If you’re travelling to Cuba, go soon
If you’re travelling to Cuba, go soon
The author, wearing a Che Guevara hat, with his wife Nida. Che’s likeness is on that building in the background.
Before the Caribbean island gets flooded with American tourists
By Bruce Gates
VARADERO – “It’s just like the Philippines,” more than one Filipino has said on visiting Cuba. This Caribbean island of 11.2 million people, just off the coast of Florida, offers a small touch of home a little more than three hours’ flight from Toronto.
The people are friendly, the towns are colourful and charming, there are beaches and tropical plants galore, and the prices are reasonable. Our all-inclusive trip via Sunwing to the Memories Varadero resort came to $799 a person, including airfare, taxes and transfers.
If you are thinking of going, go soon, because Uncle Sam and Cuba are repairing their once-frosty relations, so sooner or later, the place will be flooded with American tourists and prices will rise.
A group shot in Cathedral Square in Old Havana, where Pope Francis spoke. It’s mentioned in the story, along with some details about the square. Photos courtesy of Bruce Gates
This means the Cuba a million Canadians a year (one-third of all visitors) have come to love will change, and not necessarily for the better, depending on your point of view. The American embargo, which cut off all trade with the island for more than 50 years, has meant Cuba is not just another outpost for U.S. franchises, which makes it different from many other places.
What’s also different about Cuba is the fleet of thousands of vintage American cars from the 1940s and 50s. Apparently the last American car to be sold to a Cuban before the U.S. shut the door on trade with the country was a 1960 Chevrolet Impala. It may still be out there somewhere among that fleet of old Chevys, Dodges, Fords, Ramblers, Buicks, Pontiacs, Cadillacs, Studebakers and others that ply the streets of Havana and other cities and towns.
Cubans have kept these old relics running as taxis and personal vehicles for all these years, and many of them are in showroom condition. The old cars that serve as taxis are in constant demand by tourists who want their pictures taken seated inside.
Four wheels, though, aren’t the tourist’s only choice. Havana, Varadero and other cities also have the Cuban equivalent of the Filipino tricycle, only these vehicles look more like oranges on three wheels.
Vintage taxis are a great way of getting around for tourists who want to escape their all-inclusive resorts – which, by the way, serve as an excellent base from which to explore the real Cuba. It’s possible to book a taxi, vintage or modern, from these resorts to take day trips to Havana and other worthwhile Cuban cities.
Revolution Square, where the Pope said mass.
Havana – Old Havana, at least – is a little bit like Intramuros with old, Spanish-inspired architecture, narrow streets and horse-drawn carriages. Like the Philippines, Cuba under the Spaniards was a very Catholic country, and it shows in the number of churches. Cathedral Square is an example. It is home to the Cathedral of The Virgin Mary of the Immaculate Conception, a church built with coral stone and completed in 1777. This is the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Cristobal de la Habana. When Pope Francis was in Havana last September, he delivered a sermon from this Cathedral.
Outside Old Havana, the more modern part of the city (population 2.1 million) pulses with the flow of traffic, with those old American cars making a visitor feel as if he’d time travelled back to the 1950s when the town was a favourite playground of American tourists and the Mafia.
The Cuban version of the Filipino tricycle, also mentioned in the story.
The traffic is not in a state of near-perpetual gridlock as it is in Manila, so getting around by car, taxi or bus is easier. Here, in New Havana, you will find plenty of examples of Cuba’s earlier ties to both Spain and the United States. There’s a Central Park, for instance, and the main government building, El Capitolio (Havana is Cuba’s capital), closely resembles the U.S. Capitol in Washington.
There’s even a Chinatown, where many Chinese eventually settled after being brought in by the Spanish – via Manila – to work in nearby plantations and other industries.
Here in the newer part of the city is Revolution Square, covering 14 NFL football fields. From this square, Fidel Castro would frequently deliver his hours-long rants against America after the 1952-1959 Cuban Revolution, which ousted dictator Fulgencio Batista and with him the Mafia and the Americans. Pope Francis said mass here during his 2015 Cuban visit.At the north end of the square is a 358-foot-tall monument dedicated to national hero Jose Marti (1853-1895), who, like Jose Rizal in the Philippines, was a writer and an agitator for independence from Spain.
Beyond Havana are other worthwhile places to visit. Cities like Trinidad and Santiago de Cuba on the south shore (Havana is on the north) also come recommended. Even little towns like Varadero, near our resort, have their charms.
So if you’re feeling homesick but don’t want to fly halfway around the world for a taste of home, visit Cuba.
One of those vintage cars.There are plenty more.
Revolution Square with a mural of Che Guevara on the front of one of the government buildings opposite the square.
A road sign taunting the Americans for trying to invade Cuba in the Bay of Pigs fiasco in 1961.
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