Coyula

“Would you mind if we take a few photos?

Photos taken, the students give the old man the thumbs up and he manoeuvres his chivichana into position to continue its downward journey. Just as he is about to lift his heels from the front wheels one of the group calls out to him,

“Señor! Señor! Por favor.”

We turn our heads to see Jeremy, one of the quieter boys, hoist a bottle of Havana Club rum on high,

“Muchas gracias!”

And then he tosses it with a long slow motion to the old man who catches the bottle in a single deft sweep of the hand. Only a talented baseball player would have been capable of such elegance, and the group applauds. Then he is gone in a flash, followed by a rapidly retreating commotion that can be heard echoing through the mountains for a minute or two after we have lost sight of him. We see more chivichanas over the next few days; sometimes they are little more than a blur as the locals power down these slopes at breakneck speed on this most unique form of transport.

Living Inside the Revolution, An Irish Woman in Cuba. Book by Karen McCartney

To see more of Karen’s impressions please see  her blog. If you want to create a memory of your own,  learn more about the US Embargo against Cuba, or explore Cuban culture and history join us on a Reality Tour today. 

Last June I journeyed to one of my favorite destinations on the planet, Cuba. Despite the fact that I have lived and worked there off an on since 1991, and have had the honest pleasure of facilitating over twenty some delegations over the years, this last group was one of my most enjoyable ever. I am not sure really why. We were 13 dynamic, well traveled and inquisitive individuals with only one thing in common…the intrepid travel writer Jeff Greenwald.

I met Jeff in 2003, after he had recently founded, the Ethical Traveler. I  loved the idea of ET and was honored when a few years later he asked me to serve on its advisory board. Since then we’ve been on countless panels together; collaborated on campaigns that mobilize the international community of travelers as a global PAC to use their clout and advocate on important social and ecological justice issues; and promoted “voting with your travel budget” at the World’s Best Ethical Destinations.

I remember the day Jeff and I spoke about creating a tour for him and his friends. I felt awestruck. There is so much to see, do and learn. As we brainstormed about an itinerary, he said, “Malia, I want to see your favorite places and meet some of your favorite people”. I smiled and thought, well it will be one trip of many for you then.  I love that personally he trusted me with this challenge and a few months later, our group met in Miami and were off to soak up the sights, sounds and stories of Cuba.  It was wonderful to reconnect with communities and friends from the Mureleando arts project and the intergenerational voices at the Convento de Belen in Havana, to engaging with the teachers, parents and kids at the Love and Hope arts program for children with Down’s Syndrome and advocates for community development and conservation at Las Terrazas in the provinces.  I encourage you to read more about Jeff’s ever thought provoking insights from his “Dispatches from Cuba”. Today, I have the honor to feature a few of Jeff’s thoughts and share the word about his upcoming and yes, second trip back to Cuba.

The Beauty of the Vinales Valley, Pinar del Rio

The trip was a watershed event in my travel career. The country affected me profoundly—just as Nepal did, during my first visit in 1979. The art, music and mojitos were a revelation …. Not to mention Piñar del Rio’s gorgeous landscape, Havana’s neoclassical architecture,  and the warm, generous Cubans we met along the way.

This coming June, I will be leading another trip to the island. It’s called “Exploring Cuba: Sustainable Development, Community & Art,” and will take place June 12th-20th. Though the trip is a benefit for Ethical Traveler, the cost is very reasonable. Like last year’s trip, we’ll meet with social leaders, artists, naturalists and entrepreneurs. We’ll explore spectacular landscapes, and tour World Heritage Sites like Old Havana. Again, this will be a fairly small group — between 12-18 people. This really is a wonderful opportunity to visit a remarkable, fast-changing country. I hope to hear back from you, and promise that this will be a journey to remember (in a good way!!).

Sonrisas en Havana

Learn more about the background of Global Exchange’s  Cuba program and future Reality Tours to Cuba after you have read Jeff’s Dispatches. If you still want to read more, check out more coverage from our Alumni in the news. Recently Stelle Sheller and Janet Young, traveled with us and were featured in their local newspaper in the article, “ Local women travel to Cuba and discover two worlds” and they share  their “unexpected” findings.