ISO: Cuban Bread Care Package

Hi Group,
Well what can I say. I have tried 6 different recipes for Cuban Bread, and none of them have turned out right. I'm considering kidnapping a Cuban Baker, the next time I'm in Tampa or Miami.
Here in Indiana we have a whole bunch of Panaderias, but they're run by people from Mexico, and they haven't got a clue as to what I'm looking for.
I have family in both Tampa and Miami, so now I gotta figure out how to ship the bread quickly, so that it doesn't get stale.
In a previous post, I mentioned that I brought back several loaves from Tampa, after a short vacation there.
Well I'm down to the last loaf, and it stares at me from my freezer, mocking me and laughing in my face each time I make a pathetic attempt to create a homemade loaf of Cuban Bread.
I tell myself that it can't be this hard to make something so simple.
I've been told that the water in Tampa, is the magic ingredient in the recipe. So what are they telling me? Are they shipping Tampa's water to Miami? Maybe there's some magical Cuban Fairy, who creates this bread I'm craving? Maybe it's some kind of flour we don't have here, made with Yak Dung, and imported from some Monastery on a mountain in Tibet?

Here's the last recipe I tried:

CUBAN BREAD
Published in the Miami Herald
Makes 1 loaf.

This recipe from the father of schools superintendent Roger Cuevas, retired baker Roberto Cuevas, was reduced and modified for home kitchens by Bob Menditto, culinary arts teacher at Lindsey Hopkins Technical Center. Cuevas also uses a commercial dough conditioner that keeps the bread soft longer, but home bakers can skip this.

1 envelope active-dry yeast.
3 cups water
Pinch of salt
4 cups bread flour
2 tablespoons solid shortening

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Dissolve yeast in 1 cup of water. Mix in a second cup of water, the salt, flour and shortening. Add enough of the third cup of water to make a pliable dough. Knead dough and form into a ball. Set aside in a warm place, covered with a damp towel, for about 1 hour. Punch down. Allow the dough to rise again for about 30 minutes.

Punch down again.

Roll the dough lightly into an oblong shape, about 3 inches wide and 12 inches long.

Set aside again, with crease up, until it doubles in size, 15 to 20 minutes. Brush lightly with water to produce a nice, hard crust. To create a baker's signature crease along top of the bread, place a strand of thick butcher's string down the middle before baking.

The weight of the string will press a ridge into the top of the loaf. Remove string after baking. (In Cuba, Cuevas and other bakers used a palm frond.)

Bake in a preheated 300-degree oven until golden brown, 30 to 45 minutes.

I QUIT!