Holiday pics..

[Glacier]

I don't believe Americans are allowed to travel to Cuba, although I thought I heard President Obama was trying to change that.

Technically Americans aren't allowed to spend any money in Cuba. That's what US Customs(or whatever department handles these things in the US) tracks. It can be a huge fine if they chose to pursue it.

The US dollar is charged an additional 10 percent on top of their usual exchange rate(Cuba has a bizarre dual currency system). No cards drawn on an American based bank are accepted. Despite the fact that I'm Canadian and my government could care less that I'm in Cuba, my Citi-Bank Mastercard was useless there. We took a Visa from a Canadian bank and left the Mastercard with the dogsitter for emergencies.

Obama has or is planning to relax the rules regarding family visits. So Cuban-Americans could visit their family still living on the island, I think.