Sorry we don’t do Cuba!

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There are good sanctions, ok sanctions and then there is bloody mindedness. Take Cuba as an example.

As most of you know, I’ve been to many countries including one that is communist and had a rather bad war with the USA that cost millions of lives (mainly local, Vietnamese civilians) and it is an easy place to get to and buy American goods and it is possible to use American owned websites to arrange that holiday. So this gets me to the subject of Cuba. 

I was trying to help a friend book a trip to Cuba and as the local travel agent had quoted him a price of over E2000 for 8 days I suggested we hit the internet to find a better deal. Seems sensible, the internet was supposed to encourage competition. Wrong. Not when it comes to Cuba!

First I went to Kayak.com – Cuba doesn’t exist in their databases, it has been wiped off the map. Next I went to Expedia.com (and I even tried the Spanish and British sites), again, Cuba doesn’t exist. Booking.com, sorry we don’t do Cuba for legal reasons (the US government would close us down if we did etc. etc.). I went to a number of sites that I regularly use for my travels and only two, Trailfinders and Opodo.co.uk, British owned and controlled companies dared offer me a deal to Cuba, thank god for some sensible British pragmatism. Use them and bypass American bloody-mindedness.

So Cuba, location of one of the most hated and greatest breaches of international law by a US government is persona non grata when it comes to tourists. So all the bad boys and some innocent from the Islamic world are not on long endless holidays because that isn’t allowed because of American sanctions. So why are they still there without trials?

It is about time Guantanamo and the cold war relic of US sanctions against Cuba are reviewed; both are a stain on the USA’s image.

July 11, 2013


Location: 08008 Barcelona, Spain

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