Cuba & Costa Rica Blog
About this blog
Written by Cuba and Costa Rica expert Christopher P. Baker, this blog will update readers on life in these two diverse and exciting countries.
Recent Posts
- Last blog post on Costa Rica and Cuba
- First-ever group motorcycle tours of Cuba successful
- Cuba’s Mariel port readying for Panama Canal expansion
- Musings on wildlife encounters on Costa Rica’s Osa Peninsula
- Cuba’s Steam Trains puffing their last gasp
- My top five thrilling activities in Costa Rica
- Cuba’s fun February festivals include Harleys, Books, Cigars
- Five top volcano viewing experiences in Costa Rica
- New road along Costa Rica / Nicaraguan border mired
- Cuba’s Hotel Campoamor at Cojímar to be restored?
- Cuban revolutionary Celia Sánchez honored in new book
- Christmas challenge for Costa Rica’s sexually abused girls
- Costa Rica opens Chinatown in downtown San José
- David Soul films Hemingway’s car restoration in Cuba
- National Geographic Expeditions receives license for Cuba tours
Río Perdido adventure center opens in Costa Rica
Yesterday morning I got an email from my friend and publicist Rocio López announcing the opening of an new adventure activity center, at the heart of its own 500-acre reserve in Guanacaste, in the far northwest of Costa Rica. more >>
Motorcycle Tours of Cuba for U.S. citizens launched
In my blog post of April 3, 2012, I announced that Texas-based motorcycle adventure tour company MotoDiscovery had been granted a license by the U.S. Dept. of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) that will permit the company to offer the first-ever legal motorcycle tours of Cuba.
As MotoDiscovery founder and owner Skip Mascorro writes on his company website: “This is a fulfillment that is years in the making; to be able to offer legal tours of Cuba on motorcycles for citizens of the USA… And what does this mean? You can fly direct from Miami to Havana and enjoy Cuba knowing that you are traveling within the law.” more >>
Costa Rica now a popular spring break destination
To stay up to date about happenings and developments in Costa Rica, I subscribe to various newsfeeds, including Google Alerts. Over the past few months, I noticed an uptick in news reports about school and college student groups visiting Costa Rica. I hadn’t previously noticed such reports, and it registered as a curiosity.
I hadn’t thought to write about it. Then today’s Google Alert included a short piece from last week’s Austin American-Statesman about how Costa Rica is now a popular destination with college spring breakers. more >>
The scoop on “illegal” U.S. travel to Cuba
Today I was quoted at length in USA Today’s article, “U.S. Tourist ordered to pay $6,500 for illegal Cuba trip.”
Laura Bly’s story relates to Zachary Sanders, a 38-year-old New Yorker who traveled to Cuba in 1998 via The Bahamas without the required license from the U.S. Treasury Department for legal travel. Foolishly, Sanders brought Cuban cigars home as he tried to pass through U.S. Customs in Nassau (officials in Nassau go on alert when flights from Havana arrive). more >>
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