If you’re wondering why I haven’t posted in a while it’s because in the last two months I haven’t been near a computer long enough to write an email let alone put together a technical blog post.

Our stay in Vancouver has come to an end. My wife and I have decided not to extend our Canadian working holiday Visas and so have to finish our stay in North America. We have quit our jobs and are finally doing some traveling across this vast and beautiful continent. In the last couple of months we have been to some wonderful places - first to the far north, past the Arctic Circle to Yukon and Alaska and now we are finishing our road trip of the western US - from Vancouver, BC, through the Sunshine Coast, Vancouver Island, the states of Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming and now Montana. We’re slowly making our way back to Vancouver where we’ll say good-bye to our friends and then get on a plane to Europe to start a new leg of our overseas adventure in October.

I haven’t gone, I’m still here, just busy doing something else that’s on my TODO list, that’s all. I’ll tick that off and I’ll be back soon enough. See you then.

We’ve booked a holiday to Cuba for the second half of May - a week-long all-inclusive adventure to escape from Vancouver’s crispy (it’s getting nice but still cold) spring weather. We’re really excited about the diving, the all-you-can-drink rum cocktails and the genuine Cuban cigars rolled on sweaty thighs of Cuban virgins. Aggie is less excited about the last one.

Canadian citizens don’t require a Visa. If you’re booking the trip through a travel agency (we booked ours through Flight Center) the airline arranges for a “Travel Card” which is all you need. They use this to stamp you on arrival and departure to Cuba so you don’t “taint” your passport with stamps from a country hostile to the US…

We’re not Canadian citizens - we will be traveling to Cuba from Vancouver on our New Zealand passports and so we’ve been asking ourselves:
Do New Zealand citizens require a Visa to Cuba or is the Travel Card enough?

After an email exchange with the Cuban embassy here in Toronto we found out that NO VISA IS REQUIRED if you are a New Zealander. There are only 3 requirements for Kiwi visitors:

1. valid New Zealand passport (3 months validity past the date of return)
2. Tourist card (available from Travel Agencies or from the Airline on board the plane)
3. Canadian Permanent Resident Card or Landed Immigrant Card, Work Permit or Canadian Visa etc. (This is only required if you will be coming back to Canada - if returning to NZ you don’t need this. But if you intend to come back to Canada and you do not have any of these two, check that with Canadian authorities and make sure you can re-enter Canada)

The following email addresses are helpful if you are wanting to find out more information in Canada about the various travel requirements to Cuba:

Cuba Consulate General in Toronto:
5353 Dundas St. West. Suite 401. Etobicoke. ON. M9B 6H8
TL: (416) 234 8181
E-mail: cubacon@on.aibn.com

or Embassy of the Republic of Cuba in Ottawa
388 Main Street, Ottawa, ON, K1S 1E3
Tel.: 613-563-0141
E-mail: cuba@embacubacanada.netcuba@embacubacanada.net

No visa required and the travel card can be arranged on the plane! Couldn’t be easier than that - we’re all good to go and soo looking forward to the beaches and the sun!