Support an Embargoed Community

Support for a sticker supporting the climbing community of “you-know-where”
read below to see why it remains unnamed.

click to Support an embargoed climbing community just south of the US.

What to see what exactly what they’ve been up to?
Join their official Facebook Group here.

It starts with a “C” and ends with “uba”, and climbing development is making waves these recent years with big developments in the scene.

First, this climbing community is welcoming international climbers with open arms through their “Festival Internacional de Escalada Deportiva” to help change the tide of relations with their historically un-approving local government.

No doubt you’ve heard about the amazing limestone climbing just a quick flight from the US, and from a quick Google search you will see articles in National Geographic, Climbing Mag, and countless internationally distributed travel and climbing media channels, even in spite of the existing embargo. Sasha DiGiulian’s own trip inspired her own write-up, along with the release of several videos, explaining the difficulties local climbers faced in educating and popularising rock climbing in their community due to the resistance of a government that frowned on any rebel-cultured sports, including surfing and skateboarding.

To be clear, climbing is not illegal in the country.

Climbing tourism is on the up. Just last year, in 2022, Biden approved a travel policy that made it easier for US tourists to travel to this large island directly, as long as you chose one of 12 approved categories of permits listed by the US Government.

Yes - that’s right, you and a baggage full of donated climbing gear can travel to climb with and support motivated local climbers. So what’s the deal with the embargo?

While humanitarian aid is technically allowed, existing international relations not only prevent the sale of climbing gear. Last year, the US government shut down online fundraising efforts naming the climbing community directly.

Hence, our avoidance in implicitly naming the country in this page.

The 2022 poster by our friends BelayPartners

Who are the locals growing the “underground” climbing scene? Just a hop away from Miami, Cancún, Haiti and Jamaica, Aníbal, Tito and Yaroby are the organizers of Festival Internacional de Escalada Deportiva, and also a few of the most active local route developers.

They’ve united overt the years to pour themselves into the annual climbing festival, and their most recent location is may be destined to become the climbing ‘capital’ in their country.

The Festival both brings together the community in celebration of climbing, while also unveiling 20-30 new routes that have been bolted that year by the organizers and local community.

This year’s Festival is held March 16th-19th.