Travelogue Cuba 2012

In 2012, I’m heading back to Latin America after six years. For Gabi it is the first trip to this region.

Cuba is in a category of its own in many ways:

• Perhaps it is, or at least was, the most “honest” attempt at a socialist society? With many advantages, but also serious disadvantages. In international studies, Cuba often ranks first as the country where prosperity (e.g. education, health care), social justice and ecology are most ideally balanced. Especially the ecology, e.g. a low CO₂ footprint, is closely linked to the fact that consumption is much lower than in Europe, for example, due to a lack of money and a lack of supply.
• I have never felt so safe in any other Latin American country. The absence of a hard currency, indeed money itself, leads to, among other things, far fewer drugs and guns in the country. This in combination with draconian penalties in this regard and also in relation to offences against tourists.
• A Cuba trip lives for me also not so much from great scenery (which there is also though not everywhere), but rather from the encounter with people and society. Those who go for a package holiday to a hotel at the beach will not experience anything of the real Cuba.
• In contrast to the rest of Latin America, we have experienced an incredible punctuality here, at least on the part of privately operating tour guides etc.. In Cuba, when a driver told us he’d pick us up at nine, he was there at ten to nine. In many other countries, you wouldn’t have been surprised if he hadn’t come until ten.

Cuba is in constant change. Be it the fall of the Soviet Union, the death of Fidel Castro, embargoes of varying severity from the US, economic opening … The country as a whole and each individual Cuban must constantly reinvent themselves, find new solutions. For this reason I refrain here from a page with tips on Cuba travel. These would never be up to date. I will outline what we did then in the following reports, but please do not assume that the situation will be similar when you come to the country.

Enjoy reading and looking at the photos!