So How was Cuba?

22 August 2015

The souvenir I shoulda bought: a camera folded from soda cans.

It was impossible to blog while in Cuba. I did have an app called Mars Edit that let me write some posts, but half were written after we got home, and the very last, just tonight. It's brief and more of a log than a thoughtful entry. I did want it down for some completeness.

Flying out of Havana is notorious for its delays. Our trip was no exception and we arrived in Miami late. Miami is pretty far down on my list of pleasant way to re-enter the USA, and efficient, it is not. When I finally got to bed that night, I felt like I was coming down with a cold.

The man in black is Enrique Inglasias. He is a singing sensation
in Cuba and everyone wanted a photo with him. He was kind to his fans.
But even he had the same long wait with us!

Our return to the New York was also a much longer trip and I felt awful. Two days after getting home, I finally went to the doctor to find out that I had strep throat, for, I believe, the first time in my life. At school I am never far from a case of the stuff, and have never succumbed.

So, my idea for a great sci-fi story is that the embargo has locked 1960's strains of strep captive on the island, and all of us post-embargo "babies," are especially vulnerable. It's revenge.

In the weeks since we've been back, school has started and there have been so many other things to think about. Even through that, though, Cuba has not been far from my thoughts. Grency, our guide, told us not to try to understand Cuba; that's a pretty tall order for an analytical traveller. I certainly can't claim to understand Cuba after a week, but still, some bottom lines for me are:

1. It is hard to understand "everything," being state run. One quote was, "In Cuba, time is not money." So, for many people, working hard doesn't yield more. Being an artist is one way, though.

2. I hope change will happen, and that it will happen at a pace that will allow Cuba to not be reliant on another country so much.

3. It is really hard and really expensive for a Cuban to travel to the USA. This is because of us, not them.

4. It is ironic that an embargo against a totalitarian state led a democratic state to make travel of its own citizens illegal. We have Cuban stamps in our passports, and can be asked to explain our travel to Cuba at any time when we are re-entering from abroad. Our trip was legal because it was a People-to-People tour, and we carry a letter saying that our trip met the conditions of the State Department.

5. The embargo was cruel and didn't work. It just has to stop.