Cuba has the most beautiful beaches in the world and is the main reason that every year Canadians flock there by the thousands between January and April. Most tourists head to Veradaro for the resorts. Sad to say, these resorts are really gated communities that give you very little insight into the reality of Cuba. The truth is, if you are Cuban you can’t even get into any of the resorts…unless you have a uniform on and work there. I was in Cuba in mid-March, but not for the beaches. Instead, I took a tour of the towns and villages hoping I’d get a glimpse of what real life is like for ordinary Cubans.
First stop was Havana. With 2.3 million inhabitants, it is the largest city in both Cuba and the Caribbean region. Havana seems frozen in time. The ornate Baroque-style buildings, constructed during more prosperous times, were obviously once magnificent, but today they are literally crumbling and falling down. Here and there a coat of paint has freshened up some of the façades, but it is purely cosmetic. Still, it’s impossible not to be enamoured with the place. Even though hucksters are everywhere harassing you to buy their souvenirs, I especially enjoyed strolling through the charming squares in Old Havana. Here Cuban ladies smoking huge cigars and dressed up in neon coloured costumes offer tourists photo opportunities…for a price of course. And, there were no shortage of takers, including me.
We stayed at the famous Hotel Nacional de Cuba, an historic old establishment with gorgeous architecture, some of it Art Deco from the ‘30s, some of it more modern. Over the years, this hotel has attracted many famous personalities including British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Frank Sinatra, Ava Gardner and scientist Alexander Flemming. Today visitors can still sip a Mojito cocktail on the terrace just a few meters from the sea and imagine a long gone era filled with nostalgia and intrigue.
In Havana musicians are everywhere, on street corners, in restaurants, hotels and clubs. Because Cuba has very little influence from the outside world, the Latin rhythms are unmistakeable and pure. You won’t find any hip-hop or other musical styles creeping in.
What struck me most in Havana (and would become even more obvious throughout the rest of the country), were the shortages of everyday things. During my visit, there were no bananas, and some days no butter. One day there were no clean towels because the hotel ran out of laundry soap and couldn’t get any. I soon learned that this is the way things go in Cuba. When stuff runs out…and it does with regularity, that’s it until they can get more.
Why does this happen?…a question almost every tourist asks. When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1989, Cuba lost 85% of its foreign trade. Already crippled by the U.S. embargo, the country was financially devastated with its food supply hit hardest. And, getting more of anything is difficult. It usually involves the black market. After leaving Havana, as we were travelling through a farming area, our tour guide told us that he knew of a farmer willing to sell him some fruit for his family. We stopped in front of a small farm where the guide exchanged a few words with the farmer. Soon, he and the driver were loading up the baggage compartment of the bus with bananas and potatoes (they were scarce in Havana too).
I learned that if a Cuban wants to be a farmer, the Communist government assigns land for the family to farm (Cubans cannot own property). Since 1994 the arrangement is that the farmer must give 80% of what he grows to the state. The family can keep 20% for their own use or to sell to others. The problem is finding anyone with money to buy the products. Even so, our guide tells us that farmers are better off than doctors because they can grow food to feed their families and get a little extra income too. The doctor doesn’t have that option. Our guide is lucky too. He gets tips from tourists like us that make it possible for him to buy what most other Cubans have no access to.
The province of Pinar Del Rio is only a few hours from the hustle and bustle of Havana. Here in this naturally beautiful landscape is where tobacco for Cuba’s famous cigars is grown on small family farms. We passed traditional high-peaked drying sheds and field after field planted with tobacco. The seeds are planted from late October throughout November to stagger the harvest which takes place January through April.
Cuban cigars are still rolled by hand, and it is skilled work. Some factories in Havana allow tours for foreigners to visit and learn about cigar making. We were told that getting a definite appointment for a tour in March could be difficult. Why? If the tobacco in the field is ready for picking, the factory simply closes its doors for the day and the employees are sent out to the field to pick the crop.
We saw intensively-cultivated vegetable gardens all over the country. Typically, they surrounded big block Soviet-style apartment buildings. It turns out that these buildings house high school or university students. Half the students work in the fields in the morning and take classes in the afternoon and vice versa. Students do not have a choice in this matter.
As a Communist country, Cubans have some consistency (dare I say equality?) in terms of education and medicine, but do they have many choices? Not from what I could see. Though no one went hungry or slept in the street, there were shortages of so many things we take for granted…medicines, food, and ordinary things. I didn’t have much one on one contact with many Cubans, but those I did talk to didn’t seem to have much hope for things to change in the future.
Things appear to be different in the Varadero resorts. But then, they aren’t reality for Cubans.