Morning: as part of our full-time schedule of professional research on Cuba’s Legal System, we will attend professional meetings with lawyers at CONABI International Lawyers and Consultants (Consultores y Abogados Internacionales CONABI), a Cuban business law firm created in 2006 by the strategic merger of a number of Cuban legal entities. CONABI boasts a highly committed and experienced group of lawyers. The Havana-based team assists international clients and Cuba-based joint ventures with a range of services, including mainstream corporate work, labour, litigation and shipping finance.

This visit represents a great opportunity for lawyers and judges; law professors, faculty; legal scholars, and other law professionals from USA, Canada and all over the world to conduct professional research on investment opportunities in Cuba and joint ventures between foreign companies and Cuban state-owned entities.

Lunch: a new wave of paladares (privately-owned restaurants) has recently swept the Cuban dining scene offering excellent food and charming ambient. Today we’ll enjoy a welcome lunch at the stylish Paladar San Cristobal, one of Havana's top ten private restaurants.

Afternoon: as part of our full-time schedule of professional research on Cuba’s Legal System, we will attend professional meetings with law professors, faculty and students of law at the University of Havana, the oldest university in Cuba founded in 1728. A notable graduate is Fidel Castro who entered the University of Havana’s law school in 1945.

This activity will be of particularly interest for the professional research of those North American travelers whose profession, professional background, or area of expertise (including area of graduate-level full-time study) relates to legal education.

Followed by a guided walking tour of Old Havana, UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Old Havana is a 528 acre area that contains approximately 4000 buildings in a variety of styles including Spanish Baroque, Neocolonial, Beaux Arts, and Moorish. Since the 1990s, development efforts in Havana include extensive historic preservation, architectural renewal, and modernization of infrastructure.

Free time in the famous handicraft market of Old Havana, located inside the Almacenes de Depósito San José, an old warehouse on the harbourside where you can purchase all sorts of crafts and souvenirs by local artisans.

Evening: tonight we have a Cuban band playing for us! You'll learn to dance to Salsa, Son, Rumba, and other popular Cuban rhythms with instruction from bandleaders. Your participation in these activities directly supports the Cuban people and the Cuban families financially while encouraging independent entrepreneurial activities that in turn strengthen civil society in Cuba.

Morning: the activity in our full-time schedule of professional research this morning, it is to attend professional meetings with the president and representatives of the Commission for Constitutional, Administrative and Legal Matters of the National Assembly of People's Power (Asamblea Nacional del Poder Popular, ANPP). The ANPP has 609 members elected from single-member electoral districts for five-year terms. Each is accountable and can be recalled at any time.

This visit represents a great opportunity for lawyers and judges; law professors, faculty; legal scholars, and other law professionals from USA, Canada and all over the world to conduct professional research on the Cuba's Government System, the Cuba's Constitution, and the Cuba's Electoral System. The format is a presentation and discussion.

Lunch at Paladar Caleza Real. Eating in private family-run restaurants directly supports the Cuban people and the Cuban families financially while encouraging independent entrepreneurial activities that in turn strengthen civil society in Cuba.

Afternoon: guided educational tour of the Capitol building, Capitolio Nacional, seat of the National Assembly of People’s Power. Designed by Cuban architects and built by the American construction company Purdy & Henderson, this monumental building is one of Cuba’s most outstanding architectural landmarks packed with artwork from Cuban and foreign artists. The dome is 300.96 ft. high (7 inches higher than the highest capitol building in the US) and the recently renovated gardens are the work of the famous French Landscape architect, Forestier.

Evening venue: visit to Habana Cafe. A great opportunity to Salsa dancing with Cubans and your tour companions to live music of Cuban best salsa bands such as Los Van Van, Paulito FG, La Charanga Habanera, Adalberto Alvarez, and many others (entrance fee not included).

Morning: as part of our full-time schedule of professional research on Cuba’s Legal System, we will attend professional meetings with members of the Cuban National Society of Social Sciences and representatives of the Cuban National Union of Lawyers (UNJC). The UNJC holds special consultative status on the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), a body facilitating international cooperation on standards making and problem solving ineconomic and social issues. Introduction to Cuba's Penal and Justice System.

This activity will be of particularly interest for the professional research of those North American travelers whose profession, professional background, or area of expertise (including area of graduate-level full-time study) relates to the penal and justice system.

Lunch: a new wave of paladares (privately-owned restaurants) has recently swept the Cuban dining scene offering excellent food and charming ambient. Today we’ll enjoy a welcome lunch at the stylish Paladar L'Elite, one of Havana's top ten private restaurants.

Afternoon: visit to Partagas Cigar Factory, founded in 1845 by Spaniard Don Jaime Partagas.

Don Jaime owned many of the best plantations in the Vuelta Abajo tobacco-growing region of Cuba and being able to choose from among the finest tobaccos on the island made the brand Partagas incredibly successful.

Don Jaime is also believed to have experimented with various methods of fermenting and aging tobacco and is legendarily credited with hiring the first lector to read to and entertain the cigar rollers as they worked. Before and after the Revolution, the Cuban-produced Partagás has been one of the most revered and highest-selling brands of cigars in the world.

Followed by panoramic air conditioned coach tour of the most important historical sites in the Modern Havana neighbourhoods of Vedado and Miramar including the Revolution Square, University of Havana, Habana Libre Hotel, Coppelia Ice Cream Park, Plaza José Martí (in front of U.S. Interests Section), Monument to the Battleship Maine, Malecón seawall, Prado promenade, Central Park, The Great Theatre and the Capitol building.

Evening: attend one of the most traditional and popular ceremonies in Cuba, the Fire of the Cannon of 9 O'Clock at the Fortress of San Carlos de La Cabana. Followed by visit to Casa del Habano “La Triada”.

Morning: the activity in our full-time schedule of professional research this morning, it is to attend professional meetings at the Bufete de Servicios Especializados (International Law Firm), providing services for foreign clients and joint ventures seeking advice on mainstream commercial work. The Havana-based team is noted for its academic background, availability and client service in general commercial matters, with an emphasis on foreign investment and litigation.

This visit represents another great opportunity for lawyers and judges; law professors, faculty; legal scholars, and other law professionals from USA, Canada and all over the world to conduct professional research on investment opportunities in Cuba and joint ventures between foreign companies and Cuban state-owned entities.

Lunch in Cojimar fishing village (optional/ not included).

Afternoon: Tour around Cojimar fishing village , where Hemingway kept his boat Pilar. The writer is remembered by the town with a small gazebo that encircles a commemorative bust, sculpted from the melted down propellers donated by local fishermen.

Followed by visit to Finca Vigia, a hilltop villa 20 kilometers east of Havana, where famed author Ernest Hemingway lived from 1939 to 1960. It is here where the writer completed some of his greatest works, including The Old Man and the Sea, Across the River and into the Trees, and Islands in the Stream.

The villa has been maintained as a museum for the past 49 years. It contains original book and short story manuscripts, letters, over 3000 photographs, Hemingway’s fishing tackle and gun collections, furniture, priceless art collection, and a 9000 volume library that contains rare first editions of his books and those of other famous writers.

Morning: as part of our full-time schedule of professional research on Cuba’s Legal System, we will attend professional meetings with lawyers at the headquarters of Consultoria Juridica Internacional in Havana. The law firm specializes in migration law. It provides legal council to Cubans and foreigners about their legal status both in Cuba and abroad concerning inheritance, residence, right to work and citizenship.

Lunch hosted by Jose Fuster, one of the most important Cuban ceramists and painters today.

Afternoon: visit to Lex S.A. Servicos Juridicos. Operating out of its Havana headquarters, the team regularly acts for international and domestic clients seeking counsel on registration and protection of trademarks, patents and related litigation. The group's growing case load also involves anti-counterfeiting, web domain registration and copyright issues.

Late afternoon: cocktail party at Club Habana. Opportunity to exchange with some of our Cuban counterparts in a relaxed atmosphere.

Evening: attend baseball game at Latinoamericano Stadium, popularly known in Cuba as "The Colossus of Cerro” is home of Ciudad Habana Industriales. The stadium holds 55,000 people. In 1999, it hosted an exhibition series between Cuban National Team and the Baltimore Orioles.

Morning: attorneys are not permitted to maintain private law offices in Cuba. However, the Cuban Government authorizes several Cuban Government law firms (locally called bufetes) to provide attorney services for fees. Today's visit represents a great opportunity for lawyers and judges; law professors, faculty; legal scholars, and other law professionals from USA, Canada and all over the world to conduct professional research on the work of Cuba’s law firms.

As part of our full-time schedule of professional research on Cuba’s Legal System, we will attend professional meetings with attorneys at Bufetes Colectivos in Pinar del Rio city. Bufetes are collective law offices, first established by the Ministry of Justice after the private practice of law was abolished, and currently under the oversight of the National Organization of Bufetes Colectivos (ONBC).

In order to practice in a bufete, one must graduate from law school in Cuba or a foreign country with Cuban validation. Exceptions to this can be made under extraordinary circumstances. Once in a bufete, attorneys may practice anywhere in the country. Currently, approximately 2,000 lawyers practice in some 250 bufetes throughout Cuba, collectively handling some 200,000 cases per year.

Lunch at Paladar Casa del Campesino in Vinales Valley. Eating in private family-run restaurants directly supports the Cuban people and the Cuban families financially while encouraging independent entrepreneurial activities that in turn strengthen civil society in Cuba.

Afternoon: we will explore Cuba's famous Vinales Valley, containing the most spectacular scenery in Cuba and some of the most interesting and varied geological formations on the island. The valley is particularly famous for its great freestanding rock formations called mogotes.

Meet with local farmers that have been passing from generation to generation the secrets of growing the best tobacco in the world.

Visit to Mural de la Prehistoria, a huge painting on the side of a Mogote.

Explore Viñales town at your leisure: its open-air craft market, Parque Marti, town church, and other interesting sites of this charming colonial hamlet.

We will visit the Cueva del Indio, used by the Guanahatabey Amerindians as a burial site in ancient time, and as refuge from the Spaniards for both Indians and Black slaves alike. We’ll take a short boat ride on the subterranean river running through the cave.

Visit Carmen and Caridad Miranda’s botanical garden, called the Viñales Botanical Garden. The two widows maintain a garden full of fruits, orchids and medicinal plants.

Farewell dinner at La Cocina de Liliam where ex- president James Carter dinned in his last visit to Cuba.

Early morning departure to Havana City International Airport for departure.