Bottlenose Goes South: INTERLUDE IN CUBA, PART 1

Greeted by Che at Havana Airport

Cuba turned out to be a fascinating place, and not necessarily easy to understand. I will try to pass on my impressions of this intriguing country, even while I realize that I’m likely to be guilty of oversimplification of complex issues and may have some things completely backwards.

Havana Airport

Our flight from Miami arrived in Havana at 11AM on Saturday, December 10^th. A lot of people have asked us how we could fly to Cuba directly from the US. Well, it turns out that the embargo is somewhat more porous than we all had imagined. Our tour was arranged by National Geographic, which holds a license from the US Government under a “people to people” exemption for travel with a cultural and scientific purpose. Other organizations, such as the Smithsonian, also hold licenses and the list of organizations is growing. So US tourism to Cuba seems to be increasing quickly; at this time some thirteen US airport have received licenses for direct flights to Cuba.

Havana Airport

Already travel from the US to Cuba, which also includes family visits, is second only to travel from Canada. The embargo also allows import of agricultural products, thanks to the power of our agricultural lobby. Not just food, where the US ranks as Cuba’s number one supplier, but various other “agricultural” products such as newsprint, and picture frames made of wood. So are you confused about our Cuba policy? Read on, it doesn’t get any clearer.

The Capitol, Havana

Our “people to people” experience in Havana included an excellent lecture by Miguel Coyula, a retired architect and urban planner, now devoting his time to historic preservation of Old Havana. He talked about the economic problems of restoration and of housing. Most materials for construction have to be imported with hard currency, which is in short supply. Housing has been made readily available to people thanks to government subsidies, but much of it is substandard and unsafe, and residents do not have the money to make improvements. Every year many houses in Havana collapse, sometimes killing their inhabitants. People are moved out of the most dangerous structures, but they wind up in temporary shelters that don’t build community and are stopgap measures at best. Coyula calls this a “vicious cycle” that is hard to break.

Residence in Historic Havana

Residence in Historic Havan

Books for sale, Havana

For most Cubans, the challenge is how to obtain CUC in order to survive. Employment in the tourist trade is an attractive source, including in sex tourism. So every Cuban needs a hustle. A professional, such as a physician, who is paid largely in CUP, may be found driving a taxi on weekends when he can make many times his regular salary. Another large source of hard currency is from remittances from abroad (estimated at $1 billion or more per year with more than half coming from the US). The irony here is that the anti-Castro Cubans in Miami are sending their money to relatives in US Dollars which their recipients must exchange for CUC, paying the 10% penalty which goes to finance the government that the embargo was supposed to topple. It is truly a testament to the spirit and ingenuity of the Cuban people that they are able to make their way in this difficult environment.

The jurists that we spoke with allowed that the dual currency is a serious problem that is not sustainable. They indicated that there are plans in the government to work toward a unified currency, with a goal of achieving it by 2014 or 2015. For me it is hard to believe that it will occur, simply because the current system benefits the government too much. They pay low salaries in worthless currency and collect a hefty tax on US Dollar remittances, much of which get spent in state-owned hard currency stores. But it isn’t totally out of the question; after all, Raúl has pushed through some reforms.

Walking around Havana I fell into conversation with a young couple with a six-month-old baby in a stroller. After exchanging pleasantries, the mother asked me if I’d be willing to buy milk for her baby. She said that their ration coupons only provided them with three

liters per week for the baby and nothing for adults. To buy more, they would need hard currency. She took me to a nearby store where everything was for sale for CUC and I was able to buy her some powdered milk.

Growing wrapper leaf at Finca Robaina


Smoking at Finca Robaina

Our itinerary took us west from Havana to Pinar del Río, where we visited the nearby Finca Robaina, one of the best tobacco growers in Cuba. They specialize in growing wrapper leaf for cigars, supplying the famous Cohiba brand among others. The wrapper leaf is grown under screened cover to reduce the intensity of the sunlight and to protect from wind; filler and binder leaves are grown without any protection. Growing the leaf is a very labor-intensive process, not to mention the rolling of the cigars, which is done in factories, mostly in Havana. We were offered cigars that had been rolled at the Finca with their own leaf. I’m not a smoker, but I thoroughly enjoyed the cigar and later in the trip enjoyed smoking a large Cohiba and some small Romeo y Julietas. Very pleasurable! Unfortunately, the embargo still prohibits bringing Cuban cigars into the US.

Monument to the Miami Five, Viñales

Viñales

After Pinar del Río, we bussed to the small town of Viñales, where we spent the night. There I first noticed monuments to the “Miami Five” (known more commonly as the “Cuban Five” in the US). They are considered national heroes in Cuba. The five were intelligence agents that Cuba contends were sent to the US to infiltrate terrorist elements of the Cuban-American community in the aftermath of several bombings in Havana and the downing of a Cuban airliner. The Cuban government presented information about the Cuban-American terrorist organizations to the US, but the FBI declined to move against the organizations and instead arrested the five for espionage, contending that they were gathering military intelligence at Key West Naval Air Station. They have been imprisoned since 1998. One of them, Gerardo Hernández was recently released, but is serving a three-year parole in Miami before he can return to Cuba. It is a complicated issue with conflicting legal arguments on each side. If you want more information, check out the Wikipedia entry for the “Cuban Five”, which seems like a fairly objective overview.

Viñales

Viñales is set in a valley with spectacular scenery, where you find unusual limestone mounds, called “mogotes” (haystacks). They are the result of erosion and the collapse of surrounding strata into underground caverns. Some of these mogotes rise to a height of 1,000 feet.

"Mogotes" in the Valley of Viñales

We were lucky to have two excellent sources of local information along with us on the entire trip, Neyla Carpio our guide from HavanaTour and Christopher Baker, an expert from National Geographic. Christopher has 20 years of experience in Cuba, has written several Cuba guidebooks and one entertaining travel book “Mi Moto Fidel,” a chronicle of travel through Cuba on a motorcycle. Chris and Neyla both lectured during the trip, and on the drive to Cienfuegos they got into an interesting discussion about Fidel. Christopher’s characterization of Fidel emphasized his very considerable ego and need to dominate every situation, while Neyla ,who is a proud member of the Communist Party, talked about how Fidel improved life for so many Cubans and how he is considered a father figure by many.

Cienfuegos is an attractive city east of Havana where we spent three nights. It is situated on Cienfuegos Bay on the south shore of Cuba. There was a small marina there with some sailboats tied up. Oh well, maybe someday . . .