We did not know until the end of 2018 that Holland America Line had begun offering cruises to Cuba in December 2017. The cruise itineraries included extended calls in Havana and a visit to Cienfuegos, along with other Caribbean destinations. The first Cuba cruise was a 12-day holiday sailing that started on December 22, 2017.

After we learned this, we promptly made a reservation through Vacations to Go to take a cruise on January 2019. This was another inspiration from the Holy Spirit because on June 5, 2019, the Trump administration banned the “people-to-people” travel license. This license had allowed Americans to visit Cuba for educational purposes, promoting contact between U.S. and Cuban citizens. So, just five months, or less, after we had been there the doors were closed. United States cruise ships were prohibited from stopping in Cuba. Only travelers who had booked a flight or hotel before June 5, 2019, were allowed to continue their planned trips.

Since we did our cruise in January 2019, we were not affected by the ban. However, I learned, reading an article in Cruise Critic website, that “As recently as January 2023, four cruise lines — Carnival, Norwegian, Royal Caribbean and MSC — were ordered by a Federal District Judge in Florida to pay millions in fines in a complicated legal battle. The Federal District Judge (in Florida) cited that the cruise lines committed “trafficking acts” by conveying U.S. citizens to Cuba to engage in “prohibited tourism” between the years of 2015 and 2019. It remains to be seen whether that ruling will withstand the anticipated appeals and how it might impact the future of cruising to Cuba by American-owned companies.” (Gray 2024).

We were provided with some information about the “people-to-people” license before we took the cruise.

The Holland America cruises complied with U.S. regulations, specifically the ‘People-to-People’ program. This program is designed to promote cultural exchange between U.S. travelers and the Cuban people.

To book a cruise that included Cuba, the travelers should engage in activities that focused on cultural interactions, such as visiting local businesses, historical sites, and engaging with residents.

Holland America required passengers to book shore excursions through the cruise line to ensure compliance with the program. Independent tours could be arranged, but they also were supposed to meet the program’s requirements. Documentation was needed to prove compliance.

The typical excursions were tours that included visits to museums, art galleries, and local markets. All activities were to involve interactions with local artists, musicians, and community leaders. The duration of the excursions was to last no less than 6 to 8 hours.

Passengers were encouraged to keep records of their activities for up to ten years if they booked independent excursions.

Cuba has had a democratic centralist political system, known as the “one state – one party” principle, since 1959. Constitutionally, Cuba is a socialist country. The Communist Party of Cuba is the leading force both at the society level and in the state. We had to fill up a “Guest Affidavit for Travel to Cuba” declaring that our reason to visit Cuba was only the “people-to-people” program, and send it signed to Holland America.

Our cruise, “10-day Authentic Cuba,” was from January 4 to 14, round trip from Fort Lauderdale. It would take us to Mexico, Belize, Cuba and Cayman Islands. The ship was the MS Veendam.

We flew with American Airlines to Ft Lauderdale, and after making the line at the port we embarked sooner due to our four stars Mariner membership. That afternoon we had a nice welcome and the traditional safety drill before departing toward Cozumel. Since Cuba requires a tourist visa, we had to buy one that was only available on board the ship. That cost seventy-five dollars.

Our first cruise port was the island of Cozumel in Mexico. It is on the east side of the Yucatan peninsula. We disembarked at the International Cruise Terminal which is in front of Playa del Carmen to the west. After checking the picturesque stores around that area, including the Margaritaville bar and restaurant, we took the excursion to Mayan Cacao & Island Discovery.

At the Mayan Cacao Company, our guide asked, “What was the secret behind the success and longevity of the incredibly gifted, intelligent and sophisticated Mayan Civilization?” The answer was “Chocolate, of course!” We learned about the history of chocolate through the ages from the manufacturing process and ended with a tasting session under the tutelage of a specialist. They said the guidance for tasting was needed just in case our skills for eating chocolate were a bit rusty.

We visited a Mayan House and saw how these people used to live. We enjoyed a botanic garden visit. Then we did a panoramic drive through the island. We stopped at El Mirador. It is a rocky formation carved out by the ocean. We enjoyed the beach and then we hopped back on the bus and had a relaxing drive back to the ship.

Next day we went to Belize. Since this was our second time there, we decided to venture to see howler monkeys. These semi-domesticated black Howler monkeys are only found in Belize. The adventure began with a one-hour scenic journey through the beautiful Belizean countryside on our way to the rainforest. We saw many iguanas just next to the road. As the savannah lands blend away to the jungle, we were greeted by the loud, guttural howls of over 2,000 Black Howler monkeys. They are the loudest of all mammals–Black Howler monkeys have calls that can be heard up to three miles away. They are an endangered species. The locals call them ‘baboons’. They live in groups of 4 to 12 individuals. Arriving at our destiny, we were given a 20-minute introduction and then we were allowed to walk around the Community Baboon Sanctuary. We observed the Black Howler monkeys in the trees above. The guide gave them some food so we could take many videos and pictures. This was a three and a half hour tour.

Our Cuban experience started in Cienfuegos, Cuba. We had to take a tender to get to the port. We could see several slum-like houses along the coast. At the port, we had to make lines for them to check our papers and for us to change money.

There were two Cuban currencies. The Cuban Peso Nacional (CUP), with an equivalence of 25 CUP per $1 USD, is used only by Cubans. The Cuban Convertible Peso (CUC) is pinned to US Dollar at one CUC equivalent to one dollar, but this currency is only used by tourists. No Credit Cards can be used in Cuba!

Cienfuegos was founded in 1819, initially settled by French immigrants. It is on the Caribbean coast of south-central Cuba in the center of Cuba’s sugar cane, mango, tobacco and coffee production area. It was originally developed in a neoclassical style but has become much more eclectic in design in the last century. The downtown area contains six buildings from the early 1800’s, 327 buildings from the late 1800’s, and more than 1,000 buildings from the 20th century. 

Cienfuegos is fortified by its geographical location and by the impressive Castle of Jagua. We took a panoramic drive through Cienfuegos to the Punta Gorda peninsular area, with beautiful panoramas and historic buildings such as Palacio del Valle.

Then we took a walk through the city center of Cienfuegos, we went through the José Martí Park, where we saw the statue Martí, a symbol of Cuba’s bid for independence against Spain in the 19th century. He was a revolutionary and a poet. The well known Cuban song ‘Guantanamera’ is based on one of his poems.

We visited the Tomás Terry Theater. Here we saw pictures of all the famous artists who used to visit the island before the Cuban Revolution, such as Enrico Caruso and Sarah Bernhardt, and we learned that the famous Cuban ballerina Alicia Alonso performed there. We went along the pedestrian San Fernando Boulevard and Santa Isabel Boulevard. We could see the strong French influence everywhere in Cienfuegos. Our guide explained the significance of each landmark and we heard about Cuban life: the ration system, the dual currency use, and the stores where the locals shop. We entered the Casa del Fundador, the former home of the city’s founder, Louis d’Clouet, now housing a cigar, rum and coffee bar. We saw the statue of Beny Moré, a very popular Cuban singer, bandleader and songwriter in the ‘50’s. He was a master of most Cuban popular genres of the day. He was born in Cienfuegos but is believed to be descendant from a king of an African tribe in Congo.

We learned about the history of Cuba’s most iconic exports and the ritual combination of savoring rum, coffee and tobacco, often referred “maridaje” for its marriage of flavors. We visited the Club “El Benny” located on the San Fernando boulevard, where the unmistakable sound of Beny Moré, known as the “Barbaro del Ritmo” because he had a fluid tenor voice and hypnotic dance steps, filled the Cienfuegos ambiance. We tried two of the three exquisite Cuban products:  criollo coffee and Añejo rum, and we were given a tobacco cigar. The music was inviting and most of the members in our group danced to the wonderful exuberant Cuban music influenced by Benny Moré. The location was great. I think the music in Cuba makes people enjoy life despite the political system of rations and oppression.

There were cars, in every color of the rainbow, and very well maintained; the stores, the pharmacies we saw all looked and felt like the 50’s. The deterioration of the buildings was obvious as soon as we left downtown. We saw many horse carriages used for daily transportation and commerce. We arrived back at our ship and took great pictures of the well-protected Cienfuegos Bay.

On Cayman Island, the next day we just went down to Georgetown, and as we have been there before, we did not take any excursions. We just enjoyed downtown and had fun watching and taking pictures of roosters and hens visiting different stores.

We arrived to Havana, Cuba’s capital and largest city, major port, and commercial center of Cuba. Population of 2.1 million. It was founded by Spanish in 16th century and served as a springboard for Spanish conquest of the Americas.

From 1902 to 1959, Havana saw a new era of development, accompanied by gambling and corruption. It produced more revenue than Las Vegas. So, Havana was hit especially hard in 1960 when Castro expropriated all private property, followed by the US embargo and resulting shortages. Then the end of Soviet subsidies in 1991, representing billions of dollars, caused a severe depression. Among the serious issues they still struggle with today are very low wages, chronic shortages of food and other basic goods, an inefficient transportation system, and lack of adequate housing.

We were going to spend two full days at Havana.

While having breakfast on our ship the morning of January 12, we could see the Castillo de los Tres Reyes Magos del Morro (aka El Morro Castle), built from 1589 to 1630. It is a large triangular-shaped fortress at the entrance to the ship channel into the harbor. We also saw the Fortaleza de San Carlos de la Cabaña (aka Cabaña Castle), built from 1763 to 1774. This is a very large five-pointed fortress on the north side of the ship channel in East Havana. It is the largest Spanish-built fortress in North America, at about one-half mile (2300 feet) long, and about 200 yards wide, covering about 25 acres.

We saw The Malecón which is a broad esplanade, roadway and seawall which stretches for five miles along the coast in Havana from the mouth of Havana along the north side. Although the houses lining the Malecón are mostly in ruins, it continues to be popular among Cubans, especially among those of lesser means whose other entertainment choices are limited.

It is also a source of income for poorer families, as individual fishermen can cast their lines there.

To venture through Havana is to take a true history lesson of all the styles of architecture that have shaped the Cuban capital, neoclassical, Spanish, French, American, each modified by the available materials and technologies and to meet the needs and conditions of Cuba. However, there is a severe lack of adequate housing, made worse by crumbling Colonial-era homes literally falling on their inhabitants, after years of neglect due to a shortage of building materials. It is estimated that on average 3 buildings collapse either partially or totally each day.

In 1962 Fidel implemented a rations system and most Cuban families still rely on it for their food. They take coupon books to a rations shop and exchange for whatever basic foods happen to be available at that time. Supermarkets are routinely out of supplies for weeks.

After Fidel’s death in 2016 and the Soviet collapse, government has turned to tourism for new revenue. Tourism created over a half million jobs. They are in very high demand and difficult to get because they pay about 25 times more. This has created a 2-class system of “haves” and “have nots”, with a lucky few having access to CUCs.

This is what most of us think of when Cuba is mentioned: The colorful American classic cars, new American cars were not available due to US embargo, Cubans living in Miami would smuggle car parts into Cuba when they could, but mostly, it was sheer Cuban ingenuity that kept the old cars running. Cubans did whatever was necessary; many now have diesel engines or other creative fabrications.

The Cuban people are an exuberant, expressive and happy people who love life. Nowhere is this more evident than in their colorful art.

We visited the area of Havana where the Cuban artist José Fuster wanted to recreate in his own neighborhood something like Gaudi’s public works in Barcelona. In 1975, after moving into a modest wooden house in the rundown neighborhood of Jaimanitas outside Havana, Fuster set about decorating his studio in colorful mosaics. Once he was done there, he asked his neighbors if he could decorate their homes and businesses as well. A few accepted his offer, and the tile creations grew. Over the course of a decade, doctors’ offices, bus stops, fountains, benches, gateways, and more were enveloped by Fuster’s whimsical imagination. Fuster’s art is “naïve,” meaning he uses childlike crude shapes and bright colors in his untrained composition. His work has been compared to that of Picasso. Today, his artwork coats the neighborhood in a rainbow of strange, enchanting fantasy.

Jaimanitas was an economically depressed area before Fuster arrived, and now it has turned into an artist’s paradise. Tourists are bussed into the neighborhood to admire Fuster’s still-growing kingdom, which has spawned a new generation of artists inspired by the surroundings they grew up in.

In Havana we also attended a demonstration of modern dance by the Habana Compas Dance group. These young ladies use percussion as their form of expression.

Another thing we noticed while visiting Plaza de la Revolucion, where we heard stories of the many large-scale political rallies held here, was that there are large images everywhere of their revolutionaries and political figures. Among them: Che Guevara: He was an Argentine physician and guerrilla leader. He met Fidel Castro in the mid 1950’s in Mexico and joined Castro’s revolution. Following the overthrow of Batista, Che filled several key roles for the new government. He was also a prolific writer and believed that the ills of the world were due to capitalism. He left Cuba in 1965 to foment revolution in Africa and South America. He was captured in Bolivia and summarily executed. His house in Havana was transformed in a museum dedicated to “Ché”.

Another was Camilo Cienfuegos, a revolutionary born in Havana and a member of the 1956 group that launched Fidel Castro’s armed insurgency against Batista. He became one of Castro’s top guerilla commanders and is a hero of the Cuban people.  In 1959, he was presumed dead when his small plane disappeared during a night flight from Camagüey to Havana.

Fidel and Raul Castro. Fidel and his brother Raul headed the revolutionary group that overthrew Batista in 1959. Fidel then assumed military and political power as Cuba’s Prime Minister and became the longest-serving non-royal head of state in the 20^th or 21^st century, until handing the reigns to Raul in 2008. Fidel died in 2016. Raul was serving as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, the most senior position in the socialist state.

Cuba’s prevailing religion is Christianity, primarily Roman Catholicism, although in some instances it is profoundly modified by syncretism. It is estimated that 60 percent of the population is Catholic, but only one to five percent attend mass regularly. Still, there are many beautiful churches in Havana. I left several Christian booklets in Spanish when visiting several places.

We also visited Cristobol Colon Cemetery with its beautiful above-ground tombs and statuary. It was established in 1876 and has been declared a national monument. Named for Christopher Columbus, the cemetery is noted for its many elaborately sculpted memorials. It is estimated the cemetery has more than 500 major mausoleums. With more than 800,000 graves and 1 million interments, space in the Colon Cemetery is currently at a premium and as such, after three years, remains are removed from their tombs, boxed and placed in a storage building.

Finally, we visited El Cristo de la Habana (or The Christ of Havana). This magnificent 66 ft high, Carrara marble statue stands atop a hill overlooking Havana harbor. The statue was built from 67 blocks of marble that had been brought from Italy after being personally blessed by Pope Pius XII. It was inaugurated in December 1958 and is the work of Cuban sculptor Jilma Madera. The sculpture is located 167 ft above sea level, rising to a height of 259 ft, allowing the locals to see it from many points of the city. There is a panoramic viewpoint at the site of the sculpture.

Our last evening, we followed in the footsteps of Frank Sinatra, Ava Gardner, Buster Keaton, and Winston Churchill, (to name but a few!), former guests at the Hotel Nacional de Cuba which opened in 1930 in its privileged spot overlooking the boulevard Malecón in Havana. We were treated to a show at Nacional’s famed Cabaret Parisien. Talent, rhythm, and a multitude of gorgeous costumes! Like old Las Vegas!!

That night we returned to Fort Lauderdale with a completely different picture of Cuba. Despite all their problems, there is much beauty to see in Cuba and much that is reminiscent of Cuba in its 40’s and 50’s heyday, what we see in the movies.

Most of the means of production are owned and run by the government and most of the labor force is employed by the state. Recent years have seen a trend toward more private sector employment.

The island’s rations system was implemented by Fidel in 1962 and the vast majority of Cuban families still rely on it for their food intake. Cubans using ration books shop for whatever is available on that day. People showed joy despite having to run to form lines and lines when anybody in downtown shouts “there are potatoes at the Almacen (food store) right now.” If they hurry, they might get three or four potatoes according to the size of their family. Citizens are given coupon books which, when taken to a rations shop, can be basically exchanged for rice, sugar, matches and oil or whatever is available.

The president is subordinate to Fidel’s brother Raul Castro, the Communist Party leader and commander in chief. President Miguel Diaz-Canel, first secretary, is a career politician and was selected by Raul Castro to succeed him as president. Cubans hoping for a new beginning still face the same old issues: very low wages, chronic shortages of food and other basic goods, an inefficient transportation system, and a lack of adequate housing exacerbated by crumbling, colonial-era homes literally falling on its inhabitants after years of neglect.

Reforms, some subtle, many of them major, have come steadily over the last decade or so after an ailing Fidel, who died in 2016 at age 90, transferred power to his younger brother Raul after a half-century of iron-fisted rule. There were political, social and economic changes proposed in 2019.

The Cuban National Assembly recently approved a draft of a new constitution that legitimizes the ownership of private property, as well as businesses such as the restaurants and small hotels that have sprung up across the country in recent years. It also encourages foreign investment, sets two five-year term limits on the presidency and even suggests the eventual legalization of same-sex marriage. In what could be taken as a positive sign, the constitution’s first major overhaul since the 1970s was the result of direct suggestions by the Cuban people, according to the government. Citizens were supposed to decide on whether to accept the final document in a nationwide referendum in February. Several opposition groups were pushing the people to vote no.

The average salary is $25 US to $30 US per month. Most Cubans currently can only access wi-fi in public hot spots around the country. A data plan ranges from about $7 to $30 a month. We met a lady standing in a long line at a state-run pharmacy, Mercedes, 67. She said she lives on a “decent” monthly pension of $12 but complained of having to pay $5 for eye drops. Many retired seniors are struggling despite Cuba’s vaunted free health care for all — citizens still have to pay for their medications.

Tourist related jobs are difficult to get. People want tips paid in CUCs, the alternate currency used by foreigners worth 25 times the Cuban peso used by citizens the CUP. Typically, a driver makes $40 a month driving a truck across the country. A taxi driver that transport tourists makes at least $150 a month just in tips.

So a guide receiving 20 CUC in tips is actually receiving more than 500 CUP. This is equivalent to a month’s salary for the majority of Cubans.

There is no evidence of crime, drugs or prostitution. The price of gasoline was 1.22 U.S. Dollar per liter. That is 4.56 dollars per gallon.

An interesting fact is that Cuba has the highest doctor-to-population ratio in the world and has sent thousands of doctors to more than 40 countries around the world.

With a new appreciation of our country, from Fort Lauderdale we flew back to Dallas on January 14, 2019.