Cuba: The Forbidden Island

Before I left for Cuba, I told my aunt about it the trip. She got really excited and told me, "Wow that's great! Cuba is like ... the forbidden island!" and unfortunately to many people, including some Cuban's themselves, it is. I was lucky enough to be granted access to this amazing island, and extremely lucky that I got to experience this journey with my girlfriend. I just wish more people could also enjoy this amazing excursion to Cuba- the Forbidden Island.

Cuba is a place really hard to describe in words. It’s a place where internet access is very limited, the food rationed, the people “libre” but not free, and in its own unique way beautiful. The people there were so poor that some relied heavily on selling a piece of their culture for a better living. This was a common theme especially in tourist heavy cities across the island, but when we got to go to cities where a lot of natives said was the “real” Cuba, it was amazing to see how people actually lived. Some places had nothing but bikes and horse drawn carriages as forms of transportation. And those places that did have cars had classic ones from the sixties passed down from generation to generation because getting new ones cost a fortune to them- unless you work for the Cuban government of course.

The people in Cuba are great too. They go through so much and live with so little. I had the pleasure to be able to talk to many Cubans about music, art, cultural differences, and so many other things. They explained the little struggles they face that we in capitalistic countries hardly ever have to deal with like all the supermarkets in the area running out of soap or shampoo. To us that sounds crazy because we could go to any American Wal-Mart and find so much more food and supplies that we could ever need. We shared how in the U.S, there’s so much diversity and food compared to Cuba from cultures all over the world. I tried giving them recipes that I knew from memory but they told that it’s not that they don’t know how to cook different things, it’s that they just can’t afford to spend money on ingredients when they had so little to work with to begin with.

Going to Cuba was such a humbling experience and I’m glad I got to go there before corporations like Starbucks contaminated their true “Cuba Libre” culture. It showed me to be grateful for all the little things I have and in a way to be grateful that I don’t live in a communist country where they have virtually no hot sauce and spicy food.