We visited Havana during the year of changes and it was obvious that the Cubans expected a lot of their future. Hopeful service suggestions show that they trust marketing also in socialist countries. A certain amount of pride was nevertheless visible among the workers. For me it was difficult to understand how a small, not very wealthy country such as Cuba could act as a national threat to its superpower neighbor. So it is about time that political and economic ties are established again.
Havana is a torn city with clean and tidy city parts, but also dirty neighborhoods with only building facades from its grand period. And those buildings are exceptionally magnificent. Colorful, colonial-style buildings with pillars and ornaments. And cars from the 50s that majestically and unbroken drive in pastel colors between pastel colored houses!
Cuban food is probably more known and tasty in Florida than it is in Cuba. We had meat and beans, and chicken and beans. You may have cheap fish and lobster dishes at the beaches. The menus are usually only indicative since there is a real foodstuffs shortage in the country. More exciting are probably the rum bottles and the cigars, which I bought at the airport to be enjoyed back home. For drink it is easier to have a rum based cocktail than a bottle of natural water. Drinking water is scarce and expensive. Usually you receive vibrant, live salsa music as a side dish with your restaurant meal.
It is easy to travel from Finland to Cuba on a package tour. You do not need to worry about visa, departure tax, formal police registrations or other bureaucratic brakes. You have plenty to worry about already with the tourist peso and the national peso currency systems. All this will probably change when everyone’s relations to this warm, beautiful Caribbean country are normalized. The risk is that when all that happens, Cuba will start to look exactly similar as all the other Caribbean islands without the special features that make Cuba interesting right now.
Cuba, food, Latin America, travel, travel experiences
