¡Viva la revolución!

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As my final days in Mexico grew to a close I was full of excitement and anticipation for my trip to Cuba. My desire to visit Cuba was the inspiration behind my entire Latin American adventure and the trip was going to be made all the more special as I was to be joined by a fellow raving lefty and very good friend; Amanda Cangelosi. No matter where or when we meet up our conversations usually end up around the injustices of capitalism and class struggle. And, when we both left the North-East and moved to different parts of the country our meet-ups continued the socialist theme; be it visiting the library where Marx and Engels wrote the Communist manifesto, or Karl Marx's grave in Northern London. And now we were going to go one of the last remaining examples of communism in the modern world!

My flight to Cuba from Mexico set the scene for the rest of the trip. I flew with Cubana, the countries only and national (obviously) airline. The aeroplane was the oldest I've ever been on and clearly bought from (or donated by) the Soviets as all the signs for toilets, emergency exits, etc were in Russian, with little yellow stickers next to them in English and Spanish. Complimentary drinks were handed out, but there wasn't a Coca-Cola or Nescafe to be seen - only Cuban-branded drinks were on offer.

Our first stop was Havana where we spent our days walking round and taking in the atmosphere. We visited the ice cream palour, Coppelia, apparently in some famous film (but obviously as a non-film watcher I wouldn't know). We visited revolution square (which looks more like a massive care park), the Meuseo de Revolucion (worst museum I've ever been to). The real joy of Havana, however was just wandering aimlessly, listening to the trumpeters practicing by the seafront and watching the vintage cars whizz past.

Our next stop took us to Vinales - which couldn't have been more different from Havana. A tiny, rural town set in the beautiful valley Pinar de Rio. After getting our bearings (about a 2 minute job) we wondered around the different tour agencies to price up a trip to the Cayo Levisa - a beautiful little island, with few inhabitants and white sand beaches only an hour away. We suddenly realised that every trip was the same price, with buses leaving at the same time with the same deal offered on lunch. It suddenly dawned on us that , of course, this tiny little town with 3 tourist offices were all owned and ran by the government. In the end we opted for the tourist office with the friendliest staff and had a fantastic day with the exception of Amanda's horrendous sunburn.

Trinidad was our next destination and visiting the town was like going back in time a hundred years (or maybe just to Ferryhill or Consett), where the preferred mode of transport was horse and cart. Wanting to get in on the action we opted for a horse ride into the valley. It was then that me and Amanda realised we had wasted our time at university and needed to open a ranch and become full time cowgirls. Not wanting to end our action-packed day with some down-time, we took a salsa class - but were too tired to practice our skills on the real dance floor that evening.

It was in Trinidad that we met up with our Cuban friend that I only had very tenuous link to (Amanda's colleague's friend's friend). Anyway, despite the link he was incredibly friendly (maybe because Amanda had carried over a load of Beyonce merchandise for him) and took us on a number of night outs to the local Casa de la Musica and to a nightclub in a cave! And on our last night in Trinidad we were invited to have dinner at his house where he played all his Beyonce music to us.

We did the standard-tourist whistle stop tour of Santa Clara to see the Che sights, but we were lucky enough to happen upon the city's summer carnival. We made some Cuban friends, who rescued us from Amanda's ability to attract all the charming 60 year old men from the near vicinity, each offering a variety of the following: love, marriage, beer and a chicken sandwiches (now, that's romance). We danced our way round different parts of the city, leaving the Cubans still partying when we got up early for our 7am bus.

Varadero – the Costa Del Sol of Cuba - was to be our final stop in Cuba. We had 2 nights of all inclusive joy ahead – two days of eating, drinking and sunbathing. We knew the hotel wasn’t going to be top-notch (advertised as 4*, we weren’t too trusting of the Cuban tourist board), but we were pleasantly surprised when we pulled up to a swanky reception and with white sand and blue beaches only footsteps away. Of course, our room (ants crawling round the sink) and the food (gut rot, on my part ,for about 2 weeks after) didn't quite live up to the swanky reception and 4* status.

Just to add to the hotel's charm live ‘entertainment’ was included in our all inclusive deal and next thing I knew I was involved in a live magic show – which was reminiscent of a Butlins/Haven/dodgy campsite entertainment from the early 90s. Although I did enjoy the brief celebrity status I was awarded for an hour or so after the event.

All in all, Cuba was completely fascinating and I've barely touched the surface of the things we saw and experienced on our trip. It's hard to really describe such a unique country without 'experiencing' it personally. Myself and Amanda had frequent discussions about the virtues/drawbacks of communism and the the debate always centered around is the restrictions in rights and freedoms vs the social safety net of education/food/housing healthcare. I'm still not sure (of course, freedom and social equality would be perfect), but after seeing some horrendous poverty in Guatemala and in Mexico (which is currently host to the world's richest man) - I couldn't help but think they'd gotten something right - although certainly not everything.

Anyway, to sum up:

Mishaps: Luckily I had Amanda to out-do my usual mishaps through a number of bizarre ailments This included the most horrendous blister I have ever seen in my life. Photos to follow.

Size zero: The food in Cuba is the worst I've had on my trip so far, bland and greasy. Although what they lack in taste and variety they make up for in quantity. We also became addicted to peso-pizzas during our trip - really doughy individual pizzas, sold out of peoples houses for a few pence. Of course the two weeks of bad stomach on the back of Hotel Internacional's food perhaps helped balance out the excess calories consumed prior.

Men: Cuban men were the worst I've come across so far, with hissing generally being regarded as the best way to get a woman's attention. However, as inappropriate as it is to fall in love with a dead revolutionary, I was swooning over Che Guevara at every frequent glimpse of his photo. A socialist and a hotty! Perfect.

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Comments

[Jo Newbould]

Fav post yet
Jenny Cooke - this is may fav post so far! Actually LOL'd a number of times, especially at the thought of you being involved in a live magic show and being offered chicken sandwiches by the locals! Miss you lots, glad you're having fun.xxx