17/3/13 – The other side of Havana

Unfortunately I was ill during the night and woke in no fit condition for a big road trip. So Hans and Sue were forced to drive to Trinidad without us. I slept all day, so Peter went to the beach and stumbled on the seedier side of Havana with young black girls and fat old white men (tourists not locals) and beautiful young men (of any colour) with older tourist women. Currently there are no drugs and little crime in Cuba but the times they are a changing. Gone are the innocent days that Oliver and Olivia told us of.

Young men like Javier and Umberto are keen for the choice that comes with financial independence and their contact with tourists gives them a sniff of what is possible. Access to the internet is also possible, although it is strictly controlled, and there are quite a few mobile phones around nowadays.  In these times of transition, as the philosophy and practice of communism fades and the economy becomes more ‘demand’ driven it is difficult to predict what Cuban society will look like in another five or ten years.

Cuba is now on the cusp of great change and we suspect it will not be change for the best. The quest for the tourist dollar has brought with it both greed and corruption. Gone are the days when fear of the church (before the revolution) and the Castro government (after the revolution) kept almost everyone on the ‘straight and narrow’ path.

Where this will lead the Cuba of tomorrow … only time can tell!