WARNING TO VISITORS TO CUBA
Recently there was an article in the American Media to avoid
certain places in Cuba... and it included the tourist ghetto of Varadero, the
false tourist presentations at Vinales, Trinidade which has lost its Cuban soul,
Habana Vieja on days when there are cruise ships, and anything to do with
Ernest Hemingway which has become a cash cow to milk the tourists.
Also I would add, do not take on self-advertised or self-promoted
tour guides, if you are on a tour, you need a tour guide, if you are
independent traveler, be an independent traveler as the “tour guides” whose
only qualification is that they are born in Cuba and may speak English or
French or German but most of them are not knowledgeable about the history other
than the superficial aspects and also of course they will take you to places
where they get a cut of the receipt you paid, including your Guides meal, often
more than a gourmet meal in Paris.
I saw an elderly Australian man taken to the laundry, where
each of his meals were close to 100 dollars each, and on top he had to pay 35
dollars for six hours of the guide (including taxi rides) and 55 dollars per
longer days. I felt like reporting it as an Elder Abuse...
My request to my friends all over the world, with the
exception of my family. Please do not come to visit me in La Habana, when you
do, I have to go to places that I would not normally go and perhaps even meet
people that I normally don’t wish to meet
In Cuba, we say, I really don’t wish to meet people who want
to meet me. Those people have an agenda and it is to get a dollar out of you
and being Cuban and innovative, they would get that dollar out of you,
sometimes hundreds of them...
Miami has a reputation of being the Fraud capital of
America, and usually blamed on the Cubans. Soon the capital may have to move
to Havana, because the flood of tourists have given an average Cuban in the
hospitality business to practice home grown varieties of fraud, to a fine
degree, while music blares on and affections are poured as easily as the
tasteless mojitos at the Nacional Hotel or La Bodeguita del Medio.
If you do come to Havana, please don’t burden me with your
presence. I don’t wish to be reminded of what Cuba was before the triumph of
the Revolution and what the tourists and local manipulators would make of this
gorgeous successful human experiment in equality, education and health.anahealth
