# Cuba



## Regent1879 (Jan 14, 2016)

Has anyone made it there yet? I have a coworker and a relative who have gone in the past 1/2 year. But they have different tastes. I heard the island has had 50 years to develop its own segregated version of tropical trad? Are the guayaberas any different than what can be found in Carribean Mexico?


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## Dieu et les Dames (Jul 18, 2012)

I'm dying to visit and make a dive trip out of it. All I've heard first hand is that the state hotel is lacking in amenities.


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## jd202 (Feb 16, 2016)

Dieu et les Dames said:


> I'm dying to visit and make a dive trip out of it. All I've heard first hand is that the state hotel is lacking in amenities.


I also read that street food is surprisingly terrible, which is disappointing, but overall, I'm very eager to get there as well. I'm sure the full-scale, USA-oriented tourism industry will be quick to appear, so hope to get there in the sweet spot before it gets too ridiculous.


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## eagle2250 (Mar 24, 2006)

^^Indeed, the difference between romantic concept(s) and street level reality can be somewhat jarring! But as you suggest, when there is money to be made, the "hustlers" will quickly close the gap.


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## Chouan (Nov 11, 2009)

A friend of my wife has been holidaying in Cuba for years and has always found the place fascinating and very friendly. she is rather dreading the change that is undoubtably coming as American cultural imperialism swings into action and American money begins to change Cuba for ever. That isn't a criticism of Americans by the way, but it is what will soon happen. A unique society and culture will become just like every other place in the Caribbean.
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/...ig-cake-and-everyone-is-trying-to-get-a-slice


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## Dieu et les Dames (Jul 18, 2012)

It's just a matter of time until Carnival is unloading thousands of grubby tourists on the island and the reefs turn grey from marine traffic. Would love to see it before the aforementioned devastation occurs. 

If any additional forum members can add to the discussion, I'd love to read more about visiting Cuba.


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## Dhaller (Jan 20, 2008)

Chouan said:


> A friend of my wife has been holidaying in Cuba for years and has always found the place fascinating and very friendly. she is rather dreading the change that is undoubtably coming as American cultural imperialism swings into action and American money begins to change Cuba for ever. That isn't a criticism of Americans by the way, but it is what will soon happen. A unique society and culture will become just like every other place in the Caribbean.
> https://www.theguardian.com/cities/...ig-cake-and-everyone-is-trying-to-get-a-slice


I have to admit, from the perspective of an American, that it will be hard to resist descending upon such a juicy morsel as Cuba.

I've been looking around the Caribbean for a place to buy or build a vacation property - Belize, Anguilla, St. Thomas, etc - but with Cuba opening up, I'm certainly holding off on *that*. Watch, wait, pounce?

That said, there's always the possibility that American hipsters will win the stampede, and you'll actually have an American Cuba which is more aggressively "authentic" than even actual Cuban Cuba!


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## Kingstonian (Dec 23, 2007)

Dieu et les Dames said:


> I'm dying to visit and make a dive trip out of it. All I've heard first hand is that the state hotel is lacking in amenities.


I have done a couple of dives there. A day boat diving from Varadero and a couple of shore dives down south in The Bay of Pigs. Hotels are variable - Hotel Inglatera in Havana is old and historic and in a great location but has a faded grandeur. Blau Varadero was a top notch modern hotel. Local B&Bs are another option.


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## SG_67 (Mar 22, 2014)

I honestly don't know what all the fuss is about. It's a backwards country with few amenities. I don't know what it can offer that cannot be had in other Caribbean islands. 

Besides, please understand that every dollar you spend there goes to line the pockets of the dictatorial elites. I can think of better places to spend my vacation dollars.


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## efdll (Sep 11, 2008)

Full disclosure. I was born and raised in Cuba, migrating to the US with my family in my early teens two years before the Revolution. My sympathies have always been with the _thrust_ of the Revolution, though not with its practice. And though I am not an exile and do not commune with that community's now fading right-wing politics, I have to agree that much of what that community says is right. since the mid 80s I have traveled many times to Cuba as a journalist, and though I have not been there in over a decade I keep up with my homeland through various sources, many of them produced by Cubans themselves, like the award-winning blog _Generation Y_.
That said, let me answer some of the posts, more or less in order.
Tropical trad died with the Revolution. Havana was a very fashionable city. Also very beautiful. Now in ruins, the city and its citizens. If you want a good guayabera go to Miami. The most famous is Ramon Puig, whose own brand is the best OTR line in this big emporium. The late Ramon made them bespoke himself and they were excellent -- I had one. I don't know how his successors do, but I must imagine they're still quite good, pricey but worth it. Anyone wanting where to find even better (and pricier) bespoke, PM me.
Food was terrible in Cuba for a long time. With the opening of small private enterprise it has improved and the _paladares_ -- home restaurants -- are worth exploring.
This will give offense, but it's my home country and I feel entitled to be offensive. I have no patience with the go-to-Cuba-before-it-changes attitude. Poverty pornography. Cuba desperately needs change, and if it comes with a dose of so-called American cultural imperialism, so be it. And there are big pluses to American influence. The influence of American music on Cuban and vice-versa back in the 20th century is one of the sweetest cultural phenomena of all times. Just don't revel in someone else's misery. That's disgusting.
Real estate investment is moving along. And if what American -- and other -- hipsters will bring is lovingly rehabbed homes and great restaurants, I'm all for it.
Finally, yes, the money will line the pockets of an elite. By now, revolutionary Cuba has had time to produce its own oligarchy, much of it under the radar. I am very glad the hostilities between my two countries have ceased. I was always against it. But that does not mean everything improves magically. There's a long road ahead for Cuba. Yes, go, see for yourself. I've been telling people this for decades. Enjoy it (Cuba never stopped being fun). Open your eyes to the bad and the good -- the ugly is too obvious, like those garishly painted old cars and the ruins of what was once Havana. You be the judge.


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## eagle2250 (Mar 24, 2006)

A very candid and informative historical perspective and excellent advice for prospective trousers. Thank you, efdll! :thumbs-up:


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## efdll (Sep 11, 2008)

eagle2250 said:


> A very candid and informative historical perspective and excellent advice for prospective trousers. Thank you, efdll! :thumbs-up:


Very kind of you. FYI, guayaberas are not trousers but shirts, worn untucked like a military tunic, from which it's likely derived. They have rows of tucks and four patch pockets, handy since the shirt originally replaced a suit jacket in hot weather. Best ones are linen, though cotton is also classic. Traditional colors are white and ecru, and long-sleeves, sometimes with French cuffs, are also the old norm, though short sleeves, once considered crass, are now a hipster standard. Bespoke is best because a man in a guayabera is always in shirtsleeves.


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## alkydrinker (Apr 24, 2012)

I went in March 2015 on a charter plane from Miami on a trip that didn't really conform to the laws at the time. I stayed in a comfortable B&B in Havana for like $30/night. 

I saw only a few made-in-Cuba Guyaberas in a touristy hotel for ridiculous prices ...i think like $150 USD, and there was very little selection. Stores in general are terrible....poor selection and expensive. I am guessing the stores in Cuba are akin to the Soviet run stores in the USSR. Many people arriving in the airport come with all sorts of consumer products (TV's, etc) to resell....I heard they pay high tax on these imported goods, but can still make money from them. 

One of the best things about Cuba is the general way the people conduct themselves. It's very peaceful, and there is next to no crime in Havana. At night it's dark (electricity rationing) and things are broken down, but yet it's perfectly safe. 

Overall, Havana is quite interesting and unique.Though as an ardent capitalist and libertarian myself, I think I viewed the place with more of a level head than some of the starry-eyed Americans of the far left who go there and naively idealize the island. Like efdll said, I think some people get wrapped up in the "poverty pornography" aspect and it's "so cool" that the only billboards are those that laud socialism and the Cuban revolution. And of course big murals of Che Guevara are totally cool and trendy, right?


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## eagle2250 (Mar 24, 2006)

efdll said:


> Very kind of you. FYI, guayaberas are not trousers but shirts, worn untucked like a military tunic, from which it's likely derived. They have rows of tucks and four patch pockets, handy since the shirt originally replaced a suit jacket in hot weather. Best ones are linen, though cotton is also classic. Traditional colors are white and ecru, and long-sleeves, sometimes with French cuffs, are also the old norm, though short sleeves, once considered crass, are now a hipster standard. Bespoke is best because a man in a guayabera is always in shirtsleeves.


LOL. You caught me in a typo...the word trousers was meant to be travelers. Not sure how I came up with trouserscrazy. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.


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## Chouan (Nov 11, 2009)

SG_67 said:


> I honestly don't know what all the fuss is about. It's a backwards country with few amenities. I don't know what it can offer that cannot be had in other Caribbean islands.
> 
> Besides, please understand that every dollar you spend there goes to line the pockets of the dictatorial elites. I can think of better places to spend my vacation dollars.


Of course, in the Caribbean there's the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Haiti, the Cayman Islands, and, of course, the American colonial possessions, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, plenty of places without a dictatorial elite .......


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## SG_67 (Mar 22, 2014)

Nor would I want to vacation in the DR, Honduras, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Haiti or the Cayman's. 

In fact, I don't like to vacation in areas like that at all because the notion of laying on a beach, hiking, swimming, boating, surfing, and other outdoor activities bore the hell out of me. 

If I were going to do it, I certainly would not venture into any 3rd world country, certainly not one where my $$$ would go to feed a repressive regime. 

The great thing about America is that we have everything we need without having to patronize and prop up failed states with our surplus dollars and spare time.


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