DISCOVER CUBA

Day 1: Arrive Miami                                 Overnight: Miami|
Fly from LAX bound for Florida. Arrive in Miami and transfer to your Miami airport hotel. This evening an Informational Briefing will be held at the hotel by a Chamber Explorations Representative about the day 2 charter flight to Havana and the start of your people to people experience to Cuba. The evening is at leisure. 

Day 2: Miami - Bienvenidos a La Havana Cuba (L,D)                   Overnight: Havana
This morning transfer to the Miami International Airport and check in for your flight to Havana, Cuba. Upon arrival at the Jose Marti International Airport and clearing customs, we’ll meet our local bilingual Cuban Guide outside the baggage terminal. Your drive from the airport orients you with Cuba’s enigmatic capitol city, whose nearly 500-year old Habana Vieja (Old Havana), is home to the largest collections of Spanish- Colonial architecture in the Americas. Make a photo stop and learn more about the Plaza of the Revolution, the center of Cuban political life and Havana’s largest plaza where huge rallies are held. Your guide speaks below the grandiose portraits of national heroes Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos, and gives you time to reflect on the fact that you’re standing where millions of Cubans have stood while listening to speeches of Fidel Castro. Next enjoy lunch at a local restaurant before checking into your hotel and unpacking for a 6-night stay. Dinner is included this evening. 

Day 3: Havana - Old Havana (UNESCO) - Casa Fuster - Tropicana Show (B,L,D) Overnight: Havana
Today we start with a visit to the Bocoy Rum Factory established in 1878. Here we interact with a docent to learn about this true workingmuseum dedicated to the rum making process and rum industry in Cuba. Afterwards, enjoy a sample of the rum produced in the factory. Next enjoy a guided walking tour of pedestrian only Old Havana, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. See the beautiful Cathedral de la Havana, built in baroque style in 1748 and learn about its preservation and continuous restoration. Cuban writer Alejo Carpentier described the building as “music turned to stone.” Next visit the Marqueta Vieja Habana Museum that houses the scale model of the City of Havana and to meet with an expert on the city’s architecture and restoration efforts. Following lunch in Old Havana, we head to the charming fishing village of Jaimanitas to visit the incredible home and work shop of world famous artist, painter and ceramicist Jose Fuster, often called the “Picasso of Cuba”. He has adorned more than 80 houses with colorful ornate murals and domes. Here we spend time with the Fuster family and meet Fuster himself (if home) as well as the local residents of the town to discuss the influence of the artist’s work and their lives and community. This evening, after dinner in a local restaurant we head to the world famous Tropicana Cabaret Show. The Tropicana Cabaret opened in 1939 and is an extravagant spectacle with a revue of glamour and nostalgia. Before the revolution, the Tropicana was a casino owned by gangsters and visited by the Rich and Famous. An evening of music and history that is not to be missed at this famous nightclub show that presents song-and-dance performances reminiscent of 1950’s Cuba. 

Day 4: Havana - Colon Cemetery - Museum of the Revolution (B,L) Overnight: Havana
Religion has always played an important role in Cuban society that continues today. This morning enjoy a walking tour with a local historian of the fascinating Colon Cemetery (Cemeterio de Cristobal Colon), founded in 1876 and named for Christopher Columbus. The cemetery is noted for its many elaborate sculpted memorials and contains more than 500 major mausoleums, chapels and family vaults and is considered by many to be the most ornate necropolis in the world and is the final resting place for noted Cubans, including artists, writers, musicians and ballplayers. Next tour the famous Museum of the Revolution that displays documents and artifacts, weapons and planes from the revolution. See artifacts & learn more about the Bay of Pigs, the 1961 historic clash between the CIA trained Cuban exiles & rebel forces, the event that defined US-Cuba relations for decades. The museum is housed in the former Presidential Palace which was the home to Cuba’s leaders from the 1920s until 1959. This building offers beautiful architecture as well as an interior that was designed by Tiffany’s. Next visit the San Jose Craft Market and Art Center to meet and interact with the local artists to discuss and learn of the importance of their art in Cuban culture. Learn from the artists who share their experiences of pursuing the arts with limited access to materials and funding. 

Day 5: Havana (B,L)                                                                          Overnight: Havana
Visit the Cuban Literacy Museum where we’ll learn about a national effort to educate rural farmers and families. The two things of which Cuba is most proud, and which it most emphasizes, are health care and education. The campaign to make all illiterate Cubans literate withinone year was announced by Fidel Castro in his speech to the United Nations in 1960. By 1961 the campaign had largely succeeded. This small museum’s treasures include uniforms worn by literacy campaign participants, books, manuals and more. Following lunch at a local restaurant we will visit the Lizt Affonso Dance Studio. She is considered one of the finest Flamenco dancers in Cuba. Enjoy a performance and learn about the importance of Flamenco dancing with an opportunity to meet and interact with the dancers. Next tour the National Museum of Fine Arts, opened in 1954 and offering an extensive art collection of the works from the painters of the earliest colonizers of Cuba. Here we meet with a Cuban art expert and local historian for a presentation on the importance of Cuban art housed in this magnificent museum. 

Day 6: Havana - Vinales Valley (UNESCO) - Pinar Del Rio - Havana (B,L,D) Overnight: Havana
Today we travel out of Havana and into the rural Cuban countryside to the Vinales Valley located in the western most mountainous range in Cuba and declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This region, the western province of Pinar del Rio is known for its stunning scenery, a landscape of prehistoric looking flat-top mountains or “mogotes”, tobacco plantations, caves and rivers. Stop at the Francisco DonatienCigar Factory for a guided visit to learn about the manufacturing of fine Cuban cigars and interact with the factory workers about the history and process. The factory specializes in Cohiba & Monte Cristo cigars. Next, visit a traditional Tobacco Farm and Farmhouse to meet with the farmer to learn about tobacco cultivation, the drying process and experience a cigar rolling demonstration inside the drying hut. Enjoy a visit inside his farmhouse, meeting and interacting with his family while enjoying some Cuban coffee. A great opportunity to witness up close, how Cuban families live in a rural setting. Later stop at the Los Jasmines viewpoint for incredible views of the Vinales Valley and an opportunity to enjoy the spectacular scenery and take panoramic pictures of this beautiful region. 

Day 7: Havana - Guanabacoa - Hemingway Farm (B,L,D)           Overnight: Havana
This morning we’ll venture to Guanabacoa, with its rich religious diversity. This town has some of the finest colonial churches where locals worship both Catholic and Santeria Saints. Santeria is a dynamic example of the perseverance and inventiveness of the West African slaves who were brought to Cuba to work on the sugar plantations. We’ll visit the interesting and eclectic Museo de Guanabacoa of Santeria Orishas and see exhibits on the Santeria Afro-Cuban culture, a sugarcane machine and an early 1900’s Cadillac. Also enjoy a Santeria dance and music performance by locals with a chance to interact with them. Next enter the world of Ernest Hemingway with a visit to Hemingway’s Farm, Finca La Vigia (meaning ‘lookout house’). This beautiful property hosts the house where the Nobel Prize winner lived with his wife Martha for 21 years. View the perfectly preserved home where many of the Hemingway personal belongings remain intact. View his yacht on display, the Pilar in which he used to patrol for Nazis in the Caribbean waters and featured in his novel “Islands in the Stream”. Next enjoy lunch at a local restaurant in Havana before a visit to the Morro Castle, built in 1589, to protect the mouth of the Havana Harbor. Inthis case “Morro” in Spanish means a rock which is very visible from the sea and therefore serves as a navigational landmark. Perched on the headland on the opposite side of the harbor from Old Havana it can be viewed from miles around as it dominates the port entrance. Continue to the University of Arts of Cuba (Instituto Superior de Arte), the premier school in Cuba for music, visual arts and performing arts. It’s housed in a collection of eye popping buildings, a major architectural project completed in the early 1960’s. Enjoy a tour of the school and its studio space offering insight into their experience as artists and Cubans. Enjoy a Farewell Dinner at a local restaurant this evening. 

Day 8: Depart Havana - USA (B)
Following breakfast at the hotel, we’ll transfer to the airport for our return flights home with incredible memories of Havana, the Cuban countryside as well as the people, music and culture of Cuba.