Touring Cuba
Visiting Cuba the way most people do, you can leave your brain at home. A package deal at a beachfront hotel entails zero genuine contact with Cubanos, so understanding them and their country is unnecessary.
But if you'll actually be touring Cuba, particularly if you'll be traveling independently, learning about the country and its people prior to your arrival is essential. It will help you understand Cuban society, so you can engage it gracefully, navigate it easily, and probe it deeply.
Well before touring Cuba, tour your favourite bookstore in search of titles about this fascinating island. Some of the books we're glad we read before touring Cuba are Mi Moto Fidel, by Christopher Baker; This is Cuba, by Ben Corbett; and Cuba: A Revolution in Motion, by Isaac Saney.
Until you're deep into your chosen tome, here are a few essential facts to prime you mentally for touring Cuba:
The Republic of Cuba comprises 4,000 islands and cays. The main island is the largest in the West Indies. After Christopher Columbus landed there five centuries ago, Europeans coveted the island for its strategic location and agricultural abundance.
By the mid-1800s, Cuba's sugar plantations were meeting a third of world demand. Following Cuba's independence from Spain in 1902, the U.S. began dominating the island's politics and economy. After Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution, the U.S. was essentially evicted, its influence supplanted by that of the Soviet Union.
In 1961 Castro made Cuba the first communist state in the Western Hemisphere. Since then more than a million Cubanos have emigrated or fled to the U.S. It's a mere 145 km (90 mi) from Havana to Florida.
Castro's centrally-planned economy dramatically improved education, healthcare and social welfare for Cubanos. You'll soon become aware of this while touring Cuba.
But the country collapsed financially in the early 1990s when Cuba was abandoned by the former U.S.S.R. and other Eastern European trading partners. Food and energy were then stringently rationed. Castro called it a "special period," but as you'll see when touring Cuba, it continues today.
Despite the U.S. trade embargo, Cuba's economy is now improving due to Canadian, European, and Latin American investments, particularly in tourism. The island's natural beauty, inviting beaches, and temperate climate attract millions of foreign visitors.
Still, the Cuban government micromanages the lives of its citizens, and you'll witness this in many forms while touring Cuba.
In 2008, an aged, ailing Fidel Castro resigned as Cuba's president, ending 49 years of uninterrupted rule. His brother, Raul, succeeded him. After touring Cuba, you'll likely have disparate feelings about the Castro brothers, both admiring and despising them.
To learn more about touring Cuba, go to http://www.hikingcamping.com/free-cycling-cuba.php, where you can read an insightful travel article written by Kathy & Craig Copeland, initially published in the Calgary Herald.
For a glimpse of touring Cuba, go to http://www.hikingcamping.com/photos-cuba.php, where you can see photos from Kathy & Craig Copeland's five-week journey on the island.