Sullivan’s Joe Pound kneels at entrance of Hotel Nacional in Cuba

•March 30, 2016•

Reported by “Jose” Pound
For the News Progress

Imagine a lush, tropical island in the Caribbean Sea (just 200 miles south of Miami and 90 miles south of Key West, Fla.), about the length of Florida (700 miles), with so much natural beauty, warm & friendly folks plus delightful local food. Only in the last few years have Americans been allowed legally to visit this island to meet and greet these engaging, energetic, creative Cuban people.

This largest island in the Caribbean Sea is one of about 30 major islands, many of which (26) my wife and I have visited over the past 40 years, but never to Cuba. This void was due to our government’s restricted travel embargo policies. Fortunately for us, these past restrictive travel policies now are being relaxed by our government. Recently five adults from Sullivan were part of a flood of new visitors from the US taking advantage of this new freedom to travel to Cuba. It proved to be a great experience for me like none of the other islands of this tropical sea I’ve visited earlier.

Our touring company…Road Scholar (part of Elderhostel based in Boston) has been doing these tours to Cuba for a short time. Elderhostel has been around for 40+ years. It is a well regarded not-for-profit travel agency. Our small group (five) from Sullivan made this trip to Cuba in the middle of March. We were accompanied by 17 other persons from all over the country…from upper Wisconsin to Texas from Ohio to west coast. What a diverse group. This is my report of that experience. The program was called Havana and the Countryside.

This particular Road Scholar group seemed to coalesce well, as we toured the western part of this large beautiful, green tropical island for eight days (March 13-20, 2016). About half of us were singles and about half couples…a diverse group of explorers. All of us from Sullivan were singles.

This experience in the middle of March immediately preceded President Obama’s recent three day visit to Republic of Cuba. It’s been 88 years since a US President visited the island. Our small group departed Cuba on Sunday the March 20 just one hour before the President and his family arrived at Jose Marti International AP near Havana, Cuba. We were delighted to not be there during the President’s visit. One neat fact, our stay in Havana was at the huge Hotel Nacional, where the President stayed. There were all kinds of preparation activities preceding the President and his family’s arrival in the Cuban capital.     Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.