Cuban Thoughts

Regular readers will know that me and the wife have just spent a week in Havana.

Here are some of my impressions.

I know Cuba inspires great passion in some people (I share some of that passion) and a week in the capital doesn’t make me an expert on the country-just as a week in London will not make you an expert on England- I am just sharing some of my thoughts with you all and if I get anything “wrong” I apologise in advance.

First of all the obvious. It is a very very hot place. Especially in June. Average daytime temperatures of 34 degrees c. and the high humidity meant I was sweating like the proverbial fat lass from morning til night. Some buildings do have air conditioning but frankly it doesn’t mostly work that well in that sort of heat and in a country with electrical supply problems.- we had two- albeit short power cuts- during our week there . On this point I do recommend the Partagas Cigar factory behind the Capitolio in Centro Habana for having the best air conditioning in the city. It felt like going to heaven the afternoon we dropped in. The Bar in the shop is pleasant too.

Secondly, when it rains it pours down. Luckily it only rained twice when we were there. The second time though the roads were flooded within five minutes and Jose Marti airport is not watertight- which is a bit worrying.

Thirdly, Cubans are friendly people. We only had one minor problem in walking around Havana with a disgruntled local because we didn’t want to go to his friend’s restaurant. Havana felt safe – probably because there was at least one Police Officer on every street.- I counted 120 Police on the 2 and half  hour journey from Varadero to Habana. Speaking Spanish will help but I found Cuban Spanish very difficult to follow and understand.

Fourthly, it is a third world Country. There I’ve said it. Outside of the 4 and 5 star hotels Habana is, in my opinion, a ramshackle ruin. If you believed in Castro before you went then I guess you would find it hard to believe in him after spending sometime in the Capital.

Free health care and education and housing doesn’t mean as much when you are living without access to running water and with sanitation that is at best poor. We saw families living in one room taking containers to get water from trucks in Habana Vieja whilst back at our Hotel (Hotel Nacional de Cuba) we had as much water as we wanted. We saw waiters slying bottles of water to local kids from behind the bars in more than one place.We saw the ration markets and the entitlement per person chalked up on the board. A local whom we met whilst walking around Vedado told us it was currently 1 kilo of rice per person per month in a country whose national dish is rice and beans and pork. 8 eggs per person per month and 5 bottles of rum. I had no reason to disbelieve him.
 Our tour rep to Varadero told us she lived in a house with 11 other people. She said food was sufficient but not enough. She relied on relatives sending gifts from Florida and access to pesos convertibles to get by.Our  bus stopped, for no real reason, on the way back from Varadero I guess simply so we would get out and spend some money at the “service station” by a bridge linking Matanzas province to Habana province. Totally random but there was food, CDs and souvenirs available and it was packed with locals trying to get some convertible pesos to improve their lives. It is a poor country the average wage per month is £16 dollars. Some days we spent more on Mojitos and Cuba Libres than that.

It was a bit , to borrow the phrase, a cheap holiday in other people’s misery and we felt a bit uncomfortable at first. But it is a fascinating country with a fascinating history and architecture which they are slowly trying to rebuild. Plaza Vieja  and parts of  the Malecon shows what can be done. But they need money and investment and skilled workers to do it. It reminded me a bit of Barcelona in 1976 when I first went. A lot of work needed no equipment available. Hand mixing cement in the street to renovate a three storey 19th C colonial building is not the way to restore Havana or I guess the rest of the country at least not in my lifetime.

If you go to Cuba- and you should- don’t just go to the all inclusives- which we did for a day in Varadero- but stay in Havana for four or five nights. Have a Mojito at the Hotel Nacional overlooking the Malecon or at the rooftop bar of Ambos Mundos or Santa Isabel or Hotel Raquel. Have a Cristal beer at El Louvre in the Hotel Inglaterra and people watch around Parque Central and the Paseo de Prado. Go and have a drink in the bar (La Barrita) of the magnificientArt Deco Edificio Bacardi building. Walk around and see how people are living, their obsession with the peso pizza, the 50’s cars the ration markets and the farmers markets.Wonder why when there is o much work to do and the state provides everything a significant part of the population appears to sit round all day not doing much. Talk to the people a lot of whom speak good English and if you have some Spanish try it out. I had some great Spanglish conversations with people. If you aren’t a veggie (like us) try and find a Paladares restaurant in Miramar or Vedado and get a decent meal. Food was a problem for us but we had breakfast as part of our Hotel stay so we filled up on that. Bottled water is readily available and cheap (70cents for 1 litre in central Havana). You will need to drink a lot to keep hydrated in the heat. We would have liked to get out into the country and travel but didn’t have time. NB on the 2 and half hour journey to Varadero we went through three Police checkpoints. I mean proper checkpoints- movement is clearly restricted although we did note ironically that it was Afro Caribbean men driving the flash (50’s) cars who seemed to get stopped. Police are the same the world over!!! We didn't use public transport- the endless queues and crowded buses in stifling heat put us off  but the taxis were cheap and reliable and everywhere in Havana.

Fascinatingly a lot of the tourists there were not too familiar with Cuba’s history or Fidel or Che- they went for the sun, sea and nightlife in Cuba. Good job too as the Museo de La Revolucion was probably the saddest Museum I have ever been in I did note however , how well the tank outside and the Granma and truck and missiles from the Bay of Pigs had been looked after. Shame Fidel couldn’t have done the same for his capital or his people. The tour companies big up Ernest Hemingway’s stay on the island – and yes we did have a Daiquiri in Floridita- very nice and the band playing there were excellent as well- but I’m not sure it means much to people nowadays, if the Americans get back to the island it will probably mean more.

Highlight of the trip for me was seeing Grupo Compay Segundo play at Hotel Nacional in their fantastic Salon 1930. A great band keeping the Son tradition alive but showing how it can adapt and change and not be frozen in time


Would we go back? My wife is not sure. I would go back, probably in 5 years to see how things have changed.

I have always been convinced that top down absolute command and control does not work in the long term. Cuba is the living proof of that for me. Yes you can blame the Americans for their trade blockade. But that misses the point. Fidel’s revolution freed the people from a corrupt regime but for what?