A look behind Cuba’s veil

"We need sometimes to escape into open solitudes, into aimlessness, into the moral holiday of running some pure hazard, in order to sharpen the edge of life, to taste hardship, and to be compelled to work desperately for a moment at no matter what."

— George Santayana,"The Philosophy of Travel"

HAVANA — There are myriad reasons one would choose to travel — from wanting to experience the culture of a particular country and its people to a desire to see one of the wonders of the world.

I must say I've had many reasons for particular destinations in the past, some quite bizarre and often misunderstood even by me. However, this trip is different. I'm traveling to Cuba for two primary reasons. First, because travel is prohibited for most Americans, and secondly, to satisfy a need to experience the country before it becomes legal for Americans to travel there for tourism.

Doing something that others recommend you not do has always appealed to me. I like to think and act a little outside the box. I prefer to travel in a style different from the average traveler and to destinations others might shy away from. I like to move away from what is any semblance of my normal comfort-zone.

My government does not want me to go and my travel agent mirrored the same sentiments. Some people have tried to tell me that travel to Cuba is dangerous and unpredictable. I like the unpredictable, and although I'm not a risk taker, those telling me of the dangers are unable or vague in any attempt to cite specific examples of peril. Others have questioned my sanity.

But the idea of doing something that runs slightly against the grain probably dates back to when I was about 7 years of age. Halloween was approaching, and as any child would be, I was overcome with excitement. I remember walking into the kitchen and telling my mother I'd decide upon my costume for trick or treating. I wanted to dress as a gypsy!

My mother told me I couldn't do that. Gypsies are thieves, robbers and never stayed in one place very long, she'd said, and then gently suggested I go as a pirate (as if pirates were upstanding citizens with great moral character). For the record, my mother dressed me in a handmade cat suit, and I still have it hanging in my closet to this day.

Ahead of the tourists

My travel to Cuba also is influenced by a desire to see the country before it changes — to get there before the tourists. Cuba has been cut off from the glut of McDonald's, KFCs and other global, corporate-cultural influences. A traveler will not see Nike billboards, and American-logo athletic wear is noticeably absent. A Starbucks is not to be found, and most fast-food outlets are simply street vendors and portable food carts. (I once attended the opening night of an Outback Steakhouse in Beijing — and find a Havana lacking such gastronomical choices an exhilarating and refreshing change).

Although requirements to travel legally to Cuba have been changing on an almost weekly basis since December of 2014, it remains illegal for a United States citizen to travel to Cuba merely for tourism.

To travel legally, a U.S. citizen must be part of an organization or group traveling for educational, journalistic, diplomatic, humanitarian work or religious purposes. In the past, it was necessary for an individual or group to apply for a "general license" from the Treasury Department.

As a journalist, I attempted to acquire such a license in 2005, and after mounds of red tape, I was denied a license. In addition to a general license, there is also a "specific license" for travel reasons not listed above — double or triple the red tape and the hassle.

A dramatic change occurred on Jan. 15. As of that date, a general license remains a requirement, but application to the Treasury Department is not necessary. A U.S. citizen still is required to be traveling for one of the government-approved purposes, but the onus of proof is solely upon the traveler. On my trip, I carried a letter from The Register-Guard, designating my travel as "being on assignment" for the newspaper, as well as a computer flash-drive with samples of my past writings.

Havana via Cancun

Despite traveling legally as a journalist, I could not fly directly from the United States to Cuba. My route took me from Eugene to Cancun, Mexico, and then a short, one-hour, 20-minute flight to Havana. My desire to beat all the tourists to Havana was met with disappointment, as the airplane leaving Cancun was full of Americans, Canadians and British citizens, with a few Spanish-speaking passengers thrown in to complete the passenger list. I quickly realized I'd failed in my attempt to beat the masses of backpack-laden, camera-toting and, yes, even skateboard-carrying American tourists. Boarding the airplane in Cancun, I recollected perusing an article a few days before departing Eugene — an article that reported Canadian tourism to Cuba having increased more than 200 percent since the first of the year. It seemed as though travel to Cuba was a race, and everyone was trying to beat the next person there.

Customs and passport control in Havana is uncomplicated. Seeing an American passport, the customs officials will ask you if you've been to Africa, then take your photograph and compare the image with the one in your passport. The entire process will take less than three or four minutes. Then, after stamping your Cuban visa — a separate piece of paper obtained at the country of departure and not attached in any way to your passport — the agent will simply fail to enter a stamp in your passport. Although I requested my passport be stamped, for most U.S. citizens no record of arriving in or departing from Havana exists.

However, there is a canker in the proceedings that cannot be overlooked. A U.S. citizen departing Cancun will obtain the stamp "Depart Cancun" in their passport. Likewise, arriving from Cuba to Cancun, the traveler's passport will be stamped, "Arrive Cancun." With no entry or exit stamp in your passport from Cuba, an overzealous U.S. Customs or passport control officer may see the two Cancun stamps and ask the simple question; "Where did you go when you left Cancun?" The traveler had to go somewhere, and the pregnant pause that would likely ensue before answering might cause the traveler some degree of distress.

On to the hotel

I stepped out from the airport to the taxi ranks and was greeted with black, ominous clouds that began dumping a deluge of rain. Thunder could be heard, and now and then a bolt of lightning seen — all amidst a temperature of about 90 degrees.

I'd struck up a conversation with a woman while waiting in line at passport control. We would both be traveling to Vedado, a residential area of the city, and decided sharing a taxi seemed like the sensible thing to do. A Mexican citizen, she was traveling to visit a distant relative and had done so many times before. She went on to inform me that her father was from Mexico, while her mother had been born in Cuba, but left the country prior to the revolution.

The first thing an American will notice in Havana is the vast number of old cars plying the roadway. I saw more early 1950s vintage automobiles on the 15-minute journey from the airport to Vedado than I'd seen since I was a child. Almost all were four-door sedans, and many looked to be altered in design and functionality by their owners. Most were in a state of disrepair — some rusting away in the salt air and belching large clouds of black, foul-smelling smoke as they lumbered and rattled down the roadway. Many were painted a bright blue, yellow, pink or red, but the paint often resembled house paint rather than automotive paint, and sometimes appeared to be applied with a brush. There was little of the glossy sheen seen on most U.S. autos. Many of the trucks I saw also were old, wired-together rattletraps. The few newer model automobiles were of European or Russian origin.

I would spend the night at the Paseo Habana Hotel, and I was pleasantly surprised when I arrived. A bellman took my luggage and I was directed to my room. The hotel and its rooms were very nice — all for the bargain price of $222 for an eight-night stay, including breakfast.

I awoke the next morning to bright, blue skies and soaring temperatures. Breakfast consisted of the normal buffet fare with ham, bacon, fruit, breads and pastries. However, there was one exception. There were eggs! Lots of eggs! Not just scrambled, but hard-boiled, over easy and poached. Hot-food tray after hot-food tray of nothing but eggs. I found it very odd. I do not eat eggs, so I settled for some fruit, toast and wonderfully strong coffee.

Getting connected

Next on my to-do list was to log onto Facebook and email and to contact all of my friends to let them know of my safe arrival. I was in for a surprise. The Internet service and access in Cuba is virtually nonexistent. One or two Internet cafes supposedly exist in the city, but I was told they were expensive, unreliable and that the wait for use would be unbearable. And, to connect via Wi-Fi with a laptop, my predicament, is all but impossible.

I ended up in the lobby of one of the most expensive hotels in the city of Havana. The vast lobby include a concierge desk, bar, VIP reception, and liveried doormen. When I asked about Wi-Fi, I was told I could buy a card that would give me access, and after doing so — greatly over-priced, I might add — I was instructed to sit in one particular part of the lobby, and "as close as possible to the window." Yes, there was Wi-Fi here, but I managed to send only one or two messages on Facebook. Repeated attempts at messaging ended with a lost connection in a matter of seconds after logging on.

"Come back at midnight or early in the morning — before 5," the lobby bartender told me. "You can usually get connected then." With ideas of taking care of any business chores now scrubbed, I would move on to more personal matters, that being, food and drink.

Finding food

With the exception of the food offered at high-end resorts, the food available to the average traveler tends to be greasy red meats (usually pork), chicken that appears to have been fried days before, and fish that hails from far- away waters. It is illegal to slaughter cows in Cuba, as the government requires the beef be requisitioned for restaurants, while milk use is for the guaranteed rations offered to babies, pregnant women and pensioners.

Cuba is not the physician-ordered destination for a patient suffering from high cholesterol. And, while salad is frequently offered on a menu, what that means is "anything available that is green and/or raw." I found food from street vendors and vegetable markets to be the tastiest and the best bargain, with anything ordered at a restaurant or offered at a hotel to be tolerable at best.

I did find an item on a restaurant menu I was particularly fond of. Yucca and a pumpkin-like squash called calabaza are served with a sauce that is to die for. The best I could make of the waiter's description of the sauce, mojo, is that the ingredients are garlic and orange peel. Whatever it was, it was great!

Although entrees in Cuba are questionable in quality, abundance and price, I found desserts to be very good. Cubans are especially fond of ice cream and many street vendors offer it. The flan — baked custard with a caramel glaze served in individual portions — is delicious. I also sampled a flan made with coconut and another with pumpkin that was wonderful.

While a traveler to Cuba is not likely to be enticed by the food, the drinks can have a magnetic pull. In Cuba it's all about the rum. Minty-tasting mojitos, Cuba libres (rum and Coke, or something close to Coke, as Coke is a U.S. product, subject to the embargo), Cubanitos (rum and tomato juice), and daiquiris lead one to imbibe freely and frequently. Beer also is available, and the top local brands, which are similar to microbrews in the America, are Mayabe (3.8 percent alcohol) and Hatuey (5.4 percent). For the timid, there is super light Cristal or Bucanero. Imported brands include Bavaria and Heineken.

People travel for different reasons, some well defined and thought out, while others are more spontaneous and vague. For some, a country's culture is the allure, for others it's the food. We travel to taste, to smell, to see and to experience. Sometimes, we travel simply to get away from what is normal in our lives — what has become as mundane and predictable as getting up in the morning and going to bed at night.

The world is in a constant state of change, and Cuba and American-Cuban relations are not immune to the fact. Cuba will change, and hopefully for the betterment of the Cuban people. It has been reported that U.S.-based cruise lines may begin sailing to Havana as soon as January 2016. Therefore, should you be contemplating a trip to Isla de Cuba for whatever reason, I would highly recommend it.

Bob Pedersen is a freelance writer, novelist and Eugene native.

World traveler and writer Bob Pedersen shares his experiences from his May trip to Havana in a three-part series in The Register-Guard's Sunday Oregon Life.

Source: A look behind Cuba's veil