Another Day in Cuba

Cuba is a very nice but Technologically challanged country ...

I am writting all of you today from the Island Nation of Cuba, A beautiful paradise where I am on vacation with my enytire family celebrating my grandmother´s 105th Birthday PARTY. We have planned a huge celebration and she is as fit as is to be expected from someone her age. We have rented out an entire floor of a hotel in Santa Clara, one of Cuba´s oldest and most advanced cities and have invited over 100 people to join us.

Cuba is a beautiful paradise of jungles, sugar fields, and beautiful scenic mountains. The cities are decaying however not anywhere near as bad as is portrayed by the mainstream media outside the island. For the most part people get by and rarely do they or one hear mention of the government. Mostly people just go about their daily lives. I would send pictures but I can not upload my camera as no one on the island is permitted internet access, only gvernment run centers where you must be a foreiger with a valid passport are you allowed to even browse or communicate through the internet, which is where I am writting this blog from today.

its amazing how in a world full of technology wonders such as the iPhone, iPad, computers, video games, plasma TV´s and all other electronics, this island has none of them and your considered rich if you have a cell phone. iPhones here do not work either the iPads unless you are from Europe or Canada or any other country besides the United States whose connections work through the Cuban Cell network which is run by the government and then at an astronomical cost. WiFi is a thing only seen in rich tourist areas or huge spanish, italian, and british hotels in the capital, which I must say is stunningly beautiful as the government has spent millions renovating the old section of Havanna. I have never seen in my countless travels such beautifilly preserved and restored old section of a capital as the one found in Havanna. It literally seems like you just stepped off a time machine and are instantly hit by bright colors of the Carribean in the paints used to refurbish all downtown buildings. It truly seems your someplace else and at another time in History.

And now to its beaches, not a single place I have ever been, Carribean, Pacific, South America, Africa, Mediterranean, Framce, Greece, Ibiza, Mykonos, compares to the truly clear and crystal waters of the beaches of Cuba. Unspoiled, untouched, and about as nice as you can possibly imagine Varadero is indeed the most beautiful best kept beach in the entire world. Pristine and vigin at tourism its perhaps the world´s best kept secret.

Hopefully I will be able to attach pictures shortly to share with all of you this remarkable Island nation whose peoples are the friendliest anywhere on this planet and they openly share with you everything, even if its little or nothing, that they have and open their hearts and homes to you and welcome you to come back anytime.

Truly a remarkable experience and a truly stunningly scenic beautiful Island Nation, Cuba is an experience more of you should experience..

Our Final Day...in Cuba

Cuba day 9-10
Our Final 2 Days and goodbye

Yesterday (Thursday) as an official farewell to all of us.. My family on the side of my father threw a huge celebration on the farm they own here on the Island.. In conjunction with the birthday party of a very honest little girl I have come to really enjoy talking to these past few days...She always tells the truth about everything.. and I do mean everything and when you talk to her it does not seem like you are talking to a 10 year old but to a young passionate college student involved in government or politics and on one side passionately believing in thhe issues you are discussing.

She speaks about the conditions at her school, about the way things are here, and about the residents of the Island in ways that make her seemm like a college grad student.. One thing is clear from her view and many others here that the US Embargo on this Island is only hurting the peoople and not the goovernment and on this one point I will agree... The government still has what it needs and will always have the means to control the population.. Loook at China.. There is no imbargoo and the goivernment there is a much bigger threat to the United States then the Cuban government. If the embargo were lifted it would mean a new begining for this Island, one with some hope and maybe just maybe supplies would start rushing in.. The past is the past it is time to look forward and remove the Embargo against Cuba..

Getting back to our farewell dinner... It had a huge pig, roasted in the open, goat meat, which if any of you have not tried, I suggest you do because it is the most tasty delicious meat of all in my opinion, salids, tamales, and every other cuban made dish you could think of. I of course took the beers and drinks.. sodas and alcohol are usually out of financial limits to most cubans although Cuban Rum is readily available..The party went off without a hitch until about half way thhrough the power went out buty thank god the rain because even though thehre was no electricity for about two hours, the breeze kept things very cool, cooler then before the rain and wityh only fans as most cubans do not have AC anywhere on the island. It is a luxury reserved for the most financial stable families.

Then we sang Happy Birthday to this very special girl and the one thing she says she will remember the moost is the fact that there were balloons at her party. We brouth them from the states. For you see that is one item that even with money can not be found on the island ion any store or even the most expensive hotels... She was happy too have a birthday (her first) with ballonns.. I have to remember that on my next trip proobably in December to bring lots of ballooons because they seemed to maske everyone there happy it somehow took over the air all around us. It was indeed a good, memorable farewell diner for all of us who today at 10:00 PM will travel back to Miami and be there befor 11:00 PMM tonight.. Back to our working iPhones, home computers, blog postings, emails, problems, phone calls, and oother everyday stress... and as you think abnout all of this, you wonder who truly is the lucky one but then reality hits and you realize its you.. With all the problems we put up with in the United States, its rare we go too bed with hunnger or woondering where tomorroow´s mmeal is coming from, or whether or not we are going to eat or not...

Those are the issues facing lots of people here and entire families suffer the same restlessness although I can say one thing, everyone seems to get by somehow.. Somehow it stays together and peoople have time to fix their hommes and the streets of Cuba´s cities are cleaner thenn anywhere I have been in South America or the carribean, for that matter lots of american cities.. They take pride in maintaining the streets clean and debris free.. so that at least you can leave here knowing this is a very clean hygenic society that takes pride in itself and in their surroundings. 

Cuba is indeed a land of contrasts and one vacationn I will gladly repeat in December of this year and again next June for it is my father land and my families hoome, and one I can never forget.. It has my roots and my people from which I came and a week long family celebration is something thjat always does the body good.. Peace, relaxation, and a governmennt bent on making tourists feel welcome make this place, with all its shortcomings perhaps the best vacation on the planet.. at least to me...  

My next blog entry will be tonight from the city of Miami, from my office as I go to check up on what happened in the last ten days.. Gooodbye for now from Cuba, this beautiful island unnknown to many and misunderstood by most...

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