Travel Notes From February 2007 Camaguey Trip

Mar 3rd, 2009 | By Don Zastrow | Category: Camagüey Journal

 

These are a few travel notes from a first-time traveler with MCSCA & the Wisconsin Medical Project (WMP) to Camaguey, Cuba in February, 2007.

 Travel Prep
The total cost of the trip we paid to Marazul, the travel agent was around $1,150. We originally authorized Marazul to charge up to $1,000 on our credit card for each person for the trip. We had to give 2 additional authorizations as charges were added that exceeded the $1,000.

We received the following travel documents before the trip (actually at the Miami airport):
  • A plane ticket for the charter flight to Camaguey.Miami Airport
  • A voucher for the hotel.
  • A Cuban visa. The visa is a small piece of paper with a perforation across the middle. The immigration official tore it in half along the perforation, keeping half and returning half. The half of the visa that was returned had to be presented to Cuban officials when leaving the country.
  • A letter from the Wisconsin Medical Project describing the license.
  • A membership card for the Wisconsin Medical Project.

Luggage
Each person was assigned 2 large roller suitcases that were provided by the Wisconsin Medical Project. One suitcase was the “donation” bag and the second was the “personal” bag. The donation bag was entirely filled with medical equipment and supplies that went to the hospitals or clinics in Camaguey. The personal bag was partially filled with non-medical equipment and supplies that go to places/organizations like Project Hope and the school for the deaf. The remainder of the space in the personal bag was used for our personal items.

Cuban Immigration
While this was our first visit to Cuba, Cuban immigration was similar to other foreign immigration procedures we’d been through in the past. The immigration officers sit in a small booth. They see and talk to the traveler through a thick glass window. The window has an opening to slide documents through (much like a bank teller has), but there is no hole to speak through. The waiting room for immigration was large with a high ceiling and there was a lot of background noise, so it was very difficult to hear the immigration official. I had to lean down to the opening where I slid the documents through to hear.
  • Q: How long I was going to stay? A: 7 Days
  • Q: Where I was going to stay? A: Hotel Puerto Principe.
  • Q: What I was doing there? A: A Humanitarian trip bringing medical donations. (This was difficult to convey. The official had a hard time understanding this).
  • Q: What was my profession? A: I work with computers.
  • They also asked a lot of questions about Peru. My passport was recently renewed and the only stamp on my passport was from Peru immigration, so I don’t know what that was about.

The immigration agent took half my visa, stamped the other half, and did not stamp my passport.

We adopted a tactic for the return trip where all the WMP travelers lined up one after another for the same immigration official. After the first couple WMP travelers, the immigration official rubber-stamped the rest.

Customs
We were given customs forms on the plane. Most of the information we needed to provide was straightforward.
There were 10 of us from Madison so there were 20 large bags to collect. Our donation bags had yellow tape on them and the personal bags had green tape. We collected them from the baggage carousel and stacked them together. It took quite a while to find the appropriate official for the donation bags. Once found, the official inventoried the donation bags and gave our group leader a receipt for the bags. We left those in the baggage claim area with the official. We walked past the custom officials on our way out of the airport – they didn’t collect our customs card nor did they look in our bags.
Money Exchange
There is a money exchange in the baggage collection area in the airport. We (my wife and I) changed 500 Euro and 130 Canadian Dollars. This turned out to be more than enough. By the end of the week, we changed back to US Dollars 100 CUC for a fellow traveler and 100 CUC for our interpreter.

Leave Comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.