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CUBA – LAND OF SUNSHINE AND MUSIC

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Our charter flight left Miami before noon and arrived in Havana about an hour and a half later.  We were in a state of high anticipation to see an island that few Americans have been able to visit during the past 53 years.

As part of a cultural exchange group, we would be exploring the cultural and artistic aspects of Cuba and by-passing the tourist venues and beaches.

Now you may think that sounds austere and boring, but in a country of music and free-flowing rum we had quite a wonderful time crossing cultural bridges at breakneck speed.  Mojitos  became our new favorite word.

Havana before Castro was a glittering, cosmopolitan city with beautiful architecture and rampant corruption under the influence of U.S. mob bosses.  The President,  Fulgencio Batista,  was fully integrated into the corruption of Havana.


The former Presidential Palace, now designated the Museum of the Revolution, retains Batista’s former office and gold-plated telephone.

Castro arrived in a boat from Mexico with his revolutionaries to liberate the Cuban people and drive out the foreign influences he felt were poisoning the country.  Their boat and the engine of the U.S. Lockheed U-2 spy plane shot down during the Cuban missile crisis are displayed behind the Palace.

Strikingly evident throughout the streets of Havana and beyond are the thousands of 50 and 60 year old American cars that create a time warp in our vision.  The Cubans are renowned for their skills as mechanics and their capability to keep these worn out vehicles running despite having no spare parts to make repairs.

The necessity for maintaining a family vehicle to last several generations was due to a law preventing the title transfer from one owner to another.  If a buyer purchased a car from its owner, he ran the risk of having it repossessed, since he would have no title as proof of  ownership.

This stifling law was changed 3 months ago to now legally permit the sale and transfer of a vehicle to its new owner.  However, with the price of gas hovering around $3.60 per gallon, these gas guzzlers are very expensive to operate and show up frequently as taxis.

The cost of living and how the Cuban economy operates with wages unthinkable in most other countries are subjects I will explore in another feature.