A no messing around guide to the coolest things to eat, drink and do in Vancouver and beyond. Community. Not clickbait.

Cuba Libre: After Three Months In Cuba, It’s Good To Be Home…

162931_10150137435627786_69

by Ariel Taylor | After nearly three months living in Havana I can’t full articulate just how good it feels to be back home in Vancouver.  Forget the rain and cold, I’m just relieved to have survived a lifetime’s worth of rice and beans and have all my jeans still fit. Seriously though, its great to be back in the company of friends and family, to be completely ignored by strangers on the street, and to walk into a grocery store and ask myself, ‘what’s for dinner?’  After nearly a week of gigantic salads, hearty soups and a roster of favourite local restaurants, I’m almost back to feeling normal. I’ve lost count of the nights spent over bottles of vino recounting stories and trying my damndest to offer some kind of explanation for the perpetual oxymoron that is Cuba today. So here goes…Cuba according to me.

I think its safe to say that the only thing keeping the island afloat these days is tourism. Germans, Russians, Mexicans, Canadians…people from all over the world are drawn to Cuba’s white sand beaches, romantic architecture, iconic history and sexy Latin salsa. Tens of thousands of foreigners descend on the island each winter and Cubans have come to rely on this influx of cash to survive. Shockingly low state salaries, coupled with rising costs of consumer goods and soaring rates of unemployment mean that nearly all Cubans are forced to participate in a shadow economy or black market.

After 52 years of permanent revolution, many Cubans are losing patience with the perpetual austerity measures that condemn many to lives of poverty. Younger Cubans especially, born in the post-Soviet era, are unforgiving of a government agenda that pampers foreigners while denying the most basic of material comforts to its own population.  In short, people feel ripped off; not because they aspire to American-sized luxury, but because the social justice, security and equality they were so fervently promised is currently bankrupt. Nowhere is this more evident than in Cuba’s hospitality industry.

With many restaurants toting North American sized price tags for dishes that would be lucky to make a menu in Canada, Cuba has a long way to go before becoming the ‘world-class‘ holiday destination to which the government so desperately aspires. A fifty year trade embargo with the United States doesn’t help their cause, and rising apathy among state employees makes for an uphill battle. That said, a small group of successful paladares have proven that, in spite of these restraints, quality cuisine is possible in Havana and furthermore, given the opportunity, that Cubans are more than capable of championing their own successful businesses.

Paladares are just one example of the growing liberalization required to spur economic growth in Cuba as well as the appetite many Cubans have to take control of their financial lives.  The political restraints in Cuba have made it difficult for people to help themselves but, for those who have discovered the returns on good food, life is a little easier and the future a little more secure; provided, that is, that the tourists keep coming.

PART ONE | PART TWO | PART THREE | PART FOUR | PART FIVE | PART SIX

There are 3 comments

  1. I can relate to that much needed dietary relief that long trips sometimes get us yearning for and to nationality anonymity. But I’m itching to be immersed in another culture again and I’m sorry you’re back…no more Cuba Libre posts!