Genuine Cuba with Duramis Carrillo Sosa was fantastic!

[Aliza]

We were looking for someone who would communicate and answer questions in a timely way before we got to Cuba.  Duramis is it!  She's amazingly well educated on history, art, culture, Cuban history etc,  well-organized and flexible.  Part way through the tour, my husband wasn't feeling well and she just rolled with the punches, we returned him to the ship and went on.  She totally personalizes the tour for what you want.  

 

Check her out at her Facebook Genuine Cuba page or by her name on Facebook.  Also www.genuinecuba.info and I got fast detailed email responses at duramis@nauta.cu

 

Duramis is also a great photographer and is willing to take professional photos if you'd like for $50 extra.  We went home with a micro SD card with 311 photos.  Some were things we didn't get to see since we cut short our tour.  Would definitely use Genuine Cuba and Duramis again!

[Grego]

We have booked a tour with Duramis for our Feb 14th arrival in Havana.  So far she has been excellent to work with and she knows that my wife and I are excellent photographers.  I am still a little confused about the visa form using her instead of a ship's tour.  Do we check box number 2 which indicates a third party tour that is a "US sponsoring organization"?  Also, what happens if we use the ship's tour for the evening in addition to Duramis?  Do we check both boxes?

[ebslcc]

On 1/23/2019 at 1:48 PM, Grego said:

We have booked a tour with Duramis for our Feb 14th arrival in Havana.  So far she has been excellent to work with and she knows that my wife and I are excellent photographers.  I am still a little confused about the visa form using her instead of a ship's tour.  Do we check box number 2 which indicates a third party tour that is a "US sponsoring organization"?  Also, what happens if we use the ship's tour for the evening in addition to Duramis?  Do we check both boxes?

I had the same question since we also took both ship's excursion and private tours.  My conclusion was to check the box with Support the Cuban People (Box 4 on RCCL form). After you are on board you can go out without any restrictions whatever you check off.  The paperwork is for the US government its a self declaration that the ship is responsible for collecting. 

 

We had Duramis as our guide booked under Havana Memories.  I communicated with HM first before I found out she works independently also. She was EXCELLENT.  I would go with her again without any hesitation. She went above and beyond to show us what's on our list as well as some surprises - e.g. bringing us to see a Jewish Hotel in Old Havana. We saw  a lot in 7 hours and heard a lot of good stories! I would still go through HM vs. Duramis directly as an insurance since HM have other guides in case Duramis is unavailable for some reason. Also, HM may have a better source for good Classic cars and driver. The car we had was spotless. It looked brand new. Yoniel was the driver.  He was excellent also.

 

Laurence

 

[Grego]

Thanks for this reply.  I appreciate the information and good to see you enjoyed Duramis.  She is our guide for the day.

[Grego]

On 1/25/2019 at 4:05 AM, ebslcc said:

I had the same question since we also took both ship's excursion and private tours.  My conclusion was to check the box with Support the Cuban People (Box 4 on RCCL form). After you are on board you can go out without any restrictions whatever you check off.  The paperwork is for the US government its a self declaration that the ship is responsible for collecting. 

 

We had Duramis as our guide booked under Havana Memories.  I communicated with HM first before I found out she works independently also. She was EXCELLENT.  I would go with her again without any hesitation. She went above and beyond to show us what's on our list as well as some surprises - e.g. bringing us to see a Jewish Hotel in Old Havana. We saw  a lot in 7 hours and heard a lot of good stories! I would still go through HM vs. Duramis directly as an insurance since HM have other guides in case Duramis is unavailable for some reason. Also, HM may have a better source for good Classic cars and driver. The car we had was spotless. It looked brand new. Yoniel was the driver.  He was excellent also.

 

Laurence

 

Thanks again for this post.  She quoted us both in $CUCs and $US and said she would accept either.  My understanding was that we should exchange Euros to CUCs because $US was very difficult for the Cuban people to exchange.  How did you pay her?  Did you use CUCs all the time you were in Havana?

[Grego]

We just returned from Cuba and we had Duramis as our guide in Havana.  What an excellent job she did!  Her English is very good which made the narrative tremendous.

She has the ability to tailor the itinerary based upon what you want to see which made the flow a lot better than a canned ship's tour.  We walked the old section of Havana a used a 1955 Pontiac for the other sections, parking the car in strategic locations and walking the area of interest.

We are very experienced photographers and she enjoys photography as well.  This made it perfect for us in that we were taken to the best photo ops and shared some techniques for shooting them.  At the end of the day, she gave us the micro SD card that she was using to take photos of us and the sights along the way.  I will post process them along with ours and put them in a gallery that she can use for her business.

The best part is that she is very affordable and a lot less than the ship's tours.  She will accept $US as well.  Go to her web site that is posted here and tell her that Greg and Carolyn sent you.  http://genuinecuba.info/