EC: The rules for renewal, or even applying for licenses, changed in May. These new rules were issued and now anyone who has been offering these trips has to account for every minute of every day of every trip that they offered in the last year. The operators need ensure that its program was cultural people to people activities and not traditional tourism, which is not allowed. I heard that one application was 25,000 words, which is the size of a small novel—-and I doubt if The Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) has the staff to process these applications.

PG: Our approach to travel to Cuba has been so misguided over the last five decades. Let’s be real about all of these People to People programs.

At some point during that People to People program, I actually had a mojito! Did I spend a lot of time talking to the Cuban people about their education programs, their medicine programs, their literacy programs? You bet! But did I sit down at the Hotel Nacional de Cuba and have a really great dinner? I did. Now, what’s wrong with that?

EC: The hard part about these organizations is that they don’t even know what the rules are. Is a mojito not allowed now? What is allowed? Right now, organizations are just trying to jump through hoops, but  OFAC is notorious for not responding. Many haven’t even hard from OFAC about the status of their applications and they’re just left in the dark.

PG: I’ll leave you with this though…I saw one of the People to People organizations, not the one I was on, but another one that was at the same hotel, and the group didn’t even go in the pool. They were that afraid.

For more Cuba travel, check out:

• Like a Local Spotlight on Cuba’s Beaches
• Cuba Like a Local and Peter’s Top Five Cuba Travel Tips
• Peter’s CBS Early Show Report: How Americans Can Travel to Cuba
• Americans Tour Groups Arrive in Cuba, Diplomatic Thaw Ahead?

By Peter Greenberg for Peter Greenberg Worldwide