5 trips to Cuba... CUBANITIS!

ALL INCLUSIVE in Varadero

In March 2001 I find an excellent last minute deal to snap up: a week of all inclusive in Varadero at a 4-star hotel for only 650 euros. For years I had been chasing a trip to Cuba and this was an opportunity. Hotel with 4 pools, tropical garden with pink flamingos, 3 restaurants, beach in front, theatre with evening shows, salsa course, expensive excursions and cocktails to your heart's content. I meet 4 couples of thirty-somethings, very busy with the excursions which I however find expensive (on average 100 dollars). After so much sun and sea I decide to go and discover the real Cuba which certainly is not to be found in Varadero, moreover closed off to Cubans with a border barrier. The service staff and a few Cuban tourists rewarded by the regime are the exception. I decide to go it alone and take the VIAZUL coach which for 10 dollars takes me to the capital in a couple of hours.

An old, colonial city, a metropolis with a beautiful seafront (the famous MALECON) with colonial houses under restoration paid for by Unesco as a city protected for its historical and artistic interest. The historic centre is truly interesting: - a splendid cathedral, a fort/castle, a square with period buildings, a craft market where you can buy everything at convenient prices, a "paseo" similar to Las Ramblas in Barcelona, a revolution museum, the enormous Plaza de la Revolución, seat of all the rallies and celebrations with Fidel speaking for hours and hours and the portrait of "CHE", the Capitolio, a copy of the Washington Parliament, a theatre, etc... All beautiful and interesting, in addition to Ernest Hemingway's alcohol circuit (the Bodeguita del Medio for the mojito and the Floridita for the daiquiri).

What strikes you most is the people, in particular the sexy and provocative girls, the music you hear coming from the various bars where the little orchestras play, some even outdoors, young people looking for commissions who invite you here and there, strange types and couples dressed as revolutionaries, in period costumes, waiting for the tourist photographer for a small tip. Then the strange means of transport: enormous colourful and... working American cars from the 1950s, the camelos, enormous buses that resemble camels where hundreds of Cubans stand packed because the biggest problem is transport. Little carts, taxis, cocotaxis, bicitaxis. Houses in the centre that are on the verge of collapsing, third-world paving, shouts from one building to another like in a Neapolitan alley.

There are also more modern districts: Vedado, all concrete with big buildings and gigantic hotels among which the famous Nacional, headquarters of American mobsters before the revolution, and the famous COPPELIA ice cream parlour, from the film FRESA Y CHOCOLATE, where hundreds of Cubans queue endlessly to taste the excellent ice cream at affordable prices. I asked a Cuban friend of mine the reason for so much desire; she replied that in the capital there is nothing else, at least for Cubans. I managed to get in from the garden where I was snooping around and found myself inside by chance without anyone saying anything to me.

Since I was there I tried to order the famous Strawberry and Chocolate, nothing special, very watered down, only that while I ordered six scoops on a plate, they ordered thirty, forty each, filled plastic vases brought from home and ate kilos and kilos of ice cream, who knows.... With the couples of friends I decide to take part in a catamaran excursion. A whole day with a visit to the dolphinarium, a lunch based on lobster in a restaurant on a Maldivian island, lots of sun, music and cocktails on the boat. Everyone tipsy, of international background, all cheerful, with excellent entertainment that makes us spend a beautiful day for 70 dollars each. It's not cheap, but it was worth it. I decide however to go deeper on a future trip and GET TO KNOW THE REAL CUBA..

From Santiago to Havana

This is the second trip decided to discover the real Cuba, in total freedom, alone...on an adventure, crossing the whole island from east to west. Santiago, the most Cuban and revolutionary city, similar to Naples and Bahia. City of the best carnival, of the best Cuban music, of condomblè, of Latin American and Afro-Cuban dances, black and colonial. I expected more, it's beautiful but it doesn't involve me that much. I tour the surroundings with a "carro particular", that is, a private car rented with a driver for the whole day for 25 dollars. It's the best way to visit a big city. The guy is friendly and tells me about his country: very raw and unbelievable news. He talks about a police state, about spies and informers who go tell the police even made-up news just to ingratiate themselves with the regime, to get favors or to avoid harassment. I hope it isn't true.

Anyway, going up the mountain behind the city from which you enjoy the panorama, he points out to me the enormous prison that holds hundreds of political detainees. At the top, at the end of the day, tired, we'll get half "drunk" drinking in the company of other Cubans the cerveza de la calle, that is, street beer that you drink from a large tray that gets passed around. He takes me to meet the family, a little house with a courtyard, lots of chickens and the old mother. He's separated, has a 5-year-old daughter and is in a relationship with a much younger girl. I'll understand much later that in Cuba it's normal to marry many times, to have children with different partners, of different color. Divorce is easy, you get it with a few dollars in a few days and you don't pay alimony to the partner, only something to the children.

In Santiago we visit the Castillo del Morro, very beautiful and ancient, a 16th-century fortress on the sea at the entrance to the port. There are high walls and at sunset you witness the cannon shot exactly at the moment when the sun touches the sea. Suggestive, with a group dressed in white staging this ceremony. We visit Baconao Park, a large park outside the city with enormous statues of prehistoric animals built by Cuban students. There's also a museum of vintage cars, beaches and lots of greenery. At the bottom there's the Gran Piedra, that is, a mountain that you climb by hairpin turns and at the top of which you enjoy a great panorama: the whole city, the airport, the sea and, if you're lucky, you can even see the island of Jamaica.

The funny thing that happens to me is hearing on a little radio a speech by Fidel Castro disturbed by the American station from Guantanamo not far away. I was doubtful about the old 45-year-old Russian car's ability to climb the mountain; in fact, halfway up the carburetor boiled over, but after a stop and a water change we miraculously reached the top. On the way back toward the city there's Siboney beach, the largest in Santiago, not exceptional, with rough sea, dark sand full of young people and many jineteras, that is, girls devoted to tourists for a few dollars. The place is dangerous because they easily steal bags from distracted tourists. There's plenty of police for protection anyway. Santiago is a big city with many hills, many pretty squares with ice cream parlors and restaurants, churches and colonial buildings, museums and hotels.

I visit the carnival museum, the more interesting one of varied art that bears the name of Bacardi, the great Cuban rum factory, which emigrated to the United States. In the main square I'll visit the great cathedral and the palace-museum of an old and wealthy local family. Beautiful inlaid furniture and rich European furnishings. In the evening I'll go listen to music at the Casa de la Trova, considered the best in Cuba, but unfortunately for me the evening must not have been among the best. I decide to leave for Baracoa, the oldest city in Cuba, which remained isolated by land for centuries until the recent construction of the road that climbs up the mountains through a beautiful, very green landscape rich in water. The best nature of Cuba is at the two ends, being more mountainous and humid.

Baracoa is a small city, disappointing at first because it's made of small, low houses along a not exceptional sea, with a Malecon where violent waves crash, a beach of black volcanic sand, a large mountain behind it shaped like an anvil (sighted by Christopher Columbus) and which he talks about in his memoirs. They even made a statue of him, right at the end of the Malecon, near the small fort turned into an interesting museum with relics from the era and from the revolution. Baracoa is interesting and engaging for its splendid nature in all directions and for its cheerful evening life, especially at the Casa de la Trova, small but much more cheerful than the one in Santiago. Groups play there, alternating every evening, and fun is guaranteed.

There's a very lively presenter, a kind of seasoned Fiorello who gets everyone involved, myself included, called up to be part of the chorus for the performance of the famous song Guantanamera. The mojitos made with rum, mint, ice and cane sugar help you sing and dance with the beautiful and provocative Cuban women looking for tourists.