Cuba has been wide open for Canadians to visit since shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union and even before then, some adventurous folks made it here. So what took me so long? I feel like I’m the last Canadian to have ever visited here. And maybe that’s what it came down to. When I travel, I don’t want to be surrounded by people who think and look just like me. And I certainly don’t want to travel to some place far away only to be surrounded by Canadians. The whole point of travelling for me is to get out of my comfort zone a little and see how other people live. While people can argue what country has the better the standard of living or the better way of life, the more I travel the more I realize that there’s a whole lot more out there to consider.
So after years of my friends telling me stories of how their trip to Cuba was filled with nice beaches, decent resorts and bad food I thought, there must be more to this place than that. More pressing was the news that the US was opening up to Cuba and that the floodgates would soon be open to Americans wishing to travel here. I had visions of Havana reverting back into the Las Vegas it once was when Americans came here in great numbers, or the whole island being bought up by Disney and turned into a theme park.
So, I’m here knowing that this country has already changed a lot over the past 25 years since Cuba’s ideological and economic benefactor, the USSR, collapsed. Despite the Castro regime’s best efforts to hold back change as it struggles to keep power and remain relevant, the hungry capitalists, western tourists and a Cuban population wanting something else are pushing the envelope hard. Better check this place out quick while it’s still interesting, special and different.
My travels for the next two weeks will take me to Havana, Cienfuegos, Trinidad (the Cuban town, not the island nation) and Santiago.
sedativegunk 