RAMBLINGS OF A TRAVELER IN CUBA #1 Getting There

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RAMBLING OF A TRAVELER in CUBA

#1 GETTING THERE

I really really really wanted to go to Cuba for so many reasons I knew of before going, and most reasons I learned after I was there. I couldn’t wait to go to Cuba. I dreamt about it, and read about it. It’s a country that, right now, is unspoiled and virtually untouched by USA tourism. The very thought of going to Cuba made me feel giddy all over – call it a traveler’s sickness. Cuba is the largest island in the Caribbean and only 90 miles from Florida. We all know that, I think.

However, Cuba is a BIG MYSTERY to most USA travelers because we, meaning you and me without family in Cuba, are not supposed to go there.

Problem is, the USA government has not wanted you or me, or any one like us going to Cuba for the last 50 or 60 years. So what’s that about, you might ask? I don’t want to get all political here, but it has something to with USA imposed embargo.

I do recommend a very good paperback, award-winning novel that gives a good overview about the time leading up to the ousting of American Enterprise (namely Sugar Cane) in 1958 and prior years leading up to Castro’s revolution. Book title is, “Telex from Cuba” by Rachel Kushner. It isn’t a history/political book, but it will answer a few questions in novel kind of way, good story, and easy reading. Looks like there might be some sort of movie coming out with the same name. I haven’t seen the movie, so I’ll refrain from comment.

The USA government loosely says (not an exact quote) if you are a legal USA citizen, and you have no family in Cuba, you are not going to legally enter Cuba. No way, no how. There is a loop hole/exception however, as there seems to be in a lot of US laws. Oh, I know & have researched a good number of ways you can go to Cuba illegally. I know as well as you, you can swim from Key West to Havana Cuba, its not that far, only 90 miles. However, you do have to be able to swim around & through multitudes of very hungry sharks, and I hear the currents can make mush out of you also. Remember Diana Nyad, who is a world-class endurance swimmer, and who became the first person to swim from Cuba to Florida without a shark cage on Sept. 1, 2013? She tried 4 times before and finally made it. She was only 64-years-old at the time and did it in a mere 53 hours. I saw a video of Diana right after she made history, and she looked very salt-water-logged and close to death. For the rest of us, however, swimming is probably is not an option. OK, back to my blog.

Any United States citizen that tries to enter Cuba without special permission, is breaking USA law and can be fined $20,000+ and/or maybe incarcerated in a not too pretty USA jail. From what I am told, the Cuban Government doesn’t really care about us visiting their country as long as we don’t do bad things that are illegal most every place else in the world, like being really, really stupid. I am sure the Cuban government has bigger problems to deal with than you or I as long as we behave.

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RAMBLINGS OF A TRAVELER In Cuba: #2 BEING THERE

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#2 BEING IN CUBA

What to do in Cuba with the “Group?”

You can always learn how to dry your rice. All you have to do is have the tour bus pull over to the side of the road, have the group get out of the bus, and talk to some local field workers. So here’s what they do. They harvest the rice, but it is still too wet to be stored. So what does Cuba have a lot of? That would be sunshine, and lot’s of cheap manual labor. So the workers load up the rice in donkey/mule pulled carts, find a paved road and spread it out on half the road everyday until its dry. That saves on electricity, plus its all natural. Lot’s and lot’s of labor and man-hours go into this process, but your work place is out in the fresh air, and it is a paying job. WOW! After learning all this, I ate my next meal of rice in Cuba with a little more respect.

Another cool thing to do with the group is go to a major baseball stadium in Havana and talk to the professional baseball players during their practice. You can even have your picture taken with them and ask them some questions if you can speak Cuban fluently. Baseball is a major big deal form of entertainment in Cuba. I’m not a real die-hard baseball fan, but I understand that Cuba’s baseball is famous around the world, and the players aren’t just screwing around. They take this whole baseball thing super serious, as do the fans. The good teams travel around the world and have been known to defect a time or two, but you would probably know more about this than I, since I am not a die-hard fan.

You could take pictures of super cute hairless Chihuahuas. Chihuahuas are a major desirable dog breed in Cuba. These dogs don’t eat much, which is a serious advantage, and there isn’t a lot of fur that gets embedded into the super cool antique furniture in every household. I saw lots of Chihuahuas in yards with fences, not running around in the streets. Come to think of it, I did not see any breed of dogs just running around in the street. It looked like people actually took care of their pets in Cuba. Oh, did I mention the kid. She’s not too bad to get a picture of either, as kids go. Just kidding, she is adorable, and I think she knows it.

How about checking out Ernest Hemmingway’s 6 toed cat descendants? You can do that with the group. Ernest Hemmingway loved Cuba. He lived and wrote books in Havana for 20 years until the USA told him and all US citizens to leave in the 1950s – 60s. Ernest didn’t want to leave but he did. Anyway, Ernest loved cats. He had up to 50 cats, and he even had special rooms for them in his not to shabby house overlooking Havana. When he had to leave, he could not, of course, take all his cats with him. However, he did get to take one, his favorite. He left Cuba and moved all the way to his house in Key West, (90 miles away). It turns out; his favorite cat had 6 toes on each foot. If you are so lucky as to visit either his house in Cuba or in Florida, you will be greeted by numerous six toed cats, which are the decedents of the original one.

Also, you can visit Ernest Hemmingway’s cat cemetery at both houses. Now, that’s thrilling to do with the group. I bet that is a fact you really wanted to know about. You can just barely see the hull of Ernest’s yacht in the picture below – its still waiting for him to come back. Back in Ernest’s day, Cuba was a good place to go if you were rich. Come to think of it, being rich is good to be anywhere/anytime/any how.

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RAMBLINGS OF A TRAVELER: #3 CUBA – Leaving There

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#3 LEAVING THERE

Now I love to travel – that should already be a known fact by the reader of this blog. And the last day on any trip is the worst possible day of my life at the time. Not because I don’t want to go home, because I do, but because I have gotten such an extreme thrill out of visiting whatever country I am in. But I have to say that to leave Cuba was unusually hard on my mental psychic, to say the least. So here is what I am going to miss about Cuba for the rest of my thrilling life.

I will miss the transportation other than the group tour bus.

• I will miss the Taxis. Believe me, if you have never ridden in a Cuba taxi you are missing out on a whole bunch of thrill. Not only are these taxis fun, but they are still very cheap (about 10 cents US). I won’t bet the farm on the stability of the units either, especially if the driver is breaking the speed limit, turning corners, trying to avoid hitting someone, or in heavy traffic (none of which are major concerns in Cuba).

• I will miss the vintage cars. These cars were made in the USA (Chevys, Fords, Pontiacs, Edsels, Cadillac’s, and I am sure I have left out some other USA cars). These cars were left behind when USA had to leave Cuba in the 50’s. Same with the USA motorcycles, of course, really old Harley Davidsons are most popular. If a citizen in Cuba owns a vintage car, the car is passed down through generations. The owner of the car is also free to sell it. Other cars in Cuba are owned by the government, but can be rented/leased/otherwise provided to the people. Here’s the problem with the vintage cars – any parts that are needed to keep the cars running can not be purchased or imported from the USA. The group and I learned on our people-to-people exchange that these cars are kept running by using duct tape, spit, and big time improvising. We visited repair shops with homemade machines and presses fabricating homemade car parts. These people are experts at vintage auto repair. Not only do the Cuban Vintage car owners keep the cars running, but also the cars are kept immaculate. The vintage cars are polished and shined so brilliantly it makes your eyes string to look at them.

Notice the Russian car in the background that is NOT spit shined in the picture below. That’s a government provided car and is not owned by the people.

Now, make no mistake, there are all kinds of new cars in Cuba, but there are none from the USA. We saw Audis, Volkswagens, lots of Russian made cars, to name a few. We even saw Cuba’s very first car factory. It was Mercedes.

• I will miss the donkey/mule and cart, still one of the most dependable and accessible transportation for the majority of the Cuban citizens.
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