Despite the frustration of not being able to fly the plane into Cuba, Nail and I managed to make it there anyway -though not without significant unforeseen cost. For a round-trip flight to Cuba from the Bahamas (only a hour in the air each way), the cost was $380 for each of us, plus an additional nearly $100 in fees per person to leave both the Bahamas and Cuba.
Once we landed, we were immediately pulled to the side and spent an hour and a half with customs officials who proceeded to check every single item in each of our bags. Though they were trying to be as friendly as possible, it really irked me that they were digging through my address book, looking at every single name, phone number, business card, etc. Welcome to Cuba!
The first thing that I noticed upon leaving the airport and heading to town was that the taxi driver was terrified of Nail’s video camera. He was very scared and kept asking us to put it away for fear of being stopped by the police.
The second thing I noticed was the beautiful architecture from the Colonial Spain era. Unfortunately though, it was easy to see how much in disrepair these buildings were, how much they had been ignored and not taken care of. To compliment this lack of concern, there were pictures of Fidel and Raul Castro and Che Guevara plastered everywhere.
We woke up the next morning to the sound of people chanting. Little did we know before we arrived, that May 1st or May Day is a workers holiday and also one of the biggest celebrations of the year for this country. Nearly 2 million people were marching with Cuban flags and pictures of the three muskateers of Cuba. Everyone was wearing red and though no one would admit so publicly, we realized that it was mandatory to participate in this march or run the risk of losing their jobs.
While out observing this celebration, Nail and I became hungry and went to buy a piece of bread, which turned out to be impossible because you needed to have a special bond in which to exchange it for. Growing up in a communist country, we began to have flashbacks of our childhood.
Another interesting thing to note is that the locals are not allowed to eat beef (only chicken, fish, or pork), though foreigners can buy and eat it in restaurants. As well, fruits and vegetables are very hard to come by (after the land was taken from the farmers during the revolution, the farming and availability of such crops saw a dramatic decrease). The local salaries are very low and it would have been very easy for Nail and I to buy illegal Cuban cigars on the streets as people are constantly trying to create ways to supplement their incomes. Finally, there are actually two legal currencies, one for the locals (pesos) and one for tourists called CUC (or ‘cooks’). We became aware of this beforehand and were told in the Bahamas to exchange our US currency into the British pound because we would get a better exchange rate over there on currency that did not come from the US.
It is a very unique place and under different circumstances, I would have found Cuba to be an island with an excellent climate and beautiful architecture. Our interactions with the people of this country revealed them to be very kind and welcoming. It is too bad that their government does not place more importance on appealing to the outside world.
After the weekend, it was time to get down to business and attempt to do the same thing in this country that I have been doing for the 30+ countries prior, which is to meet with the local media and Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It shouldn’t be a big surprise that I was unable to do ‘as planned’ here in Cuba.
For starters, there are only 2 or 3 newspapers available, all of which have only 3-4 pages each, filled with news from the government. Further, I quickly found out that in order for any press (radio, television, or newspaper) to publish information, it has to go through an agency called CPI or Centro De Prensa Internacional. In order to submit to CPI, we would have had to send our topic to Belgrade where there is a Cuban Embassy which has to study the information at least 21 days in advance. In other words, we would get nowhere in this country with our cause.
Additionally, whenever Nail would try to film (simple things like the architecture, people, etc.) we would find that the locals would exhibit such fear that it was impossible to get any decent coverage. When I attempted to walk into the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, I was immediately shooed out the door from people who expressed shear terror in their eyes. It was interesting though that, event though we weren’t able to have any in depth conversations with the locals, whenever we mentioned Kosovo, it seemed that they were already quite familiar with our issue.
As a bookend to the bureaucracy that we encountered here, on the day that we were ready to leave, we arrived at the airport only to find out that the tour company had switched our plane to a smaller one, which meant that some of us were left behind until the next day.
It was a great feeling when we finally arrived back in the Bahamas and left Cuba behind.
By far the best organized welcoming has been here Lausanne, Switzerland. I guess it is fitting since this is the place where I first started down my path as a pilot. Aside from my young life in Kosovo, it is Lausanne that I consider as the place that has made me who I am today.
