Viva Cuba libre!

We wanted to visit Cuba for many reasons ranging from the political history to the beautiful Caribbean, and we also wanted to see it before the borders completely open up with the USA. Our time in Cuba included Trinidad, Cienfuegos, Varadero and, our favourite, Habana.

We really enjoyed some good food, like octopus carpaccio, pumpkin and calamari soup, rope vieja, great pasta, lots of mojitos and daquiris, and a few fat cigars. The buildings are definitely run down, but are really full of character and the old colonial casas are really beautiful, with very high ceilings and antique furniture.

The nostalgic sense you get in Havana is heightened not just by the old houses, furniture, bikes and cars, but by the activities: people read classic literature, dance, and play dominoes for fun. Men get a shave with old-school razors in large hairdressing co-ops with 20+ barbers.

There is an obscura camina, based on a design by Leonardo da Vinci, which is a dark room with a projection of the outside world using mirrors and a periscope in the roof that lets you see what's going on outside in real time.

We also noticed a lot of interest in literature, such as old books (and revolutionary books) at a book market, and lots people attending a public discussions from local authors on an old street paved with wooden cobbles.

People are friendly, and although everyone outside Cuba says this is because they are afraid to step out of line we didn't get that vibe. The wanted to dance with us, say hello, and everyone knew that Canberra is the capital of Australia (unlike almost everywhere else we have been), and that Skippy is Australia's greatest national hero.

We took some salsa lessons in Havana, and hit a couple of salsa clubs: it's not daggy, young people still dance a lot and take it seriously, although it is a little touristic. We spent a couple of great nights dancing to one great band on the rooftop next to where we were staying.

There is a huge resort town called Varadero near Havana, which is divided 50% for locals, and 50% for visitors (mainly European and Canadian). The dividing line is a golf course. The fancy end only has "all-inclusive" resorts, no other accommodation or restaurants or anything. If you're not staying at a hotel, you can't go in or swim at their beach, can't even pay for a coffee there. In other similar resort areas we've visited we could always get in legitimately, and  found this level of exclusivity quite strange. As we were staying at the locals end, we decided to sneak in to check out the other half of the island. We were turned away a few times, before we managed to sneak through a construction site: we couldn't get through at first, and had turned back, but then the guard caught us and wouldn't let us leave though the front gate, so instead showed us  where the fence was broken and onto the beach beyond. A second time we managed to find a barman who could "arrange" to give us beach chairs, umbrella and as many cocktails as we wanted on the beach.

Our observations on attitudes to America were not that different to those of Conan O'Brien: people are friendly to Americans, although they probably do not trust the government, given what the official history tells them about that relationship. There were a couple of other signs of increased interaction with America: a lot of taxis had dual Cuba-US flags flying, and we spotted a whole American football team on either an exchange program or post-season trip walking down the street.

The official version of things is repeated in many places, including billboards on highways and major roads, anti-American references in every museum, and even snarky comments in the official tourist guide book  "Cuba in your hands" 2013:
"But on February 1898, the USS battleship Maine exploded at Havana Bay, a fact that Washington used as a pretext for mobilizing public opinion and intervening in the Cuban War of Liberation...annexation began to gain ground with a US military occupation...designed for creating the conditions of promoting a "land market" that would facilitate the transfer of properties to the hands of US politicians and land barons...in 1902 the neocolonial republic was established...subsequently almost all of the islands successive governments were marked by corruption, economic inefficiency, repression and political conflict."(pp33-34)

The guidebook also took pains to highlight how much better life is since the revolution:
"Although films were made in Cuba before the revolution, Cuban cinema did not really take off until 1959 with the creation of the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry...for more than 30 years the weekly Latin American Newsreel reflected the most important Cuban events" pp44

Sam in particular wanted to see the agroponicos, large urban vegetable gardens set up in the 90s to fight the famines that followed the break down of the Soviet Union and the end of their embargo-busting food shipments to Cuba. In some gardening circles, they are famous for applying top organic vege gardening practices (like you do at home) on a commercial scale, with amazing results. We couldn't get into the big famous ones without an official tour, which needed a large group; however we rocked up and peeked at a couple of smaller ones and were disappointed. They weren't that big, or well maintained, or successful; they looked like neglected community gardens from Australian suburbs. There was no way they could support the food needs of a large number of people.

All food is rationed and is given out to people through small distribution centres: milk one day, veges another, rice another etc. Each year a family's monthly food requirements are updated and recorded in a paper ration card. They bring this card to the distribution centre where they buy up to this amount at a fixed price and mark it off on their card. Anything more they need is at a much higher (approx. 4 times) price per kilo. Anything at a supermarket will be the expensive extras and luxury goods, not the staples. Also, they cannot sell many American produced goods due to the embargo. Therefore, the supermarkets are not very full in Cuba, and do not have a wide range of products. There are whole isles with just one (random) product like pickles lining all the shelves.

We have totally loved our time in Cuba!