Hi there, I want to add nitrox, the land trip, and the 4th dive per day. I would prefer the land trip be contiguous rather than 3 days and 3 days, so we can really be vested in it, rather than be shuffling around a bunch.
When will we have dateS?
At this point in time the Cuban govt considers 6-7 days in Cuba a vacation and not a cultural exchange designed to help the Cuban people. My meeting tomorrow will discuss this further to see if that is still holding true. THAT is why we were talking about 3 days before and 3 days after.
The timing depends on the outcome of my call tomorrow and going over the logisitics of how we make this work so its legal and enjoyable and maximizes our changes for the best experience possible.
Another reason we are looking to split it is that most people can not take 2 full weeks off. One for the land and 1 for the boat. The logistics when we did it in 2019 required that we do a minimum of 8 days in order to get to the boat. This still works for most people. We also finally found out how to do Havana. Most diving related trips to Cuba do NOT offer Havana because of the logistics and the add'l requirements needed and scrutiny leveled to ensure everything is legal.
So based upon what I learned at our industry trade show... it is not prudent to aim for a full week in any part of Cuba as its not covered in the confines of the licenses we are utilizing to do our trips. That being said you could always attempt it on your own but for the group we must stay 100% inside the confines of what is permissable and adhere to the letter of the licenses.
The chance to do something on both ends with the diving in between was a legal loophole so to speak so that is why I suggested it. The options in general are:
- Havana before the diving and Havana after the diving
- Another Cuban city before the diving and Havana after the diving
- Havana before the diving and another Cuban city after the diving
- Another city before the diving and another city after the diving
- No tours/etc before the diving (transferring only) and no tours after the diving...(transferring only)
I hope to know more tomorrow afternoon if my conf calls go well with my reps in Cuba.
But I think we've found the best of all worlds and can allow more flexibility than i had hoped for initially.
for the update!
