Trembly's Travels: Cuba

It's officially forbidden to spend money in Cuba so travel is restricted, which is ironic since to buy anything, the only medium of exchange is the US Dollar. However journalists and some other categories can visit Cuba, and that is how I got there.

I flew from Mexico City, and it is easy to get a tourist card and plane ticket in Tijuana with a paid hotel voucher. I was supposed to be in the Riviera Hotel (formerly the Hilton), but as in any Communist country, they can change your arrangements so I ended up at the Hotel Capri. It's a nice hotel in a central location and easy to walk places from here. You're not allowed to stay in a private home, but you can freely visit anywhere in the city and taxis are available.

The hotels are interesting, because they have fresh fruit and bread and meat, whereas the Cuban stores and indeed, the Cuban people have none of these things. In fact, everything is rationed, with 3 chickens per month, 1 steak per month, and a roll of toilet paper every 3 months!! I have Cuban friends who made dinner for me, and there's almost nothing on the shelves. I was glad to take them my leftovers from the hotel and they thought it was like Christmas every day!! There are American things and different types of food in the dollar stores, but Cubans don't have easy access to dollars, and even if they do, a box of corn flakes is $6, and with the average Cuban salary $20 a month, even the simplest things are a great luxury.

They enjoy watching Miami TV when the weather is right and the signal is good, and the questions people asked me most were not about the soap opera stars or the latest music but the commercials--they can't believe the grocery store commercials are real with the full shelves! There are many countries I've visited which make me grateful to live in the US, and certainly Cuba makes you appreciative of your life at home.

Havana is an interesting city. The architecture is beautiful, and there are some very old buildings from the 1500s, but there's no money to renovate them so some are in disrepair. The Hemingway museum is great, and many Cubans were surprised that he is famous in America!! You see many cars from the 1950s so it is a bit like an old movie, except in color!! But with gasoline shortages most people go around on bicycles. The city buses are old but work fine, and the fare is only a few cents, but they are very crowded and you really get a taste of daily Cuban life on a bus full of Cubans in 90 degree heat and 95% humidity!! There's also a train that costs only a few dollars for quite a long distance, also not airconditioned but convenient--it used to be a sugar train for the Hershey company before the Revolution. It must have been very comfortable in 1950.

The Plaza de Armas is very interesting, and the Cathedral is beautiful. The show at the Tropicana is still thrilling, with dancing and singing, and still very exciting--it must be like the Cuba of the 1950s!! I had a wonderful time. We went to Lenin Park, saw the Lenin monument and ate at the elegant Las Ruinas Restaurant. It's ironic, Cubans cannot go to these places without dollars, because even if the place is empty if you don't have dollars they won't seat you. My friend would ask for a table, they'd tell him it's full even though only 5 people were in the entire place, then I would say "tengo dolares" and instantly we were seated. You aren't allowed to use your US credit cards there according to the Cubans, but I would always ask, they would look at my Master Card and say no. But once they took it for a food bill, and so I waited to see when the bill would come, and after several months it did, listed "Las Ruinas Restaurant, Havana, Mexico" !! They put it through a Mexican bank!! Cubans are also allowed to run small restaurants, no more than 12 tables, no take out food, and it's getting more restrictive but the food is great!! They take Cuban pesos in these places, and many older Cubans with nice homes do small businesses just to keep their houses up or supplement their meager pensions, about $25 a month.

The Granma Monument is for Fidel and the Revolution, in fact you see billboards for Granma like we have advertising. I also went to the Capitolio (very similar to ours), the Presidential Palace and walked along the Malecon, their boardwalk, along the sea which is beautiful. There are many new hotels, sponsored by European companies going up at the beach areas, and a lot of tourists from Europe and Canada. They have very little contact with the Cuban people since Cubans aren't allowed to stay in these places (only dollars, please.) Even on their honeymoon, a Cuban couple can save up their money to stay overnight at a hotel, but if a tour group comes in the middle of the night, they can be awakened on their wedding night and ordered to check out because the group has dollars!!

With an international conference in Havana when I was there, Fidel Castro spoke to the group, which of course was covered start to finish on Cuban TV. He is a very charismatic speaker but after 4-5 hours, the crowd was getting restless!! Actually Cuban TV has 2 channels, with many local shows of good quality and production values. Foreign news comes from CNN which has a bureau in Havana, but of course not all the stories we get are on Cuban reports.

It was an incredible learning experience for me to visit Cuba, and I am so glad I went, but so many of the things we take for granted just don't exist there. The people are warm and friendly and I wish so much for a better life for them. It's definitely worth a trip if you're able to visit Cuba, if for no other reason to see this mysterious place for yourself that lies only 90 miles from the USA.