Wanna go to Cuba?

The on-again, off-again news that the US may soon ease up on travel to Cuba is encouraging for temporary Canadians like us. Most everyone we know in Montreal has been to Cuba at least once. They love it for the pristine beaches, un-American-ized commerce and lots and lots of all-inclusive and very affordable resorts.

When we first moved to Canada and would hear someone say"we're going to Cuba" it made us go "huh?" Sort of like being in the States and hearing "we're going to vacation in Des Moines." (sorry Jeanne). Our Canadian friends have shared their Cuban rum, readily available at the SAQ. And they don't need to hide cigars before returning from vacation because they can walk into any cigar store at home and buy them. Again, a strange concept since growing up in the States Cuba was such a bad word. Unless of course it came to importing good baseball players or a really great black bean recipe. And then of course there's Gloria Estefan.

Americans can get to the island in different ways and on flights from Canada. We have heard of ways tourists can go by quietly asking the customs officials in Cuba to not stamp a passport. Did you know that from time to time US customs officials really look at those stamps on the passport...I mean...really look? We have thought about going to Cuba from Canada and then heard something about a chip in our passports and with our luck Homeland Security would come and scoop us off a beach and give us a $10K fine. Plus, there's the whole work permit thing and then there's this blog where I just said for US government officials to read we would like to go to Cuba. Think we'll lay low for a few more years until the island is taken over by cruise lines and all Disney-fied.

Here's an older post about Cuba