Cuba Trip in April or May?

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From Karl Hess

Several in Wintergreen have been discussing the idea of a trip to Cuba - in this instance, a cultural trip that has absolutely no bearing on the Wintergreen Sporting Club (apart from using the club’s mailing list). As you may already know, Americans are permitted to travel to Cuba on cultural visas, in organized group trips with experienced group leaders. We have discovered an opportunity to do an Art Cultural Tour to Cuba. Here are the details:

I recently was introduced to a lady in Key West who is an art curator, has done curatorial work at the National Art Gallery in DC and who has probably the most interesting and sophisticated art gallery in Key West. She is closely tied to Cuba, and has operations in Cuba - and is not only a fluent Spanish speaker but she is extremely well networked there at all levels. Here name is Nance Frank, Director of the Gallery on Greene in Key West. You can google the gallery or click this link to a brief biography of Nance: http://www.jeff-macnelly.com/nance-frank.htm

Nance takes groups to Cuba on cultural tours - specifically, tours of the studios of the finest artists in Cuba. Because she is so well connected she includes seminars by cultural leaders, and is able to book at the best accommodations in Cuba. Her trips are renowned here in Key West. Many folks are going to Cuba now in anticipation that once relations between US and Cuba are fully normalized, art work will no longer be available at reasonable prices. My next door neighbor loaded up on magnificent Cuban art work just this past fall.

Nance Frank is very creative in planning and customizing trips. She designs trips to meet the desires of her groups. For example, she is taking a Gay group to Cuba after Christmas. So she arranged to have Cuban Drag Queens welcome the group on arrival in Havana. Now, that is not what we are looking for - but the principle is: accommodating our wishes.That means we can incorporate other cultural elements into the trip - from architecture to music to dance to theatre.

The cultural group trips - this is the only way you can travel to Cuba - are 6 days and 5 nights. Flights to Cuba are out of Miami or Key West. The all-inclusive cost is $4K per person for group sizes of 6 to 11 couples. At 12 couples, the price drops to $3,675 per person.

The best time to go - to avoid the avalanche of winter tourists (and hence strain on limited and often marginal Cuban accommodations) and the summer to early fall Hurricane season - is April or May. If there are a minimum of 6 couples or 12 individuals interested in such a trip, we can do a Wintergreen exclusive to Cuba. If you are interested in such a trip in April or May, please respond to me (Karl Hess, khess4@aol.com). If you have friends in or outside of Wintergreen who might like to participate, they are welcome.  PLEASE DO NOT RESPOND IF YOU ARE NOT INTERESTED IN THE TRIP.  If we have the minimum number of people to make this work we will have to start booking airlines and accommodations fairly quickly. #