Oh, Cuba!

Cuba, your landscape is remarkable, your music is full of soul and your people are lovely. You’re complex on so many levels and in all my travels this is the first time I’ve left somewhere completely speechless. It’s actually taken me almost two weeks from leaving to be able to verbalize what I experienced during our almost three weeks on the Cuban shores.

I’ve always wanted to visit Cuba, but being American I always wondered if it would ever be a possibility. This year, with the restrictions softening and the relations improving I decided to take the gamble. Thankfully, the dice rolled in my favour and we boarded a plane the first of June for the North American hemisphere.

We were hit with a humid hot gust of air as we embarked from the plane and walked through the very simple airport. It was clear it hadn’t been updated since it was built and we couldn’t help but comment on how relaxed the security seemed. There were people everywhere and in our dazed state we couldn’t help but be a little overwhelmed. We found our way to the cash exchange which was crowded by at least 50 people, but luckily were able to skip the queue with the decision to take cash from the ATM instead. We later discovered that the cash exchange also served as a bank point for locals, which must have been the cause of the masses. We met our tour guides and were guided to a black and white vintage car. Once inside it we could tell this was no normal 1950s car, as it was fully pimped out with speaker, a bass and very cold air conditioning. We drove through the streets of Havana, seeing a range of different levels of luxury, poverty and general neglect. It was clear the years have taken a toll on what was once a beautiful city. However, that is not to say that it’s not still beautiful; yet the only word I can think to describe so much of Cuba is raw.

We spent the next two weeks exploring it all. We drove approximately 1000 miles in 14 days. We got lost and found our way back on the correct path, we got sick of our music and found the silence of the car to be quite comfortable. We visited cities that remained basically unchanged since the 1800s and drove through the most amazing hills of Vinales. We spent our days on white, sandy beaches with turquoise water and our nights drinking mojitos and watching salsa dancing. We ate some amazing food, rode horses, explored caves, saw more crabs than I thought could be in one place. We stayed in host homes and resorts and on the last day found ourselves in a debate about whether or not we could be Cuban and stay forever. I’d relive every day of it again and not change a thing.

So much is changing in Cuba within the current political climate, which undoubtedly will change the Cuba that we left at the end of June. The thing that strikes me most about the Cuban people was their resourcefulness. There are no grocery stores (as we know them), the ration stores all seemed empty, the cars are all old but still our casa hosts always had a full table of food for us and somehow despite lack of parts and tools the cars are still running! Raul Castro has made many strides to improve the way of life for the Cuban people. There feels to be a new-found freedom within the country as more and more people are starting small businesses and making a better life for themselves. This was my first time to a communist country and I struggle to believe it’s all bad. I also struggle to see how it would ever work effectively. I left Cuban with a deep sense of encouragement that they are embarking on a whole new adventure and I hope that with an open market and exposure to a materialistic world they don’t lose those core values which make them stand out to me. But most of all, I am happy I was able to experience even the smallest part of their new journey.