I am certainly no expert on cuba, but I only stated that based on what I saw on that documentary that I posted about. Tourists were not allowed in the cane fields for fear that they would leave some disease or other thing in the fields and poison the cubans that way. It could have been all staged for TV...who knows. But as I also stated in my blurb, I don't know if it's all propaganda being told to us by our government or not. I wasn't sure. I learned a lot from your post and really appreciate you sharing such information. I can't wait till the embargo is lifted so that I can go to Cuba and experience what you have experienced. I am already a big fan of Cuban music (AfroCuban All Stars, etc.) and I am very sad that they have been forced to cancel some of their shows in the US because of not being able to get visas and such. They are such a wonderful band!
Sorry if my first comment came across a bit 'snotty'!
We had complete freedom to go where we wanted, when we wanted. If we'd 'wanted' to go into a sugar cane field, we could have, they are very similar to in the Dom Rep, ie, come up to the road, without fences. We went on one organised trip to a Cuban farm, which was a bit like going on a Jeep Safari, except the farmer had a big, 1950's Cadillac, which he proudly started up for us and drove it out of the garage for us to look at! We had bananas off the tree, again, like in DR on trips. One of the Americans that I met in Havana had been to Cuba a few times and had hitch-hiked around the country, on his own. He loves the country, and at that point, had never had a problem, either in the US or Cuba. He travels via Mexico both ways. US citizens face large fines if they travel there and are caught by the US government. I'd guess the biggest risk would be if you lost your passport, as you'd have to try and sort out a new one before you could go home, which would be tricky, if not impossible, without letting on you were there! When you go in to Cuba, they place a piece of paper in your passport and stamp it, then on leaving, they stamp the piece of paper again and remove it so that US immigration don't see a Cuban stamp. To this day, I'm still frustrated by the fact that my passport hasn't got a Cuban stamp on it!
They do have some strange rules. Before I went I found one web site that listed the things tourists can't take with them into the country. This included "refrigeration units". Obviously, no self respecting tourist leaves home without one:ermm: But also, DVD players "including in PC's". No other web site mentioned this an it wasn't on my ticket etc, so I risked taking mine as I do a lot of digital photography and like to back up my stuff while away. I arrive at customs, put my bag through and am about to pick it up when a soldier shouted at me, pointed at the bag and shouts "LAPTOP!" Ohhh...f.... So I start opening it, and the guy on the X-Ray machine shouted something else and he snatched my camera. They put it through the X-Ray machine and stopped the belt, all crowding around, looking at it. Eventually they let it go and I grabbed it and legged it before he remembered the laptop! It was when digital SLR's first came out and I'm guessing they'd not seen one before so wondered why there was no film compartment. Not sure I'd get away with that now. Anyway, at our first hotel, we were talking with the rep and having a beer one evening and mentioned DVD's. He said he'd never seen one and "you won't get one into the country". So I went and got mine to show him it! On the laptop were loads of photos from a previous trip to DR which he really loved seeing. Despite being such a close neighbour, he knew nothing about the Dominican Republic, even asking us "do they speak Spanish" and laughing that "hey, they look like us!" He, like most Cubans, simply felt they would like to travel, which is possible but extremely difficult and expensive, almost always requiring a foreign 'sponsor' to pay for the trip and the admin costs.
Apparently, it's the only country in the world that hasn't got either a Mac Donalds, Burger King or KFC... so if you needed an excuse to go there, that's it!
I'm not *huge* fan of Cuban/Latin style music, although the Buena Vista Social Club were playing Havana just before we got there (or just after, I forget now) which would have been really cool to go and see.
:glasses: 