In 2014, Obama signed an executive order that loosened travel for Americans to Cuba. In February of this year, we took advantage of that policy. The tickets from Fort Lauderdale to Havana cost, on Jet Blue, $150 apiece, round trip, with an additional $50 apiece for the visa. The flight took a total of 33 minutes. We booked our lodging online, through airbnb, and had a four-bedroom, four-bath apartment that costs us $40 a night apiece. In all, the trip probably cost each of us about $600 for a ticket, lodging, food etc. The island is fantastic, the people are wonderful, and the entire trip was one of the highlights of my life.
Today in Miami’s Little Havana, Trump rolled back Obama’s executive order with one of his own that tightens those travel restrictions so that Americans will no longer be able to travel as freely as we did in February. In fact, you will probably have to go with an educational group, which means you can’t travel on your own around the island and, of course, the price is going to be well beyond what we paid.
street in Habana Vieja
Lunch en route to the interior
A cigar maker at a tobacco plantation
Trump, playing to a tiny core of his supposed base in Little Havana, said, “…we must ensure that U.S. funds are not channeled to a regime that has failed to meet the most basic requirements of a free and just society.”
Really? What about the Phililpines? Egypt? What about Saudi Arabia, where the “most basic human requirements of a free and just society” are denied to nearly everyone except the royal family, and are denied in particular to women? Trump doesn’t have any problem with countries like this.
This part of his edict is especially heinous. It’s from The Huffington Post:
“The Trump administration is stepping up requirements on those sorts of trips, requiring a full-time schedule of activities that “enhance contact with the Cuban people, support civil society in Cuba, or promote the Cuban people’s independence from Cuban authorities, and that the travel must result in a meaningful interaction between the traveler” and Cubans, according to the draft. Travelers to Cuba will have to keep detailed records of all their financial transactions in the country for five years to make available to the Treasury Department if requested.
“The president is also directing the Treasury secretary to regularly audit Cuba travel to make sure U.S. travelers are following the rules on avoiding GAESA-linked transactions. Anyone who travels to Cuba, however, might be able to stay at an Airbnb or eat at an independent restaurant, although that interpretation is not clearly spelled out in the draft order. But those who go to the island under a U.S. license will need to keep strict notes proving they’re complying with the new executive order – or face fines.”
Our 4 days in Cuba were all about interacting with the Cuban people and culture and we didn’t need a U.S. govennment authorized educational group government to do it. This edict of trump’s is as brainless as everything else he has done since January 20. Sure, impose the American embargo again and watch as the Chinese and Russians move in and do business there.
Trump can’t be gone too soon for me and my hope is that his entire administration is thrown out with him. Every single one of them is corrupt to the core and every Republican who falls into line with him and fails to speak up should be voted out in 2018.
Art that represents the Cuban spirit!
Cuba, si!!
Thanks so much! And you are too right….living with a die-hard Trump-man who thrives on FOX news and Rush Limbaugh and Watters World and Hannity, etc, which blasts into our home via the TV, I have no choice but to distance myself. There’s a small cable TV in my bedroom, (I can no longer navigate the fifteen steps to the upstairs master bedroom), and I close the door and turn on my TV to a “happy site”, or at the very least to one of my favorite detective series. Our walls are virtually soundproof, and even though I am hyperauditory which means I am able to keep the volume on mine low and still comfortably hear it, I don’t hear the big one. When DJT
stuff appears on screen in here, I just skip to a different channel. According to valid historians, the United States has NEVER been in the dire space we are currently occupying. My greatest hope is for some kind of PEACEFUL transition into a higher energy. I wonder who would be the POTUS if Trump weren’t there, and I continue to sense that he has dangerous, life-threatening physical ailments regardless of what he reports his physicians say. He has the off-and-on bright red face of hypertension, and his weight is another cardiac marker. I also notice he constantly repeats his sentences over and over again, a potential marker for short term memory loss. (I don’t think he does it for emphasis.) I strongly suspect he has serious health issues and although he brags that he has a photograph memory, all the money and power in the world can’t purchase good health. What a mess we are in, and I would hate to see him martyred like JFK! He refuses the degree of secret service protection that all past presidents had, and such lack of wisdom may be his downfall. He considers himself to be an invincible ‘god’. Poor foolish man!
It feels imperative for me to add a post-script to my previous comments. I confess I have been among the worst of the worst DJT critics, especially in the beginning, during the early days of the campaign. As mentioned, my husband of 53 years (How did we do THAT???? ) is a gung-ho Trump supporter, and he sat in our living room mouthing off constantly at the TV stuff, defending Trump, viciously attacking the opponents. I reacted with a negativity that matched his. But I spewed venom at DJT. It didn’t hurt Trump. It hurt ME, and it also sent waves of black toxicity out into our world and specifically into this terribly troubled country. Somehow, I suddenly recognized that I was creating a very TOXIC ENERGY that was affecting me and was spreading toxic effects elsewhere, and it was then that I understood that when we espouse hatred and other vile thoughts and feelings, we are creating an atmosphere that is extremely poisonous, and I decided that I would simply remove myself from the
energy to which I was a contributor, and every time I had a vicious thought about DJT, I would immediately focus my mind in a positive direction, which included leaving
Hubby alone to rant and rave all by himself. Believe me, I really have to work at releasing my negativity toward Trump and maintaining a positive attitude, sending him instead (and man, is THIS hard!!) as much Light as I am able to muster toward a person that in my opinion is a scourge on this earth. I do it by allowing myself to consider the possibility that as a country with Group Karma, we may have put a person in the highest position on the planet for some eventual positive reason…..for some kind of lesson we must resolve. I focus on THAT. And, I envision a “faceless” person in that position, but won’t let myself have thoughts of DJT that are definitely
a trillion miles away from being spiritual. It works for me, finally, and I am now able to transpose my black thoughts of him into a ‘blur’ of Light. Honestly, I don’t know what else to do. But, it is working for me, and I no longer am in the grips of that satanic toxic energy space. I apologize for going on so long, but did need to say that I have been among the worst of the Trump haters, and watched it spread like an uncontrolled wildfire throughout our land. I meant no offense to anyone here, particularly considering that I was right smack dab in the middle of the haters, adding my own fuel to that fire.
Thanks for your comment, CJ. It’s not as if I’m eaten up with toxicity because of trump. But when I see something that is blatantly unjust and vile, I say something. Otherwise, that feeling festers.
In your situation, living with a trump supporter, it seems to me you’ve done the right thing for yourself.
I can’t let this pass without making a comment. And, I am NOT a Trump supporter. My comment is this: Altho Hillary won the popular vote, Trump won the election. And the reason is because millions upon millions of our fellow Americans voted for him. When we continue to attack Trump and call him a vile Nazi and all the other despicable stuff we lay on him….please try to understand that by doing this, those attacks extend to the millions and millions of our neighbors, friends, families, strangers, who gave him their vote. By constantly spewing hatred at this president, we are also spewing hatred to the folks who voted for him. Please, give that some really serious thought. I don’t like the man. I didn’t vote for the man. However, there are very many people I know….several are family…. and I cannot and will not disrespect and dishonor these folks’ rights to be in his “camp”. Crucifying and persecuting DJT is simultaneously crucifying and persecuting all the (innocent) Americans who like him and voted for him, and I have deep-seated issues with this….with being aware that every time we speak with such vitriolic hatred of Trump. we are condemning millions of others as well. As spiritual Beings attempting to evolve, do we wish to put this Nation under such an enormous cloud of darkness? I don’t, and in my heart I truly believe there must be some other way to achieve what we wish to achieve. I’n not defending Trump; just the millions who voted for him, as misled as they were.
No one is disrespecting anyone who voted for Trump. They have the right to vote as they please. The only person being disrespected here is trump.
My sister and her husband and me and my husband just booked a cruise with an overnight in Cuba for Oct. This was a long time bucket list item for my cigar connoisseur hubby. Now we have no idea if or where we will be going. Sad. Trump is so thrilled to have one person swear loyalty i.e.: Rubio, he will do anything for him. He is a mess for sure. His whole government policy consists of ending all the good that Obama did out of envy. SAD
I sure hope you still get to go. I understand he isn’t blocking cruise ships or airlines, just making it tougher to go as we did, like you would travel anywhere else. Be sure to hit Old Havana – Obispo Street. It’s fabulous and from there you can make your way to La Floridita, Hemingway’s bar. If nothing else, see those 2 things.
And tell your husband that one of the best places for those cigars is the airport as you’re leaving, the duty free shops.
Trump is a Nazi. I hope that he’s found guilty and impeached soon. Get his xenophobic a$$ off the stage and put a real politician in the White House – someone who is actually qualified to be commander-in-chief. Literally *anybody* is better than the rich, over-privileged idiot that weaseled his way to the presidency. America needs a diplomatic leader who will cooperate with foreign nations, and not embarrass us in front of the world.
Yeah, he is a Nazi.