The pictures kind of say it all: Cuba was magnificent. I booked the trip kind of last mintue and didn't have much expectation as I prefer cold, first world countries to travel to, but this place restored my faith in travel again as a means of feeling & spreading joy in the world. It was hot, there were power outages for days, the public toilets were the worst ever. So what was so great about it? The people! Kind, warm, open, generous even though they have nothing. Why is it that rich countries act the assholiest and the poorest places have the warmest people? They've basically got nothing but each other..and a day after I was home I was walking along a steet filled with shops and shoppers and Teslas and I felt sad. There weren't smiling cigar smoking people just relaxing on their stoops saying hi and trying to get a dollar off of you. In hindsight I wish I would have given them all of my dollars (there was nothing to buy so I came back with all of my money). I can't wait to go back, probably next winter and probably just do 5 days in Old Town Havana. I would even go on this trip again as it was so wonderful. But I should have researched it before I went and took only a carryon of SNACKS. THere was nothing to buy to eat! Only in the special white man restaurants did we eat like kings...but breakfest was gross & we had to eat it at 6:00am and that is really hard for me, as someone who drinks coffee for a couple of hours in bed and then goes on a long walk and THEN eats breakfast. I like I to wait until I'm really hungry.
One sees how much this ridiculous 65 year old embargo hurts these kind people. My advice is to GO, until someone makes it too hard for us to go anymore!
