The first activity in our full-time schedule of professional research this morning, it is to attend professional meetings with healthcare and medical professors and students at the Escuela Latinoamericana de Medicina – ELAM (Latin American School of Medicine). Established in 1999 and finance by the generosity of people of Cuba, ELAM is the largest medical school in the world with a current enrollment of over 10,000 students from over 29 countries.

All its students are from outside Cuba and mainly come from Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa. The school also accepts disadvantaged students from the United States. Tuition, accommodation and board are free, and a small stipend is provided to students. This activity will be of particularly interest for the professional research of those travelers from USA, Canada and all over the world whose profession, professional background, or area of expertise (including area of graduate-level full-time study) relates to healthcare education and medical education research.

Complimentary lunch at La Terracita Paladar in Cojimar fishing village, one of Hemingway's favourite hangouts. 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.

Followed by a guided walking tour of Cojimar fishing village, the coastal town where El Pilar boat was docked during Hemingway’s times in Cuba. We will visit a small commemorative plaza near Cojimar waterfront that contains a gazebo and a bust of Ernest Hemingway.

Still deeply remembered and beloved in Cuba, American author Ernest Hemingway established his primary residence in Finca La Vigia in 1939. A shared heritage that brings together the United States and Cuba, Finca La Vigia (or the Lookout Farm) is a must-visit attraction in our education tours to Cuba. The country estate comprises a large main house, extensive gardens, a tower and a swimming pool. It also contains Hemingway’s favourite things: hunting trophies, fishing gear, paintings, photographs, a valuable library as well as his manuscripts, correspondence and journals.

No other place in the world contains such a memorabilia of Ernest Hemingway as Finca La Vigia. Because of the strained relationship in between US and Cuba, little is known in North America about the life of the US author in Cuba and the influence of the Caribbean island on his literary production and career. Our Cuba education tours attempt to shed lights on several aspects of Hemingway's life and work in Cuba with a guided tour of this property where he lived for over 20 years.

Our education tours to Cuba usually head to Old Havana afterwards, and today is no exception. Old Havana, a very small area, at least geographically speaking, of the Cuban capital today is the historical center of the city. Old Havana was declared as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1982, and easily among the finest surviving Spanish colonial sites in Latin America.

In the words of Alejo Carpentier, arguably Cuba’s most important writer of the 20th century, the Cathedral of San Cristobal de La Habana is “like music carved in stone”. Located in the cobblestone Cathedral Square, one of the most visited colonial squares, the church asymmetrical towers and baroque facade loom over imposingly over this cozy plaza that we will visit next.

San Cristobal de La Habana was not originally founded by the Spaniards in the area that is considered Old Havana today but on the south coast. Yet in 1519 the town was re-established (for the third time!) in its present location at the mouth of the Havana Bay.

The ceremony and mass of foundation took place under the shade of a Ceiba tree. The exacty spot is marked today by a little neoclassical building known as El Templete in the Plaza de Armas, the oldest colonial square in the old city which we will explore next. In fact, our Cuba educational tours include a guided walking tour to four of the most important colonial squares founded by the Spanish conquistadores. And Plaza de Armas' surrounds is next on the check list.

Please, do notice the large military fortress on the northeast side. It is the oldest surviving Spanish-built military fortress in Cuba and the Americas, known as Castillo de La Real Fuerza. Please, do also take notice of the baroque Palace of the Captain Generals on the west side containing today the Museum of the City and the Palace of the Spanish Vice-Governor on the northwest corner, housing today the Cuban Book Institute.

Havana was never meant to be the capital of the country. It offered little of no control over central and eastern Cuba, where most rebellions against the Spanish rulers broke out. Yet Havana’s strategic location, at the mouth of the Gulf of Mexico, made the Spanish authorities realize that it was the perfect gathering place for the transatlantic treasure fleets. And soon the Plaza de San Francisco, the next stop in our Cuba education tours, was established to stockpile the goods arriving in Havana and to provide supplies to the Spanish Galleons arriving from Mexico and Peru gathering in Havana before continuing on journey to Spain.

Plaza Vieja is the last colonial square we will visit today and the last one founded by the Spanish authorities in Havana. Since its foundation in the 16th century it served as an open-air market place until the late 19th century. It also served as a gathering forum to discuss civic matters of habanero’s aristocracy. Surrounded by the wide-covered gallery mansions of the former Havana wealthiest, this is the only plaza where no church or government building was ever built.

Next we will pay a visit to Almacenes de San Jose (former San Jose warehouse), a harbour side facility built in 1885 that has been recently restored. Today it houses a cultural centre that offers temporary art exhibits, theatre performances, and a variety of cultural activities for the children of Havana. However, it also contains the largest arts and crafts market in the country, and some free time for shopping is in order before heading back to the hotel for some refreshments.

Evening: one of the standout highlights of our education tours to Cuba are the salsa lessons tour participants received from dance instructor, Elsa at her home, a rooftop overlooking the Cathedral Square in Old Havana. There will also be an amazing musical band playing live for our group! 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.

Restoring the grand old structures of Old Havana that has been crumbing for years due to economic hardships is not an easy task. Yet it is a process that has been in the making slowly but steady for the last 40 years led by a highly skilled workforce of architects, archeologists, historians and restoration graduates from Escuela Taller, a unique workshop school that prepares students through an apprenticeship in restoration and conservation. As part of our educational tours to Cuba we feature a private visit to this school to learn more about technical education.

Our professional meeting with Cuban teachers this morning will be of particularly interest for the professional research of those travelers from USA, Canada and all over the world whose profession, professional background, or area of expertise (including area of graduate-level full-time study) relates to the teaching of skilled trades. With an aging workforce, the school is training skilled trades people who can help restore, preserve and maintain the historical and architectural heritage of the nation.

Follow by a visit to the Escuela Primaria Angela Landa. Despite Cuba’s economic difficulties, Cuban primary students are at the top of Latin America’s peers. Our next visit will shed some lights on the successful Cuban approach to primary education in Cuba in test scores.

Lunch at the private family-run restaurant Caleza Real, a good example of the culinary revolution currently sweeping Havana.

To wrap it up in style, we will enjoy a guided walking tour of the Palace of Fine Arts, treasuring the most important existing collection of Cuban art in the world. Be ready for a crash course on Cuban fine arts from the colonial religious oil paintings of Nicolas de la Escalera to the temporary performances of Tania Brugueras.

Evening: enjoy Afrojazz, Cubajazz and Sonjazz at Club La Zorra y El Cuervo, Havana’s most famous Jazz club. The club features great performances by Cuban Jazz Musicians! (optional, not included)

The first activity in our full-time schedule of professional research this morning, it is to attend professional meetings with professors, faculty and staff at the Cuba’s Higher Institute of Arts (ISA). Studying at the Cuba’s Higher Institute of Arts (ISA), the leading art school in the Caribbean island is similar to do conservatory work in North America.

Built after an idea of young revolutionaries Fidel Castro and Ernesto Che Guevara in 1961, the art complex occupies the former Havana Country Club and comprises five art schools for the studies of music, drama, dance and visual arts. Our education tours to Cuba include a tour of the schools and meeting with students- all active Cuban artists, all escorted by director Sonia Ortega.

This guided educational tour will be of particularly interest for the professional research of those travelers from USA, Canada and all over the world whose profession, professional background, or area of expertise (including area of graduate-level full-time study) relates to higher artistic education.

Another standout highlight of our Cuba education tours is the visit to the fantasy land of Jose Fuster, in Jaimaintas, a seaside village in Havana’s outskirts. Called the Picasso of the Caribbean sometimes by art critics, the fun-loving and hard-drinking renowned Cuban artist will host our group for lunch at his home and studio which is the epicenter of the Jaimanitas Community Project: an art work in progress that has transformed a humble community into a wildly colorful living art gallery.

The 1961 Literacy Campaign is viewed as a cornerstone in Cuban modern history and as a pivotal event in Cuba educational change, laying the foundations for the Cuban education philosophy in the years to come. To understand the educational system of Cuba today, its achievements and methodological approach it is necessary to visit the National Museum of the Literacy Campaign and meet with some of the actors of the historical event. And that’s why, our educational tours to Cuba feature a private meeting with Dra Luisa Campos, the museum director and former alfabetizadora (literacy campaign teacher), to share her memories and anecdotes with our tour participants.

This guided educational tour will be of particularly interest for the professional research of those travelers from USA, Canada and all over the world whose profession, professional background, or area of expertise (including area of graduate-level full-time study) relates to the history of literacy education and alternative approaches to teaching. The ideal approach to teach and learn literacy depends on the student. Every student is an individual with unique strengths, weaknesses, interests, and ways of learning. So how do you teach 700 000 people of different ages and backgrounds in such a record time? What teaching approach was used and why it worked.

Evening: At the very end of 1958, Ernesto Che Guevara gained control of Havana once he occupied the colonial Fortress of La Cabana, a military stronghold of dictator Batista. Hours later Batista fled the country and Fidel arrived in the Cuban capital after announcing the success of The Cuban Revolution in Santiago de Cuba. These days a troop of soldiers in Spanish uniforms recreate a long standing tradition, the Fire of the Cannon. Attended by a crowd of hundreds of Cubans and foreign visitors every night, the soldiers load an original Spanish cannon and fire a very noisy distinctive blast over Havana at 9 o’ clock.

This morning we will wear our Cuba explorer hats and head on to the Caribbean south coast of Cuba to visit several UNESCO World Historical Sites. No other education tours to Cuba offer more destinationas and attractions than Authentic Cuba Travel®.

We will spend most of the day at the Pearl of the South, Cienfuegos, a city that seduces the savvy Cuba travelers with its cleanness, elegance and feisty Caribbean flair; in fact, if Cuba had a Parisinian city, Cienfuegos would be it. Not only because the city was founded by French colonists but because of its French spirit, neoclassical architecture and its rich cultural life.

The first activity in our full-time schedule of professional research this morning, it is to attend professional meetings with sports and physical education teachers, trainers and coaches at the Cienfuegos’ Sports School (Escuela de Iniciacion Deportiva Escolar (EIDE)) “Jorge Agostini”. This activity will be of particularly interest for the professional research of those travelers from USA, Canada and all over the world whose profession, professional background, or area of expertise (including area of graduate-level full-time study) relates to sports and physical education.

Lunch is included at Paladar Ache, one of Cienfuegos top ten private restaurants, serving local specialties in a pleasant courtyard.

Afternoon: with our tour guide bringing back the times of foundation of the city by French refugees from Lousiana in the USA in 1819, we will enroll in a guided walking tour of Cienfuegos historical centre, declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2005.

We will start at the former square of arms which is the epicentre of the urban development of the city during colonial times. In the 20th century, the square was renamed Parque Jose Marti after Cuba’s greatest hero of independence.

Standing on the northern side of Plaza Marti, we will visit the Tomas Terry theater, a 950 seat Italian inspired auditorium whose construction was financed by the Terry family and opened its doors in 1895 with a performance of a Verdi’s play.

Dominating the east side of the square, the magnificent Cathedral of Cienfuegos stands imposingly with its asymmetrical bell towers and neoclassical facade. It is worth taking a look inside to appreciate the original architectural elements such as the stained glass windows depicting the 12 apostles and the clock machinery both imported from France in the 19th century.

Enjoying the finest city views over Cienfuegos is also part of our Cuba education tours. Time allowing, we will step in the Ferrer Palace and climb the wrought iron marble staircase that leads to the blue domed mirador tower. Today the palace houses the Municipal Cultural House, an institution that promotes Cienfuegos children artistic education through a series of workshops.

Before wrapping out our ample tour of Cienfuegos and heading further east along the south coast to our next destination, Trinidad, we will have some free time at the Maroya Art Gallery where city visitors descend to haunt for local fine arts and crafts at very reasonable prices.

Sometime around 5 o’clock we will board our air-conditioning bus to continue our Cuban journey to the colonial city of Trinidad. Check in at your Luxury Casa Particular. You'll have time for dinner and a swim in the warm waters of the Caribbean Sea.

Serious cultural and educational tours should attempt to explore artistic education beyond Havana city. A visit to the municipal school of painting “Oscar Fernandez” in Trinidad will shed lights on how rural art schools in central Cuba are coping with the recent overhauling of Cuba’s educational system where emphasis is placed in agricultural and technical studies. You will also learn that talent is the determining factor to enroll in art studies in Cuba. The school principal will also talk to our tour participants about the hardships they face in Cuba today and the need for improving the curriculum and qualification standards.

This visit represents a great opportunity for North American university and college professors, faculty and staff; K-12 teachers, and other educational professionals to conduct professional research on Cuba’s secondary educational system in the countryside and to exchange with Cuban teachers.

Even though it sounds too good to be true, medical education is free in Cuba. Our next visit will allow us to talk to young family doctors and nurses about the various specialties they can study at no cost in Cuba. Even though it sounds hard to believe, Cuba has also being providing such free medical education studies to foreign students from developing countries and even from the United States of America. Next we will visit the municipal maternity home, another highlight of our Cuba education tours.

Family doctors are a new type of physician that specializes in comprehensive general medicine and are integral part of the so called Primary Level of Medical Attention. This exchange presents an unparalleled chance for North American university and college professors, faculty and staff; K-12 teachers, and other educational professionals to conduct professional research on Cuba’s medical education.

Lunch at Solananda Paladar. 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.

We will embark on a walking tour of one of the prettiest and best preserved Spanish colonial cities in all the Americas, UNESCO World Heritage Site, Trinidad, a reflection of the vast fortunes amassed by Trinidad’s sugar plantation owners in the nearby Valley of the Sugar Mills.

A great place to kick off the exploration of this enchanting open-air museum, it is the Municipal Museum of Trinitarian History housed in the former Cantero Palace, a grand building with a macabre past. Rumor has it that Mr. Kanter (Cantero in Spanish), a German doctor that settled in the region, poisoned the owner of vast properties in Trinidad (including this palace) and the Valley of the Sugar Mills. Then he married his widow acquiring huge sugar estates in the process. His new wife was to die soon after in a mysterious ways too. But these are just rumors, ok?

Next we will visit the Museo of Lucha Contra Bandidos, housed in one of Trinidad’s most recognizable structures, the former convent and bell tower of San Francisco de Asis. The museum contains photographs, military equipment, and objects related to the fighting of the local militias against the counterrevolutionary gangs operating in the nearby Escambray mountains in the early 1960’s. The remains of an American U2 spy plane that was shot down over this region is also on display.

Comprising the valleys of San Luis, Agabama-Meyer and Santa Rosa, the Valley of the Sugar Mills created the wealth that financed Trinidad’s cityscape in colonial times. Declared as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1988, the valley is worth a visit to understand the history of the province. We will make a stop at a mirador that has been established atop La Loma del Puerto hill for breathtaking views of the valley.

Trinidad is well known for its pottery makers. We meet with a family that has been passing the tradition for generations: the Santanders.

Cultural and educational tours to Trinidad, Cuba wouldn’t be complete without some further exploration of the beautiful Caribbean beaches of Peninsula de Ancon, a short 15 mile drive south of the historical center and, of course, some free time to shop at a leisurely pace the numerous open air handicraft markets that the old city has to offer.

Evening is free to enjoy the beach, hotel amenities, and the lively streets of Trinidad. How about live Cuban popular music on steps of Casa de la Trova – a great opportunity to dance with Cubans and your tour companions.

Morning: this is your last chance to do some last minute shopping at the historical center, or just to revisit some of the numerous museums and venues we explored yesterday. Whatever you do, please make sure to let your Authentic Cuba Travel® guide know. We are heading back to Havana this morning.

Assisted by your guide and hotel staff, we will check in at your hotel Valentin Quinta Avenida (Valentin 5th Avenue) or Luxury Casa Particular upon arrival at the Cuban capital.

The last educational activity in our full-time schedule of professional research on Cuba’s educational system, it is to attend professional meetings with professors, faculty and staff at the University of Havana which has long been a cornerstone of higher education in Cuba. As first a religious institution, and then a secular one, it has been the birthplace of important cultural and political ideas for the country.

During your tour of the campus, you’ll have an opportunity to meet with students from the Law School—whose most prominent graduate is the long-time leader of Cuba, Fidel Castro. This activity will be of particularly interest for the professional research of those travelers from USA, Canada and all over the world whose profession, professional background, or area of expertise (including area of graduate-level full-time study) relates to higher education.

Early morning departure to Havana City International Airport for departure.