WHY CUBA?
I have had an interest in Cuba since being posted to Guyana in the early seventies. One day whilst collecting a visitor from Guyana airport, I saw the large figure of Fidel Castro at the top of the aircraft steps waving goodbye to the local dignitaries. Following on from that visit we had a number of cultural visits by Cuban groups who brought their vibrant music and dance and ballet to enhance the local groups playing their own jump up, reggae and salsa on instruments and by steel band.
Why go now? We were told that Cuba is changing fast particularly due to the outside influences such as tourism, which is true. Castro is now seventy five and when he dies nobody knows for sure who will replace him and what other events will be triggered by his departure. A great deal of World heritage money is at present being spent on Havana in order to restore the many beautiful old Spanish buildings which have been neglected but mercifully not pulled down for re-development.
We caught the BA 777 out of Gatwick at a reasonable time for the ten-hour flight to Havana. It was a comfortable flight and not quite so cramped as we had been led to believe and travelled at 39000 feet for most of the way evidently with enough oxygen!
Since 1998 when the Russians stopped supplying Cuba with all their needs, Cuba has diversified and vastly developed its tourism industry to raise hard currency to buy their necessities. Other ways of raising currency is by supplying teachers and doctors to various countries such as Venezuela in exchange for oil. The new Volvo tourist coaches are all air-conditioned and come from Brazil. The Hotels are of a good standard with quite adequate restaurants and a number have their own swimming pools, but take a bath plug with you as these are scarce. Interestingly in the markets you may well be asked to barter for goods with bars of soap as these are in short supply locally. There are plenty of new taxis for hire, the old cars are now not allowed to carry tourists, probably due to safety factors and pollution, and in the tourist areas there are brightly coloured three wheelers all with lady drivers for the shorter journeys.
For the first week we opted for a coach tour, which covered the Western end of the island incorporating Havana, Cienfuegos, Trinidad, Sancti Spiritus, Santa Clara, whilst spending the second week at the holiday resort of Varadero. The roads are good and tempting for tourists to hire cars but there are few directional signs so it would not be easy to find your way to a particular place unless you picked up one of the many hitch hikers along the way. The local transportation is overwhelmed by the number of people it has to carry so all vehicles who are not carrying tourists tend to double as taxis, with flat top lorries loaded with dozens of passengers baking in the sun. Our tourist guide said that when she was at university she had to rise at 5 am each morning in order to leave enough time to hitch hike to lessons in the local town.
I suppose that I should not have been surprised that although Cuba is a Caribbean island with a varied ethnic population who live on the streets with plenty of music and noise. The most noticeable thing is that from a town layout and architectural stance it is so Spanish. All the towns we visited had their church in the main square of the town with theatres, city offices, and many excellent buildings surrounding or near the main square. Spanish is of course the official language although English is widely spoken especially by the young. The education and medical services are apparently the best in the Caribbean and some of the best in the World, and the people who obviously work hard appeared to be well nourished and healthy. There were certainly no beggars although you are constantly asked if you want to buy cigars. There is little trade as so few Europeans now smoke.
However it appears that once you have your schooling and higher education qualifications there are few opportunities to use them as in most cases people are allocated to jobs e.g. tourist guide, waiter etc. rather than into a relevant profession. Also some discontent must be raised where there is such a gulf between local expectations and where no expense is spared to encourage tourists who have all the amenities of a typical holiday resort. This was brought home to us in Santa Clara where there was a state run store where only locals could buy rice, flour etc in local currency but the items were rationed. Most of the transport in town was horse drawn.
Yes, Cuba is certainly a land of contrasts. For a holiday it was very rewarding. If we went again, I would spend a week in Havana as it is so much fun, and a week touring the other end of the island. As first timers the escorted coach trip followed by a week on a wonderful beach at an all inclusive price where there are no restrictions for getting out during the day and very good cabaret every evening was a great introduction to Cuba.
