A Disaster Strikes Before we Even Start

It was not the call I wanted to hear. When you pack your bags for an overseas trip, the first item to pack should always be your passport. If you are going to visit any countries that require an entry visa, it is also essential that the relevant visa is packed and ready to be presented to the immigration officers when you arrive.

For months I had been reminding our participants about the importance of having their Cuban visas sorted well before departure. And yet here we were. One of the first two participants to leave Melbourne had just arrived at the airport and discovered that their Cuban visa had "gone missing".

To make matters worse, it was Saturday morning in Melbourne and the Cuban Embassy in Canberra was closed for the weekend. All I could do was reassure them that "somehow it would work out" and wish them a safe flight.

When I got off the phone, I did some more research and learnt that it should be possible to arrange another visa when they arrive at Cancun airport in Mexico. Hopefully this information is accurate, or else we might find our group reduced from 16 to 15 before we even arrive in Havana.

The phone call also prompted me to recheck that I still had my visa securely folded in my passport. To my relief it was. I also decided to scan the visa and store a digital copy as well. In a future blog post I will let you know whether the visa problem was solved or not.Read more