Cuba Trip Is On

Everything is a go. I'll be spending three days in Cancun scuba diving and visiting Chichen Itza, the Mayan's ancient ruins. It's the only Seven New Wonders of the World that I haven't seen yet.

Then heading to Cuba for 10 days. Looking forward to the time warp. I'm told it looks like circa 1950.

The focus of the trip is "Sustainable Agriculture and Urban Gardens".

In its 2006 Sustainability Index Report, the World Wildlife Fund (WWFdetermined that there was only one nation in the world that could truly be designated as living "sustainably," and that nation was Cuba. In making this determination, the WWF utilized a combination of the United Nations Development Program's Human Development Index (educational achievement; adequate food; clean, available water; access to health care, etc.) and the Ecological Footprint (or natural resource use per capita) of nations. The ideal, of course is a high HDI and a low Ecological Footprint.

One of my travel goals was to visit Cuba before Castro died. It appears like it will be a reality. My only other personal experience with visiting a communist country was back in 1987 when I visited Poland on an agricultural exchange program for three months and worked on a government owned farm, shoveling potatoes and distilling vodka. Hopefully, this trip to Cuba would be just as memorable and informative.