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Cuba
Dec 18, 2014 5:22:50 GMT -8
Post by jshuey on Dec 18, 2014 5:22:50 GMT -8
The news here is that travel restrictions may soon open up between the US and Cuba. That begs the question for all of you who have been there – can you recommend a place to stay that has decent collecting?
And can you tell us what the collecting experience was like? Did you rent a car to get around? Hire a taxi? Walk from the hotel? The more details the better.
Permits?
John
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Cuba
Dec 18, 2014 6:19:36 GMT -8
Post by wollastoni on Dec 18, 2014 6:19:36 GMT -8
Would be a great news for Cuban population !
And some US insect dealers won't have anymore reasons to pollute the market with fake data on their Cuban specimens...
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Cuba
Dec 18, 2014 7:28:03 GMT -8
Post by exoticimports on Dec 18, 2014 7:28:03 GMT -8
I wouldn't get too excited yet. It's not going to be opened like East Germany.
And when it is, you still have a communist country with beauracracy and corruption. Paying off somebody to get a permit isn't the hard part, it's finding the right person to pay!
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Cuba
Dec 18, 2014 11:37:01 GMT -8
Post by jshuey on Dec 18, 2014 11:37:01 GMT -8
I'll probably go with or without a permit. I'm grown up enough that I don't have to have a net at all times, and I've always wanted to see Cuba before it gets too ruined (aka - modern americanized).
We can probably just bum around, get a sunburn, and smoke cigars and I'll be fairly content. But I'd love a pair of those two Euphyes subspecies endemic to the Island....
by the way - I was just in eastern Germany last week. It was an odd blend of very modern city, "Bavarian theme park" (albeit - authentic) and Gary Indiana (aka, industrial decay). Leipzig by the way. I didn’t have much time to look around, but I did have enough time to drink some pilsner and wander around at night with a cigar (Honduran of course). What more can you ask for in life?
John
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Cuba
Dec 19, 2014 15:52:33 GMT -8
Post by lepidofrance on Dec 19, 2014 15:52:33 GMT -8
I stayed in Cuba so many years ago that I could not tell something interesting for the present.
Anyway, one of our Lepidopterists of France Association members use to spend half the year in Cuba and he is still collecting, without any trouble, in many places (even in the La Habana botanic garden where is flying the cuban Parides sp. )
So, send me a mail and I'll give you his mail adress for more informations !
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Post by lepidofrance on Dec 19, 2014 15:58:52 GMT -8
you still have a communist country with beauracracy and corruption. Paying off somebody to get a permit isn't the hard part, it's finding the right person to pay![/quote]
I have been in so many countries, not communists countries but actually capitalists countries, with bureaucracy and corruption ....
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Cuba
Dec 19, 2014 16:09:00 GMT -8
Post by lepidofrance on Dec 19, 2014 16:09:00 GMT -8
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Cuba
Dec 22, 2014 9:36:37 GMT -8
Post by wingedwishes on Dec 22, 2014 9:36:37 GMT -8
My opinion is that if a people have a taste of freedom, they want more. A great way to disrupt a dictator (as Fidel is known to many of his people). Opening trade will get some dollars to Cuba and Cuban products will benefit American businesses. HOWEVER, all of the cigars made in Cuba are already sold to other countries. If free trade is made available, Cuban cigar prices will temporarily skyrocket. I fortunately have close Cuban friends though.......
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Cuba
Dec 23, 2014 6:19:29 GMT -8
Post by exoticimports on Dec 23, 2014 6:19:29 GMT -8
John- I would have asked that you visit Dresden, now that is a beautiful city!
Lepido- you are absolutely correct. Corruption is not limited to communist countries by any means.
Cuba, that would be an interesting visit, I certainly would love to study insects there. Even Jamaica has a lot to offer.
Chuck
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Cuba
Dec 23, 2014 7:27:55 GMT -8
Post by jshuey on Dec 23, 2014 7:27:55 GMT -8
John- I would have asked that you visit Dresden, now that is a beautiful city! Chuck I was only there for two days (43 hours to be exact!). Dresden would have been interesting to see and it was just down the tracks from where I was staying. I work about three blocks from the Kurt Vonnegut Museum, and I just re-read “Slaughterhouse-Five, Or The Children's Crusade : A Duty-dance with Death” earlier this summer. For those who have never heard of this volume - it’s a fascinating antiwar thesis involving aliens, time travel,optometry and the firebombing of Dresden (which Vonnegut witnessed firsthand as a prisoner of war). It’s also on the list of most frequently “banned books” from schools in the US. A list I’m slowly working my way through but I’m stuck in the middle of “Ulysses”. So it goes. John
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Cuba
Dec 23, 2014 11:10:34 GMT -8
Post by bobw on Dec 23, 2014 11:10:34 GMT -8
It’s also on the list of most frequently “banned books” from schools in the US. A list I’m slowly working my way through but I’m stuck in the middle of “Ulysses”. You've done well to get to the middle of Ulysses. I couldn't get past about 50 pages! Bob
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Cuba
Dec 23, 2014 12:44:50 GMT -8
Post by jshuey on Dec 23, 2014 12:44:50 GMT -8
It’s also on the list of most frequently “banned books” from schools in the US. A list I’m slowly working my way through but I’m stuck in the middle of “Ulysses”. You've done well to get to the middle of Ulysses. I couldn't get past about 50 pages! Bob Ok so I mislead you a bit - the middle being somewhere between the first page and the last page - but closer to the former. I should just give up and move on. I really can't see what anyone ever saw in this book. j
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Cuba
Dec 30, 2014 9:59:38 GMT -8
Post by wingedwishes on Dec 30, 2014 9:59:38 GMT -8
My Latin instructor assigned Ulysses to us to read IN LATIN. Glad only a few chapters were assigned to each student. I enjoyed the Sci Fi book "A Matter for men" in which an alien race was systematically introducing dangerous invasive ET species to get the Earth ready for invasion. You never saw the aliens. The Cubans were always preparing for invasion from America. The only American invasion that would work would be one of culture (right or wrong).
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Cuba
Jan 11, 2015 17:29:44 GMT -8
Post by lordpandarus on Jan 11, 2015 17:29:44 GMT -8
There's sure seems to be more specimens coming out of Cuba in the past few years.
I see someone in the classified is advertising a bunch of A1 Papilio oxynius
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