Holiday venues

[David]

Thought I'd try this lovely little forum once again. We just had two of our Leyland nieces over for a short vacation, they went back yesterday, tired but happy.
Talking of vacations, I thought you might be interested in reading about a vacation that I and three of my soccer playing friends went on to Cuba. Any body been there ? It is a terribly run down island, not really fit to be called a tourist spot, but very interesting..
We had a great time mind you, we hired a mini van, and a Cuban driver for the week, and we covered quite a bit of the island. Needless to say, it is a poverty stricken island, with most buildings not having seen a splash of paint since the Castro invasion in 1959, not to mention the state of the vehicles, mostly late fifty models, or Lada's, from the old USSR, bicycles and moped's are the main source of transportation, sometimes with a s many a four to a bike, all at the same time !
We stayed in some lovely ' tourist ' hotels, at very reasonable prices, one as low as $13 US a night, with a five course meal for $8 US, and we stayed some nights at B&B's, arranged by our Cuban driver.
At one place we were fortunate enough to meet one of the ' original ' eighty members of the Castro invasion force from back in 1959. He was 65 years old now, but had all kinds of certificates of ' valour ' and some great photo's of himself with Castro. He was very interesting to listen to. But even he is under the strain of life in a communist country, where the ' ordinary ' folk aren't allowed to mix with the tourists. Our driver for instance was not allowed to come into some of the restaurants that we visited, and ' we visitors ', were not allowed to ride the public transport...it was rental car, or taxi, or walk it !!
Old Havana is in a state of disrepair that most of us couldn't envision. There are very few stores with anything worth buying, even souvenirs are hard to come by.
The interesting thing about the monetary system is that it runs on the American dollar, with change being given in the Cuban peso, which the tourist is not allowed to use !! How's that for a nifty way of charging you the full dollar !!
Here's an interesting bit of life....most Cuban public toilet's are ' serviced ' (cleaned), by women who park themselves outside of the toilet and demand a small ' tip ' for the service...fair enough eh ? Trouble is, you have to tell them just what you intend to do while in the toilet....they hand out the toilet paper !!!! Very interesting situation eh ?
We carried our own with us ;-)) Clever eh ??
We did manage to get about with our driver, and like he said, we probably saw more of the island than 90% of the people that have lived there all their lives, travel is very restricted for the Cuban's, the cost alone is a massive deterrent to them, and as you probably guessed, they aren't allowed to leave the island...sad eh ?
Anyway, all in all, it was very interesting, but it was nice to get back to civilization.

[noel]

I take it you don't live in Leyland David? I couldn't work out where you live from your bio.
No I've never been to Cuba, but enjoyed your post about it. As the Americans and Castro hate each other so much, how come the POW's from the Afghan war are held in Cuba? Guantanamo Bay. I presume it's an American base but it staggers me how Castro allows it.

[anacortesdamp]

Noel:

The Guantanamo base pre-dates Castro and was handed over as sovereign US territory, much like the UK base in Cyprus. Since the US never left, it remains so. As I understand, the base is a major source of foreign currency for Castro, as a lot of the grunt work running the base is done by locals.

Of course, US residents can't go there because of on-going sanctions.


Frank

[noel]

Thankyou for explaining that Frank.

[Alan Marsden]

An agreement signed in Havana, July2 ,1902, approved later by Pres. Theodor Roosevelt,contracted the USA to pay Cuba an annual sum of $2000 in gold in exchange for the use of Guantanamo as a Naval refuelling depot. A further treaty of 1934 gave the USA a perpetual lease.
Cuban websites refer to the occupation of Guantanamo, as being 'illegal'.
It is reputed that Pres. Fidel Castro does not cash the rental cheque he now receives annually from the USA for the lease of Guantanamo.
Further excellent reading on the history of Guantanamo since the days of the Spanish is available at;
www.nsgtmo.navy.mil/history.htm

[David]

To add a little to my original post, and BTW, thank you for the link to Guantanamo Bay, I have saved it for further reading....Havana is a city in decay, most of the old stores and hotels of pre-Castro are now divided up into living quarters for the poor, and not so poor citizens. They seem to be a very content lot, but one wonders what lies underneath their natural charm, are they content to be ' free prisoners ', forever wondering what is beyond the horizon ?
It's very hard, when you are used to complete freedom of movement, and a free economy, to buy and sell at will, to realize that in Cuba, nothing, imagine that, nothing, is actually owned by anyone. One has to get permission to buy a car, but having done that, the car is still not yours, it still belongs to the 'people'.
Here's an interesting tid bit.....Our drivers girlfriend was attending class at Havana University, she spoke excellent English and was delighted to be able to converse with us tourists, even though technically, she wasn't allowed to do that. She lived quite some distance from the university, and I asked her how she got to and from class each day. She indicated that at a lot of street corners there were 'officers' positioned who, when asked by a citizen for a 'ride', they simply stepped out into the road and stopped any oncoming car, and that car, going your way, had to give you a lift. Not necessarily to your point of destination, but to a point along their route, which would benefit you. Then you did the same thing again, ( ask another officer), until you got to your destination. Apparently the system works well !! The Cubans seem to spend forever, standing on street corners, waiting for rides. Much like we did when we all used the bus service back when !!
Once outside of Havana, well now, travel becomes something to behold.
Any kind of truck, be it a flat bed truck, a van, horse and cart, anything is fair game for a ride. There aren't too many travelers, so there is no bus service, it's thumb a ride and be prepared to spend hours on end waiting, for anything to stop and help you. Although we had a seven seater mini van, and only five of us in the van, we weren't allowed to pick up anyone. Our red colored license plate indicated that we were 'tourists', and if stopped by the authorities, anyone other than a tourist, and our official driver, would be in trouble, as would our driver................ Boy, would Fishwick have made a mint there ;-))

[David]

PS. Frank; U.S. citizens are quite welcome in Cuba. The U.S. government does allow travel to Cuba for a variety of reasons, cultural exchange, education, sporting events, etc, but does not encourage travel to Cuba.
We four traveled on two British, ome Mexican, and one U.S. passports. We did not travel to Cuba from the USA however.

[Alan Marsden]

One of the attractions of Cuba is that it is not under the influence of the US, no advertisments for Mc.Donalds, Burger King ,Nike etc, etc, and although the place does need some renovation, there is a distinct lack of grafitti and vandalism which is prevalent in many Caribbean countries,indeed most western countries. Unfortunately,I have not been to Cuba, but in general I hear favourable reports. In February, my eldest son and his wife, were dining in a Havana restraunt, were informed that the restraunt was short of chicken, they were offered Lobsters as an alternative ,priced as chicken !

[David]

Alan; You are so correct with regard to the lack of ANY advertising, after all, as there is no private industry, so who can advertise ? Re: the food. We found it to be scrumptious no matter where we ate. We put that down to the fact that there being very little imported into Cuba, everything was home grown and fresh. It rmeinded me of some of our vacations back to Preston/Leyland, where we are sometimes served 'fresh daily' bread, free range eggs, and vegatables from the local markets, hmmm, my mouth waters.
BTW, on one of our stops at a local roadside restaurant, we were delighted to be offered crocodile as the main course...delicious.
It was also interesting to see some of the old British cars still getting around, Ford Popular, Prefect, and a Hillman Astria ?? Having just read one of your threads relating to automobiles, you would be facinated to see all the old cars on the road over there, it's like being at a collectors convention.

[Spitfire]

I have to say that this is one of the most fasinating threads we have had for a little while. Although I had nothing of interest to offer on the subject, it kindled my interest sufficiently to look-up the following web site.

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/fact...os/cu.html

Some of the facts to be found there are very interesting, such as the incidence of HIV/AIDS being only 0.1%/1000 of the population. (is 1 in 10,000 low?).
On the political front, the entry makes for simple reading. Political parties and leaders - 1. Opposition and pressure groups, together with their leaders - nil. (almost like the UK!!!).