Last week, in my blog titled “Cuba’s Secret World” I shared a customer’s flag story and video. In doing so, I realized I never wrote a blog about my 2016 trip to Cuba.
If you remember, there was a brief year or two when Obama made a truce with Raul Castro. In their pact, the First Secretary (as Castro is called) allowed Americans to visit communist Cuba for the first time since the 1961 embargo.
I Rushed In
Hiring the travel agency Poe Travel to help with paperwork and itinerary, me and my three sons packed up and flew to Miami, then puddle-jumped to an airstrip in Havana. The first few days we toured Havana and the surrounding area in a 1950 remodeled convertible. With its refurbished 1950’s American cars and old-world charm, the city is eye candy.
Today and for a long time, Cuba has been a communist country. We saw no grocery stores but rather food stands with chalk boards telling you the food rations of the day. The citizens redeemed food vouchers for basic cooking supplies. There was no fast food, pre-packaged food, chips and dips … or obesity.
I was surprised and impressed to learn Cuba’s healthcare, hospitals and medical school were renowned and free to its citizens. People come from other countries for treatment and to attend their medical school.
Because the Caribbean weather is so pleasant, many restaurants were on roof tops where we dined alfresco, under stars with little light pollution. The food was mediocre, but the atmosphere, the music, and the graciousness of the citizens more than made up for it.
Cross-Country Travels
For the next 10 days we traveled the island of Cuba by car. We were lucky that son Jack knew a little Spanish from his undergrad semester in Chile (not sure I would have gone without him). Our guides told us about the different nations and cultures (of which there were many) that had invaded and conquered this sugar-cane paradise over the centuries; the first being Christopher Columbus.
We stayed in the cities of Vinales and Trinadad, where we horse-backed through tobacco farms and along waterfalls. At night, the boys went to nightclubs in caves and smoked cigars till they threw up.
Everywhere we went there was fresh juice being squeezed from sugar cane. Judging by the picture of the cane press below, there was little political correctness. People were respectful to each other via their courteousness.
The last leg of the trip was spent in Varadero at an ocean resort. We lounged on the Caribbean beach like tourists. But we longed to be back in the country, the secret world of Cuba, with the common folks.
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