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| The Crystal docked in Santiago de Cuba |
Celestyal Cruise’s
Crystal
We said hasta luego
to Jamaica and boarded our Greek Celestyal Cruise ship called the Crystal. Compared
with other ships we have cruised on, this is a mini-ship -- only 162 meters
long carrying a maximum of 1200 passengers. (Quite a change from the Anthem of
the Seas we cruised on last time which was 348 meters long and held 4,180
passengers!) Plus, our miniature ship seems to be only about half-full making
it feel more like a private yacht than a cruise ship.
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| Love our balcony! |
The Crystal was originally a ferry, and the décor is
definitely utilitarian rather than luxurious. But despite its size, the ship
has all the usual amenities (in miniature!). We booked a tiny inside cabin
initially but were able to upgrade to a balcony for a small sum. Much better!
(Special thanks to Guy Carey for turning us into “balcony people” lol!). However,
the best aspect of this ship was the crew. These people were phenomenal, and among
the friendliest we have ever encountered.
Another nice benefit of our cruise was the free beverage
package. Mojitos for breakfast anyone? We did go a bit crazy the first day or
two but settled down eventually. In addition to the cocktails and beer, it was
wonderful to get free bottles of water whenever we needed them.
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| Dr. Jorge Arocha |
People-to-People
Program (P2PP)
We are visiting Cuba via the People-to-People Program (P2PP)
which was the only legal way for us as American citizens to visit Cuba. The
program is intended to provide an understanding of Cuban cultural and foster
better relationships between our country and theirs. This may sound like a Castro
propaganda program designed to “educate” American tourists, but it is actually
a requirement of the American government.
On the ship, we participated in all kinds of P2PP cultural
activities provided by Cuban citizens – song and dance performances, how to
dance like a Cuban, how to make Cuban cocktails, how to sing like a Cuban, etc.
We also attended daily lectures by Dr. Jorge Arocha, a professor from the
University of Havana with a PhD in Philosophy. Jorge was a brilliant lecturer,
insightful and funny. He also made it clear that he does not belong to the
Communist Party, and we found him to be open and honest. However, when we took the
P2PP tours on the mainland, these excursions were conducted by Cuban tour
guides who were clearly spinning the party line.
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| Lengthy wait to get through Cuban security |
Setting Foot on Cuban
Soil
We were curious to see how the security procedures would
work when we entered Cuba, particularly with our American passports. It was a straightforward but lengthy process.
Celestyal Cruises had provided us with Cuban visas, simple forms we filled out
ourselves. The Cuban official just stamped the visas and gave us Transit Visa
cards (that were collected at the end of the day). We also had our passports
stamped at our request. It’s not that the Cuban officials are stingy with their
stamping; it’s because Americans who come to Cuba illegally do not want a Cuban
stamp in their passports! (Small numbers of Americans have travelled to Cuba
via Canada and other countries for years.)
Fortunately, everything was legal with our visit, and we coveted the new
stamp in our passports.
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| El Morro Castle with Cuban flag |
City Tour of Santiago
de Cuba
We boarded our assigned bus for our City Tour and met our
guide, Raymond. Raymond is a former English teacher who now works as a tour
guide. He was average at best, hard to hear, and difficult to understand, but
you get what you get. Our first stop was at El Morro Castle, a 17th
c. stone fortress providing gorgeous views over the bay of Santiago de Cuba.
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| One of the "nonexistent" Cuban beggars |
As we drove into the city, Raymond talked about Cuban life,
making it sound quite idyllic. He told us everyone gets a free apartment, free
medical care, and free food. But we saw lots of people who looked emaciated and
homeless. The best comment was when Raymond said unequivocally that “Cuba has
no beggars.” As he spoke, we could see several beggars right out the window of
our bus! Raymond did acknowledge that Cuba’s greatest weakness was its economy
while he said its greatest strength was its social justice.
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| Common means of transportation in Cuba |
The thing about Cuba is that it is very difficult to
separate the truth from the lies. The government has controlled all the
information for years, and Castro lied to these people about so much. We’re not
even sure they understand the concept of truth! This is like the Upside Down
world in the Netflix series “Stranger Things!”
Santiago de Cuba has beautiful architecture, and the main
square, Parque Cespedes is lovely with a blue and white Spanish-style cathedral,
a municipal building with the balcony where Fidel declared the triumph of his
Revolution, and the oldest building in Cuba (500 years old). This Parque is a
perfect glimpse at the conundrum that is Cuba: a cathedral in a country that
was declared to be atheist, the ever-present shadow of Fidel, and an example of
Cuba’s marvelous, long history.
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| Moncada Barracks, site of 26 July insurrection |
Our main stop was the bright yellow, crenellated Moncada
Barracks where Fidel and about 100 of his boys attempted the ill-fated attack
on those barracks and the forces of the dictator Batista on 26 July 1953. Inside,
there is a museum devoted to this event. Good informative literature in poster
form and artifacts; unfortunately mostly in Spanish, but our Spanish-speaking guide
filled in the blanks.
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| Bullet holes in walls at Moncada Barracks |
We saw pictures of
the sixty-one young rebels who died in that attack. Miraculously, Fidel &
Raul Castro, and Che Guevara were able to escape and hide out in the mountains.
The guide told us about the brutal murders of these young rebels and how even
the ones who survived the initial attack were tortured and killed by the evil
dictator Batista. But we had to ask ourselves, what about Fidel whose poor
planning and incompetence led all these men to their deaths? Many bullet holes are still visibly burrowed in
the walls of the barracks, as a reminder of the vicious plight of the
revolutionary army on that day.
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| Folkloric dancer |
Our next stop was the African Cultural Center where we
sipped fantastic mojitos and watched an energetic, folkloric dance performance.
Cuban culture has very strong links to its African heritage, especially here in
Santiago de Cuba. At one time, Cuba had 400,000 slaves working mostly on the
sugarcane plantations. We have become big fans of the rhythms and energy of
Cuban music and dance, and we found that much of its inception comes from that
African ancestry. Cuban music is more complex and varied than we realized –
much, much more than just salsa.
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| Gravestone of Fidel Castro |
We drove past San Juan Hill where Teddy Roosevelt and his
Rough Riders had their famous victory, but we did not stop. Our guide Raymond
was in a hurry to take us to the Cemeterio Patrimonial Santa Ifigenia which was
actually quite interesting. But then, you know we love cemeteries. This one
holds the remains of many big shots in Cuba’s history including Jose Marti, the
national hero (who was actually a good guy and might have been a good president
if he hadn’t been killed during an initial insurrection). And of course, the
newest famous resident, Fidel Castro.
The older graves had fancy Victorian ornamentation, and Jose
Marti’s grave was a huge cylinder-shaped mausoleum, but Castro’s grave was
marked with just a big shapeless rock. Not terribly impressive, but no doubt he
had his reasons, probably simplicity or to signify that he was “the rock” of
his country.
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| Changing of the Guard |
Soldiers guard the graves, and Raymond had timed our visit
so we could see the changing of the guard – lots of high-stepping marching to
very loud recorded music. By the way, the staff here at the cemetery were
really rude, the only rude behavior we encountered in all of Cuba. They rushed
Anne away from in front of Castro’s grave and yelled at Frank for not removing
his hat. In a cemetery?
Our final stop was the obligatory shopping opportunity. No
complaints from us. It was actually kind of a neat bar, and we got a free rum
tasting.
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| Monument to the Revolution (represents machetes) |
Lectures with Jorge
We won't even attempt to cover everything we learned from Jorge. For one thing, he is one of the speediest talkers we have ever encountered, so we could never get it all down. On this day, the lecture was on Cuban rum. Jorge touched on the issue of nationalization regarding Bacardi rum. For anyone who is interested, Anne read an excellent book about Bacardi and the history of Cuba called
Bacardi and the Long Fight for Cuba: The Biography of a Cause by Tom Gjelton.
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| Young, beardless Fidel at the beginning of the Revolution |
When Fidel came to power, he nationalized all private
businesses making them part of the government, including U.S. oil refineries.
Fidel’s “nationalizing” was actually just a euphemism for “outright theft.”
Jorge told us that Fidel always intended to provide compensation for what he
took, but he used the U.S. Embargo as an excuse, saying the embargo prevented
any return of monies. This is a common theme. For all his faults and
incompetence, Fidel could be a clever guy when it came to fooling the people.
Fidel loved to use the U.S Embargo as a scapegoat for everything. Every time
one of his disastrous policies failed (which happened a lot), he just blamed it
on the U.S. Embargo!
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| Frank with Guantanamo in the background |
Guantanamo
After leaving Santiago de Cuba, our cruise ship passed within
a few miles of Guantanamo Bay. We all headed up to the top deck for a hazy look
at some of the facilities on each side of the bay. Guantanamo is a really
sticky issue here in Cuba. Basically, Cubans want us off their island of course,
but we have an agreement dating back to 1902 which was made following the
Spanish American War. (BTW Cubans rightly refer to this conflict as the Spanish
– Cuban – American War.)
Apparently, the
U.S. agreed to leave the island at the end of the war in return for a base at
Guantanamo. The U.S. has occupied Cuba several times throughout their history,
and the Cuban people have a huge fear that we want to do it again, and that our
goal is to make them a part of the United States.
If we had to describe our first impression of Cuba in just one
word, it would be contradictory!
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