Observations on Cuba

Photos of Cuba may have to wait - they will be worth waiting for as Cuba is muy bonita but here are some of my observations of Cuba.

The people here are very friendly and keen to chat, they complain endlessly about the government, quite freely and with none of the fear that we might imagine from the propaganda we hear at times. However, they are also proud of Cuba and what it's achieved, proud of Castro and mostly very clear that they want change but not US style capitalism/democracy.

The people we spoke to were concerned about what would happen when Castro dies and can envisage a US take over.

Being in Cuba, especially Havana, is like stepping back in time, with beautiful classic American cars (and also loads of little USSR Lada's), gracious but crumbling colonial buildings, department stores (including one that used to be a Woolworths before the revolution) still looking like something from the 50's and 60's.

Cuban food is all that was billed; boring, fatty and repetitive (to our tastes anyway) but we were lucky to stay with a very good cook who, as well as cooking us Thai, Indian and pasta dishes, also cooked us some good Cuban food including fish, lobster and a delicious maize soup,(thanks Felipe) - we also got lots of fruit, eggs and coffee for breakfast so we couldn't complain.

Being there really made me consider what we might have to face giving up if we are to have a just world. The Cubans eat local food, in season, and there is a slogan around the place that says "consume only what you need" - this would be tough for most of us, myself definitely included - imagine none, or only a little, chocolate, sugar, coffee, tea etc! Most of us are addicted to materialism and buying stuff to make us happy. It also made me think about how dependent the UK would be on Europe as we can't feed ourselves.

Cuba suffers a lot for its isolation and this was clear from the tourist trade. To attract Western tourists (which Cuba needs to do economically) they have to provide "Western standard" facilities, the Cubans do not have access to these facilities as they are definitely well above basic living needs. This leads to resentment and has also led to a less equal standard of living as some people, who are involved in the Tourist trade, have access to Tourist money and therefore can access the goods. Cuba has two currencies now (they also used US dollars until recently), pesos cubanos and pesos convertibles. Tourists use the convertibles and Cubans the cubanos. So for instance, we had a pure Cuban night out, cinema, ice cream and pizza all for less than a pound for all four of us! This is in cubanos - if you go into a shop that trades in convertibles you can easily pay that much for a bottle of pop! So clearly the Cubans have enough money to live a good life and to have what they need, health care and education is very good and free, they have a ration and then can buy extras - all fine and enough, but then they see us tourists swanning about eating non-Cuban food, going to swanky hotels, travelling about freely, etc, and this builds up resentment. I tried to think about any advice that I might give Castro to solve this dilemma, but I'm still thinking.

The style of communism here is not like the old USSR or China, its very Latin/Caribbean, lots of arts, fun, music and laughter. The street life is fantastic and I guess the good weather helps. None of the austerity that I associate with Eastern Europe or even China and certainly none of the conformity of China.

We met a nice Canadian family when we were indulging in a bit of Western style luxury, swimming in a pool in a swanky hotel. We had a great day hanging out with them, with the kids having others to mess around with and us getting some good chats with other adults (not in Spanish!). We all got sun-burned, including Melissa, as we forgot to shade ourselves properly in our eagerness to converse!

Everywhere you go there are brown sausage dogs, they seem to be THE breed, even the mongrels all have short stumpy legs! Mark said they looked like Cuban cigars and they did!

This is a bit of a hodge podge of thoughts and impressions, just jotted down so that I don't forget.

Jamaica is another story for another day - internet still quite expensive here so only one hour today.

- Heather