CUBA -- Tourism

Cuba’s tourism today is a $2 billion per year industry and as American visitors pour into the country, this income will undoubtedly grow exponentially. Currently, American visitors are only allowed to make “educational tours,” which was the purpose for our tour. This kind of travel suits me fine, but a lot of Americans are more interested in the beach and all-inclusive Club Med-type resorts. We were initially told that our tour would not include such an experience, but it did, and I’m glad for the opportunity since I have never been to such a place!

Cuba has several sites for these all-inclusive resorts, as this map shows. Our group went to Varadero, just east of Havana.

As we descended our bus, we were greeted with a fruity rum “welcome drink.”  We had arrived at a ___hotel, the ___.

We lined up at the reception desk for our wristbands, which identified us as paying customers. We were there in time for dinner and while the hotel took care of our luggage, we went downstairs to a food extravaganza. 

At first the “dining hall” appeared to be a giant college cafeteria in terms of the noise level (this was a family place) and wide array of choices for nourishment—about 1,001 choices like meats, seafood, pizza, vegetables, fruits, pastries, breads, soups, appetizers, cheeses. I looked over the whole thing to devise a plan for my repast. However, just as a few of us began to make our choices, our guides told us we had a special meal just for our group in another room. Ah, a more civilized venue, which of course, began with another drink and then a meal of pork steak, vegetables, red beans and rice (a national signature dish). We also had a birthday cake for one of the fellows. We were accompanied with American music from a disc jockey, who at the end of the meal as we filed out played the sonorous Pachebel’s Canon in D.

The entire experience was surreal because here we were in an impoverished land and we were being treated like kings and queens. But this is the kind of tourism that will help raise much needed money for this country.

My room was an experience, too. We had been staying in five-star hotels throughout our trip, but this one topped them all. Just look at the décor—and the view from my window.

The next morning we had no schedule so I stayed in bed as long as I could and eventually went down for breakfast (this time in the cafeteria extravaganza), met up with a couple fellows and then went down to the beach. I had not intended to swim but just wanted to see the water, dip my hand in it and go back to the hotel. I hate sweating and the sun was hot even at 10 a.m. What was astounding was the view at the shore: hotels up and down for as far as the eye could see. I assumed that most of these were all-inclusive venues like our hotel.  And, there were still more being built!

Such luxurious venues are really not my style. I like warm weather in the winter and would escape the snows of Michigan for the entire season once I retired. However, I would not be inclined to come to places like this. When I travel I like to see history and architecture, talk with the locals and live like a local. However, I’m glad we had this experience. Like Las Vegas, I believe everyone should go to a Fantasy Island at least once. The only thing missing from this one, however, was Tatoo and “the plane.”

As a slight contrast to this experience was our road trip getting here. We had been in ___ and were making our way to Fantasy Island via the rural back roads that provided a more scenic view than the freeway. The only problem with this kind of travel is that there just aren’t a lot of places to stop for a snack or bathroom break. (There were barely enough places on the freeway!) Since we fellows are 30 years older than we were on the fellowship, bathroom breaks have become more vital. We were about 60-90 minutes away from our destination when a few of the women asked our guide for a quick solution.

“Would you be willing to go to the bathroom at someone’s house,” Pavo asked.

“Yes,” a couple women chimed resoundingly.

Pavo and Edgar, our faithful bus driver, talked about where we would stop and who would approach the homeowner with such a request. Edgar found an area on the side of the road that had a number of houses despite our rural surroundings. He saw a woman sitting on her front porch and stopped our huge bus. Then Pavo and Edgar discussed who would approach the woman. Edgar absolutely refused to do it but advised Pavo to “be suave” in his asking.

Pavo left the bus not with his usual confidence, but he was on a mission. He later told us what he said to the woman.

“We are on a tour of Cuba and have some elderly women who need to use the bathroom,” he said. “Would you allow us to use yours?”

From the bus I watched the woman’s face drop with astonishment at Pavo’s request, but she agreed and opened her house to the few people who had to use the bathroom. Many other fellows got out of the bus to stretch their legs and to talk to the woman’s children and neighbors who were gathering around her porch to see who these strange gringos were and what they wanted. There were a few curious goats in the yard who approached a couple fellows and got some petting in return. A dog across the street sat on the roof of one house and checked in amazement out the strange visitors from the big bus.

As we pulled away, Edgar declared that he wouldn’t go to the woman’s house but instead would make another stop once he found some high bushes. A few other men waited until then and joined him.

Fellows engaged the woman and her children as a few neighbors (and those of us who remained on the bus) watched the whole scene. They learned that four generations all lived together in three adjacent houses. Her little girl had been sick with pneumonia for the past 20 days and was even in the hospital. She is better now. After half an hour, everyone piled back in the bus and we moved on. I’m sure we were the talk of the town for a few days.

Evelyn Hu-DeHart

But the surprises of this journey were not over. As we headed west, the sunset began to show its fine colors. Evelyn suddenly and reflectively declared that the moon was very bright tonight. Pavo began to look all around the sky for the moon, but he saw none. Then he realized she was talking about the sun. She must have been really tired to confuse the two lights of the sky. Those of us around her who witnessed this incident started laughing uncontrollably for the remainder of our ride. What was so funny to me was Evelyn’s way of swooning over “the moon.” Later, Evelyn mentioned that the Cubans sometimes mix the sun and the moon or see them as the same. It’s just another example of the “land of topsy-turvey.”