Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/458251
30 W E S T W O R L D | S P R I N G 2 0 1 5 (panorama) james featherstone, (map) marconi soares T he map above cruise coordinator Lissett Maria Perez Garcia's desk charts our route in bright blue marker. Excursion guide Joanny Camejo has described every stop in alluring detail, and, with my wife Lori's help, I can now pronounce at least half of our upcoming destinations correctly. But sitting on the sun-drenched aft deck as our little ship sweeps around the tip of Cuba's Guanaha- cabibes Peninsula towards the shores of María la Gorda is when I decide this trip is truly under- way. As the choppy waters flatten, a gorgeous eight-kilometre run of underpopulated, unin- terrupted beach appears off the portside and our ship slows to a stately pace. Cuban customs agents soon board to check the manifest and approve our anchor- age in the country's most western bay, lapping up against the peninsula's 50,000-hectare national park and UNESCO biosphere reserve. is is the twelfth sailing of the season for the S/C Panorama – Havana to María la Gorda, Punta Frances on Juventud Island, Playa Giron and the cities of Cienfuegos and Casilda/Trini- dad. It is also the first cruise itinerary to begin and end within Cuba since the revolution closed up the country 54 years ago. e Greek cruise line's invitation to sail these waters is evi- dence that the government, now led by Presi- dent Raúl Castro, is willing to slowly expand its tourism options, and that Variety Cruises (headquartered in Athens, Greece) is equally willing to weather the bureaucratic challenge of repositioning Panorama from its usual route in the Adriatic Sea to untested Caribbean waters. ere are 24 adventurous passengers on board Small-ship cruising – the new way to see Cuba BY RICK STAEHLING Havana Playa Giron Trinidad Isla de la Juventud María la Gorda Varadero Cienfuegos CARIBBEAN SEA Panorama, the three-masted ship that cruises Cuban waters. View Waterfront View Waterfront View