National Geographic Expeditions has announced a new 11-day Cuba tour: ‘Eastern Cuba: Crossroads of History & Culture’. I’m thrilled to have been asked to lead the first of five trips slated for spring 2014.
The popularity of NGE’s 9-day ‘Cuba: Discovering its People & Culture’ program prompted this expansion into eastern Cuba. Not least, many of customers who traveled with me on the 9-day program during the past two years have expressed their desire to return to this fascinating island as soon any new program was launched.
I’m intimately familiar with eastern region, which I first visited in 1992 on a sailing excursion from Jamaica. Since then I’ve spent considerably time exploring the area, including the cities of Santiago de Cuba, Guantánamo, and Baracoa–Cuba’s first city, founded in 1511.
Last week I returned from two months exploring Cuba end to end while researching a new, sixth, edition of my MOON CUBA HANDBOOK. This included three weeks roaming the highways and dusty backroads of Oriente, as the region was known prior to the Cuban Revolution of 1959.
The 11-day trip, offered under a ‘People-to-People’ educational exchange license issued by the U.S. Treasury Department, will include two full days in Havana, including reunions with Cuba’s intellectuals at the Union of Writers & Artists. We’ll then fly to Santiago de Cuba–birthplace of the Cuban Revolution and an ancient city whose culture is heavily infused with African heritage.
It promises to be a superb experience. I can’t wait!
