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Archive 2017 · Cuba advice

  
 
Gregr2611
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p.2 #1 · p.2 #1 · Cuba advice


I was there a few weeks ago, traveled from the U.S. and upon return customs asked no questions at all. I had all my paperwork ready but the agent just passed me right on thru. That was at LAX (in Los Angeles).
If you'd like detailed info on what to expect feel free to email me via the contact form on my website (gregrothschild.com). I've been to Cuba 5 times now and can offer some good background for you, up to date too.
The advice of staying in homestays is great. Vinales is beautiful. If you go there I recommend going into the valley (the caves are good destination if you like caves) on horseback- it's like a timewarp to the 1800s. Trinidad is beautiful too, take in the town square and go up the church tower but then just take off on your own up into the hilly neighborhoods. Matanzas is only an hour or so from Havana and it's worth a visit- there is a great art scene there and the street photography ops are outstanding plus there is a lot of history there (fort, museums and cathedrals). If you're up for a domestic flight, Santiago de Cuba is my favorite now. Santiago is the heart and soul of Cuba. I could've happily spent 3 days photographing Matanzas, and a week in Santiago. Baracoa is next on my list- a lot of Cubans I've met say it is their favorite place in Cuba.
Havana- I will never tire of Havana! If you want to see the touristy side of Havana spend a short day seeing the old plazas, women smoking cigars etc. then rest up because for the rest of the trip you'll be be doing a lot of walking and it's hot and humid.
If street photography is your thing, you could spend a week or more in Havana just wandering the streets looking for, and definitely finding, magic. There are quite a few excellent restaurants (paladars) though most people don't go there for the food it's worth mentioning that there are good options. When I first visited that wasn't really the case.





Dec 15, 2017 at 10:45 AM
sungphoto
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p.2 #2 · p.2 #2 · Cuba advice


Thanks everyone! For some reason I wasn't getting response notifications on this thread, so was happily surprised when I checked it this morning and saw all these helpful notes.


Dec 15, 2017 at 12:48 PM
sungphoto
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p.2 #3 · p.2 #3 · Cuba advice


Gregr2611 wrote:
I was there a few weeks ago, traveled from the U.S. and upon return customs asked no questions at all. I had all my paperwork ready but the agent just passed me right on thru. That was at LAX (in Los Angeles).
If you'd like detailed info on what to expect feel free to email me via the contact form on my website (gregrothschild.com). I've been to Cuba 5 times now and can offer some good background for you, up to date too.
The advice of staying in homestays is great. Vinales is beautiful. If you go there I recommend
...Show more

Amazing news!! Great thank you so much. How did you find baggage restrictions?

I am thinking that I'll bring a large-ish camera backpack as I'm bringing a light portrait kit (AD200, s-type bracket, 24" folding beauty dish, and a nano light stand). All of that fits pretty well along with a 5d4, 24-70 f2.8, 50 f1.2, A6500, 10-18, 30 f1.4, and 50 f1.8, and my laptop and a drive.



Dec 15, 2017 at 12:51 PM
Gregr2611
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p.2 #4 · p.2 #4 · Cuba advice


The restrictions depends on the airline. Alaska charges $25 per bag and I think you are allowed 2, after that the charges might change- I'd call and ask if you have more than 2 to check. As for carry-on-- standard sizes apply. I believe the weight restrictions are pretty standard. Are you flying Alaska? If so, you can upgrade to first class for a hundred bucks and save $50 if you're checking 2 bags. You cannot upgrade your return leg after you leave the U.S. so if you want to do it do it now. That said, our return flight was far from full and it was a new and very nice 737, lots of legroom in the first row behind first class.
I'm sure you know you need to bring cash for everything. You can do an exchange at the airport. They don't charge a fee anymore. Expect the taxi ride into town to be $30, so have CUCs for that at the very least.
If you take a domestic flight they have weight restrictions but are very nice about it. Hah- they are nice about everything there.
Getting a visa beforehand- that's a peace of mind thing. I like to have it in hand but it's more expensive and a bit of a scam but... peace of mind. The friends I travel with get theirs at the airport and it's never been a problem.
Speaking of peace of mind- I travel under the Humanitarian OFAC license and do actually support a worthy cause there. If you want info let me know. I recommend printing and filling out the license just in case the customs people ask for it.
https://www.alaskaair.com/~/media/Files/PDF/QT-07-Cuba-Affidavit.pdf
Regarding the equipment-- I have a 55-200 (Fuji, 1.5x) that gets a lot of use. Depends on what you like to shoot, of course. You'll want to pare down your kit for your on-foot outings obviously.
Bring some ground lifters as a lot of the outlets there are ungrounded.



Dec 15, 2017 at 01:14 PM
jdc562
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p.2 #5 · p.2 #5 · Cuba advice


Gregr --- Thanks very much for the very useful and practical information. The list at your link to Alaskan Airlines is a nice summary of trip justification categories.

I have been to Cuba, and I'm eager to go back. My first trip was an educational one, but with plenty of time for photo documentation. In two weeks it was almost from one end of the Island to the other. Our rural visits left me wanting to do more photo forays into that part of Cuban life. It's where a lot of Cuban music originated, not unlike the the contributions to U.S. music from rural places in the U.S. Because of the 50 year-old U.S. embargo, there are many examples of farming that are primitive by today's standards--work being done by hand using draught animals: very interesting photo subjects, including very open realistic people who are a joy to talk with and photograph. --- John

p.s. I just found out that Alaska has cancelled its service to Cuba because of Trump's new restrictions causing a drop in demand. Bummer.



Dec 16, 2017 at 12:02 AM
Colin F
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p.2 #6 · p.2 #6 · Cuba advice


sungphoto wrote:
Thanks everyone! For some reason I wasn't getting response notifications on this thread...


When creating or responding to a thread, the default setting is that email notifications are "off". I find this very frustrating, as it's easy to forget to check it "on", and so you're then in radio silence land. I PM'd the owner of this site, requesting that the default be changed to "on" like most all other forums, but have not had a reply.



Re: Cuba: I've copied & pasted the same comment I made on another similar thread months ago:

I did a guided "photography" trip to Cuba about 4-5 years ago; it was put on by a College in Vancouver, BC, but open to the public. (This was pre-Canon days for me, I used a Panny G3 m4/3 camera at the time). There was about 10-12 of us, and it was a most excellent way to do it, at least for the first time there. Not only did we not have to worry about where to stay or where to eat, or where to go, but it got us into places that we would have likely never seen, in an efficient use of time. The great thing too was the fact that we had lots of free time, so I wandered around all kinds of places all by myself which was just ecstatic! I had some really cool experiences. And then when the evening rolls around, you can reconnect with the people in your group. It would have been less great if we didn't have that free time to explore, but it still would have been good, and makes it much easier to return there again alone or with a friend if desired.

We hit Havana; Vinales; Soroa; Cienfuegos and Trinidad. While some stops were a little rushed, it was fantastic.

Just because you're in Havana, it doesn't mean that you're stuck with cheezy, touristy shots (although I unknowingly was guilty of taking a few of those myself out of ignorance). The city is large, so you can explore the millions of nooks & crannies and get very good, creative shots. I had some fantastic experiences.




Dec 16, 2017 at 12:21 AM
Gregr2611
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p.2 #7 · p.2 #7 · Cuba advice


Yes! Great points Colin (email notification too). Havana is big but it's easy to get away from the touristy part- just angle down any back street and keep walking. Doesn't really matter which direction- you'll find photo ops almost everywhere you look. It is paradise for street photography- the backgrounds are almost always going to be interesting and the people are too.
Thanks John, and the rural draught animal type stuff will be seen in the valley below Vinales. Like walking back in time....
I read that bad news about Alaska Airlines- I think they stop in late January I priced out a route that goes thru Mexico City from Los Angeles and it was only $200 more roundtrip. Be a long day though so I figured overnighting in Mexico City and enjoying a good meal there would be part of that trip.



Dec 16, 2017 at 08:43 AM
jdc562
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p.2 #8 · p.2 #8 · Cuba advice


Colin F wrote:
I did a guided "photography" trip to Cuba about 4-5 years ago; it was put on by a College in Vancouver, BC, but open to the public. (This was pre-Canon days for me, I used a Panny G3 m4/3 camera at the time). There was about 10-12 of us, and it was a most excellent way to do it, at least for the first time there. Not only did we not have to worry about where to stay or where to eat, or where to go, but it got us into places that we would have likely never seen,
...Show more

Good points, Colin. Yes, there are good organized trips with all those advantages you mention. As an example of ones to avoid, two of my friends just visited Cuba on the tour from hell. There were 40 people crammed on the bus, which meant every bathroom stop in Cuba's little toilet facilities lasted almost an hour. The organizers turned out to be an ultra-right American-Cuban exile extremist religious group whose trip agenda was showing how Cuba was ruined by socialism. That was a lot of fun. Not. However, the "small-group" tours can be good in many ways, as you describe, especially by getting you into insider places you would miss otherwise and taking care of all the hassles and logistics that can use up a lot of your time if you want to cover a lot of diversity in Cuba.

My favorite way to go to a new place is two-stage: start with a very specialized, short, non-touristy, group for education and other orientation, then go out on my own for the bulk of the trip. Let the education cleanse your brain of erroneous preconceptions. I did a month in Spain that way several years ago, and it worked out very well. Picking the brains of knowledgeable people along the way--adjusting plans as needed--is an important part of that.



Dec 16, 2017 at 03:02 PM
jdc562
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p.2 #9 · p.2 #9 · Cuba advice


Colin F wrote:
I did a guided "photography" trip to Cuba about 4-5 years ago; it was put on by a College in Vancouver, BC, but open to the public. (This was pre-Canon days for me, I used a Panny G3 m4/3 camera at the time). There was about 10-12 of us, and it was a most excellent way to do it, at least for the first time there. Not only did we not have to worry about where to stay or where to eat, or where to go, but it got us into places that we would have likely never seen,
...Show more

Good points, Colin. Yes, there are good organized trips with all those advantages you mention. As an example of ones to avoid, two of my friends just visited Cuba on the tour from hell. There were 40 people crammed on the bus, which meant every bathroom stop in Cuba's little toilet facilities lasted almost an hour. The organizers turned out to be an ultra-right American-Cuban exile extremist religious group whose trip agenda was showing how Cuba was ruined by socialism. They refused to let the participants go out of sight of the organizers--it was a regimented by "minders." The right-wingers lied and insisted that was required in Cuba. That was a lot of fun. Not. However, the "small-group" tours can be good in many ways, as you describe, especially by getting you into insider places you would miss otherwise and taking care of all the hassles and logistics that can use up a lot of your time if you want to cover a lot of diversity in Cuba.

My favorite way to go to a new place is two-stage: start with a very specialized, short, non-touristy, group for education and other orientation, then go out on my own for the bulk of the trip. Let the education cleanse your brain of erroneous preconceptions. I did a month in Spain that way several years ago, and it worked out very well. Picking the brains of knowledgeable people along the way--adjusting plans as needed--is an important part of that.





Dec 16, 2017 at 03:10 PM
sungphoto
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p.2 #10 · p.2 #10 · Cuba advice


Back in the states and thanks for the tips all. A few short thoughts:

1) They are still charging a 10% fee for changing USD on top of the exchange rate, so the actual exchange rate is 1:8.8 or so at both banks and currency exchanges. I'm glad I brought most of what I'd need to spend in Euro as you get more for you money that way (though I suppose exchanging from USD>Euro in the states, plus the cost of exchanging in Cuba prob makes it about equal). I brought an equal amount in USD as I did Euro, and only ended up changing a hundred of the USD after 23 days.

2) There are little scams everywhere in Cuba, yes including the casa particulars that are what I stayed in. They'll say they know someone in the next city you're going to that has a great casa and they'll ring them to snag a room, but I found that for the most part they have no idea what the homes are like and they're likely just getting a kickback. Same thing with taxi collectivos and such.

3) Vinales and Trinidad were by far my favorite cities. Havana reminded me a lot of Bangkok in many ways - the palpable gap between the rich and poor, the abundance of prostitution (and western men there clearly traveling there for it), and the crumbling post-apocalyptic nature of many of the streets and buildings.

4) It was more exhausting traveling in Cuba for me than really most every other country I've been to. Doesn't help that a lot of people in the country are pretty racist and vocal about it in regards to asians, which certainly was part of it. To be honest not much worse than the racism I get in most latin and european countries, but still does take away from the enjoyment.

5) Lastly, from a photographic standpoint I'm extremely happy with the images I produced. Regardless of the challenges I had traveling in Cuba, it's an incredibly photogenic country and the people have a willingness to be photographed that is refreshing.

6) Gear-wise, I'm glad I brought both my sony and canon kit but this trip re-affirmed for the umpteenth time that Canon skin tones are far far superior than Sony's. I am selling all my sony kit once again. The Sony A6500 plus 10-18 is great travel combo but I found myself really disliking the touch screen functionality for the most part - really made me wish I'd picked up an Xpro2 for the trip instead as I prefer a joystick.



Jan 10, 2018 at 02:04 PM
jdc562
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p.2 #11 · p.2 #11 · Cuba advice


Sung---Thanks very much for sharing your experiences in a trip that went beyond the usual Havana-Trinidad visit. Sorry to hear about the racism and the room referral business. Regarding the latter, let's hope that some services like TripAdvisor get better involved in Cuba. The taxi problems you described are wide spead in Latin America, so it's important to fix a price before driving away.

I came to the same conclusion regarding money exchange for U.S. travellers. By the time you convert dollars to Euros, Euros to CUCs, and then reverse the process for excess currency, it isn't worth the hassle. In my two weeks there, I found it was best to exchange just enough for a few days at a time, then spend the left-over CUCs at the airport for Cuban music CDs and other things I wanted to bring home.



Jan 13, 2018 at 10:35 PM
sungphoto
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p.2 #12 · p.2 #12 · Cuba advice


jdc562 wrote:
Sung---Thanks very much for sharing your experiences in a trip that went beyond the usual Havana-Trinidad visit. Sorry to hear about the racism and the room referral business. Regarding the latter, let's hope that some services like TripAdvisor get better involved in Cuba. The taxi problems you described are wide spead in Latin America, so it's important to fix a price before driving away.

I came to the same conclusion regarding money exchange for U.S. travellers. By the time you convert dollars to Euros, Euros to CUCs, and then reverse the process for excess currency, it isn't worth the hassle. In
...Show more

Thanks man, appreciate your help.

Didn't want to cross-post too much, so here's a link on the canon forum with a few shots: https://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1527392

As well as a direct link to more pics on my website: http://www.sungparkphotography.com/blog/2018/1/18/23-days-in-cuba



Jan 18, 2018 at 03:08 PM
mdude85
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p.2 #13 · p.2 #13 · Cuba advice


sungphoto wrote:
Didn't want to cross-post too much, so here's a link on the canon forum with a few shots: https://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1527392

As well as a direct link to more pics on my website: http://www.sungparkphotography.com/blog/2018/1/18/23-days-in-cuba


Fantastic images. Great use of lighting. The cowboy with horse is my favorite.



Jan 18, 2018 at 05:52 PM
sungphoto
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p.2 #14 · p.2 #14 · Cuba advice


Thank you so much! I’m really happy with them

mdude85 wrote:
Fantastic images. Great use of lighting. The cowboy with horse is my favorite.




Jan 18, 2018 at 11:43 PM
Derfman
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p.2 #15 · p.2 #15 · Cuba advice


As an Australian couple we travelled through Cuba over the Christmas period last year, it was great, although at times frustrating, we found a lot of places closed in Havana over New Years.
Scuba Diving is excellent.
If you like a wildlife challenge try to get BIF photos of the worlds smallest hummingbird..




Feb 05, 2018 at 05:18 AM
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