Michael Bellows

Michael Bellows lives in Key West, Florida. He was born in

Washington, D.C. and grew up on the Lower East Side in New York

City and the Mediterranean island of Ibiza, Spain. He has lived and

traveled extensively in the United States, Europe, the Caribbean

and Central America. With his sister Jo, he owned and operated a

travel company and led anthropological and archaeological tours to

Mexico. In 1989, during the contra war in Nicaragua (and with his

other sister Susie), he volunteered as a driver transporting

equipment and supplies to the Managua office of the U.S.-based

watchdog group Witness for Peace.

After graduating from Dowling College in Long Island, N.Y. in

1981 with a Bachelor's degree in business, he pursued freelance

journalism. His articles have appeared in various newspapers and

magazines throughout the U.S. and cover a wide range of subjects

including urban homelessness, New Age healers, folk rock

musicians, poet Allen Ginsberg, and actor and comedian Dom

DeLuise.

His interest in Cuba intensified after cultivating a close friendship

with a Cuban man who fled the Caribbean nation on a makeshift raft during the Cuban balsero (rafter) crisis in 1994.

Two weeks after moving to Key West in 1996, he bought his first

sailboat (a 26-foot, no-frills '69 Seafarer), took crash courses

(literally) in sailing from his buddies "on the hook" off Christmas

Tree island, and a few months later sailed to Cuba to investigate

things for himself.

The 100-mile crossing took him ten days because of delays

caused by bad weather, hull leaks, a jammed keel, a ripped sail,

and a busted boom. He would like to take this opportunity to thank

Tito and Diana of the fishing vessel Crusader for the wonderful crab

salad on crackers during this ordeal, and also Dry Tortugas park

ranger Roy Apuglese for the emergency water ration.

Bellows has since improved his sailing skills considerably, and

he has traveled to the forbidden island many times, by boat and by

plane. The country has become a second home for him, and many

of the people he has met during his explorations, including the

relatives of his balsero friend in Key West, have turned into a rather

large extended family across the Straits. Cuba Information Manual: The Definitive Guide to Legal and Illegal Travel to Cuba is a result of all those years of research and discovery and would not have been possible without the kindness, generosity, willingness, and trust of all these wonderful Cuban people.

Bellows understands that the issues of U.S.--Cuba relations, the U.S. Trade Embargo against Cuba, and the travel restrictions are not only complex, but emotional too. In this light, and in the spirit of dialogue, healthy debate, and exchange of information, he extends an open invitation to anyone to meet him for a cafe con leche at Harpoon Harry's diner in Key West, Florida.