Final day in Cuba

Our last day in Havana was activity filled - we did a bit more sightseeing, bought cigars on the black market (long story,) decided to go for a Santeria ceremony (religious ceremony that is a mish-mash of traditional Yoruba religion mixed with Roman Catholicism). We didn't really make it to the ceremony, but ended up meeting some really nice guys who worked in cigar factories who finally gave us some insight into life in Cuba as a Cuban. We then later on went to The Revolutionary Museum and another museum. 

The afternoon with the Cuban guys was fascinating. They were so happy to hear we were from Africa and well traveled. They knew so  much about our countries. When one of my colleagues who spoke Spanish told them she learnt it in Spain, they were curious "Spain, have you been to the Impressionist Art museum in Madrid? Have you seen the works of Goya?" I was so fascinated by how much they knew about a world they had never seen. On hearing two of us were Kenyan, "Aaaaaah, Kenya. Do you have pictures or magazines from home?" That was a bitter-sweet afternoon for all of us. Sweet because our new friends were so interesting, kind and engaging, but bitter because we learnt about the harsh realities of life for Cubans. I had always known that Cubans were not allowed to leave Cuba except for very few who got permits for conferences, sports events etc, but I didn't realize that Cubans couldn't even travel freely in their own country. "To go from Havana to Trinidad de Cuba I need a permit from the government and I am only allowed to stay a few weeks at a time." It was so sad to hear these young guys who had as much wanderlust as we did, ask us for travel stories - for that would be the closest they would ever get out of Cuba. It broke my heart. I had always had my criticisms of communism, but now I am able to articulate it in one statement, "What right does anyone (and especially the Government) have to determine all aspects of how I live my life? Where I live? What I eat? Where I go? How much I make? What my profession will be? etc?"

We went to a live music event in a restaurant with the guys and talked much more. Later in the evening we each began to say our individual farewells to Cuba - knowing that we would mull over our time there several times in the future. 

I summarize it as follows - Cuba is a great place to visit as a tourist (so much to see, such a unique culture, so much beauty, music, wonderful people etc.) but Cuba is not necessarily a good country to be born in.  

The Havana Tour

We planned to do a city tour - it was a dramatic day. We almost never made it to the tour - we got lost lots of different times and almost gave up on the bus tour. I'm happy we didn't give up though - I hope you've enjoyed the pics.

Discovering Havana

We finally made it from the airport to the house we would be staying in. We chose to rent rooms in a house as I had read online that this was the most cost-efficient way to stay in Havana. Given that Cubans don't make a lot of money but the government provides rations of food and other necessities, the average Cuban does not have much disposable income to spend on hotels, restaurants etc. As such, all such establishments are for tourists and prices are quite high. There was also something funny about having two currencies in the country - as tourists we only used and saw CUCs (Cuban Convertible Peso) vs. CUP (Cuban Pesos.) I'm still not quite sure why both currencies are used.

On our first day in Cuba, most of us had some work to finish. We had foolishly thought we would have wifi.....think again. Internet penetration in Cuba is at 25% (compare that to Kenya's 40%.) In addition to that, it's not really internet, but more like intranet. Everything is really tightly controlled and you can only access certain sites. In a police state such as Cuba ( anecdotally we heard that ~6M of the 11M citizens at the time were in some way policing on behalf of the Government), it is therefore not hard for them to control the internet. We ended up going to an upscale hotel to use their cyber cafe and were charged the exorbitant rate of USD 15/hour. Clearly at such costs, it is not hard to restrict access to internet for a population where the average monthly salary (after tax) is ~$25. 

We had lunch at a quaint little place called El Cochinito (The Pig or piglet.) The meal cost around $20/person and was ok but definitely did not feel that a plate of homemade rice, beans and a bit of meat should cost that much. 

After that we spent a bit of time walking round the city and in the evening we went to Casa de la musica for live salsa. The music was great. I loved watching people dance - I was really nervous about dancing as everyone was so good. After some time though we all gave in to the music and danced as best as we could. What did I drink? Cuba libres of course:-)

Arrival in the "not-so-free world" - tales from Cuba

We almost didn't make it here. You might recall me mentioning plans to go to Cuba after our trip to Guatemala. 

In Guatemala we started hearing rumors about how hard it would be to get into Cuba given our nationalities and how impossible it would be to get any documentation allowing us to go to Cuba before our departure. I was traveling with one Zimbabwean, another Kenyan and a Nigerian-American with dual citizenship. Clearly we could not find any information online on how easy or difficult our entry into the country would be and on exactly what we would need. 

Why Cuba? Of course I have been fascinated about Cuba most of my life. Firstly for the link between Cuba and Africa - both a historical link via slavery (over 36% of the population is black or mixed race), but also an interest in the country's current engagement with my continent. I recall being in a remote village in Ghana in 2007 and hearing how Cuban doctors were a huge proportion of all the doctors in the region. I also recall being quite surprised when I heard that the Argentinian born Cuban revolutionary - Che Guevara led an unsuccessful revolt in Congo in the 1960s. That was surprising indeed to me. My second region was based on communism - I definitely wanted to visit this island that was always shrouded in mystery. Much has been said about the ills of communism and I wanted to see it all with my own eyes - to form my own opinion of what Cuba really is like (of course still noting that I would be viewing it as an outsider who would be free to leave at any point - a luxury most Cubans don't have.) My third reason was to understand the conflicting accounts coming from the country - no freedom, but a high life expectancy, a very well-educated workforce, strong health systems resulting in low maternal mortality, high life expectancy etc. I wanted to really understand how it all fit together. 

We left Guatemala for Cuba via Panama in a state of confusion early in the morning. We had no idea if we would be able to get to the country, but decided to take our chances. We spent a few hours at the airport in Panama city. It was quite an unexpected experience. To be honest, I had expected Panama to be a small country in the middle of a forest. This airport was extremely americanized and everything in it oozed wealth. I found out that Panama was the second largest economy in Central America - right after Guatemala and Panama ranks 5th of Latin American countries in terms of Human Development Index. Yep, not a little forest country. I do recall seeing a lot of security dogs looking through our luggage - which confirmed to me that drug trafficking in the region must be a real concern. 

We finally got on the flight to Cuba and when we were about to take off, one of the exit doors rattled. You will not believe this, but one of the air-hostesses ran to the door and closed it well. I was unsettled. What country is this I am traveling to where someone can forget to firmly lock the airplane door? The flight was short. Arrival in Havana was extremely confusing. As soon as we got off the plane, airport security ran straight to us? "Where are you from?" "What is your nationality?" "Are you carrying any porn with you?" Errrrrm, you're looking for porn? Not drugs or weapons....interesting. There were lots of little dogs sniffing our bags. Tiny chihuahua like dogs - only furry. The types of dogs that your cat would laugh at. The types of dogs your cat would even steal food from. Those were their narcotics dogs. They were so cute and tiny. I wondered if they got them on a discount given their size. These dogs would not intimidate any drug trafficker...but I guess their job was not to intimidate, but rather to sniff out drugs..

We finally made it out of the airport and into Havana.