Do we need a visa for Cuba? Yes ... No ... Maybe

We got to the airport over 4 hours before flight time to be sure all was copascetic. We made sure to print out all the "Know before you go" info and the required OFAC (US Office of Foreign Assets Control) letter that gave us authorization to travel to Cuba under the Oceans for Youth educational license for the Aggressor Liveaboard dive boat operating out of Jardines de la Reina in Cuba. We also printed out the required form from the website DViaJeros. It was our understanding from conversations with the tour company (Aggressor Adventures) that we would present these documents when we checked in at the American Airlines counter at the airport and they would then provide us with whatever Visa is required. 

We got checked in no problem. They looked at our passport and these documents, printed a boarding pass and sent us on our way. When we asked about a Visa, they said "No, you have everything you need right there." 

Well - OK.

Spending airport time making sure I've read all email, I've downloaded kindle books to read, and whatever else I can think of to do because we will have no connectivity while in Cuba. Yikes!

Plane is starting down the runway and Jim gets an important email about our TM club and the zoom account that is about to expire. Yikes again, quick forward that message to our treasurer before we lose connection. 

File under Live and Learn - Visas

We land in Camaguey, Cuba after a flight of about 1 hr 20 minutes. The line is fairly short when we get to the Cuban immigration counter. After all, they only have to process the one plane. Small airport in Camaguey. Jim hands the agent his passport and the printout from D'viajeros. She said, and your Visa? Jim pointed to the the barcode area on the paper and said "Isn't that it?"

Uh No ... And she asked the next person in line to come up and show what a Visa looked like. Nope, we definitely didn't have one of those. How did she get that? She mailed away for it a month ago! Yikes. They can't let us in without a Visa. 

This is the first we heard of it. We thought the D'viajeros form was it. We had expected to have it scanned and get a Visa card at the ticket counter in Miami, but they looked everything over and said we were good to go. 

We stepped aside for others in line to go through and found chairs while we waited for El Jefe to figure out what to do with us. We were told that, if they couldn't figure out how to use that bar code as our Visa, they did prepare the Visa cards and we would be able to purchase them for $120 each. 

After sweating in the hot airport terminal (not just due to lack of air conditioning) for an hour or so, they got their computer system to recognize the "Visa number" on the D'viajeros form and let us in. 

We worried that the others bound for the Aggressor dive boat had been waiting for us but no, we weren't the last ones, so no one noticed.

Here is what I found on the Wikipedia Visa Requirements for United States Citizens

Cuba:

• Tourist travel is prohibited under U.S. law for U.S. citizens, permanent residents, and others subject to U.S. jurisdiction.^[124] Under the Cuban Assets Control Regulations, all persons subject to U.S. jurisdiction are not permitted to travel to Cuba unless licensed to engage in travel-related transactions. In addition to specific licenses granted by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), there are 12 "general licenses" that people can choose to travel on without being required to notify OFAC,^{[note 1]} and the broad and self-reported nature of these licenses means travel is in practice subject to few restrictions.^[128][129]
• Cuba requires travelers to purchase a tourist card prior to arrival, which can be obtained from the airline or a Cuban diplomatic mission. Tourist cards are valid for one entry and a 30-day stay, which can be extended once by 90 days at a hotel or immigration office in Cuba.^[130][129]
• Cuba requires travelers to have health insurance valid in Cuba, which can be purchased from the airline.^[124]

I also found this website https://visacuba.com/ that you use in order to get the "eVisa" that gives you a number to enter on the DViaJeros form. It costs $40. If I had this website link suggested to me, we would have done this. 

Meanwhile, all's well that ends well. We got into Cuba without buying a separate Visa. 

p.s. They asked for our Visa to leave as well! We told them to put that number/code under the bar code into their computer and we should come up. They did. We did. We left.

Diving in a River, snorkeling in the Gulf

 Now for something completely different. Our USA Dive Club arrnaged a 'mini-trip' to the Crystal River area in N Florida over a weekend. Saturday was scuba diving in the Spring-fed Rainbow River - which stays a constant 72-3 degrees all year long. That's chilly for me, since I am a card-carrying member of the 80-80 club! That means I'll only go diving if both the water and the air are 80 degrees or more. But, what good are rules if not for making exceptions. I wore my shorty/heavier wetsuit over my regular thin wetsuit and, after the initial shock when jumping in the water, I was OK. 

Swimming thru the grass-covered bottom of the river was a trip. I would bury myself down in the long, swaying grasses and it felt like I was in an other-worldly dream sequence, flying thru a never ending field of streamers. See video here. 

We saw turtles, gars, and underwater caves. No manatees because it's the wrong time of year, and no alligators because they were hiding. The most interesting thing was where the spring water bubbles up through the sand. There was not just one spring head, the spring water boil up through the bottom of the river all along the way. See video here.

After the river dive, we went back to our camper to change, then met the group at a restaurant for lunch. After lunch, we went back to the camper and crashed, ready for another early morning the next day. 

Our campsite at a Harvest Host location. Electric hookup and good Wi-Fi, what more can you ask. Oh yea, built in alarm clock for 6am from the rooster.

Sunday was booked to go 'scalloping' in the Gulf

It was a Gorgeous day, and I loved snorkeling in the warm waters of the gulf. No wetsuit at all, just swimsuit and rash guard, mask, snorkel, and fins. I haven't done that in so long I'd forgotten how to dive down. It was fun getting practice. The scallops are really easy to get. They are just clam type shells hanging out in the grass, when you find one you just pick it up and put it in your bag. I only found one scallop, but that's better than nothing. The others, including our guides got enough for an appetizer at a local restaurant who cooks your catch. They were DEElicious.

One more stop before going home. Our friend Linda Payne was performing at The Villages - it's on our way home, so we contacted them to get tickets. How cool, Linda, her brother, and her sister have been singing together since they were kids and they have wonderful harmonies. 

By the time her concert was over, it was way to late to drive all the way home, so we pulled into the nearest Cracker Barrel for the night and crashed with visions of a good breakfast awaiting us.

It was  bit hot and took us several hours before we fell asleep when the temperature got below 80 a bit after midnight.

What a cool weekend!

Dive trip is done

Little Cayman Beach Resort is paradise.  I mean look at this view! 

Back row L-R: Ryan P. Roger, Amy, Susan, Cassandra, Judy, Don, Michelle, Jim, Jeff
Front row L-R: Debra, Marie, Kathie, Patrice, Chris

And the diving is great if you like walls,  like I do,  this is heaven. It does seem wrong that,  on vacation, you have to be up and at breakfast at 6:30 am. The food was very good. After eating 3 full meals every day for a week,  I'm sure I gained a couple pounds.

 I came down with a cold on Thursday,  skipped the dives and slept on Friday,  and I'm now on the plane from Brac to Grand Cayman on Saturday and I feel fine.  Zicam baby! Good stuff.  It is distressing that I get sick most every time we travel,  especially dive trips. The one when I did not get sick was indonesia.  I'm wondering if the lemon grass/ ginger tea that they gave us after every dive had anything to do with that.?? When we got home we took a Covid test and it was positive - both of us. 😒However, we feel fine. Deja Vu.

I loved the "valet" diving where all you had to do was get yourself,  your fins and mask,  to the back of the boat and they brought your tank to you.  So easy and stress free.  I did not love that there were 20 divers in the boat - and therefore,  in the water.  That's crowded. 

One week is not enough.  It's enough for diving,  it's just not enough for being away. The ratio of getting ready,  packing, unpacking etc. To being there and relaxing is not enough for me. My favorite trip is the one to Italy in 2017 when we were gone for 6 weeks. 1 week is just not enough to be memorable. I've already forgotten much of the BVI trip that was just a couple months ago.  Part of that may also be the diving. As much As I like it,  the dives tend to run all together. There's nothing so memorable about one dive from another.  The special part of diving is the feel of it in the moment.  That's the memory. The memory of feeling weightless,  flying - slowly - over that grand canyon cliff,  feeling like some superhuman and thoroughly relaxed at the same time. 

Debra, on this trip,  tells us of her favorite dive resort in Belize - Turneffe Flats. It sounds really good. And then we could add a week or more and explore Belize.  Hmmm.

Now THAT'S diving

First of all,  the dive boat has low stools at the back where you sit and put on your fins while a crew member gets your heavy tank and gear and puts it on your back. All you have to do is stand up and then giant stride into the water. Love it.  ❤️ 

Then,  you're in the water and take a look around.  You can see! I mean really see.  The water is clear,  you can see the Coral heads (bommies) on the bottom and the white sand in between them.  As opposed to many of our sites in BVI where you'd jump in and see murky water.  You had to trust that if you descended far enough there was a bottom down there. The water is 84 degrees,  warm and wonderful. 

Then,  the wall! After a bit of swimming over the sand and around the Coral heads,  it just drops off.  Like being on the edge of the grand canyon,  it's a vertical wall.  But unlike being at the grand canyon it's OK to go over the edge.  It's like flying but even better.  So you go over the wall and descends a bit more you can reorient your body to a vertical position and just link of drift as you inshore the Coral,  sponges,  and critters that live on the all. 

Captain Robynne playing kissy-face with a friendly grouper

Then, my favorite! The dive master guides us into a recess in the wall,  like a cave.  Once inside the cave you see that it continues.  You just follow the fins of the person in front of you as you make a turn in this tunnel.  You see the light at the end of this tunnel and keep going.  What an adventure. 

As we make our way back to the boat,  we've acquired an escort. A very friendly grouper. He especially seems to like Jim,  but he gets close and personal with all of us.  You want to reach out and let him. I bet he would like a scratch under the chin, but we have been advised not to touch! I think there's something about about our hands that would wipe off important oils from his skin,  so I satisfy myself with taking my regulator out of my mouth and blowing him kisses. 

Oh ... and the name of this dive site?!? Marilyns cut! So,  you betcha I left some of her down there to play with the grouper. 

This is diving the Bloody Bay Wall on little Cayman. Some of the best Wall diving in the world. 

Day 1 Little Cayman

We got in mid afternoon on Saturday after a flight from Miami to Cayman Brac, then a boat ride from Brac to Little Cayman.

We unpacked,  had dinner and got all settled ready to go diving in the morning.  But ... come morning the weather was just not cooperating.  They canceled the morning dive and said to plan on afternoon dives instead. 

Aaaah, no problem. With my kindle app on my phone I had plenty of books to choose from so I went back to one I had abandoned a while back "Utopia for Realists" and settled in to read in bed. It was luxury.  

About 10 we decided to go for a bike ride.  The resort provides the bikes.  We didn't go far,  because there isn't far to go! But it felt good and I even bought a pair of pretty earrings at the Seahorse Boutique.

After lunch everyone else went out to go diving,  but Jim and I had already planned to do our YouTube show #280 - celebrating 10 years of our show! We had pre recorded it rather than going live,  but we wanted to be live in the chat,  and do our after show with our members.  It went great! It feels so good to accomplish something. And to do it while on a Caribbean island is even better!!

Then we had the afternoon to ourselves.  We sat in the hot tub,  had a couple drinks at the bar,  and now I'm stretched out in the hammock down on the beach. 

OH MAN LIFE IS GOOD