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I’m really not being fair to Cuba in my partial assessment after all we’ve only explored a tiny fraction of what Cuba has to offer since most of our time was spent in an extremely touristy area. Regardless I would like to offer a few parting thoughts on the country. We ended up not liking it as much as we would have wanted to. I feel that the all inclusive format doesn’t work well for us, it’s limiting in terms of food options, people one associates with, activities etc… I felt marooned there and if I were to consider the all inclusive again it would be for one week and a place where there’s still some freedom of movement. Varadero doesn’t offer a lot of options in terms of dining or shopping. Never even noticed a grocery store there, still not sure how people get their drinking water, never saw any delivery of water. To buy it in bottle format was quite expensive even for us, I can’t see Cubans doing that on a regular basis would be too costly unless they drink the regular tap water which I’m assuming a lot of them do. We started off brushing our teeth with bottled water but gave that up pretty quickly, just too much of a bother, never did it before not even in South America.
Getting back to my rudimentary assessment in point form.
-Nobody’s starving in Cuba, even if food options are limited, also one doesn’t see the extremes of wealth and poverty prevalent in so many other countries.
-There’s very little begging, only witnessed it in Havana which predictably being a big city of 3 millions it would have its share of.
-People will forgo a career in a chosen field to work in tourism simply because it gives you access to those valuable Cuban convertible pesos.
-If you work with tourists you live better than the average Cuban who must deal with a paltry monthly wage.
-The infrastructure needs a lot of work - Many of Havana’s heritage buildings are in need of repair and according to our guide it’s not getting done. She’s seen repair structures go up but 5 years later it’s still the same.
-The Cubans we met we’re not unhappy although they would like more freedom in terms of purchasing power especially. There really isn’t that much to buy even when you have the money. The U.S. embargo which has been going on for so long really limit’s the flow of goods and technology.
-The fact that there is so little internet available is a deal breaker for me in terms of going there again. Even 5 star hotels have limited capabilities.
-They don’t seem to grow any avocados or mangos even though they have the perfect climate to grow them, that’s just weird.
-They don’t spice their food at all, pepper is very hard to find, one pepper shaker for the entire dining room, you had to seek it out and “steal” it from other tables.
-Che Guevara is as popular as ever and so is Fidel Castro. Their images are everywhere. The song Commandante Che Guevara is well known and sung everywhere,must really learn the lyrics by hard, file that under things to do when I get back home.
-Crime is mostly of a petty nature, you don’t feel threatened at all and the no guns law has of course a lot to do with that.
-Cubans have learned to be inventive in finding ways to skirt the system, they’re particularly ingenious when it comes to repairs of those old cars which seem to all work very well for the most part.
-Only saw a few gas stations, not sure where most Cubans get their gas, then again very few actually own vehicles, they travel in groups, get picked up and dropped off at work mostly by buses or camions.
-With a little tweaking and the allowance of more free enterprise Cuba would not be such a bad place to live - Something more balanced like what they have in the Scandinavian countries might work really well here, a sensible mix of government involvement with some free enterprise.
-It’s nice to not have an endless barrage of advertisement either on t.v. in the newspaper or on the side of the roads. That’s truly refreshing, we forget how bombarded we are with ads from everywhere back home where free enterprise reigns supreme.
Hope you enjoyed reading my travel posts, know I can get a little professorial at times, legacy of many years of teaching.
Adios Cuba.
1 comment:
Loved your summary - it sounds very much like what I expected having talked to others who go there frequently or have gone there. Brian says there are no street children in Cuba. And Ari pretty much got the same impression of it in general as you did.
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