Worried parents, steep prices and a tightening U.S. travel ban were among the obstacles Sanchez and nine other University of California, Davis students had to surmount to become one of the first groups of Americans to travel to Cuba under new U.S. regulations.

The rules, implemented last summer by the Bush administration, require all study trips to last at least 10 weeks – purportedly to cut down on tourism under academic pretenses and make sure the students see more than just white-sand beaches and salsa concerts.

Critics say the changes were made only to make it harder for Americans to get to Cuba, and that the vast majority of academic groups coming here before stuck to study-oriented schedules focused on seeing Fidel Castro's socialist system first hand - not the island's beaches.

The UC Davis students, who arrived Jan. 2, had to pay $10,000 each for their 10-week program.

They say the elongated period is letting them move beyond tourism and Cuban government propaganda to get a true sense of life on the island. But, they add, the lengthier stay also gives them more time to discern contradictions in U.S. policy toward Cuba and witness harmful effects of the trade embargo on the Cuban people.

"On paper, this place looks good," said Gabe Feinberg, 25, a political science student. "But seeing that all the money and the tourism has created an upper class and the rest of the people are still pretty much at poverty level – it was a bit disillusioning."

Yet FeinBerg says he still strongly disagrees with U.S. policy toward Cuba.

"The embargo is completely hypocritical," he said. "The U.S. stance is it's a communist regime, and they don't do business with communist regimes, but we do plenty of business with China. Obviously there's more to it than that."

Naomi Voosen, whose father is a staunch Republican in Washington and was concerned about her Cuba trip, said she has yet to form concrete opinions about the place. But she also questions the trade sanctions.

"What is the rationale?" the 25-year-old asked. "I feel like it's really related to a huge Cuban-American population in Florida, and they want an embargo so we have one."

The students, led by UC Davis Comparative Literature Professor Marc Blanchard, will study a range of topics including race and gender issues, the Cuban political structure, housing, music, baseball and community health.

They live together in a house in western Havana and take intensive Spanish classes in the morning. During the 10 weeks they plan to take short trips around the island to the cities of Santiago, Trinidad and Pinar del Rio.

Under one of the few exceptions to the 10-week rule, American graduate students doing independent research can do so for shorter periods. A group of such students from Harvard University just left Havana after a weeklong visit.

President John F. Kennedy imposed economic sanctions against Cuba in 1963 during the Cold War with the aim of isolating the Cuban government economically and depriving it of U.S. dollars. Forty years later, President Bush has sought more stringent enforcement of provisions forbidding most travel here.

Original recommendations in a report issued last year by the U.S. Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba complained that most trips by American students are heavily controlled by Cuban state security officials and allow only limited interaction with average Cubans.

The report also denounced travelers and academic institutions that abuse U.S. licenses by engaging in "disguised tourism." Regular tourist travel is included in the travel ban.

Alicia Henry, an African American Studies major, said she feels that even 10 weeks in Cuba may not be enough.

"Every day you learn something new, and you think you grasp a concept or an idea or an aspect of Cuban culture and then you run into someone else on the street and you just get another perspective," said the 21-year-old. "Every day, everything is changing here."

© 2005 The Associated Press

See related story: Cal-Davis Pays Fees to Castro)

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