Cuba

In 2008 we have decided to travel to Cuba. The main reason was to visit my family as I have Cuban origins. So, my expectations were to see a new country, get to know new culture and life style and have fun wi
th my family.

In order to be able to go to Cuba we had to have visa, which were not that expensive and quite easy to obtain but extremely essential. Everybody warned us to be careful while checking out in the Cuban airport. There are many prejudices that passengers are being constantly checked, interviewed and the controllers are ridiculously suspicious. Well, nothing like that happened to us. So, either these are just gossips or we were lucky that we were not picked from the crowd.

First two impressions were: “OMG look at these old fantastic cars!!!! And OMG look how poor this country is!!!” Cuba is famous for its historical and still functional old school vehicles. The government proclaimed the cars national heritage and their export was banned. The locals are poor and do not have spare money to buy new car parts as well as nobody produces this outdated type of technologies anymore. As a result, the majority of cars are not fully original.

In comparison to us Cuba is a poor country. Cities, buildings, roads and just everything looks old, worn out and holey. Although, it was a shock in the beginning, soon we realized that it is a vibrant, inviting and friendly place.

Another false judgment is that you should not eat food from street, fast food or drink water from the tap. We did not have any problems and the food was delicious. For few cents we had a feast and tried local cuisine, which is really yummy!!! We were put off once though. After purchasing some sort of slush from a pushcart and sipping about half of it, we noticed that on the bottom of the cup there was heaps of black particles floating happily – well, enjoy! What we had to laugh at was how innovative Cubans are. Once we bumped to a guy who was selling a deep fried penne as a form of crackers. You might have had it already somewhere else, but for me it was something new.

One of the most memorable leisure ‘activities’ was a Cuban disco. I have never experienced anything so WILD, TOUCHY and HOT! I am, of course, talking about a local disco for locals and

the one for tourists. The way these people dance is uniquely South American, if I can put it this way. They do not use their hands and legs and maybe head sometimes as we do in our culture. When they move they employ the body, soul, heart and mind, and it is amazing to watch and dance amongst them. They do touch a lot each other in a very ‘opened’ way, which seemed way too inappropriate, but after a while we just got used to it and adjusted hehe :o). And of course, Cuba is a hot country and when you dance intensively in 30-40 degrees temperature you sweat a LOT! Some of the people looked like they just took a shower without taking their clothes of. And it did not end there… As the t-shirts were completely wet, the sweat continued to drip in the pants…I know it is a little revolting, but funny…and mainly men they looked like they peed themselves YEY! It was something I have never seen and it looked absolutely ridiculous and not sexy :o).

So, those are some of my memories and experience from Cuba... Have you been there? What was your holiday/visit like?