It's not unusual that I keep hearing the question 'and how was your trip?', 'how was Peru?' etc but somehow the question 'and how was Cuba?' seems more loaded. Perhaps it's because of my own mixed feelings about the place that I project this tension. Perhaps it rubs off from the country's own inherent contradictions or Cubanos' own hesitation about their country. As our taxi driver told us (you learn everything from taxi drivers): 'Cubans have everything everyone else wants - a beautiful country, sun, beaches, music but Cubans don't have happiness'.
Sure, this is coloured by personal experience. In my eyes now it's like I'm viewing Cuba through rose-tinted glasses - I have forgotten my petty gripes as a tourist. £10 an hour for internet (and you need about that long for gmail to load), the food (more on that later), the constant drone of jineteros 'where you from my frien'?'. But then Cubans can't access internet (I should say are not allowed to but they do), have to queue for food vouchers and can't even be harrassed as tourists as they can't leave the country without permission and special invitation.
But I have fallen in love with the chaos and laid back sikkimetzidiko* attitude, which is probably a result of this Cuba libre and too many Cuba libres.
*another borrowed concept from Cypriot parlance - in other words 'who cares' or in spanish something akin to 'no vale la pena'
Besides who can fail to love the colour, the music, the dilapidated grandeur that is Havana Vieja...
No comments:
Post a Comment