Don’t stay in a resort. People rent out rooms in their houses - we rented a room in Havana for a weekend at the start of our trip, and had a lovely time getting to know the hosts, eating with them, getting the low-down. We then drove across to Santa Clara where we stayed in the magnificently Soviet Santa Clara Hotel on the main square, complete with bullet holes from the revolution etc. There we also got to know a lot of local people. We’re not big drinkers or partiers, but balmy evenings with excellent food, tasty rum drinks and dancing with the locals to live music remain a very happy memory. We did spend a few days in a resort on the south coast - but it was a resort for Cubans, and I think we were the only foreigners there. We fell in with a lovely guy called Vladimir who took us around several places we wouldn’t have found without his help, sorted it out for us when our car got a flat tyre from running over the terrifying giant crabs, helped us when we ran out of money (there aren’t many cash points and we just misjudged it - more about this in a sec), and was generally lovely. After we left there we drove back to Havana and stayed in a fancy hotel on the main strip - very luxurious in a Fifties way. We had an amazing time. We didn’t eat in the hotels. People also run small “restaurants” from their homes - we ate in a few people’s front rooms, and had some of the best food we’ve ever had.
About us running out of money. We had no problem taking money out from cash points anywhere, but when we got to Trindad we just couldn’t find one. It was Sunday, so the banks were closed. Vladimir took us to a local restaurant and talked to the owners, and they gave us the meal free on the understanding that we would pay for it the next day, on his word that we would. The next day he took us into Trinidad and translated for us at the bank (our Spanish is basic at best, and Cuban Spanish is an incomprehensible variant anyway). Later we worked out that the cost of the meal, very reasonable to us, was actually a month’s wages for a Cuban person. The owners of the restaurant had effectively lent a month’s wages to complete strangers, with no guarantee at all that we would come back and pay it. Vladimir had given his word that we would, so if we hadn’t I suppose he would have been on the hook for at least some of it. They didn’t think twice about it. All over Cuba we found people to be so generous and kind, extremely open about their political opinions and criticism or praise of the government, and just… really happy. We met people who totally disagreed with Communism, but still acknowledged all that it had achieved.
Tom Tildrum, the terrible way it treats its citizens results in everyone receiving a living wage for the local economy, plus rations of basics which mean that nobody goes without anything they really need. We didn’t see one single homeless person or drunk the whole time we were there. We felt totally safe wandering around Havana, Santa Clara, Trinidad and smaller places late at night. They have one of the best healthcare systems in the world, exporting doctors to nominally more developed countries. They have almost 100% literacy, even in the most rural populations. And as I said, everyone just seemed happy. Not just in tourist areas - normal people in backstreet bars who spoke no English and were amazed to see us there. I know visiting for a short time doesn’t give a full impression; I know that the act of observation changes the thing being observed, and they were behaving as if there were strangers there. But you’d think that some of the critics of the government/system would have been able to come up with something to say to us, wouldn’t you? Apart from just that they didn’t really agree with it?
Attack from the 3rd dimension, I totally agree with you that you want to get in there before it gets commercialised and touristed up. Spend as much time as you can with real people, preferably in their homes. If I possibly can swing it, I want to try to get back there this year to see it again before it goes. Just one thing - when they tell you not to drink the water, they really do mean it. I have a pretty iron stomach, but in the one place where I accidentally ignored the advice, I knew all about it for a couple of days. If they say it’s fine, it’s fine, but if they say it’s not, don’t do it to yourself.
I love Cuba.
