For Posty, CD, Cappy, and Thump.....and maybe Big Sky

[Buckrub]

http://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/article/what-to-expect-on-your-first-trip-to-cuba/ar-BBhwgNK

Me and Mud would get shot if we went.

[johnboy]

I agree with most of what he said. We spent two weeks at a 5 star all inclusive hotel on the Varadero peninsula with day trips all over the island and had a great time. The people are poor but very friendly and welcoming and love to talk about life in other places. The rum is great - visited a rum factory and sampled many varieties and of course the seegars can't be beat. Beautiful country when you get away from the cities but POOR. Watched fields being plowed by teams of oxen.

We liked Cuba mostly because of the people and I sure wish them the best. If you are able to go then give it a thought before it gets screwed up.

[BarryBobPosthole]

Two things I wantvto do there: 1) go diving there and 2) go bass fishing there. They are supposed to have a world class largemouth fishery there. This was according to spme stuff I read in Infisherman many moons ago.

BKB

[Buckrub]

Then take me. You can pay. I will fish while you dive, and net your fish when you fish.

[Thumper]

It's definitely on my to-do list. Heck, we'll be in Key West for my birthday in a couple weeks ... Cuba's only another 90 miles!

P.S. Cappy would have to take a boat ... he sure ain't gonna fly! ;)

[Chicken Dinner]

I can't wait. I think it may be very affordable as well. Hell, it's only 90 miles from Key West.

[Thumper]

I hear an echo. :D

[Big Muddy]

I'll pass on that trip....got two very close friends, lady is a Ph.D, and husband an M.D. who lived and worked there for 17 years....they prospered, bought a little land, helped out the local people and communities....came home one day, and Castro had seized every single asset they had worked so hard for, all those years....threw them out on the streets.

They managed to contact their oldest son in the U.S., and escaped with the clothes on their back....a local helped them escape in a small boat to some small isolated island, where their son picked them up in a float plane, in the dead of night.

They started from scratch, and managed to succeed very nicely in Arkansas....all three children are M.D.s, now, also....family owns a good bit of land in both Ark. and Louisiana, too.

His wife is dead, now, but he's in his '90s, and doing quite well....matter of fact, I talked to him not too long ago, as he bought a home, and retired right up the road from our Chicot lakehouse.

Nope, I think I'll pass on that Cuba trip.

[Hombre]

^^ he may not have his land and assets from that time, but I bet he has one heck of a story^^ One of those old-timers that would probably be a hoot to sit down and just listen to. My Grandpa is 93 and we saw him when we went back for Christmas. One of my favorite things about that trip is watching my 11 year old sit and just listen to his old war stories or when they stories about when his parents moved to Kansas an lived in a dugout for the first year.

[Thumper]

Awww crap Muddy ... ya' can't live in the past. It's time to move on. Heck, my uncles are WWII vets, yet I've been to Japan, drive a Japanese car and have lived with a Japanese gal for the past 30 years. I was in 'Nam, yet I have recently visited 'Nam and had a great time ... and really like the people now that we're not shooting at each other. I was born and raised in Florida and lived through the rush of Cuban exiles after the Revolution. Growing up here, half my friends were Cuban exiles and I even had the hots for a couple'a little Cuban gals who escaped and came here (Irma and Dulce). Irma's mom loved me! I'd go to their house after school and she'd make Cuban food for me ... I've been hooked on it since. Then again, my SEAL buddy (then UDT) was right, smack, dab in the middle of the Bay of Pigs invasion, yet I have no doubt he'd gladly accompany me on a trip into Havana. Heck, Lynn and I went to a Cuban restaurant last Thursday for lunch! I'd love to have my meal on a real Cuban beach. I've lived most of my life during the "Cold War" ... yet a few years back, I spent a month traveling from one end of Russia to the next ... even spent a couple nights with a Russian Military officer in his dacha on the Volga River. I got along great with the people along the way, including a Russian fisherman who put me up in his one-room house with he, his wife, sister and grandson (yes, it was crowded)! We ate moose meat, went fishing and even shot at some ducks.

As for losing property ... Lynn's grandparents and parents (kids at the time) lost their homes and businesses after the US government yanked them out of their homes in California and threw them into internment camps in Wy-frigging-oming during the war. They forgave and forgot ... and moved on. Ya' got's ta' do the same dude.

[Big Muddy]

Thump, sorry dude, but Japan and Viet Nam are hardly adequate comparisons to Castro....btw, while you're in a traveling mode, just go ahead, and drop in N. Korea for sushi and a slashed throat with Long Duk Dong. ;)

To each his own.....

Have a great time, you guys!!!!!

[Thumper]

Dang Mississippi backwater Curmudgeon! ;)

[Buckrub]

Jim.......you know.......

oh never mind.

[Thumper]

Buckrub;


Me and Mud would get shot if we went.

Oh yeah, I forgot ... TWO curmudgeons! ;)

[Captain]

I won't be making the trip but if any of you Dufi go I'll take a hundred bucks worth of a good 44 to 46 ring size cigars

[LJ3]

When first heard the news about restoring some relationship with Cuba my instant reaction was "Must. Go."

The photographer in me wants to go. Sportsman wants to go. Drinker of spirits wants to go. Diver wants to go. Pretty much half my personalities are on board.

[BarryBobPosthole]

The Castros are done. Its only a matter of time. I'd rather have our asses in an embassy there than not being there knowing some Soviet assholes were in there. We're not 'normalizing relations' yet but I'll bet it happens.

BKB

[Niner]

I was there back in about '81 or so.
Had a real good view of the shore from the middle of Gitmo Bay... watching the helos bring supplies on-board the ship from the base.
Then we did an about-face and put Cuber in the rear view.

But seriously, I have much less desire to go visit Cuber than to go to Barbados, or St. Thomas, or Jamaica or some of the other Caribbean islands I've been to. Just no desire at all to go back to that part of the world. Heck, I'd MUCH rather go to Wyoming or Idaho, or Montana.....but that's just me.

[Big Muddy]

Agreed, Niner....there are still too many beautiful(and much safer)places in the good ole USA that I want to see.
Return trips to the Tetons, Alaska, Nova Scotia, and NW Canada are at the top of my list.
Since you mentioned Caribbean Islands, you're on the right track....St. Croix and St. Thomas are thumbs up, however, avoid St. Marteen....the fishing was horrible, very rude natives, too crowded(small island), and gangs are everywhere.
And, unless you are a fearless air traveler, the Princess Julianna airport is better served for crop dusters.
This is a stock photo, but I stood with a group of folks at the end of the runway, and you could literally touch the plane's wheels.
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