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Cuba is the Caribbean’s forbidden fruit

Posted August 21, 2009 , add a comment

Aug 21, 2009

U.S. Legislation is pending in Congress that would lift the ban on U.S. citizens traveling to Cuba. Travel industry officials estimate that as many as 1 million Americans might visit the island each year.

The question is whether Cuba is ready for a huge jump in foreign visitors.

The island nation has much to offer.

The lack of development under communist rule has left parts of the country resembling a land from a time warp to the 1950s — a welcome change of pace for many foreign tourists.

Cuba is close — Havana is only as far from Miami as Boston is from New York. And the country has beaches, mountains and a rich history.

Attractions Abound

The central Cuban city of Camaguey offers travelers labyrinth-like streets, which were laid out in the 1500s to be intentionally confusing to attacking pirates.

Tourists can go snorkeling in the Bay of Pigs, or lounge on the white sand beaches along the north coast that was favored by Ernest Hemingway.

In the city of Remedios on Cuba’s northern coast, the main church was built in the 16th century. Estaban Augustin Granda Fernandez, 87, used to play the organ at the church. Now, he is the caretaker and shows visitors around the sanctuary.

He points out the timbers in the ceiling, the original Spanish tiles in the floor and the statue of the Virgin Mary, who appears to be dancing the flamenco.

Granda also points out that the statue has a bulge in her belly. It is the only image of a pregnant Virgin Mary in Cuba, he says, slapping his own stomach.

EnlargeJason Beaubien/NPR
This 16th-century church in Remedios, on Cuba’s north coast, is one attraction in the town. Although the island has no shortage of tourist attractions, some worry it lacks the necessary infrastructure to accommodate a large influx of visitors.
Roberto Maseo, who works in a dive shop in the beach town of Santa Lucia, says Cuba’s main tourist market is Canada, because of its proximity. Flying time from Toronto to Santa Lucia, or from Montreal to Camaguey, is about three hours, Maseo says.

Santa Lucia has a series of two- and three-star resorts that sell all-inclusive package vacations. Maseo calls it a value resort. Scuba-diving excursions — all equipment and transportation included — cost about $35.

Maseo is currently preparing for a shark show. “We feed the sharks. No protection. Shark is actually swimming over you, over your heads. People can actually touch them. No problem,” he says with a laugh.

Economic Benefits Of Expanded Tourism

In 2008, tourism was Cuba’s second leading source of income after nickel exports. It’s a growing source of revenue that the communist regime wants to expand.

There are plans to open 30 new hotels across the island in the next five years.

While Cuban officials say they’re not banking on Washington lifting the travel ban, hundreds of thousands of additional visitors from across the Florida Straits could pump much-needed cash into Cuba’s flagging economy.

EnlargeJavier Galeano/AP
Musicians perform for tourists at the Hotel Nacional in Havana. The historic hotel was built in 1930 and modeled after the Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach, Fla.
“For us, the American market is a big opportunity,” says Dario Fernandez, general manager of Hotel Melia Havana, a Spanish-run luxury hotel in the capital city.

The hotel has 400 rooms, seven restaurants and the biggest pool in Havana. It is jointly owned by the Cuban government and a group of foreign investors, and is managed by the Spanish resort chain Sol Melia.

Fernandez says about 3 percent of his guests are from the United States, but he estimates that number could rise to 50 percent without the travel ban. Last year, the hotel had an average occupancy rate of 82 percent — considered good in the business.

But there are challenges to running a five-star hotel in a communist country where ordinary citizens earn just $20 a month. For instance, the reason Melia Havana has seven restaurants is that few dining options outside the hotel meet foreign tourists’ standards. The Melia runs its own fleet of buses for its employees because the city’s transportation system is so unreliable.

American Tourists’ Historical Connection

The Hotel Nacional in Havana abounds with shared history. The Nacional was built in 1930 and modeled after the Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach, Fla.

EnlargeJason Beaubien/NPR
Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner stayed at the Hotel Nacional on their honeymoon.
In 1946, American mobster Charles “Lucky” Luciano held a convention at the Nacional of American gangsters plotting to turn Havana into a second Las Vegas. In 1951, Hollywood stars Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner stayed there on their honeymoon.

After Fidel Castro came to power in 1959, he shut down the hotel’s casino and installed Soviet anti-aircraft guns along the front lawn — under which a bomb shelter, built during the Cuban missile crisis of 1962, still remains.

But if guests don’t want to think about the moment the world was pushed to the brink of nuclear war, mafia gambling rackets or the clash between capitalism and communism, they can sip mojitos at an outdoor restaurant, looking north across the water toward Florida.

Jesus Noguera Ravelo, a tour guide, says Cuba’s infrastructure is not ready for a huge influx of American visitors. He notes there aren’t enough buses, rental cars, quality restaurants or hotel rooms.

“But if you ask me about the will of the Cuban people, I would say, yes, we are ready. We would like to have more exchange with the American people coming from the U.S. to Cuba,” he says.

Noguera says the American visitors who do come have much more interest in Cuban history than other tourists — in part because the two countries have such a long, intertwined relationship. He says if he tries to give Canadians or Europeans a one-hour talk about the Cuban revolution, their eyes start to roll back in their heads. But Americans, he’s found, are eager to hear about it.

“That is telling you that we have a lot in common. And we have to know each other a lot more,” Noguera says.

Worst performance for tourism

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Aug 21, 2009

Mexico’s economy had its worst performance on record in the second quarter, hard hit by falling exports and the swine flu outbreak, according to a official statistics.

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) shrunk 10.3 percent between April and June, compared with the same period in 2008, INEGI national statistics institute said in a statement.

Mexico appeared to be heading for its worst year since the so-called 1994 “Tequila Crisis,” when a sharp devaluation of the peso led to a seven percent year-on-year fall in GDP.

Latin America’s second largest economy went into recession in the first quarter, when GDP dropped 8.2 percent compared with the previous year.

INEGI blamed the latest decline on poor figures in the industrial and services sectors, which are closely tied to the US and have felt the full force of the economic crisis.

The economy also took a sharp blow from the outbreak of swine flu in April and May, which paralyzed many sectors, including tourism, the country’s third-largest source of legal foreign income.

Despite signs of mild recovery for Mexico and the United States, prospects for sustained improvement were still unclear.

Consulting group Bursametrica predicted Mexico’s GDP would fall 6.5 percent in 2009, with negative growth slowing down at the end of the year.

Participatory Tourism in Uruguay

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Aug 21, 2009

Uruguayans and tourists from other countries escape the stress of city life and learn about rural living on once prosperous dairy farms and picturesque small farms near the city of Colonia in western Uruguay, where families have found a new livelihood - and way of life - in “agro-ecotourism”.

Families in the small farming town of San Pedro, near the city of Colonia, turned to that alternative to overcome the severe economic crisis of 2002, which threatened to wipe their farms off the map.

The area is home to many small-scale farmers, mainly the descendants of Italian and Swiss immigrants who settled in the mid-19th century on what was once a large British-owned estate, forging solid community ties based on hard work and respect for nature.

The families depended exclusively on small-scale agriculture for their livelihood, until the mid-1990s, when they began to feel the impact of the concentration of wealth that was sharply accentuated at around that time, widening the social gap, according to the study “Uruguay 1998-2002: Income Distribution During the Crisis”, by Marisa Bucheli and Magdalena Furtado.

Then came the 2002 economic and financial collapse in Uruguay, which followed the late 2001 debacle in neighbouring Argentina, forcing many small farmers in the area to choose between joining the growing number of families swelling the slums surrounding the capital, Montevideo, and other large cities, or coming up with innovative new sources of income.

Determined to weather the storm, the families in San Pedro chose the latter option.

The women in the community, in particular, began to come together for training and courses in English, computers, basket-making and herb-growing, while taking courses from doctors and psychologists.

In late 1999, the Instituto Plan Agropecuario (Agricultural Plan Institute), a mixed public-private institution, “selected a group of women from the San Pedro Farming Cooperative (Casspe) and other cooperatives around the country, to carry out the ‘Participative Microplanning’ project, aimed at stimulating local initiative,” Maria del Carmen Agesta, a teacher and activist from San Pedro, told IPS.

“A strong team spirit began to be forged, with lively exchanges of opinions and proposals,” said Agesta, who added that the dialogue gave rise to the idea of organising local enterprises to fight the loss of jobs and the drop in income, and to stem the growing number of young people joining the exodus from the countryside to the cities.

Thus emerged the Rural Tourism Group (Grutur), made up today of the Vivero Yatay - a nursery and park of native plants - the Parque Brisas del Plata campground, the ‘Los Tres Botones’ farm, where visitors can have a ride on a horse or in a cart and eat typical rural meals out under the blue sky, and the Tourn Museum, which includes antique tools and farm machinery manufactured by the Tourns, a family of Italian immigrants.

Also involved in ecotourism in San Pedro, although they are not part of Grutur, are the Villa Celina, a dairy farm that grows organic produce as well, and San Nicols, which offers horseback riding.

To this broad range of rural tourism establishments has been added more recently the possibility of renting cabins in the countryside.

In 2002, Grutur held the “Fiesta del Campo”, a rural fair or festival, in San Pedro to showcase the area’s attractions and products. In 2004 the fair was held in nearby Colonia del Sacramento, the capital of the province of Colonia, under the theme “the countryside is also humanity’s heritage,” a reference to the fact that the colonial city is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Returning to our roots

Rural tourism, offered by large ranches as well as small to medium-scale farms like those of San Pedro, took off in Uruguay in 2002 as an alternative to the crisis, and today has become a mainstay of the tourism industry in this South American country of 3.3 million wedged between Argentina and Brazil.

The main draw for tourists in Uruguay, who are primarily from Argentina, but also from Brazil, Chile and elsewhere, are the country’s more than 700 km of wide sandy beaches along the Rio de la Plata and Atlantic Ocean.

Uruguay’s tourism industry currently has a turnover of one billion dollars a year, while it provides 50,000 direct jobs and more than 120,000 indirect jobs, based on an economically sustainable model that is respectful of the environment and local culture.

The Tourism Ministry, in conjunction with the governments of the country’s 19 provinces, is designing a development plan for the 2009-2020 period in which local residents will benefit from tourism through the responsible, balanced use of natural resources.

A key role in the plan will be played by rural tourism, which allows visitors to observe and participate in the work on farms and ranches, take horseback rides through the countryside, and eat nutritious, traditional meals.

Another possibility is bird-watching, said expert Maren Mackinnon Gonzlez, who pointed out that there are 450 different species that can be sighted in their own ecosystems in Uruguay.

At present, there are 80 legally registered farms and ranches in the country involved in ecotourism. The 15 that are located around Colonia mainly draw visitors from the rest of Uruguay as well as Buenos Aires, which is between 45 minutes or three hours away by boat, depending on whether you take the fast ferry or the more economic scenic route.

Wineries, guest ranches and rural bed-and-breakfasts, and even an old quarry that exported gravel and sand to the Argentine capital and now offers rides in an old locomotive form part of the ecotourism scene.

Women’s cooperative

But one of the most interesting initiatives can be found in San Pedro, where an entire community transformed itself by pulling together to get through times of crisis.

In San Pedro, cows can be seen strolling lazily across a dirt road; dogs, horses, chickens and other barnyard animals wander around backyards; and a woman using a wooden spoon is stirring a huge pot of homemade jam on an old woodstove, following a recipe that was handed down from generation to generation.

“Tourists want to live like people in the countryside,” one of the heads of the Uruguayan Association of Rural Tourism (Sutur) told IPS. As visitors driving along highway 21, which zigzags along the country’s west coast, reach the picturesque farms of San Pedro, a saying by Uruguayan poet Lucio Muniz comes to mind: “What a pity it is to not have more eyes.”

Of the visitors here, 60 percent are Uruguayans, 30 percent are from Argentina and the rest come from other neighbouring countries, Europe or North America.

At “Los Tres Botones”, the owner proudly shows off her flower garden and offers homemade desserts, while visitors can watch traditional Uruguayan folk dances performed by a troupe.

At “Villa Celina” tourists can buy 22 different kinds of homemade jams and preserves carrying the trademark “Las Sanpedrinas”, and they are shown two huge keys “that represent the origins of the old English estate,” as Miriam Rigo explained to IPS.

At the farm there are also tours of organic vegetable gardens, chats on paleontological finds that abound in the nearby beaches and gullies of the Rio de la Plata, and visits to the farm’s dairy, where they can watch cows being milked.

“Villa Celina” is, so far, the only rural ecotourism establishment that keeps systematic data on the number of visitors it receives annually. The records from the 2008-2009 southern hemisphere summer show that it was visited by 1,500 tourists, who spent an average of 13 dollars per person.

Nury Pagalday, in the Tourn Museum, shows visitors how the antique farm equipment works and offers a taste of homemade liquors with unusual tastes, such as “yerba mate”, a tea-like herbal infusion traditional to Uruguay, Argentina, Paraguay and southern Brazil.

Ana Berretta and her husband, both of whom are agronomists, grow native species of flowers and trees in the Yatay nursery. She told IPS that they give educational talks in the park, with its ancient trees and enormous bushes, on how to protect them.

As night closes in, the lights start to come on beyond the fences, while the crickets chirp.

Clues To Caribbean’s Earliest Inhabitants Discovered

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Aug 21, 2009

A prehistoric water-filled cave in the Dominican Republic has become a “treasure trove” with the announcement by Indiana University archaeologists of the discovery of stone tools, a small primate skull in remarkable condition, and the claws, jawbone and other bones of several species of sloths.

The discoveries extend by thousands of years the scope of investigations led Charles Beeker, director of Academic Diving and Underwater Science Programs at IU Bloomington’s School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation, and his interdisciplinary team of collaborators. The researchers’ focus has been on the era a mere 500 years ago when the Old World and New World first met after Christopher Columbus stepped ashore in the Caribbean — and on scintillating pirate lore. This rare find is expected to give insights into the earliest inhabitants of the Greater Antilles and the animals they encountered.

“To be honest, I couldn’t believe my eyes as I viewed each of these astonishing discoveries underwater,” Beeker said. “The virtually intact extinct faunal skeletons really amazed me, but what may prove to be a fire pit from the first human occupation of the island just seems too good to be true. But now that the lithics (stone tools) are authenticated, I can’t wait to direct another underwater expedition into what may prove to become one of the most important prehistoric sites in all the Caribbean.”

Beeker and researchers Jessica Keller and Harley McDonald found the tools and bones in fresh water 28- to 34-feet deep in a cave called Padre Nuestro. Nearby, and also underwater in the same cave, were found more recent Taino artifacts. The Taino were the first Native American peoples to encounter Europeans. Beeker and his colleagues have been diving in this particular cave, which sits beneath a limestone bluff and is only accessible after submerging into a small pool, since 1996 as they studied its use as a Taino water-gathering site.
Geoffrey Conrad, director of the Mathers Museum of World Culture at IU Bloomington and professor of anthropology, said the tools are estimated to be 4,000 to 6,500 years old. The bones might range in age from 4,000 and 10,000 years old. While sloth bones are not uncommon, he knows of only a handful of other primate skulls found in the Caribbean.
“I know of no place that has sloths, primates and humanly made stone tools together in a nice, tight association around the same time,” said Conrad, also associate vice provost for research at IU Bloomington. “Right now it looks like a potential treasure trove of data to help us sort out the relationship in time between humans and extinct animals in the Greater Antilles. This site definitely is worthy of a large-scale investigation.”

The three stone tools and remnants, made of basalt and limestone, were examined by internationally known IU anthropologists Nicholas Toth and Kathy Schick, who told researchers the palm-sized stones showed unmistakable signs of human craftsmanship. Toth and Schick are co-directors of the Center for Research into the Anthropological Foundations of Technology (CRAFT) Stone Age Institute in Bloomington.

IU primate expert Kevin Hunt told researchers the primate could have been a howler monkey which is extinct in the Caribbean. Keller said the sloth bones came from six, and possibly seven, sloths and include several species, including one the size of a black bear and another the size of a large dog. She said the primate skull is significantly different than the other primate skulls found in the Caribbean.

“Very few primate skulls have been found in the Caribbean,” she said. “The others, found in the late 1800s and early 1900s, are three times as large. We have received a permit to bring the skull to Indiana University for further study. It’s all very exciting.”
Conrad said the lithics and bones, which have arrived at Beeker’s laboratory in the School of HPER, have not only expanded the research program to an earlier time but also to an issue of concern worldwide — the extinction of native birds and animals upon the arrival of humans. Caribbean sloths are among the many species that became extinct soon after the presence of humans.

Researchers with the Office of Underwater Science in the School of HPER work closely with cultural, historical, and tourism agencies and organizations in the Dominican Republic to protect and explore the country’s cultural heritage and natural history. Keller said local interest in the discoveries has been phenomenal. The cave where they were discovered, which is part of an aquifer and cave system that supplies water to nearby resorts, has been closed for research purposes.

“There’s a strong interest in protecting it, in having the research continue,” Keller said. “Our partners were excited before we even found the primate.”

The study is being conducted in cooperation with the Secretariat of State for Culture through the Office of Underwater Heritage and the Museum of Dominican Man, the Secretariat of State for Tourism, and the Secretariat of State for Environment and Natural Resources.

Four Seasons In Great Exuma, Bahamas purchased by Sandals

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Aug 21, 2009

The Royal Plantation Collection and Grand Pineapple Beach Resorts, today announced the purchase of the recently shuttered Four Seasons Resort Great Exuma at Emerald Bay for an undisclosed sum. According to Sandals Resorts Founder and Chairman, Gordon “Butch” Stewart, the 500-acre property, which features a championship Greg Norman golf course and world-class marina, is set to become a Sandals Resort and will be called Sandals Emerald Bay, Great Exuma, Bahamas. Following certain enhancements customary to the Sandals Resorts brand, including an expansive new pool complex and additional dining establishments, the resort will open January 22, 2010.

“This is a remarkable moment in the history of Sandals Resorts,” Stewart said. “We are acquiring one of the most spectacular pieces of real estate in the Caribbean, which was operated by one of the world’s most highly regarded hotel companies. This is a reflection of all that Sandals Resorts has accomplished and a tremendous opportunity to further demonstrate our commitment to providing the very best vacation in the Caribbean. We look forward to bringing our Luxury Included(R) experience to this special property, which has been kept to impeccable standards.”

Unfolding like a grand estate, Sandals Emerald Bay is set along a one-mile stretch of white sand beach on Emerald Bay, Great Exuma, Bahamas. According to Stewart, the all-suite resort will offer a selection of 190 “magnificently-appointed” luxury accommodations with styles that range from beachfront villas to charming bay house settings - all oceanfront, all extremely spacious and all serviced by butlers trained by Sandals Resorts through the company’s exclusive partnership with the Guild of Professional English Butlers.

Other amenities include a fully-equipped tennis center featuring six Har-tru courts lit for night play with professional stadium seating fit for competition; a full-service Red Lane(R) Spa with 22 indoor treatment areas and six exotic outdoor sanctuaries; plus six gourmet restaurants, including four new concepts introduced by Sandals Resorts, a fine-dining seafood restaurant, an authentic Italian brick-oven pizzeria, a French-style cafe and a traditional British pub complete with a pool and snooker room.

To complement its sublime ocean views, the property will also debut three pools including a brand new freshwater pool. Encompassing over half an acre, this spectacular pool will entice guests with a Jacuzzi, swim-up pool bar and unique fire-pit seating area in the center. Flanking the pool will be misting columns and luxurious cabanas equipped with wireless Internet access. Whether poolside or on the beach, all guests will receive a full complement of butler services. In addition, the resort will cater to business and meetings customers, offering 13,000 square feet of flexible indoor and outdoor meeting space. This includes three large ballrooms with separate event entrance that can be converted into smaller rooms, all with access to a dedicated conference facility kitchen and two meetings rooms, which are all supported by round-the-clock conference and technology services.

Unique to the Great Exuma property is a stunning 18-hole Greg Norman-designed championship golf course, reputed to be among the best in the Caribbean, as well as a 17-acre, stand-alone Emerald Bay Marina by Sandals, the first-ever marina for any Sandals Resort. This fully-protected, deepwater marina offers 133 slips and is equipped to accommodate and service yachts up to 300 feet in length. Open to the public, the marina also features a welcoming clubhouse with a full-service restaurant including al fresco dining on a spectacular wraparound terrace, pool, a world-class Red Lane(R) Spa and facilities to accommodate families with children.

Continued Investment in the Caribbean

Sandals Emerald Bay is the fourteenth Sandals Resort in the Jamaican-based company’s portfolio and the third investment the company has made in The Bahamas, already home to Sandals Royal Bahamian Spa Resort & Offshore Island in Nassau and Royal Plantation Island at Fowl Cay in the Exumas. “We have deep roots in The Bahamas. We know the people and these islands well and it is our distinct pleasure and honor to further our partnership in tourism here,” Stewart said.

Stewart credits receivers, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and the government of The Bahamas on their efficiency in bringing this deal to a speedy conclusion. Stewart recognizes the impact the closing had on the local economy and is anxious to get people back to work. “We take enormous pride in our Caribbean legacy and specifically, our Jamaican heritage. Through job creation, real training and community involvement, spanning healthcare initiatives to education and the environment, we have worked hard to improve the countries where we operate and in turn, have become a better company and our employees, better citizens. Our commitment to the people of The Bahamas remains strong,” added Stewart.

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