I can't believe the poverty and expected it to be more scenic. It had its lovely spots for sure but I wouldn't choose it as a travel destination for that. It was so barren in parts and the heat was hard-going.
We had good accommodation for the most part, plenty of food but little variety (we expected this): rice, black beans, eggs, devon (they call this ham), fruit: pineapple, papaya; vegetables: tomatoes, diced cabbage for the mist part. We were probably lucky to get this from all accounts. Good coffee! Supermarkets were poor in content and lack of customer service a real standout.
Having said that, the ordinary man in the street, so to speak, was pleasant. But for all of that, Cuba nevertheless registers some enviable and somewhat surprising social markers such as low infant mortality and high life expectancy -
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/salim-lamrani/cubas-health-care-system-_b_5649968.html
It has a literacy rate of 99.8% and is almost free of the drug trade and its accompanying violence. The murder rate is low compared to many other countries.
It is a country in a time warp. It'll be interesting to see where the detente between the US and Cuba announced by President Obama last December will lead. How will the country deal with an influx of tourists? Will it be over-run by US multinationals - especially the fast-food companies? Regis thinks things will revert back to pre-Castro times with the wealth skewed to a few and life made much worse for the poor.
This makes Cuba an interesting country to visit because it undoubtedly will change and not necessarily for the good. Many people fear the march of McDonald's into the country and want to visit it before this happens. No doubt many will find the socialist attitudes and creaking infrastructure challenging.
Interestingly, on the 17th when we were on our last day's ride out of Trinidad, the headlines in the New York Times stated:
"U.S.-Cuba Talks on Restoring Diplomatic Ties End Abruptly".
Apparently this is in response to Obama's declaration that Venezuela is a threat to national security, angering the Caribbean countries - including Cuba - which have rallied around Venezuela in support.
Cuba is just interesting. Simply that.
Totally fascinating. Can understand you were probably happy to see the backside of Cuba, but I reckon the memory will probably be the strongest. I guess you wonder how economies like that can survive when the rest of the world is operating in a system which leaps and bounds beyond Cuba's 20th Century model ................. but they do survive - but at a cost.
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