YA'LL ASKED FOR IT. HERE IT IS. HUNTING IN CUBA. (haven't found any turkeys yet,however, I understand there's one in Havana with a world record beard! Maybe one of ya'll can bag that one!)
The Island of Youth is located almost directly south of Havana, a large island about 50 miles long and 50 miles wide. It has 13 lakes and numerous opportunities for great hunting for White Crown Pigeon, Ducks and Quail.

The Island of Youth is famous for it's incredible scuba diving. Most of it is done off the Southwest coast at the Colony Hotel. There are more than 56 different dive sites here for the scuba divers.

There are about 70,000 Cubans living on the Island and more than half of them live in the capital city of Nuevo Gerona.

One can find lots of crocodiles, deer and boar in the southern part of the island. Millions of turtles come ashore to lay their eggs in season.

Americans make the Villa Gaviota their home away from home while hunting on the Island of Youth. It has a pool nice restaurant and entertainment. It is located about 1 km from town and 5 km from the airport.

Expect to pay $2100 for a 7 night / 5 day hunting trip plus the cost of getting there. License is $25, shot gun rentals (both 12 and 20 gauge) are $10 per day and shells cost $10 per box.

We have truly enjoyed working with Luis Hernandez and his friends on the Island.

info@cubatravelusa.com

(right from the horse's mouth) VERNON BURTON RESPONDS!!!!!
I will have to reread Tom, but I still think it is a good book. I will have to read de Costa's work. The review is one of the most severe I have seen. But I really think we need more modern work on filibusters and I think Tom's book is helping to bring this important 19th C. phenomenon to light. Till I see all the evidence, I will have to stick by my assessment. These sorts of arguments are common among historians and it helps us refine and move toward the truth as we add and critique each other. Debate is good. I will see how you like what I did and if you think I was too far off base relying on Tom's account (which I am not ready to give up yet until I see the alternative spelled out and documented).
Was it your birthday 29 April? If so Happy birthday. Had mine on 15th.
No problem with teasing and I deserve it. But as I just said, I will stick by it till I check out other side. Thought the reviewer does seem to know his stuff.

Vernon

http://www.rose-hulman.edu/~delacova/articles/Florida-Summer-97.pdf

If you really enjoy seeing the life work of a member of America's professional academic elite ripped totally to shreds, click on the above. Regardless of all the raving reviews Tom Chaffin received on his book describing the Lopez expeditions, the reviewer, Antonio de la Cova, knows a little more than Chaffin. Little things like how to read and write Spanish or getting your facts straight or using original rather than secondary sources. De la Cova praises the pictures in Chaffin's book, however, he writes " The rush to publish, to compete in a glutted academic job market, leaves this work ingloriously and fatally flawed." De la Cova says that Chaffin mistakenly describes the Lopez expeditions as strictly annexationist and warns the reader that "Recent Cuban history of the filibuster era is deficient, and such works rarely include notes or cite new sources."

Chaffin doesn't have anything to worry about though. Professors on America's college campuses love his stuff. The University of San Diego History Department website summarizes Chaffin's Lopez book by saying it "emphasizes that Lopez was an irresponsible dreamer who was more the product of the popular press and national expansionism than the southern 'purple dream'". In other words, Chaffin gives Narciso a break. Instead of being the tool of the evil Southern slave masters, he's a tool of the evil Yankee expansionists and their propagandists. No way Narciso Lopez was motivated by a love of the Cuban people and felt an obligation to do anything in his power to free them from the tyranny of the Spanish court and to bestow upon them the fruits of freedom, liberty and justice.

The reason I got on this subject is because I began reading Vernon Burton and his wife's introduction to The Free Flag of Cuba where twice they call Tom Chaffin "the foremost authority" on the Lopez expedition and admit that their introduction "relies heavily on the thorough accounts of the Lopez expedition by its foremost authority, TOM CHAFFIN."

Hey Vernon. Like da preacher says," I don't thank I'd uh tole dat!!!!"

>MY MAIN MAN, JOSE OROZCO GARCIA(a.k.a. $CASH MONEY$), GOT IT GOING ON. THINKING 'BOUT DEDICATING THE WHOLE DAMN THANG TUH HIM $$$$CLASSIC QUOTE....."WE CLOSE ONLY FOR REVOLUTIONS. WE AREN'T BOTHERED BY ANYTHING ELSE!"

Robert Register
with his buddy,
Mr. Hugh Taylor.








photo by Michael Palmer

---

Stern laws forbid the operation of houses of prostitution. Havana, however, is full of them. One enterprising Spanish madam developed the lushest bordello in town on the policy of offering the facilities of the house gratis to deserving government officials.

In short, the law books would seem to tag Havana as a "closed town." The fact is that anyone can run the gamut, from "French movies" to girlie shows to reefer parties, in this Caribbean playground.

Cynical Cubans declare that the sugar trade keeps them alive but the tourist dollar makes life worth living. Havana is indeed geared to the tourist trade as are few other capital cities in the world. It's a huckstering holiday town with one main pitch: Come on, you thousands of Americans, throw off your inhibitions and play in an old Spanish city which never heard of the bourgeois squeamishness of American play lands! There's something for every taste and every pocketbook!

http://cuban-exile.com/doc_176-200/doc0198.htm
FOR A LONG TIME, Havana has enjoyed the reputation of being the sexiest city in the Western hemisphere. To nearly everyone–and Americans especially–her main commodities have been rum, cigars and women.

But the Americano expecting to find the ultimate in wickedness in Havana will be disappointed in at least one respect. The famed capital of Latin vice has only one burlesque house. It is the Shanghai Theater, located appropriately enough in Chinatown, among the narrow, winding streets of old Havana.

But if it's small in numbers, Cuban burlesque more than makes up for it in punch. There is probably nothing–including the rawest of Parisian shows–that is quite as raw as the peculiar combination of blackout skits, sexy dances and stag movies that make up the Shanghai bill.

Girls of all nationalities, shapes and sizes work in the Shanghai. In many numbers, girls remove costumes behind props like cardboard bunnies and then step forward.

There have been other burley houses in the city, but over the years they have succumbed to the onslaught of the law. The Shanghai, however, continues to operate and pack ‘em in every night as it has for the past 24 years.

"We close only for revolutions," says Jose Orozco Garcia, a paunchy, affable fellow with a big cigar and the tailoring of a syndicate hood, including fedora. He has managed the house since it opened. "We aren't bothered by anything else," he says, smiling as he fingers his diamond stickpin

Capn,

I'm kinda boozed now after landing on your website.
I was watching just 5 mins ago a Marx Bro's film, and, what the heck! your site is now full of Marx' quotations... and I'm drinking my CUBATA (which, maybe is not known in America under that name, but is just whisky and cola... the name comes from 'Cuba-libre' which means 'Free-Cuba') and... there's a link on your site about Cuba... Cubala..... wow... and my all-time favorite soccer player was called Kubala...
So, you must admit it: you've got non-autorized access to my brain and built your website with all its contents...
(that may also explain why your page is not a really long one hehehe)

-- CPJ El Bon Recer
CAPN SKYP (AKA ken babbs) POSTED THIS ON http://skypilotclub.com so, as you can see, FOLKS ARE ACTUALLY READING THIS BLOG!!!!

I don't always take advice or criticism well, however, all comments are welcome. Contact me about "Cuba, Alabama" at robertoreg@hotmail.com

http://delafe.com/cardenas/homee.htm
This is one of the first Cuban sites I ever visited when I first seriously got on the Web back in 2000. What Ernesto de la Fe has done for his old hometown is an outstanding credit to the Cuban Exile Community. The hard work, courage, idealism and heroism of these people is an inspiration to us all.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MEEEEE!!!!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MEEEEE!!!!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MEE EEEEEE!!!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!!!!
I'M 53EEEEEEE!

A COUPLE OF DAYS AGO I MADE A SMARTASS REMARK ABOUT UNIVERSITY PROFESSORS COMING BACK FROM CUBA WITH SOUVENIR PHOTOS OF CASTRO. WELL HERE'S MY SOUVENIR PHOTO OF CHE WHICH I TOOK IN THE INDIAN MARKET IN CUENCA, ECUADOR BACK IN '74. YOU DIDN'T SEE MANY POSTERS OF CHE BACK THEN CAUSE THE DICTATOR, EL BOMBITO, DIDN'T REALLY APPRECIATE CHE ALL THAT MUCH. THE MAIN IMAGE OF CHE IN ECUADOR WERE THESE COWBOY BELT BUCKLES WITH CHE'S PORTRAIT OF THEM. I DIDN'T LIKE THEM BUT I DID BUY ONE WITH BIG CAST IRON COCKROACH.

http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?Site=TL&Date=20030428&Category=NEWS&ArtNo=304280307&Ref=AR&Profile=1012&SectionCat=editorial1
While the Bush administration’s policy has not been constructive, neither does it seem likely that anything can be gained at this time by expanding contacts with Cuba. Perhaps all we can do at this point is maintain a deathwatch on the Castro regime.
THIS EXCERPT FROM AN EXCELLENT TUSCALOOSA NEWS EDITORIAL LEAVES A LITTLE BIT TO BE DESIRED. IF BUSH'S POLICY IS ALL WE CAN DO, HOW COME IN AIN'T CONSTRUCTIVE?(Like a little bird told me: "Who owns the Tuscaloosa News?")

http://www.utulsa.edu/law/classes/rice/USSCT_Cases/MITCHEL_V_US_1835.HTM
This is the Supreme Court case concerning the Forbes Purchase which may have archives in Cuba.
http://nautarch.tamu.edu/PROJECTS/denbigh/denbigh.html
I'm gonna start putting old links back up. This is the Texas A & M site on the Confederate blockade-runner,Denbigh.
http://www.rose-hulman.edu/~delacova/filibusters.htm
This is de la Cova's Cuban filibuster page.
http://www.freemasonwatch.freepress-freespeech.com/albertpikeandkkk.html
Don't believe half the stuff on this site,however, it will familiarize you with the Knights of the Golden Circle who helped to organize the Lopez expeditions.
http://www.rose-hulman.edu/~delacova/articles/jacksonville.
This is an excellent de la Cova on the involvement of Jacksonville, Florida Freemasons in the Lopez expeditions.