I just returned from an eight day trip to Cuba. I know what you are thinking: How did she go to Cuba? Aren't American Citizens forbidden to visit Cuba? The answer is complicated. "Est complicado" is an expression one hears all over Cuba, and we were all over Cuba in those eight days. Individual American will find it difficult to book a flight to Cuba unless they opt to first fly to Canada, Mexico or the Azores and then to Cuba. You can then go to one of the few resort hotels Cuba has developed to entice residents of northern climes to spend some time at the beautiful beaches at the all-inclusive resorts on the west and south coasts of the island. The folks who go there do not really interact with the locals. Oh, they may speak to their waiter or house maid about the island, or use the occasional taxi driver to get back and forth to a close by paladar...a privately owned restaurant, but that is about as close as they come to interacting with the Cuban people. My trip was a bit different.
It was advertised as a "People to People" event, and we did meet quite a lot of the locals and visited art schools, senior centers, a Boys and Girls Club, attended a Baroque music concert and listened to a chamber music presentation of traditional and modern Cuban music. We went to the Che Guevera Memorial, Ernest Hemingway's house, an old Franciscan Monastery, and Havana's Cathedral. We went to artists' residences and saw their outrageous work, and spent time in a market where you could buy "Cuba" baseball caps and Che refrigerator magnets.
1. The Cuban People love to talk to foreigners, and have opinions about how things should be in Cuba. Many have only learned the "party line". Be polite and listen to them. They just want to make you understand their way of life.
2. The infrastructure is horrible. The roads are rough, and the railroad is unreliable.
3. There are NO beaches in Havana.
4. Che Guvera's grandmother was a Lynch. She was Irish.
5. The population of Cuba is approximately 11 million. There are over 11 million people living in the NYC metropolitan tri-state area of NY, NJ and CT.
6. There are 30,000 cars registered in Cuba. They are considered to be a UNESCO Historic treasure and cannot be shipped out of Cuba.
7. The chief source of protein in Cuba is the pig...pork is king.
8. Fishing out in the Caribbean Sea is discouraged. The Cuban Government does not want anyone to have access to a good fishing boat that might make the 90 mile trip to Key West.
9. Any economic problem is the fault of the "embargo", and thus the United States, but they are gracious to Americans who have dollars to spend.
10. Bring your own toilet paper, tissues and hand sanitizer. You will need them. Several restaurants had brand-spanking new toilets, but no seats....get over yourself: this is Cuba.
Despite the problems, I am glad I went to Cuba.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWlndyXffdE
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