Hi, my name is Cathay and I'm a travel junkie.  [THE CHORUS: "Hello Cathay"]

Yes, its true.  Just read my old blog, TRAVELADE, and see how many places I've been in the last six months:  Fiji, Tahiti,Hawaii, Portugal, Jamaica, New Zealand, Israel, Mexico, and before the month is through, the British Virgin Islands.  As I like to say, I'm  "addicted to a taste of strange"   And when you read about something in my TRAVEL JUNKIE blog, you can be sure that I have actually BEEN THERE and DONE THAT.  It is my goal here to give you raw and opinionated travel advice, and tell you things that never make it into those glossy magazine stories that I myself also write.

Except for today that is.  Because today I'm writing about somewhere I really wanted to go, but I couldn't make it happen (as is sometimes the case, no matter how smart I am about it and how hard I fight).  I was in the Riviera Maya, just outside of Cancun, and dreaming of Cuba.

I had been close to Cuba before.

When I was on Grand Cayman island, I was just a 50-minute flight away from Havana via Cayman Airways.  Given the world reknown offshore banking here, sneaking to Cuba is small beans.

When I was in Jamaica, I was also very close.  Air Jamaica has a direct flight from Montego Bay to Havana.  I had also heard about a little charter sail company, Heave Ho Charters, that offered speed boat tours to Cuba's second most happening city, Santiago de Cuba.  That sounded ideal.  

But as I was arriving in Cancun, my companions and I realized it was also very close to Havana.  Not as close as the southern tip of Florida, but of course, you can't travel to Cuba from the US.  In fact, while the rest of the world views Cuba as the "jewel of the Caribbean" and an ideal vacation destination, US citizens are banned from going there.  Unless you're a student, journalist, or on a humanitarian mission, its unlikely you will be able to get a license for a legal trip there.  And if you go online in the US, you won't be able to book a trip to Cuba or in some cases, even look at available flights.

Why is this?  Well, in brief, the US occupied Cuba in 1906 and its been tense ever since.  But even though the US military has a naval base there where they keep alleged Al-Quida terrorists, Guantanamo Bay, in 1961, the US took issue with Castro's bureaucratic state (and alliance with the Soviet Union - remember the Cuban Missile Crisis from your history class?).  Thousands of anti-Castro Cubans emigrated to Miami in the wake of the revolution, and the US enforced a crippling economic embargo that still exists today and includes citizens not being able to travel to Cuba and feed US money into the Cuban economy.

If you look at the official US Department of State website (and you should),  you'll find this cheery anti-Cuba message:

"Cuba is a totalitarian police state, which relies on repressive methods to maintain control. These methods, including intense physical and electronic surveillance of Cubans, are also extended to foreign travelers. Americans visiting Cuba should be aware that any encounter with a Cuban could be subject to surreptitious scrutiny by the Castro regime's secret police, the General Directorate for State Security (DGSE). Also, any interactions with average Cubans, regardless how well intentioned the American is, can subject that Cuban to harassment and/or detention, and other forms of repressive actions, by state security elements. The regime is strongly anti-American yet desperate for U.S. dollars to prop itself up."

So long story short, if you're American and you want to visit Cuba, you have to fly and book through another country in the Caribbean, Central or South America or Canada.  And yes, it's possible you could be arrested or fined for going without a license.  But still, thousands of Americans travel to Cuba each year.

WHY YOU MIGHT NOT GO?  Well, if you saw the Julian Schnabel movie, Before Night Falls, based on the book by Cuban writer, Reinaldo Arenas, you are aware of the kind of human rights offenses that the Cuban government is capable of, and you may decide for this reason alone to not go.  But the argument could be made that the same or worse happens in Mexico and China, and other parts of Asia, South and Central America, the Caribbean (Haiti!) and Africa.  And the US takes no similar stand against them.

WHY YOU MIGHT WANT TO GO? Isolation and poverty have preserved the vitality and distinctiveness of Cuban culture.  Many travelogues cite the novelty of seeing 1950-model cars and Spanish Colonial architecture in use.  Many artists travel there, drawn by the music, writing and art created by resilient Cubans, who have plenty of inspiration for their work  Yes, there is petty crime and a tourist will likely be a target.  But in a society where taxi drivers make more than doctors, can you really begrudge them a little price gouging?  A vacation in Cuba is still plenty cheap compared to any other Caribbean destination.

I was desperate to finally make the trip, after years of dreaming of Cuba and talking about it, even without a license.  But what stopped me was a technicality.  It's easiest to buy a package to Cuba that includes your flight to and from Cancun, your tourist card (which they will stamp upon entry and exit instead of your passport) and the minimum required stay at a state sponsored hotel.  And its this last detail that snagged me: you have to stay a minimum of three nights in Cuba (the governments' way of ensuring you spend some quality money there).  I was only in the Cancun area for six nights and had already paid for my hotel along the Riviera Maya, so I was hoping to hop on a plane and just go for a day tour of Havana.  Completely unrealistic.  But I was reminded as I di a bit more research, that a visit to Cuba isn't a trip to be considered so lightly.

For more detailed information about traveling to Cuba as a US citizen, see: www.cuba.com.

And if you have your own Cuba stories to share, please paste them in the comment section so we can benefit from your experiences as well. DANKE.