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City Councilman Spense Havlick was so enthralled after visiting Cuba in February that when he returned to Boulder he recommended the city establish a sister-city relationship.

On Tuesday, the City Council voted Tuesday unanimously in support of the idea, declaring the rural and mountainous Yateras township that lies on the eastern tip of the Cuban island Boulder's sixth sister city.

"The people there are very, very poor," Havlick said. "But they are so down-to-earth and friendly and rich in their blessings. They are wonderful to their neighbors, are proud of their education system, their health care and culture. You can't help but think when you are in these towns that it is wonderful to be a human being."

Yateras is a flourishing agricultural community in the mountainous part of the Guantanamo province, which is famed for the U.S. Naval base at Guantanamo Bay. The city of Palenque is Yateras' capital.

The council's vote makes Boulder the 15th U.S. city to establish sister-city ties to a municipality in communist Cuba, adding to Boulder's ties with sister cities in Mexico, Nicaragua, Japan, Tibet and Tajikistan. As with its other sister cities, the City Council's vote establishes no formal tie with Yateras, but instead recognizes and affirms regular cultural exchanges.

The council's vote comes roughly two weeks after Chan Mortimer, president of the Boulder-Cuba Sister City Organization, received word from Cuba that two government assemblies there endorsed establishing such a link. Mortimer said that Cuban officials see Yateras and Boulder as geographically similar places.

"We're delighted with the selection," he said. "The people are very friendly - we've had lots of correspondence."

Early next year, Mortimer, who runs the Ecsis Foundation, which sponsors social and environmental initiatives in the third world, will visit Cuba on a nine-day visa granted by the U.S. State Department.

"I'm going to do some environmental research and take some equipment to a graduate student studying the environment there," he said. "I also hope to meet with the mayor and other officials."

Mortimer said he would face limitations, even as to how much money he can spend a day.

"There are restrictions on anything that could help the economy," he said.

The U.S. State Department has enforced an economic-trade embargo since the height of the Cold War in 1962. There are no formal diplomatic ties between the United States and Cuba.

Economic sanctions are likely to continue for the time being, but there are signs that the federal government could one day embrace Cuba. President Bush, in a speech given in May and archived on the White House's Web site, reiterated support for the embargo but also unveiled a New Cuba Initiative. The initiative eases restrictions on humanitarian assistance given by U.S. religious and other non-governmental organizations that directly serve the needs of the Cuban people. Bush also pledged to offer U.S. scholarships to some Cuban students.

Yet, Americans are still banned from visiting the country unless they receive special approval.

For Mortimer, the possibility of greater American involvement in Cuba prompts mixed feelings.

"It would be nice to see it more open, but right now it is a place that has great traditions and that has been untouched," he said.

About 20,000 people live in Yateras where the main products are coffee, cocoa, citrus fruits and bananas. It is an area where there are paved roads, but they are full of potholes, Havlick said.

"Travel there is still difficult," he said. "That makes tourism tough."

Roads, he said, have stalled the desires of some officials in Yateras to create an environmentally-friendly tourism industry - an industry that many in Boulder could readily identify with, Havlick said.

"That's something they are interested in, but have not yet gotten off the ground," Mortimer added.

Mortimer added that the Boulder-Cuba Sister City Organization has already established several committees dealing with health, the environment, music, sport and a wide range of issues. Right now the group is attempting to bring a Cuban roots band to Boulder and a University of Colorado professor is expected to lead a research team to study the country's health-care system, which boasts one doctor for every 413 people.

"There is so much to be learned by us," Havlick said.