Perhaps no saying can describe Cuba more accurately than the lines of To Huu's poem:
"Halfway around the world parting the clouds
He arrived in Cuba one morning.
The sun weaves silk sky and jade sea
The island smells like a strip of flying peach silk
Honey, Cuba is sweet as sugar
Green sugarcane fields and green hills
Delicious oranges and sweet yellow mangoes from the farm
"The bee lost its way, the flowers are bustling in all directions"
Those are beautiful memories, the most pure and radiant images when remembering a far away country, where the blue of the Caribbean Sea and the sky seem to blend into one in the golden sunshine.
The streets of Havana are very old, most of them have not been painted for decades.
But, what about Cuba now?
The war is over but Cuba is still struggling in helplessness and contradiction when the country is still embargoed by a superpower only 180 km away from the capital Havana across the Florida Strait and while 9 out of 10 Cubans talk about how to escape to that superpower.
To better visualize the two words “embargo”: if you go to Cuba, you will not be able to buy travel insurance from US companies, you can only use certain types of bank cards. Using social networks such as Zalo, Viber, Facebook… is also very limited or impossible, or even simply your iPhone can not update the time and location of your destination. While the whole world is talking about the 4.0 revolution, AI, ChatGPT, this has made Cuba more isolated and left out of all games.
Vintage cars in Havana city
Cuba is blessed with nature as To Huu said in his poem, but the people are still poor, very poor. The sea is full of lobsters but they are not caught, the land is fertile but no one exploits it, the sea and sky are sparkling but the whole country has only 3 State tourism companies serving at a snail's pace and with obscure information. The city of La Habana is located right on the blue coast but you can't find a single restaurant, the whole street is located on the shore of the blue bay with the waves crashing but is closed and silently enjoying the regretful peace.
Image of Cuban women with brown skin and characteristic curly hair
Not only is Cuba embargoed, it also refuses to open its doors and remains one of the few countries that still maintains a subsidized regime for its people. On the street, it is not difficult to see crowds holding notebooks waiting: waiting for the bus, waiting to buy vegetables, rice, gasoline, paper... No shops, no markets, only occasionally seeing a trading store that has run out of goods before it can open. Life is cramped and suffocating when even with money you cannot buy what you want because: there are no goods. Even essential goods such as gasoline, repair equipment, food, consumer goods. Broken cars for a month are left at home waiting for repair, delicious oranges and sweet mangoes are ripe and must endure when there are no vehicles to operate.
The National Assembly building in the capital Havana
But Cuba also has things that I can't forget.
Those are the old cars from the 50s and before, painted in shiny colors of blue, red, purple, yellow, pink, speeding down the street. A completely opposite image to the old, faded streets. Oh, the old cars, that is the only thing that makes La Habana lively and cheerful.
There is also rum and cigars – two things that have become world brands. In Cuba, there is probably no other pleasure than these two pastimes. From the janitor, the security guard to the business owner, everyone holds a cigar in their hand, because there is no other pleasure.
Fresh cigar drying house
Take a sip of rum and hold it in your mouth before swallowing, the smell of rum fills your mouth, rushes up to your nose, in the bitter taste with a very light sweetness of cane sugar, and take a puff of the spicy cigar... Feel something very North American, very Cuban. It is not by chance that the typical image of Cubans is curly-haired girls with characteristic fiery curves, a cigar in their mouth and a glass of shimmering rum in their hand.
Cigars - that is pure tobacco - from the fresh leaf harvesting to the packaging stage, are all done by hand, from the "homegrown" cigar factory to the international commercial packaging factories. When the cigar tree is grown enough to be harvested, it is as tall as a person's head, the fresh leaves are as big as dong leaves, harvested when they are old enough, dried in a thatched house and not directly in the sun, the newly picked leaves are placed below, the dried leaves are stacked higher in layers for classification. When they are dry enough, they will be brought back to the factory, classified by thickness, lightness, integrity, toughness...
Cigar orchard ready for harvest
Cigar leaves begin to dry in the shed
The driest and ugliest leaves are placed inside, the most beautiful, smoothest, driest and least bone-bearing leaves are packed separately to make the outer layer. The process of rolling and packaging is also completely manual. A good cigar must produce a steady smoke, and with a light puff, you can feel the spicy taste permeating your tongue... Believe me, it is very possible that a cigar bought at the garden costs only about 2 dollars but its taste is not much less than a Cohiba or Behike, maybe connoisseurs like it more because of its "rustic" quality. Cohiba or Behike have absolutely no difference in the growing and packaging process, the only difference is the brand and maybe a little bit of flavoring sprayed in to create a different taste - which not everyone likes.
The National Assembly building in the capital Havana
When coming to Cuba, you must definitely visit the coastal city of Varadero - a beautiful coastal city like a paradise, where the blue of the sea and the blue of the sky are only separated by a line. You must visit the house of writer Ernest Hemingway, author of The Old Man and the Sea - where he spent 20 years of his youth living and writing, you must visit the La Bodéguita bar where Hemingway often went. And also, visit the restaurant that welcomed President B. Obama - the first and only President to talk about lifting the embargo - unfortunately, the next President vetoed this right from the moment he took office. The restaurant hung and nailed the chair that Obama sat on to the wall as a souvenir.
Statue of Ernest Hemingway - author of the book The Old Man and the Sea
The house of Ernest Hemingway – author of the famous work “The Old Man and the Sea” is located under the shade of green trees in a large garden with a statue of him and the fishing boat he often used to go to sea.
Furthermore, there is something very unique that you must try when you come to La Habana: Corona extra beer mixed with ice, a few drops of special soy sauce, and a sprinkle of salt on the rim of the glass. The combination that sounds… painful to the stomach unexpectedly brings such a taste explosion: the salty taste of sea salt mixed with the taste of Corona beer with the sweetness of dark soy sauce makes the cocktail seductively sweet.
Holding a cool cocktail in your hand on a windy evening with the breath of the ocean, immersing yourself in the vibrant Latin music with Cuban dancers with hot bodies, graceful yet powerful steps, in sexy and colorful costumes, those will definitely be the final images that will make your trip something truly unforgettable.
Author took this photo at the beach in Varadero
