Out trip to Cuba has had me in deep reflection over our
experiences there against the background of historic politics.
One cannot understand present day Cuba without knowing the
background of Fidel Castro and Argentine revolutionary Ernesto Che Guevara, and
the influence the mafia had on the Batista régime. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Revolution
All this happen in the Eisenhower/Nikon years, and any
attempt to deal with Communism left Americans under the spell of McCarthyism
and HUAC and the witch hunts that followed.
It is very important to review the history of things that followed
during 1959 for they set the stage for the disastrous Bay of Pigs. But enough politics, for the moment at least.
We flew to Miami, Friday Feb.12th and stayed overnight near
the airport with an understanding that we were instructed to arrive 4 hours
ahead of out 8 AM flight on a charter airline.
Visas to Cuba are still not issued.
Instead we filled out a travel affidavit, days before we left, and
checked the appropriate reason and sent it to a licensed travel agent. The reasons had to do with exploring an
exchange program with Cuban university students and UIC students for the
purposes of promoting world health programs.
At the airport, we slogged through the slow moving line and after 45
minutes received our boarding passes, passed security and sat for about 2 hours
waiting to take off.
We arrived at the Havana airport, descended the stairs and
walked a short distance to the terminal.
Passing through passport control was not a problem, but it took 45
minutes to receive our luggage and took notice that Judith’s suitcase lock had
been removed. As we moved outside we
encountered a bedlam but finally found the tourist agency that secured a taxi
for us, but not before Judith had to stand in another line to exchange dollars
into tourist pesos called CUC’s. The
exchange rate throughout our stay amounted to 13-15% no matter where the
exchange was made.
Given the Cuban economy, tourists are one of the ways the
government has money to spend, so after grumbling awhile, I accepted the
classic economic principle that high demand causes prices to get bigger. Besides, you do what you need to do, which is
what Cuba is doing. I suppose right
wingers would describe this as supporting the Cuban communistic government, but
I see it as helping the Cuban people who can really use it. Every Cuban I could talk to in English, is hopeful
that Cuban-American relations will improve, something I expressed back to them.
There are no credit cards nor ATM’s available in Cuba so
some effort was made to carefully use our dollars during our 8 day visit.
We arrived at the Memories Miramar Hotel and as Judith was
checking us in, I roamed around the lobby and grounds to take a few
photos. All photos posed can be enlarged
by clicking on them.
Our room was nice
with tiled floor and an air conditioner that had to be turned off because
temperatures in February dropped at night into the middle 60’s and low 70’s
during cloudy days. Out room overlooked
the ocean to the northeast and about 3 blocks from the water. The hotel was on
a slight hill giving us good vistas.
A constant stream of tourists arriving in large buses,
staying for a day or two, got on and off each morning. As a result the lobby was always crowded with
traffic and internet users who had to use their computers, pads and phone in
the lobby to connect to the very slow wireless available. I tried to sit as
close to the business center where the router was located and where purchasing
lottery type scratch off cards for 2 Pesos for 60 minutes online took place. After two days the hotel ran out of cards so
we when to the hotel next door where the cards were 5 Pesos for 60 minutes, but
the internet was faster probably because of lower traffic. We also took the opportunity to have dinner
there twice as the atmosphere was pleasant and a lot fewer people at our dinner
time of 6 o’clock.
One day late afternoon we walked down to the ocean and took
a few photos.
(To be continued)
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