On October 17, our first full day at sea after Buenos Aires, an announcement was made requesting all the Life Long Learners to attend a meeting, dependents traveling with faculty and staff to attend another meeting, and to check email for details. I didn't catch the room numbers and wasn't sure if the dependent meeting was only for parents who were traveling with children, or if it included people like me as well, so had a look at my email, saw I had not received the email, so assumed my attendance wasn't required. Following this meeting, there was a knock at our cabin door. Two of my buddies, also spouses of faculty, had come by to tell me that Life Long Learners and dependents of faculty and staff had just learned we would not be able to get off the ship in Cuba.
To make a long story short - it turned out the reason I didn't get the email about the meeting is because I am not actually affected by this situation as I am traveling on a Canadian passport. Semester at Sea applied a long time ago for a license to include Cuba in the program for this voyage and for others before it. The license was granted through the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Foreign_Assets_Control), a branch of the Department of the Treasury in the United States, shortly before our trip started in August. It isn't clear how many lawyers have had their hands on this license since it was issued, or whom they represent, but apparently they have determined that the license to disembark in Cuba applies, in the case of US citizens, only to degree seeking students and the faculty and staff directly involved in their programs. For me and a a handful of others with foreign passports, the license isn't necessary at all since we are not bound by the US sanctions in Cuba.
Needless to say, the shipboard community has been very disappointed by this news. Emotions have run high, meetings have been held, emails have flown. Appeals were made to OFAC by the Institute for Shipboard Education (ISE), but the final decision has been made. Not only will these groups of travelers not be allowed to disembark in Cuba, they will not be allowed to stay on the ship either, so we will be making a side trip to Freeport in the Bahamas to drop them off before going to Cuba. We will then proceed to Cuba and return to pick them up afterward. This has put a bit of a damper on the last several days. I am sad that so many of my friends won't be able to join us for this part of the journey, a place all of us had been looking forward to visiting.
The US sanctions against Cuba have been in effect since 1961, more than 50 years (http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/Programs/Pages/cuba.aspx).
Sunday, November 24, 2013
buenos aires
After 13 (or 12, depending on how you count) days at sea, we were excited to arrive in Buenos Aires (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buenos_Aires) on November 12. The port in Buenos Aires is a busy container port with lots of large moving equipment, so we were not allowed to walk within it. There were shuttle buses that took us to the port gate, and we got off the ship and out of the port as quickly as we could. It was wonderful to see the sun after having had so many hazy, cloudy and foggy days at sea. Buenos Aires was beautiful and green with lots of areas set aside for parks. There were blue flowering trees all around - I have decided they were jacaranda (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacaranda_mimosifolia); we also saw lots of varieties of huge ficus trees. We sat for a couple of hours in a coffee shop, just enjoying the weather and watching people go about their activities before we headed back to the ship. We had plans to move to a hotel on the second day, and spend a couple of days in the city, so packed our bags.
Buenos Aires has 48 barrios, or neighbourhoods, and we visited three of them. Our hotel was near the Plaza San Martín (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plaza_San_Mart%C3%ADn_(Buenos_Aires)) in the Retiro district (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retiro,_Buenos_Aires). John and I walked in the area and beyond, enjoying our time in the city. Whitelock family members might be interested to know that when the British tried to wrest Buenos Aires from the Spanish, they sent General John Whitelocke (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Whitelocke), no doubt one of our ancestors. He was defeated in 1807 in the attempt. On the third day in Buenos Aires, we went to lunch with friends from the ship in the Recoleta district (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recoleta,_Buenos_Aires). We arrived a little early so we would have some time to walk here as well. We were both finding the heat to be a little challenging, but there was always a breeze in the shade.
On the last day I went with a group from the ship for a walking tour in the La Boca neighbourhood (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Boca) of the city. We had a great guide, Matías, who took us to a city bus for the trip across the city. Once there we met with a long time resident of the area, an accordion player who first entertained us with his music. This man's parents had arrived from Italy in the early 1920's and he had lived in the area his whole life, so answered lots of questions about the neighbourhood and its history. Much of it was very tourist oriented, with tango dancers every few steps. It's a great mystery how those women manage their stilettos on cobblestones, but they weren't doing much dancing, mainly posing for photographs. We did visit two museums that I enjoyed. One was the former home of Benito Quinquela Martín (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benito_Quinquela_Mart%C3%ADn) and housed much of his art, mainly marine vessels and port scenes. The other was Proa, a museum of contemporary art (http://www.proa.org/eng/index.php), with an exhibition by Ron Mueck (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Mueck) that I found very interesting and just a little bit creepy.
After the tour in La Boca we got back on the city bus where we found a restaurant in the barrio of San Telmo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Telmo,_Buenos_Aires). It was a wonderful experience with a great waitress who spoke English very well, but who was willing to play along with anyone in our party who wanted to try out their Spanish. After lunch we made our way back to the ship to get ready for our trip to Rio de Janeiro.
Buenos Aires has 48 barrios, or neighbourhoods, and we visited three of them. Our hotel was near the Plaza San Martín (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plaza_San_Mart%C3%ADn_(Buenos_Aires)) in the Retiro district (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retiro,_Buenos_Aires). John and I walked in the area and beyond, enjoying our time in the city. Whitelock family members might be interested to know that when the British tried to wrest Buenos Aires from the Spanish, they sent General John Whitelocke (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Whitelocke), no doubt one of our ancestors. He was defeated in 1807 in the attempt. On the third day in Buenos Aires, we went to lunch with friends from the ship in the Recoleta district (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recoleta,_Buenos_Aires). We arrived a little early so we would have some time to walk here as well. We were both finding the heat to be a little challenging, but there was always a breeze in the shade.
On the last day I went with a group from the ship for a walking tour in the La Boca neighbourhood (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Boca) of the city. We had a great guide, Matías, who took us to a city bus for the trip across the city. Once there we met with a long time resident of the area, an accordion player who first entertained us with his music. This man's parents had arrived from Italy in the early 1920's and he had lived in the area his whole life, so answered lots of questions about the neighbourhood and its history. Much of it was very tourist oriented, with tango dancers every few steps. It's a great mystery how those women manage their stilettos on cobblestones, but they weren't doing much dancing, mainly posing for photographs. We did visit two museums that I enjoyed. One was the former home of Benito Quinquela Martín (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benito_Quinquela_Mart%C3%ADn) and housed much of his art, mainly marine vessels and port scenes. The other was Proa, a museum of contemporary art (http://www.proa.org/eng/index.php), with an exhibition by Ron Mueck (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Mueck) that I found very interesting and just a little bit creepy.
After the tour in La Boca we got back on the city bus where we found a restaurant in the barrio of San Telmo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Telmo,_Buenos_Aires). It was a wonderful experience with a great waitress who spoke English very well, but who was willing to play along with anyone in our party who wanted to try out their Spanish. After lunch we made our way back to the ship to get ready for our trip to Rio de Janeiro.
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