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<\/p>\nSo, I had just finished a certification exam that required more studying than I care to discuss. It was December 2008, and I was mentally exhausted and in much need of a beach vacation to reward myself for passing this rigorous exam.\u00a0 At the time I happened to be visiting Montreal and decided to hit up a travel agent to see what deals were available.\u00a0 My only criteria were sun, beach, and relaxation.\u00a0 It is rare that I ever take time to slow down, even on vacation.\u00a0 It seems most of my vacations leave me more exhausted than relaxed (even though they are pretty rewarding).\u00a0 At this juncture in my life I needed a “time out” to bask in the accomplishment of passing that exam, so I wasn\u2019t looking for anything too adventurous.<\/p>\n
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The travel agent in Montreal listened to my criteria and recommended Mexico or Cuba.\u00a0 As a citizen of the United States, I thought I was not allowed in Cuba and when asking the agent, she assured me it was not a problem.\u00a0 Cuba was much less expensive than Mexico, it would meet my beach requirements, and it was off the beaten path since Americans were not formally supposed to travel there.\u00a0 Cuba it is!<\/p>\n
The flight to Havana was a short 3 hours from Montreal and I was already yearning for a Cuban cigar and a glass of Havana rum while admiring sights along the white sand beaches.\u00a0 Once the flight began to descend it hit me as I could see the last of the Florida Keys fading away from the plane window \u201cWow, I wonder how much that travel agent really knew about the embargo for Americans.”\u00a0I was about to find out.<\/p>\n
Feeling a little bit nervous as I entered the immigration queue, I saw those ahead of me enter this little glass box.\u00a0 The doors closed, they showed their travel documents, and once the doors opened on the other side they were officially in Cuba.\u00a0 As it became my turn I entered the glass box, it closed, I showed my American passport when the immigration agent looked at it.\u00a0 He said \u201cUno momento\u201d and went in back to gather with four other agents who looked at me, then at my passport, and began passing it around like a Mickey Mantle rookie card.\u00a0 Ahhhh, this is how my Locked up Abroad episode would begin I thought.<\/p>\n
The Cuban people love Americans, and it is so rare an occurrence to see an actual American passport that it draws a lot of curiosity and attention, something I wasn\u2019t particularly looking for.\u00a0 When the agent went to stamp my passport, I quickly remembered about the embargo.\u00a0 A Cuban stamp in my passport would not go over well when I returned to the United States next week.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo Stamp por favor\u201d I said nervously. He laughed said no problem and opened the glass box for me to enter Cuba. I made it! This is so cool!<\/p>\n
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What little I knew of Cuba was that my entire wallet was now useless. Health insurance, credit cards, ATM access:\u00a0 Nothing would be accepted in this country due to the embargo.\u00a0 I had about $200 Canadian and reservations to an all-inclusive resort to ensure I could enjoy a week relaxing and not worryimg about the limitations due to lack of cash.\u00a0 This idea worked perfectly, with the exception that my travels would be limited to short day trips near the resort in Veracruz, and it wouldn\u2019t allow me to visit Havana.<\/p>\n
As the week came to a close, I had a great tan.\u00a0 I was relaxed and refreshed both mentally and physically. Mission accomplished!<\/p>\n Once we began our descent into Montreal a revelation hit me: I still had to re-enter the United States, with a tan, in January, from Montreal.\u00a0 Would the US Immigration agent know I was in Cuba?<\/p>\n When the plane hit the tarmac, I did what any mature person who thought they were about to get into trouble does. I phoned my Mom and let her know that I may have overstepped, and she may be receiving a call from the US State Department in reference to my traveling shenanigans.\u00a0 After hanging up the phone I felt a tap on my shoulder.\u00a0 It was a friend I had made at the resort.\u00a0 He happened to be sitting behind me and overheard the conversation with my mom.\u00a0 He let me know that I could use him as an alibi and that he was a member of a health club in Montreal that had tanning beds.\u00a0 That seemed to be a solid response to any questioning I might soon face.\u00a0 I\u2019ll go with that, I decided. I began to feel a bit more confident as I nervously crossed into Vermont. The US Immigration officer had no questions for me and simply said \u201cWelcome home Mr. Huber,\u201d as he waved my car onward. It was only about 10 degrees that night, yet I still could feel the warmth from the Cuban sun glowing while breathing a sigh of relief I happily drove by the \u201cWelcome to The United States of America\u201d sign.\u00a0 Cuba let me accomplish all my relaxation goals and tacked on a pretty cool story along the way.<\/p>\n If you would like to read more about motorcycling in Cuba, take a look at Christopher Baker’s Mi Moto Fidel<\/a>.<\/p>\n Keep on clicking:\u00a0 Click on those popup ads!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Never miss an ExNotes blog:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Mike Huber So, I had just finished a certification exam that required more studying than I care to discuss. It was December 2008, and I was mentally exhausted and in much need of a beach vacation to reward myself for passing this rigorous exam.\u00a0 At the time I happened to be visiting Montreal and … Continue reading “Cuba Bound”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":19836,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[654,89],"tags":[3171,3172],"class_list":["post-19834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adventure-motorcycle-books","category-motorcycle-adventure-ride","tag-cuba","tag-visiting-cuba"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/0-900-3.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19834"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19834\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20017,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19834\/revisions\/20017"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/3-600-4.jpg\")
This was all fine with me.\u00a0 I was able to relax at the beach while still having the ability to leave the resort to take in some local food and sights.\u00a0 This included cigar stores, drooling over the 1950\u2019s cars that were still in pristine condition, and of course soaking up some much-needed sun. The resort where I was staying was filled with Canadians and whenever they had those silly contests in the evening they would always ask where the person was from.\u00a0 I was tempted every time I was called upon to grab the microphone and loudly say \u201cThe United States of America,\u201d and then I would revel in the silence that was sure to follow that statement.\u00a0 For once I listened to my Dad\u2019s advice (Don\u2019t do anything stupid, Mike<\/em>).\u00a0 For the entire trip I identified as a Canadian from Toronto (I couldn\u2019t say Montreal as I didn\u2019t speak French) and I successfully avoided the temptation to say otherwise.<\/p>\n
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