EXPLORING CUBA’S NATURAL DIVERSITY March 12–24, 2016 RESERVATION FORM Name Date of Birth Name Date of Birth Address City State Zip Phone: Home Office Fax E-mail If possible, please assign a roommate. Smoker Non-smoker I understand if a roommate is not secured for me by final payment date, I will be charged the single supplement amount. I wish to pay the additional $1,095 for a single supplement. Enclosed is a check for ______ $1,000 deposit per person payable to “Harvard University” to hold ____ place(s) on the “Exploring Cuba’s Natural Diversity” program. OR Please charge my deposit of $______________ to Visa MasterCard AMEX Account # Expiration Date Name as it appears on card CVV We confirm that I/we have carefully read the information on refunds, general conditions and the responsibility clause specified in the tour conditions. Signature____________________________________________________ Date________________________ Signature____________________________________________________ Date________________________ Please return this form with deposit check to: Travel Program, Harvard Alumni Travels, 124 Mount Auburn St. 6th Floor, 124 Mount Auburn Street, 6th Floor, Cambridge, MA 02138 or fax it to (617) 496-8782. QUESTIONS? Please call us at (617) 495-2463 OR e-mail [email protected] HMSC Membership The museums’ exhibitions draw on Harvard’s historic collections, and its educational programs for children and adults provide public access to the expertise of the university’s research scholars. A forum for thoughtful and informed exchange of ideas, the museums depends on membership to support their activities and outreach to communities in Cambridge and beyond. I would like to become a member at the following level: $35 Senior/Student $50 Individual $85 Family $125 Supporting $250 Sustaining $500 Patron Please enclose a separate check made out to the Harvard Museums of Science & Culture for membership. Thank you. Travel Program Harvard Alumni Travels 124 Mount Auburn Street, 6th Floor Cambridge, MA 02138 EXPLORING CUBA’S NATURAL DIVERSITY March 12–24, 2016 As diplomatic and economic ties between the United States and Cuba are Travel Program reformed over the next few years, the landscape of Cuba will dramatically change, Harvard Alumni Travels making it more important than ever to experience Cuba as it is today. The 124 Mount Auburn Street 6th Floor Harvard Museums of Science & Culture is operating this educational program Cambridge, MA 02138 under the General License* authorized by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (617) 495-2463 phone (617) 496-8782 fax (OFAC). This program differs from more traditional trips in that every hour must be accounted for. Each day has been structured to provide meaningful interactions www.travel.hmsc.harvard.edu with Cuban people or educational or cultural programming. Our journey begins in Camagüey, Cuba’s largest province, rarely visited by foreigners. Its historic center, considered the largest and best preserved on the island, boasts many lavish churches and a twisted maze of streets designed to confound marauding pirates. Discover Trinidad, one of the finest colonial towns in all the Americas, although tiny in size. A few square blocks of cobblestone streets, pastel-colored 18th- and 19th-century houses, palaces, and plazas demonstrate the Trinidad that once thrived courtesy of the prosperity from the sugarcane industry. After a night in Cienfuegos, nicknamed the ‘Pearl of the South’ after its magnificent bay, we visit beautiful Cienfuegos Botanical Garden and the Zapata Peninsula Biosphere Reserve before driving to western Cuba. Here we will explore Pinar del Río, a region famous for its tobacco plantations, and 250-million year-old eroded karst towers rising from a tropical plain rich with vivid hibiscus and bougainvillea, and rice paddies. The scenes here are timeless and depict rural Cuba complete with thatched homesteads and farmers riding oxen-driven carts. We conclude our journey touring historic Havana’s architecture and urban gardens, and experiencing its art, music, and cuisine. Old Havana, with its square mile of colonial palaces, handsome plazas, and charming cobbled alleys, was once one of the three richest Spanish cities outside of Spain. *Please note that Harvard University intends to fully comply with all requirements of the General License. Travelers must participate in all group activities. We expect the program as follows in this itinerary to change so that we can accommodate the schedules of the people meeting with the group. The following program includes examples of speakers and visits but there may be other guests and visits added as we develop the program. We will have an updated itinerary in early 2016. GROUP SIZE: 12 to 24 guests PRICING: $6,995 per person double occupancy / $1,095 single supplement STUDY LEADERS: Dr. Alfonso Alonso, Managing Director for Field Dr. Leeanne Alonso, Director of Global Programs at Smithsonian Conservation Biology Biodiversity Exploration at Global Wildlife Institute Conservation As a conservation biologist, Alfonso is passionate Leeanne is the current Director of Global Biodiversity about finding how species of plants and animals are Exploration at Global Wildlife Conservation, and distributed in different ecosystems and implementing previously was the head of the Rapid Assessment monitoring programs to assure their persistence. His Program (RAP) at Conservation International. interest in nature commenced early in his life as he Leeanne has coordinated and led over 45 scientific traveled with his parents to different regions within expeditions to document the biodiversity of Mexico, his country of origin. Alfonso’s unexplored parts of the world. She earned her PhD in undergraduate degree in biology led him to study the Biology from Harvard University in 1994, working ecology and conservation of monarch butterflies as with renowned scientist and ant expert, Dr. E.O. they overwinter in Mexico. He studied this Wilson, on the ecological interactions between ants endangered phenomenon also for his Masters and PhD and plants. degrees at the University of Florida. Her current research focuses on the diversity of ants in In his current position as Managing Director for Field tropical ecosystems across the globe. Leeanne has Programs, Alfonso focuses to integrating conservation worked in over 25 countries, mainly in the tropics, to needs with development priorities to sustain document species richness and guide conservation biodiversity. He develops assessment and monitoring action. She also does independent biodiversity programs to minimize impacts on biodiversity during consulting, primarily for the International Finance oil and gas mega-infrastructure projects. For this, he Corporation (the private lending arm of the World organizes expeditions and assembles teams of Bank) to advise the private sector on how to minimize researchers with specialties in different animal and the impacts of their development projects on the plant groups. These conservation and development environment. Leeanne recently founded the Women partnerships work towards avoiding, mitigating, for Wildlife Network, which aims to strengthen the restoring and offsetting project impacts and develop role of women in conservation and natural resource best practices to protect biodiversity and maintain management around the world. ecosystem services. Alfonso enjoys giving lectures and working with people, and has extensive research travel in North, Central and South America, Africa and Asia. EXPLORING CUBA’S NATURAL DIVERSITY March 12–24, 2016 (B=Breakfast, L=Lunch, D=Dinner) ITINERARY End the morning at the wonderfully created model of the city built after Camaguey’s recent awarding of the UNESCO status. Friday, March 11 After lunch at a local restaurant, try your hand at dominoes with Independent arrivals in Miami some local domino experts. Since the flight to Havana may depart early on Saturday, March Before dinner at a local restaurant, enjoy a private Salsa class. 12, we suggest you arrive in Miami by Friday, March 11. The Salsa movements originate from the Cuban Son dancing of the 1920s with strong influences from various Afro-Cuban You are responsible for your own travel arrangements to Miami folkloric dancing. Today's Salsa dancing is a rich blend of and for your own hotel reservations on March 11. We suggest Latin-American and Western influences. the Miami Airport Hotel as it is located within the airport and will allow you easy access to the charter flight check-in area, Overnight: Gran Hotel (B, L, D) but there are several other hotels in the airport vicinity. Monday, March 14 Saturday, March 12 Camaguey / Trinidad Depart Miami, U.S. / Camaguey, Cuba This morning begin driving west, passing through rural villages Depart on a charter flight from Miami to Camaguey, Cuba. and glimpsing the kind of life lost in the rest of the Caribbean Upon arrival, transfer to the Gran Hotel. Enjoy a welcome such as oxen ploughing fields and farmers sowing crops by dinner with two of Cuba’s most creative and prodigious hand. Stop at a tobacco farm to learn more about the process. contemporary painters—Joel Jover and his wife, Ileana Sanchez. Enjoy lunch in Ciego de Avila, a small city of shaded Their magnificent home is itself a piece of art and there will be colonnaded shop-fronts. Ciego de Avila is the most modern of time to admire the home as well as some of the artists’ work. Cuba’s provincial capitals, founded in 1840. Overnight: Gran Hotel (D) After lunch, continue towards Trinidad. Along the way, stop at the Valle de Los Ingenios, a living museum of the sugar Sunday, March 13 industry featuring 75 ruined sugar mills, summer mansions, Camaguey barracks, and other facilities related to the field. See the famous Manaca-Iznaga Tower, built in 1816 and 45m high, whose This morning begin exploring Camaguey, which began life as tolling bells once marked the beginning and end of working the Spanish coastal town of Santa Maria del Puerto Principle in hours on the sugar plantations. 1514. (It was relocated inland just 14 years later after battles Transfer to the Las Cuevas Hotel in the late-afternoon.