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Leaving the U.S.
U.S. laws are very strict with regard to traveling to Cuba. My
congregation in Bethesda, Maryland applied for a special religious
visa issued by the Treasury (not State) Department so that seventeen
of us could travel to Cuba for nine days. Surprisingly, the visas
were separate from our passports and no entry was made in my
passport indicating I ever visited Cuba or that I ever returned to
the U.S. We flew from Miami International Airport on an American
Eagle charter flight. Each of us carried twenty-five pounds of
humanitarian aid, including such items as antibiotics, asthma
inhalers, insulin, bandages, soap, shampoo, Fixodent, etc. Our
leader carried an additional 400 pounds of aid – 800 pounds in all.
Before leaving the U.S., each of us converted about $600.00 into
either Canadian dollars, Euros, or British pounds to be converted
into Cuban Convertible pesos (CUCs) for our personal use while in
Cuba. This step is necessary, because Cuba charges a 10% penalty for
converting U.S dollars into CUCs.
General Comments on Cuba.
Make no mistake. Cuba is a police state, though unobtrusively so to
tourists. Its major industry is tourism, which is completely
controlled by the military. All hotels, restaurants, and tour busses
are owned by the military, but staffed by civilians. Most tourists
come from Canada, United Kingdom, France, Spain and Germany. Cuba
has two monetary systems. Cuban Convertible pesos (CUCs) are used by
tourists and Cuban pesos are used my Cuban citizens. Regular Cuban
pesos are not convertible into any other currency. All Cubans have
ration books that allow them to purchase monthly rations of rice,
beans, eggs, flour and other basic commodities at drastically
reduced prices. As an example, one kilo of rice costs the equivalent
of about five cents. One quart of milk per day is provided free for
all children up to the age of seven. Education and health care are
free. Cuban doctors are good, but they do not have ready access to
drugs and other medical supplies. Cuba has an overabundance of
doctors who earn on average about $30.00/month. Cuba provides many
doctors to other Socialist/Communist countries such as Venezuela,
Nicaragua, and Bolivia in return for oil and food. School teachers
earn around $15.00 a month. Almost everyone works for the
Government. Free lunches are provided for all workers and students,
though lunches typically consist of rice and beans. Students wear
uniforms of various colors, depending upon whether they go to
elementary or secondary school or college. Uniform colors also
indicate whether students are studying engineering, education, arts,
medicine or other curricula.
Some entrepreneurship has entered Cuban society. Middle men buy
vegetables from farmers, transport them to farmers’ markets and sell
them for a profit. Half of the farms are privately owned. There is
no shortage of food, only a shortage of money with which to buy the
food.
Computers and the internet are making inroads into Cuban society on
a limited basis. Point of sale scanners are used in stores for
checking out purchases. These are new innovations since my previous
visit.
I found the Cuban people to be quite industrious, which is
surprising for a Communist country, especially one in the tropics.
Havana.
At Jose Marti airport, we exchanged our money for CUCs. We arrived
in Havana the day after Raul Castro was inaugurated as President of
Cuba. Upon our arrival, we were informed by our tour company that
our rooms at the fashionable Ambos Mundos Hotel (Ernest Hemingway’s
favorite) had been usurped by visiting politicians and we were to be
moved to the Palace Hotel, a well located, but less than desirable
facility. The cold showers were invigorating, not to mention shaving
with cold water. After a dinner of ropa vieja (well done shredded
beef) I decided to explore Havana’s night life. La Floridita
(Hemingway’s favorite watering hole and the home of the original
daiquiri) was just two blocks away. On the way there, I encountered
several practitioners of the world’s oldest profession. It reminded
me of my college days experiences in Havana before the revolution.
Rejecting their advances, I continued to La Floridita, where I had
several excellent daiquiris and listened to some great Cuban music.
After leaving La Floridita, I walked in the cool night air for
several blocks until I encountered two of my traveling companions.
Not wanting to return to the hotel at that hour, we found another
bar with an eight-piece Cuban band and cheap drinks. I ordered
Crystal beer, a favorite from my school days in Miami (again, before
the revolution). It tasted just as good as I had remembered. At the
various bars I frequented, I met tourists from Canada, France,
Germany and the United Kingdom. The Cubans I met were surprised and
pleased to meet American tourists. They had no animosity toward
Americans, and, I believe, preferred us to tourists from other
countries. Every Cuban I met had relatives living in Miami. No one
had a good word to say about George Bush.
The next day, we visited three synagogues where we dropped off some
of the aid that we had brought with us. One serves as a pharmacy and
supplies aid to anyone in need, without regard to religion.
We also visited the Havana Club Rum Museum where we got a first hand
view of the rum making process. The barrels are made from American
White Oak, which is transported to Cuba by way of Canada or Ireland.
The barrels used in the cooking process are huge – 22,000 liters.
The youngest rum is white and two years old. The better rum is dark
and is packaged as 5, 7 and 15 years old. The older the better. At
the end of the tour, we were escorted to the sampling room, where we
were given samples of the seven year old rum. It went down quite
smoothly.
That evening, six of us attended the show at the Tropicana
Nightclub, a former Mafia run club and casino that has operated
continuously since 1939. There is no longer a casino, but the show
was comparable to anything I have ever seen in Las Vegas and much
more enjoyable than the Cuban National Ballet, which I attended on
my previous trip and at which I managed to stay awake for several
minutes.
Cars in Havana are generally pre-1959 American cars, usually in good
running order. I also saw a few Russian Ladas, Italian Fiats and
Spanish Siats. Tourist busses like the one we had at our disposal
are modern air conditioned Mercedes Benzes.
Before leaving Havana, we had to take the mandatory tour of the
Museum of the Revolution. The Spanish American War is referred to as
the Spanish Cuban War. We also visited the Belle Arts Museum, which
contains a vast array of Cuban art.
Touring the Provinces
Our trip took us to five provincial cities, one about seven hours by
bus east of Havana. Restroom facilities at rest stops were
unbelievable. Not too bad for men, but women had to buy sheets of
toilet paper from a little old lady who sat in front of the
bathroom. None of the toilets had seats on them, so the women had to
squat. One place where we stopped had only one restroom and no
running water. The little old lady would go in after each person and
dump a bucket of water down the toilet. Food consisted of chicken,
chicken and chicken along with black beans and white rice (referred
to by Cubans as Moors and Christians). Transportation in the
provinces is mostly by bicycle or horse and buggy. Some people do
have motor bikes or motor scooters. Taxis are tricycles with two
seats behind the driver.
The first city we visited outside of Havana was Santa Clara, where
we spent the night at the Hotel Los Cayenes. Before checking in to
the hotel, we toured the local cigar factory, which employs 308
workers who produce between 12 and 15 thousand cigars per day. The
workers earn about $12.00 per month, but can earn incentives for
increased production. Cigar production is done completely by hand
using three types of tobacco leaves for filling, one for combustion,
one for aroma and one for strength. A fourth type of leaf is used
for the wrapper. The final step is to seal the cigar wrapper with a
combination of resin and saliva. I was particularly impressed with
the quality control process. Each cigar is checked for length,
circumference, color of wrapping and air flow. A vacuum machine is
used to check the air flow. In the morning, a reader reads the daily
news to the workers and in the afternoon the reader reads a novella
to them. Each employee is entitled to two free cigars per day. While
in Santa Clara, we made a mandatory visit to the Che Guevara
Memorial. His body, along with 30 of his followers, were eventually
returned to Cuba from Bolivia, where they had been killed while
fomenting a rebellion.
The next night was spent at the Hotel Islazul Plaza in Camaguey, the
farthest east destination on our trip. Although our activities in
Camaguey were primarily religious, one of our traveling companions’
mother had been born there, and the community was extremely
appreciative of the return of a prodigal son. A festive dinner had
been arranged for all of us (we had provided all the money in
advance for the dinner) and we sang and talked late into the
evening.
The next morning, we departed for Sancti Spiritus, a community that
our congregation had adopted as a sister community and one in which
I have established friendships and a continuing interest in their
well being. On the way to our hotel, we found the downtown streets
closed to traffic because of a huge book fair in the central square.
The local police removed barriers to allow our bus to drop us off at
our hotel. Book fairs during the day end with music fairs lasting
late into the night. Thousands of teenagers packed the city center
till 2:00am. They were well behaved, enjoyed the music, danced and
generally had a good time. There were fewer police on site than you
would see at a similar event in the U.S. That evening, Friday, our
group went to the home of Jose and Daisy Barlia. We provided them
with a great deal of humanitarian aid for the entire community. The
Barlias live in a large, beautiful house that was built in 1946 by
Jose’s father, Solomon Barlia. Jose is able to retain his large
home, because his three children, son-in-law and two grandchildren
share the house with him. If only Jose and Daisy lived there, the
Government would either expropriate the house or move unrelated
people into the house to share the space. We held Sabbath services
that evening at Jose and Daisy’s house for the local Jewish
community. During the service the electricity went out for about a
half hour, a common occurrence in Cuba. After services, a buffet
dinner was laid out for all to enjoy. Sabbath services were also
conducted Saturday morning. Before leaving Sancti Spiritus, a fellow
Mason and I met a Cuban Mason who gave us a tour of the local Lodge.
Our next stop was a tour of Old Trinidad (a UNESCO Heritage City),
before checking in to a resort similar to a Club Med, called Brisas
Trinidad Del Mar. The facility itself was quite nice with a
beautiful Caribbean beach, entertainment, free drinks and all the
lousy food you could eat. I ate several meals of spaghetti with
vegetables and tomato sauce, because the rest of the food did not
appeal to me. We spent two nights at the resort before moving on to
Cienfuegos, where we met with an old friend, Rebecca Langus and her
family. We had lunch at an interesting restaurant called Palacio
Valle, where peacocks walked among the tables. The black beans and
rice were fine. I can’t say the same for the chicken. I should
mention at this point that Cuban coffee is excellent and a hell of a
lot better than Starbucks. I drink it black, which keeps me awake
all day, even on the long bus rides. We spent a few hours walking
around Cienfuegos, which appeared to be a little better off
economically than the other cities we visited. It was originally a
French settlement and retains some of that French flair. We saw
women frequenting hair and nail salons and some stores that actually
had a varied supply of merchandise. Our stay in Cienfuegos was
short, because we needed to get back to Havana for our farewell
dinner at El Pollo Ajibe. This time, we were able to spend the night
at the Ambos Mundos Hotel. The hotel houses a Hemingway Museum and
has pictures of Hemingway in all the public venues. It also has an
ancient Otis elevator that requires an elevator operator. I couldn’t
call it a night without hitting another favorite watering hole of
Hemingway’s called La Bodeguita Del Medio. The Mojitos were strong
and the music was lively.
Leaving Cuba and arriving in Miami.
At Jose Marti Airport, we were able to convert our CUCs directly
into U.S. dollars with no penalty. The penalty only applies when
entering Cuba. Security was very similar to that in the U.S.
Passengers go through magnetometers and carry-on luggage is X-rayed.
Our plane left about two hours late. Entering the U.S. from Cuba was
a different story. Almost all of our group had their luggage
searched and we were quizzed about what we bought and whether we
were carrying cigars on our person. Everyone made it through
successfully. In retrospect, the trip was educational, enjoyable and
fulfilling.
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