By Janet Frankston
                     jfrankston@ajc.com
                     Cox News Service

                     HAVANA - When we arrived at the TelŽgrafo, across from Havana's central park, I
                     didn't expect our accommodations to look like a boutique hotel, styled with an art deco
                     mosaic on a wall in the bar, arched ceilings and a silver couch in the lobby.

                     The TelŽgrafo stands along the Prado, a main avenue with a park running down the
                     middle that ends at the sea. Framed tapestries with floral prints hung above the beds,
                     and the television aired CNN, ESPN and HBO.

                     But the threadbare towels, low shower pressure and flickering lights reminded me
                     that I was in Cuba. Some rooms lacked a good supply of toilet paper, and when the
                     wake-up calls came a half-hour early or not at all, I wasn't surprised.

                     If you've always dreamed of strolling in Old Havana to soak in the mix of architectural
                     styles or gaze at the classic 1950s cars, you can go to Cuba, but not as easily as
                     only a few months ago. You need a U.S. government-approved purpose to visit
                     legally.

                     And don't expect a trip to the beach, literally. Most trip organizers are careful to
                     comply with licensing rules for trips to Cuba, and lolling on the beach doesn't fit the
                     criteria. Free time can be limited, and you may be shuttled from place to place on a
                     tour bus, leaving only a few minutes at Revolution Square or an hour to walk the
                     cobblestone streets of Trinidad. I hated feeling like a tourist with a schedule to meet,
                     but it was a small sacrifice for the chance to experience a practically forbidden island
                     only 90 miles from Key West, Fla.

                     Of course, I wasn't really a tourist because the four-decades-old U.S. trade embargo
                     prohibits tourism for U.S. citizens. (The island of 11 million people is still a vacation
                     destination for Europeans, Canadians and others.)

                     For us, a legal trip required a visa issued by the Cuban government and a license
                     approved by the U.S. Treasury Department under several categories. The Bush
                     administration has eliminated "people-to-people" licenses that allowed cultural
                     exchanges, and as of Dec. 31, these trips have stopped.

                     One license for traveling is for religious purposes, which is how I arrived in Cuba in
                     December. The Marcus Jewish Community Center of Atlanta sponsored a weeklong
                     mission to visit Cuba's burgeoning Jewish communities and deliver aid, using a license
                     issued to the Cuban-American Jewish Mission in Berkeley, Calif.

                     There is no solid data about how many Americans visit Cuba annually, but we were
                     among the few. A New Jersey-based charter company, Marazul, estimated 220,000
                     went last year, using research from flights and from the Cuban and U.S.
                     governments.

                     If you can get there, expect lots of surprises, starting with money. Remember to pack
                     cash. Your American-issued credit cards and ATM cards won't work because there
                     are no arrangements between Cuban and American banks. (Neither will your
                     American cellphone.)

                     Though the country does not have formal relations with the United States, the Cuban
                     government legalized the use of U.S. dollars in 1993, creating a two-tier economy.
                     Cubans who get paid in dollars, often those who work in the tourism industry, have
                     access to "dollar shops," which are likely to be stocked with goods and food when
                     peso shops are empty. Cubans who get paid in pesos find their money doesn't go as
                     far.

                     Some economists and civil engineers work as tour guides because they can make
                     more money than in the professions for which they trained. A joke in Cuba asks why
                     a physicist is wandering around the famed Hotel Nacional de Cuba. The answer: He
                     dreams of working as the doorman with potential for a better salary.

                     Still, no matter who the doorman is, the Hotel Nacional is worth a visit. Opened in
                     1930, the nearly 500-room art deco-style hotel overlooks the Havana harbor and has
                     hosted everyone from Winston Churchill and Frank Sinatra to Roman Polanski and
                     Barbara Walters.

                     The Nacional gave a wonderful concert, starring members of the Buena Vista Social
                     Club and Afro Cuban All Stars Pio Leyva, Teresa Garcia Caturla and Gonzalo
                     Rubalcaba, who recently won a Grammy.

                     Even though the audience was made up mostly of tourists, the performance was
                     worth its $25 cover charge. So was the price of the mojitos -- a rum drink made with
                     mint, sugar, lemon or lime juice and club soda. It seemed to vary by a few dollars
                     depending on the servers, who knew we had dollars to spend. Perhaps this was a
                     small glimmer of capitalism?

                     I could have skipped the overpriced show ($65) at the Tropicana, the famous outdoor
                     cabaret that opened in 1939. The floor show featured dancers with chandeliers on
                     their heads and colorful costumes with feathers.

                     The National Ballet of Cuba staged a more graceful performance, of "Don Quixote."
                     Tickets cost $10 for foreigners and five pesos (about 25 cents) for Cubans. The
                     ballet, under the direction of famed Cuban dancer Alicia Alonso, is housed in the Gran
                     Teatro de la Habana, a grand theater with five balconies.

                     Down the street from the theater, Cuba's Capitol, modeled after the U.S. Capitol was
                     hard to miss with its huge dome. The day we visited, artists sold their goods inside.
                     The coffee shop provided wonderful views of the Prado.

                     In the Chinatown section, not far from the Capitol, we ate at Min Chih Tang at
                     Manrique No. 513, which specialized in Italian dishes, including lobster pizza.

                     Also near the Capitol were Havana's central park, home to a statue of Cuban national
                     hero JosŽ Mart’ and the place where locals gather to talk about baseball and Old
                     Havana.

                     UNESCO added Old Havana to its World Heritage Sites list in 1982. Founded by the
                     Spanish in 1519, the district felt more European than Caribbean, with its narrow
                     streets and baroque and neo-classical monuments.

                     Workers were busy restoring many buildings in Old Havana, yet some stood next to
                     crumbling structures in need of paint. On Wednesdays, the district plays host to a
                     book fair in Plaza de Armas. An artists' market is nearby, where original paintings,
                     elaborate cotton dresses and wooden crafts sell for a few dollars on certain days.

                     A quick walk away are Old Havana's two art museums, the Museo Nacional de Bellas
                     Artes and the Museo de Arte Colonial, worth a trip to see the buildings and the Cuban
                     and foreign art. So is the Museo de la Revolucion, in the neo-classically designed
                     palace of former dictator Fulgencio Batista. Notice the blood-spattered clothing worn
                     by the revolutionaries. Life-size wax statues depict Che Guevara and Camilo
                     Cienfuegos in combat.

                     While the trip offered a few free evenings, we spent packed days meeting with
                     leaders of Jewish communities in Havana, Cienfuegos and Santa Clara to hear about
                     the Jewish renaissance taking place.

                     Now that limitations on religious practices have been relaxed after the collapse of the
                     Soviet Union and a visit by Pope John Paul II in 1998, religion is acceptable for Cubans.
                     Even members of the Communist Party are allowed to be "believers." Cuban Jews are
                     learning prayers and customs, and Americans -- as well as Jews from around the
                     world -- are going to Cuba to help them.

                     We made several visits to the Patronato, the Jewish community center that also
                     houses one of three synagogues in Havana, in the Vedado neighborhood, where
                     many Jewish families lived before the 1959 revolution. On a Friday evening, we
                     attended Shabbat services there with about 80 others, including many Americans.
                     The following Sunday, we met children at religious school and encountered four tour
                     buses full of Americans.

                     In addition, we saw two Jewish cemeteries outside Havana and a Holocaust memorial
                     constructed in 1948. We visited synagogues that were as large as congregations in
                     Atlanta and some in Cienfuegos and Santa Clara that were essentially people's living
                     rooms. En route, we passed by the lush countryside where tobacco is grown and
                     saw Cuba's picturesque seaside.

                     Even though Cuba's Jewish population is small, about 1,500, a Jewish-themed hotel
                     opened last summer in Old Havana. Some rooms in the state-owned Raquel had
                     paintings of scenes from the Bible. Outside each door hung plates with a name from
                     the Old Testament and a mezuzah, a small piece of parchment rolled into a case and
                     attached to the doorpost of a home or outside a room that signifies the sanctity and
                     blessing of a Jewish home.

                     The hotel's restaurant, Garden of Eden, served dishes you'd expect at the Carnegie
                     Deli, not in Havana: kugel, beet borscht, knishes, matzos ball soup and gefilte fish. The
                     hotel even hosted a Hanukkah party with latkes and candle lighting.

                     While this trip offered many glimpses of Cuban life, I didn't see the full picture. But I did
                     get a chance to experience Cuba before it changes.

                     If the U.S. trade embargo is lifted, which likely will happen when dictator Fidel Castro,
                     77, dies, American businesses will move in. I'd expect to see real estate development
                     along the beaches, chain hotels with fast Internet connections and a McDonald's or
                     Starbucks around every corner.

                     Janet Frankston writes for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. E-mail:
                     jfrankston@ajc.com