Cuban Adventure

EXCURSION SOLD OUT - New excursion to be announced soon!

Full service, concierge style (all but airfare) Cuba is an incredible place, completely legal. This is a wonderful trip to meet the people and explore the country.

Your people-to-people cultural exchange will include:

 · 5 nights in Havana’s new 5 star Grand Hotel Aston on waterfront

 · 2 nights in the UNESCO World Heritage site of Vinales

 · Guided walking tours of Havana and Vinales

 · Ferry ride across Havana Bay to visit Regla, center of the Afro-Cuban religion

 · Lunch and tour of UNESCO Biosphere-Las Terrazas world heritage site

 · Follow the path of Hemingway, to his bars and village of Cojimar

 · Visit to Fusterlandia, art neighborhood

 · Private demonstration at the artist cooperative Taller de Grafica

 · Meet leading artists in their home/studios

 · Special lunch at the organic farm FINCA MARTA

 · 3 UNESCO World heritage sites visited

 · Visa and most meals included

 · Plus much more and many surprises await you….a Stephen Special!!

 · Cuban guide, chauffeur and deluxe coach transportation within Cuba coach transportation within Cuba

 · Small group size

THIS TRIP IS DESIGNED FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS/PHONE PHOTOGRAPHY AND NON-PHOTOGRAPHERS!

****As usual…there have been some changes to the trip...see below**** We have added some great adventures in history! 

Day 1, May 1

 Arrive Havana: TBA

If arrival time coincides with lunch a meal will be included.

Check in to the newly opened 5-star Hotel Grand Aston

The Grand Aston La Habana Hotel boasts a privileged location on Primera and D streets, right across from Havana's famous Malecón (waterfront). It is a superb hotel, with an elegant design, lush gardens, an infinity pool, spa, and beautiful 25th floor restaurant where you can enjoy beautiful sunsets while gazing at the shimmering waters of Havana Bay. 

6:00 PM- get ready for an old car tour of Havana. Great fun and great shots to enjoy as you tour the town in a convertible.

The cars will drop us off at our restaurant.

Dinner at a paladar (private restaurant).

(L, D) 

Day 2, May 2

Breakfast buffet at hotel

Begin walking tour of Old Havana, start with the Parque Central area and tour the landmarks in your neighborhood: National Theater, and the old hotels in the heart of Old Havana. Continue down Obispo Street, a pedestrian street lined with shops and always crowded with people. 

Old Havana was built between 1600s–1800s. We explore the city streets and Plazas with its many architectural wonders. Our first stop is to admire the Cathedral of Saint Christopher located on the cobbled Plaza de la Catedral. One Cuban writer has described the cathedral as "music set in stone." The square is surrounded by some of Havana's oldest buildings; the wealthiest families built their mansions here. The buildings of Havana reveal the influence from different architectural styles, with a diverse range of Moorish, Spanish, Italian, Greek and Roman architecture.

Nearby we visit the Taller Experimental de Grafica. The Taller was established in1962 by a small group of artists lead by Orlando Suárez, a muralist whose initiative also helped found the Superior Art Institute. The Taller is more than a workshop. It is a studio, a school and most of all, an art institution that preserves and develops the sophisticated art of print making with relative freedom of spirit and form. While at the center you will see artworks created on printing presses from the 1700s and 1800s. Engage in conversations with the artists about their works, and learn about life of an artist in Havana. 

Close by is the Plaza de Armas which was built in 1584 for military exercises. Havana's first town hall is located on the square, now the city museum, and gives an overview of its history.

From the Plaza you can view the Castillo de la Real Fuerza. The oldest fortress built by the Spaniards in the Western Hemisphere, and a good example of Romanesque architecture. The walls are 3- 4-foot thick with rounded doors and a moat. You might want to visit the Fort on your free time. 

Make a stop around the corner where used books are sold, many post-revolution editions on Cuban history. Also, antiques, pendants, medals and vintage photographs. 

Our coach will pick us up at Plaza San Francisco de Assis to whisk us to lunch nearby.

Lunch at a paladar (private restaurant).

After lunch we head to Callejon de Hamel, a magical section of Old Havana filled with Afro-Cuban art and music. Using found materials of old bathtubs, pumps, toilets etc the two blocks are now a colorful, eccentric hub for Santeria, Rumba dancers and music.

Finish the day at the Hotel Nacional and a mojito in the Hall of Fame*

The Hotel Nacional de Cuba is an historic luxury hotel located on the Malecón in Havana, Cuba. It was designed by the famous New York firm McKim, Mead and White, and features an eclectic mix of architectural styles. It opened in 1930 when Cuba was a prime travel destination for Americans, long before the embargo. In 1955 Meyer Lansky managed to persuade Batista to give him a piece of the Nacional. That same year Pan Am’s Intercontinental Hotels Corporation took over management of the hotel. Lansky planned to take a wing of the 10-story hotel and create luxury suites for high stakes players. Batista endorsed Lansky’s idea even though there were objections from American expatriates like Ernest Hemingway. Under Lansky’s impetus, a wing of the grand entrance hall was refurbished to include a bar, a restaurant, a showroom and a luxurious casino. It was operated by Lansky and his brother Jake, with Wilbur Clark as the front man.

*The “Hall of Fame” documents the history of the hotel and all the memorable guests. Among its first illustrious guests were artists, actors, athletes and writers such as Frank Sinatra, Ava Gardner, Mickey Mantle, Johnny Weissmuller, Buster Keaton, Rocky Marciano, Tyrone Power, Errol Flynn, John Wayne, Marlene Dietrich, Gary Cooper, Marlon Brando and Ernest Hemingway. Patrons such as Winston Churchill, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor and innumerable Heads of State and European monarchs back the hotel’s reputation as a deluxe host.

Dinner on your own tonight and we will assist in reservations and options. Within blocks of your hotel are several great restaurants. 

(B, L,) 

Day 3, May 3

Breakfast buffet at hotel

Our coach will drop us this AM at the Ferry terminal so we can join the locals in crossing the bay by ferry to Regla. Regla is the center for Santeria worship. (Santeria will be described in detail in Havana). The town was founded in 1687 and freed slaves settled the city in the late 1800s. The church here, Nuestra Senora de la Virgen de Regla was dedicated in the late 1800s by Jose Marti. The church is the home to the Virgin of Regla, a sculpture brought from Spain in 1696 and place in a chapel here in 1714. She is the patron saint of fisherman and Havana.

Our coach will pick us up in Regla and we travel to Hemingway’s home of 20 years, Finca Vigia or The Lookout. The home is like he left it in 1960.

We lunch in the town of Cojimar where Hemingway loved to drink rum and play dominos. He was most at home with the fisherman of this village. He also kept his yacht, the Pilar, here. The town is the setting for The Old Man and the Sea.

Lunch at Paladar Cojimero, an out door pavilion behind the owners home. The owners have lived in Cojimar their entire lives and knew the great personalities like Hemingway’s boat captain, Gregorio Fuentes.

Time to stroll in Cojimar and admire the old Spanish fort. The fisherman here donated bronze from their boats to have the bust of Hemingway made. He perpetually looks over the entrance to the harbor.

Our last stop of the day is at the giant Arts and Crafts market for some shopping.

Dinner tonight at the Paladar Ivan Justo. Ivan was a chef to Fidel Castro and has opened up his own restaurant.

(B, L, D)

Day 4, May 4

Breakfast buffet at hotel

First stop to join locals at the largest vegetable market in Havana. It is in the Vedado neighborhood and you will notice the difference compared to Havana Vieja.

Next stop is at the Plaza de Revolucion where Fidel gave his long speeches and three Popes have said Mass, plus many concerts of foreign groups have played here.

Our lunch will be at Fusterlandia. The area looks like a version of Gaudi’s Parque Guell in Barcelona. Fuster has transformed the neighborhood from a poor fishing village to a cultural attraction. Using broken tiles, plates etc and other found objects the whole neighborhood looks like a fantasy land.

We enjoy a delicious homemade Cuban lunch and afterward enjoy a stroll in the decorated neighborhood.

We will make a tour of Modern Havana and a stop at the home/studio of Kelvin Lopez. He has a variety of styles and his impressionistic paintings are stunning.

Return to hotel and then head out for photos of the sunset on the Malecon, the drive along the water.

Dinner on your own. 

(B,L)

Day 5, May 5

Breakfast buffet at hotel

Check out of Aston Hotel and we are off to western Cuba and the province of Vinales.

The 132 km ² (51 sq. miles) Vinales Valley boasts the most spectacular scenery in the whole of Cuba. It is, geologically speaking, the oldest region on the island dating back to the Jurassic period when the ocean floor rose, giving way to limestone formations commonly called Mogotes: steep-sided, flat-topped outcrops that seem to rise dramatically from the ground reaching a height that ranges from 140 to 400 meters ((between 460 and 1,312 feet). The valley was declared a National Monument and UNESCO added it as a Natural Landscape and as a World Heritage Site in the late 1990s. 

One of the largest cave systems in the American continent is to be found here, making the interior of many of those water-wearable-limestone rocky formations navigable. The 1607 town of Vinales is deservedly a national monument, a rural charmer where time has seemed to come to a halt. Attractions abound in this heavenly place that is a must-see in all tourist itineraries. Vinales is known for growing the finest tobacco in Cuba. 

One and half hours from Havana we at the MOCA Biosphere and Las Terrazas. Las Terrazas is a UNESCO World Heritage Biosphere in the Artemisia province, 49 miles from Havana. Here the eroded landed of a former French coffee plantation has been returned to a rich land and home to a small ecological community. We will have lunch at Casa del Campesino, a typical rural house, to enjoy local delicacies prepared over a wood burning stove. After lunch we will tour the town and the various communities of Las Terrazas to enjoy local coffee with time for photos.

Checkin to our hotel and you will have time to photograph the beautiful scenery surrounding you.

Dinner tonight is at the hotel.

(B,L,D,)

Day 6, May 6

 Breakfast at the hotel

First stop the Cave of the Indians. The area had a large indigenous population before the arrival of the Spanish. The cave had ceremonial purposes for them and later awas hide out for the runaway slaves. You walk in and leave by a short motor boat ride. Beautiful stalagmites and stalactites fill the cave 

Lunch at a local paladar

Vinales has a small artists market with excellent crafts from the area.

Free time to photograph here, horseback ride in the valley or hike are options too.

Dinner at our hotel

(B,L,D)

Day 7, May 7

Breakfast buffet

10:30 AM and start the journey back to Havana, but before Havana we have a special treat for lunch.

Special lunch at the organic farm FINCA MARTA!!!

Owner Fernando Funes, unlike most Cuban farmers, has a PhD in agro-ecology from the Netherlands, where he studied how natural systems work together. He brought these learnings back to Cuba, and put these principles to work at Finca Marta. It is an oasis, and its unique characteristics have made it a point of interest for other farmers, and also for agri-tourism. The farm produces 10 tons of honey each year, 60 different crops, fruit trees and the animal manure is turned into methane gas to run the kitchen stove, lighting and other parts of the farm

Check in to Hotel Aston.

Good-Bye dinner at another fabulous Paladar

Day 8, May 8 

AIRPORT TRANSFER

Breakfast buffet

Morning free

Checkout and transfer to airport for flight to home.

________________________________

*The five-star Meliá Trinidad Península all-inclusive system will be located near María Aguilar beach, a privileged site on Cuba's southern coast with an area of 5.9 hectares. A three-story main building will be erected with a privileged beachfront location and just over 10 kilometers from the historic center of the city of Trinidad, which was declared a World Cultural Heritage site in 1988. The Meliá Trinidad Península All Inclusive hotel has a magnificent lake-shaped swimming pool, as well as swim-up and infinity pools. It offers a wide range of dining options, a wellness area, gym, mini club for children, playgrounds and sports areas, yacht club, among other facilities. It stands out for its show room for weddings, romance programs for couples and a specialized area dedicated to events and professional meetings, as well as services for tour groups

** Trinidad’s prosperity rested on the sugar industry, which was introduced in the 18th century. As a result of the wealth that the sugar industry brought, Trinidad’s cultural life flourished. Schools of languages, music and dance were opened and a wide variety of artisans set up businesses, including gold and silversmiths. In 1827 the Teatro Candamo opened its doors. The wealthy patricians built huge mansions for themselves (now museums) and sent their children to European universities. However, during the second half of the 19th century the Industrial Revolution and increased sugar beet production in Europe led to the decline of Trinidad’s slavery-based economy. Construction ceased and the city remained frozen in time. The maze of cobbled streets is lined with terra cotta tile roofed houses in soft pastel colors. Much of the architecture is neo-classical and baroque, with a Moorish flavor reflecting the town’s heritage of conquistadores. The exquisite buildings are fronted by mahogany balustrades, fancy grills of wrought iron, turned wooden rods and massive wooden doors with postigos (small windows) that open to let the breezes flow through cool, tile floored rooms connected by double-swing half-doors. 

*The tour may changes as needed, however you will love it no matter what! At the time of this notice the airfare was about $350 round trip from St. Louis to Cuba on SWA. As we get closer Stephen will post his airfare information. You do not need to fly with us, but need to arrive about the same time at Stephen.

You will be asked to sign a waiver, however medical is covered in Cuba, but we recommend that you get medical evacuation insurance.

The Shooting Experience

Stephen was able to experience shooting at Blues games, Cardinals games and he even shot for Anheuser Busch with Lewis. While interning, Lewis was asked to be one of the LA Olympic photographers. Stephen was responsible for editing the images and sending them back to Lewis for use at the Olympics. During his twenties he also assisted several fashion, product and commercial photographers.

Professional Studio

After college, Stephen managed a portrait studio for the Photo Corporation of America at their top studio in St Louis, helping them change their studios to provide better lighting. Additionally, he started his professional studio. By the mid-80’s Stephen became a full-time independent photographer, shooting for many customers such as Gucci, Life Uniforms, Taco Bell, Burger King, Lambert Field, Falcon Products and several engineering companies.

In the early 90’s he purchased a franchise named SeegerPeople. This was a specialized photography company that photographed families and then created montages of families that placed photographs on plastic that were hand cut out and aligned on a display base. This business grew and enabled Stephen to move forward on his next adventure 

The Next Adventure

In 1998 Stephen purchased a 10-store chain of camera stores (Creve Coeur Camera). These stores were in St. Louis and Kansas City, Missouri. Over the next 10 years business grew under Stephen’s management and vision. Creve Coeur Camera became one of the Top 100 consumer electronic companies for 8 year straight. Over time Steve created and nurtured the School of Imaging.

The School

Trips have included: 

Italy

Greece

Costa Rica

Iceland

Cuba

New York

Chicago

New Orleans

Alaska

The Smokey Mountains

Door County Wisconsin

Several western trips including Monument Valley Horseshoe Bend, Bryce Canyon

Additionally, Stephen has visited and photographed:

Spain

Paris

Budapest, Vienna and several other cities down the Danube River

Morocco

Belgian

Amsterdam

Hawaii

Mexico

Canada

And many locations throughout the United States

Over the past 25 years, his corporate customers have included, Charter Communication, Coco Cola, John Force Racing, NASCAR, NHRA and he was the track photographer for Gateway Motorsports Park. His photographs have been published across the world and many people have purchased his work including over 120 copies of his rendition of the solar eclipse a few years ago.