Our Cuba Driving Holiday Christmas and New Year 2008

This year Helene and I decided to take what we thought might be an interesting motoring vacation on the Island of Cuba. Most Canadians know Cuba for its all inclusive resort vacations, confining most of their time to the resort property, perhaps wandering out for a packaged day excursion to one of the UNESCO inscribed cultural towns, of which there are quite a few. Helene’s mom Charlotte came with us and my sister Karen and Brother in Law Brian flew from Glasgow to rendezvous in Havana with us for this memorable self drive holiday in a first class Spanish made “Seat” minivan.

Our planning was based on the recently created Cuban home-stay program, through the newly minted system of “Casa Particulares”. These are basically B&B’s which are located in every major center, government approved and advertised by either their own websites or in a marketing consortium of some sort. All casas serve breakfasts and some develop extra income by catering dinner. In many case we ate better in these homes than we did in local restaurants, but we occasionally ate in private licensed restaurants called “Palodares”, and they were quite good. The basic fee for the casa accommodation is about $30-$35 Canadian per night for two persons, which is very reasonable for such privileged access to these people and their homes.

You might be interested in a word or two about the Cuban tourism economy.

Almost everything in Cuba is owned by the state, but as we discovered there is a modest amount of private ownership. Most of the casas where we stayed were the actual homes of our hosts, but they are still the property of the state, even though their families have lived there, in some cases for many years. The government has recently licensed about 3000 of these homes as “Casa Particulares” (B&B’s) and the owners pay a monthly license fee to the government, whether they are full or empty. Evidenced by the enthusiasm of the Casa operators, they have embraced this privatization of the tourism economy with mucho-gusto and when we did the math of the license fee versus potential monthly revenue, there is no doubt they have embraced the profit and loss principals of the capital economy…with a Cuban tweak or two.

We drove a great number of kilometers across the island and only stayed in casa particulares.

The driving was excellent, even if Cuban Xenophobia means that around Havana the road signs are few and far between. Some signs are missing altogether and some road maps are slightly out of scale, in terms of distances and place locations. I experienced this in the old Soviet Union when a river boat skipper once showed me how they purposely altered publically sold marine charts and road maps to fool a potential invading force. What makes a mockery of this is modern GPS based navigation systems and some basic aerial photography.

This is quite a large country as islands go, almost two thirds the length of the UK, with a large number of airports and rural roads. Their infrastructure is in very bad shape in terms of sewage, water supply, electrical supply, public transport, roads and crumbling buildings, mostly in Havana. The Cuban propaganda machine is very active and blames the USA for just about anything which goes wrong. Most locals just laugh at the Cuban propaganda excesses, because those who understand what is happening know that it is the failed communist system which has caused most of their problems and nothing else. Cuba trades with just about every other country on earth and has access to most types of technology (when they want to purchase it and can afford it) so its really very disingenuous for them to keep pushing the anti US line when they have mostly their own government to blame. Conversely it is a real shame that the US has consistently taken the Castro-bait so easily and ordinary Cubans are looking forward to the day when they can regain their US friendships which they so earnestly want to do.

Cuba is often viewed for the paradox it is. In spite of its deplorable political system they have a first class accessible medical service for every one of its citizens and a thriving pharmaceutical development program. Their education system is also quite well developed and I read in the lonely Planet guide that although they are 134th in GDP they rank eleventh in Olympic medals. There is no doubt that Cuba punches well above its weight in many sectors and will be an interesting place once it opens up. Another paradox….on one hand Cuba offers no current freedom for its citizens and a gloomy failed economy. On the other hand compared with many other places on earth, they have peace, security, and a roof over their heads, full stomachs, medical care and education. Hopefully freedom will follow.

Our trip was very interesting and we met many Americans all over the island, mostly having flown across from Mexico, some from the Bahamas and some through Canada. All felt entirely welcome in Cuba and every Cuban I spoke to expressed warmth and fellowship for the American people.

Havana is absolutely gorgeous and in the fifties when these buildings were new it must have been truly stunning. Because their economy has been running downhill for the last fifty years the degradation of their infrastructure is very evident and crumbling buildings are often what one immediately notices. Central Havana has been maintained quite well and is visually very interesting. Old Havana (Habana Viejo) is where most of the money has been deployed, including a huge chunk of UNESCO investment, as well as single country aid programs. Old Havana draws a huge number of visitors and is visually stunning. However as you wander around the streets just outside the central zones you will see the rows of crumbling buildings and realize how deep this infrastructure deficit really is. We first stayed at the edge of Old Havana in a street which looked like a tenement district. Our arrival was late in the evening, it was quite dark, Salsa music was booming from at least three apartments, a loud and good natured game of dominos was clacking on the sidewalk. Our casa was actually a state owned apartment, two floors up, operated by the Ricci family as a casa enterprise. The Ricci’s we discovered live elsewhere, but when they have guests they move into the apartment as hosts. It was a very clean, lovely, relaxing space and a great refuge near Old Havana. This was the first of many lessons we learned that you just can’t judge a casa from its outside appearance (sound familiar ?).

If you go there we can recommend walking in magnificently restored Old Havana (Havana Viejo), visiting the historic Hotel National where just about every Cuban dictator as well as most foreign dignitaries stayed, the Museum of the Revolution, the Capitol building, Hotel Ambos Mundos where Hemingway hosted his mistresses, and if you have time, the magnificent embassy district in Vedado.

Next was Cienfuegos, a lovely colonial town and very relaxed when compared with frenetic Havana and much smaller in scale. The centre of Cienfuegos is one large square with deep walking galleries which are excellent for strolling in the shade. Our casa was very different from Havana, being the actual multi generational home of our host family. Like all the homes we saw, their décor is stalled in the 1950’s and one ends up staying in a living antique environment. Cienfuegos is a very gentle Cuban town in terms of tranquility, pace and scale. Each evening we strolled the two blocks from our casa along the “malecon” or waterfront, alongside a very pretty palm lined boulevard which was part of a huge protected bay. This is one of the largest bays in the world and in the distance we could see the uncompleted dome of the failed Russian Nuclear reactor, which was abandoned after the Cuban Missile Crisis, played itself out.

If you go there we can also recommend walking (cycling or driving will be easier) three kilometers along the malecon out to Punta Gorda, to see the pretty casa paticulares lining the sea front and the amazing Moorish castle-style hotel at the end.. If you can locate it and it tends to be well hidden, there is an old fishing port several streets back from the malecon, with the best collection of old decrepit Cuban planked fishing boats, painted in greens and blues and yellows and just waiting for your digital camera. Cuba is full of paradoxical sights and the new yacht club along the malecon contrasts well with this fabulous old fishing port.

Our next destination was Trinidad de Cuba, one of the classical UNESCO towns of Cuba and the third component of our four part driving holiday. Old Trinidad is comprised of a series of cobbled stoned streets lined with white washed period looking dwellings, many of which are casa particulares. Here we learned a valuable lesson in this fledgling Cuban B&B industry and that is to leave your last casa early and arrive at you next casa early, because, the early bird gets the casa which has been reserved ! Our casa in Trinidad was taken by someone else and I sense that it was an issue with our reservation (through my trusty Cuban “fixer” Pototo) rather than an oversold situation. The alternate which was offered was just not up to scratch, so we decided to go searching on our own, eventually finding two very nice casas, both in Old Trinidad and just two streets apart.

Trinidad de Cuba is focused on a magnificent square at the top of a hill, surrounded by a labyrinth of cobbled-stoned streets and low rise dwellings. In the square (Plaza Mayor) apart from a cathedral and several museums there are a few music bars the Cubans call “Trovas”, where one can hear the most seductive music and admire how Cubans really can dance. Helene and I both love music, particularly Cuban swing, so we ended up on the dance floor as part of the spectacle.

Outside the city are two excellent activities. There is a wonderful beach located on the Ancon peninsular, just outside the town centre ten minutes by car and the same by taxi or you can rent a bicycle and peddle along with the locals. We met some Europeans who preferred to stay at the beach resort in Ancon and hoof it into town each day. The other attraction is a half day drive into a local region called The Ingenios Valley, an original sugar plantation center and a chance to see local life in action in the many tiny villages, along rural roads and dirt tracks in the valley.

Our last destination was once more Havana, but not before we drove over the mountains from Trinidad to Santa Clara, which was liberated by Che Guevara “The Brand”. My reason for listing Che as a brand is because the Cubans work really hard to perpetuate the Che mythology, using his image as a brand on…building-size posters, T shirts, books, magazines, egg cups, baseball caps, post cards, chocolate, brandy bottles, taxi advertising, propaganda billboards…to name only those which I saw. Somehow I find that a revolutionary Che branded egg cup is stretching one’s imagination a tad too far !

This “B” road mountain drive was outstanding and a bit marginal in parts, where the road had subsided under the weight of truck traffic and was a casualty of the infrastructure deficit. It is very steep in places, winds around tight bends, passes through sleepy immaculate villages, provides non polluted vistas across an undeveloped landscape of forests, fields, lakes and plantations. It was well worth the drive but not in my view worth visiting Santa Clara. Granted we only stopped for an hour or so, but what I saw was a spotlessly clean town that at first glance seemed rather boring. I could be wrong. Perhaps we need to check it out once more.

Our final two nights in Havana provided another lesson in arriving early to secure what one has reserved. Even through we had reconfirmed from Trinidad, we were quickly re-accommodated, as our original digs were not available. The replacement accommodations were not as pleasant as our first Havana casa (Casa Ricci) although we had a great time and connected with the people running it.

I love political history and Cuba was absolutely fascinating for me. After wandering around as an observer for two weeks I came home with a great admiration for how Cubans survive under the inefficiencies and unfairness of communism. For all of Castro’s original vision of overthrowing a brutal and anti-democratic dictatorship (which he did) and for all his bleatings about providing egalitarianism and emancipation to the people (which he did not), he ended up taking the wrong darned fork in the road and in doing so, waltzed his people down fifty years of failed governance in the shape of a communist dictatorial regime. As far as Castro was concerned, it was also acceptable to export his revolution to Africa and he soon had 300.000 Cuban ground troops and his air force fighting in Angola and Mozambique. He then exported Che Guevara to try and ignite a similar revolution in South America, but this was a costly failure for Castro and cost CG his life. Nowadays Castro is exchanging the services of 3000 Cuban doctors who are working in Venezuela, for weekly tanker loads of oil and one can only speculate what polemic those doctors are spreading as a supplement to their excellent medical care for Venezuelan campesinos.

In Cuba circa 2009, one can see the stratifying of Cuban society already taking place, while Castro’s communism still rules and this is happening right under his nose. There are many Cubans driving their own cars (yellow plates), dressed to the nines, involved in all types of revenue generating enterprises and this is quite surprising. The recent expanded access and selection of consumer goods had made cell phones and PC’s available to the proletariat and the licensing of 3000 casa particulares is also part of this change in how their economy works. Cubans are searching for any way possible to get hold of CUC’s (tourist convertible currency) by participating in the standard tourist enterprises we have mentioned. But they also hustle for tips and sell their participation in your digital pictures and some even beg.

With emerging Cuba in mind, I would ask you to think of the disaster in post communist Russia and the unfairness of what happened after Communism fell. Then review how the Chinese have expanding their economy for the benefit of their citizens, while keeping hold of the governance structure. One can only wonder what system of governance and what economic model the Castro’s and their colleagues will adopt for the future of Cuba.

Cuba without the mercurial and somewhat devious Fidel Castro will be interesting and perhaps not what you think. My view is that surrounding Fidel, there are many Cubans who cherish their positions of privilege along with their consumer goods, their relative freedom and even travel abroad. I am not so sure they will be interested in seeing much more of that change, but if change is inevitable they might just have a role in shaping what this will look like. How Cuba emerges from Castro’s version of communism will be interesting. Will they adopt the hybrid Chinese model of governance control with a free economy, or will Cuba, as it has in the past and develop its own model of a 21st century state.

One thing for sure will be the need to compensate those Cuban and American firms (including Castro’s own mother) which were so unfairly nationalized and to bridge the chasm between the US and Cuba.

Who knows how that will all play out ?

I can heartily recommend doing Cuba on your own and self driving is definitely a great option. On the other hand there is quite a good inter-city bus service which will allow you to visit any part of Cuba and if driving does not turn your crank…no pun intended, then why not go by bus.

Stephen Burnett
Kingston, January 2009 and its snowing.