I fell in love in Cuba

Welcome

Life in Havana

About Havana

Life in Cuba

About Cuba

Cuba Culture

Cuba Info

Havana Updates

I fell in love in Cuba

by Angus
(Felixstowe, Suffolk, UK)

Almost 3 years ago I touched the soil of Cuba for the first time. As a small boy I would listen to the stories of the struggle of the Cuban People and admire their strength and desire to be free. I dreamed of joining the Cuban people in their struggle against the Evil Empire, greed and exploitation.

Cuba was all I dreamt of and more. For only the second time in my nearly 50 years, I felt at peace. No longer did the destruction of England by corrupt government that serves the interests of multi national Corporations weigh heavy on my mind. I felt free from the possessions that imprison Wages slaves as the Evil Baroness Thatcher desired.

My love and admiration of Cuba will always remain unrequited because in relative terms I'm as poor a Cuba. the Evil Empire's hold is too strong for Cuba to offer me work when their is so little for her children, who must always come before her lovers and admirers.

But I can still dream and remember the feeling of the Hotel National and the magical life giving sounds of the Buena Vista Social Club. The pleasure of having conversations about reality, instead of the illusions that keep people blind in England, watching people gather to speak without the fear of arrest that haunts us in England, see children safe at play and remember the wonderfully inventive ways the girls at the Hotel Seville would create animal with towels. and the lounge singer who stole my heart.

Comments for
I fell in love in Cuba

Average Rating

Click here to add your own comments

May 08, 2011
Rating

Coward
by: Anonymous

COMMENTS DELETED
PLEASE NO PERSONAL INSULTS OR ATTACTS
LET US KEEP THIS SITE A PLACE FOR POLITE AND FRIENDLY COMMUNICATION
Vic Webmaster Havana-guide.com

Feb 11, 2011
Rating

DELEDED COMMENT
by: Anonymous

COMMENTS DELETED
PLEASE NO PERSONAL INSULTS OR ATTACTS
LET US KEEP THIS SITE A PLACE FOR POLITE AND FRIENDLY COMMUNICATION
Vic Webmaster Havana-guide.com

Feb 09, 2011
Rating

COMMENTS DELETED
by: Anonymous

COMMENTS DELETED
PLEASE NO PERSONAL INSULTS OR ATTACTS
LET US KEEP THIS SITE A PLACE FOR POLITE AND FRIENDLY COMMUNICATION
Vic Webmaster Havana-guide.com

Sep 20, 2010
Rating

I agree with you!.
by: Bill

Anonymous, I agree with your last post.

Very admirable to leave a gold watch.

No I am not some trendy wet liberal Guardian reader,

I work hard for my money, and like you have to save for years to have a holiday in Cuba.

I agree that Cuba's economic problems are all down to America's stranglehold of an embargo.

I feel sorry for the poor sods who were sent to Miami on the Mariel boatlift.

Thrown out of prisons by Castro who opened the prison gates and and sent them to another prison - of a lifetime of flipping burgers on low wages, and eating crap food and living on credit and now employment lay off and home foreclosures.

Comparitively life is not so bad in Cuba.

I've been to both places, Miami and Cuba and I'd opt for Cuba any day.

They may have little but they sure as hell are rich in the sprit of humanity and community and a strong sense of cultural identity sadly lacking in the USA.

I dread to think what will happen when they are allowed in finally. I'd hate to see McDonalds and Starbucks on every Calle and thousands of fat Americans waddling ther fat arses round Havana.

Sep 19, 2010
Rating

I have better things to do
by: Anonymous

I am certainly not anonymous. When leaving Cuba we did not leave just bottles of shampoo, we also left things of value such a Rose Gold and Diamond Watch. I don't tip as I see it as an excuse to pay lower wages to those who do the work. But in Cuba I tipped, on some occasions more than a months local salary. I'm not some mealy mouthed Guardian Reader with liberal attitudes which make the majority voiceless whilst the Thieves of Westminster pander to those groups who stroke their egos and fill their pockets for favours at the expense of the entire nation.

I will never be able to afford to go to Cuba again. But I got to see a nation with so little, due to the US blockade, doing better for its people than the US or UK.

Its about time the US took its bully boy boots off and discovery what humanity is instead of gold fetishism.

The end

Sep 18, 2010
Rating

Dont sit on the fence Bill lol lol
by: Wounded brit

Crikey Bill, dont hold back, say what you really mean..... Us brits do sarcasm very well ;-)

Bill with the big opinion, and who really hasnt a clue wrote.... <<<< Unlike you a middle class arrogant Brit. who stays in a $100 a night hotel and if you're a typical Brit you are known as the skinflints of the world I doubt the poor woman who designed swans with you towels saw more than a half empty bottle of shampoo when the pair of liberal wet Guardian readers from Suffolk left.

You are precisely the type of Brit. who turns my stomach. prim and proper, so self righteous. What the F...k do you know about struggle?. >>>>

Who are you to judge the brits?, come on, tell us, where are from?, Okay I could be like you and sterotype you and say your are from X place, but I would never presume, and yet you have the bl00dy cheek to sit in judgement.

As to the 'struggle' remark, you are the one that really has not got an ffing clue.

Sep 17, 2010
Rating

The Evil Empire Is Paying You To Sit On Your Backside
by: Anonymous

Bill is right Angus (you remain anonymous too I see)
You are a hypocrite.

You're a typical whinging Brit. who takes from the State while calling it an 'Evil Empire'.What a Hypocrite!.

You sit on your backside while taking State money in the form of a pension or other benefit while slagging off the Evil Empire.

Yet you can afford to fly to Cuba and stay in a five star hotel.

How many Cubans could do that?. Most cannot afford a bicycle and hate to stand on the roadside and thumb a life to their work.

You make me sick and Bill is right when he says you nothing of the struggle of the Cuban people.

You are typical of the wealthy fat cat state workers who have the control and make money and make even more on the black market yet whinge about the state, when they are the same ones who are screwing the state.

Little wonder the UK like Cuba is in the midst of a deep economic recession. Because of people like you who whinge but take, and put sod all back.

Sep 17, 2010
Rating

No Angus - It's You Who's the Hypocrite.
by: Bill

How dare you suggest I went to Cuba to 'exploit' the people. You know nothing about me or my trips to Cuba.

When I visit I travel with my wife and family. And far from 'exploiting' the people I support them but staying in casa particulars and eating in their homes.

Unlike you a middle class arrogant Brit. who stays in a $100 a night hotel and if you're a typical Brit you are known as the skinflints of the world I doubt the poor woman who designed swans with you towels saw more than a half empty bottle of shampoo when the pair of liberal wet Guardian readers from Suffolk left.

You are precisely the type of Brit. who turns my stomach. prim and proper, so self righteous. What the F...k do you know about struggle?. You have not lived with them spoken at length with them. No you opted for the luxury of a luxury hotel, cosseted from the daily grind of life for the average Cuban.

You live in nice middle class rural England and talk about the 'Evil Empire' and the poor Cuban people.

Well what are you doing for the Cuban people. Staying the Hotel Sevilla or the Nacional is not helping them in any way since most of those hotels are foreign owned.

Sep 16, 2010
Rating

Ouch
by: Anonymous

Oooooh, ... Ouch bill, that was quite strong....
Angus has nice fond memories of cuba, the same as I do, but perhaps he hasnt seen the bad side side of cuba, and not everyone sees that.
Everyone has thier own take on places they visit, it does not mean that they are stupid, perhaps its because he was his wife, that he did not get the feedback that a single 50 year old traveller would get.

Let him enjoy his experience, he loved the country, he has been back, and who are we to tell him or insult him.?

Sep 16, 2010
Rating

In response to a coward
by: Angus Silverstone

Clearly cowardly anonymous person, you have placed your own values on your interpretation of what I submitted, instead of actually reading it.

For your information I was there with my wife and not exploiting those who suffer hardship and shortages due the the US Blockade. Perhaps your knowledge of the local girls is greater then mine, because you explored them. When I wrote of falling in love with a lounger singer, it was a metaphor, for the vibrancy and beautiful spirit of Cuba.

I saw the black market at work when I was there, and the poverty. It was the real Cuba I went to see not the tourist tunnel vision. yet it was still safer than the average English High Street. because they have a Government that cares and tries to respond to the needs and wishes of the people. Where as in the UK and US the Governments place the business interest above the national interests. In England, as the world knows, thieves run the Government, which goes a long way to explaining why law and order are such a low priority as are Health and Education.

Three areas that Cuba makes better provision for than the US and UK where health and education are linked to affluence and the quality of policing depends on your address and bank balance.

Your right about the poverty in Cuba. it is not because of corrupt government as in the UK and many other countries, where those in power serve those with power and not those who gave them power.

Sep 16, 2010
Rating

Are You Lving In Reality or Fantasy Land?
by: Bill

I do not know when you last visited Cuba, but the picture you paint is far from reality of life in Cuba today.

Cuba is experiencing a deep economic crisis. Up to a million state workers are to be laid off. Raul Castro last week stated that the country can no longer afford to support and carry a top heavy state workforce who sit around doing nothing all day.

"Our state cannot and should not continue maintaining companies, productive entities, services and budgeted sectors with bloated payrolls and losses that hurt the economy," the trade union federation said.

"Job options will be increased and broadened with new forms of non-state employment, among them leasing land, cooperatives and self-employment, absorbing hundreds of thousands of workers in the coming years," it said.

So the reality of life in cash strapped Cuba is a very different one from the one you write about.

No doubt you liked the attention of the beautiful young Jineteras who flattered an elderly man in his 50's. Any man of your age would.

Wake up and smell the coffee, it's not you they love it's your wallet.

You do not have to travel to Havana to find a prostitute you need go no further than Soho.

Click here to add your own comments

Join in and write your own page! It's easy to do. How?
Simply click here to return to Love in Cuba

I fell in love in Cuba

Comments for I fell in love in Cuba

Comments for
I fell in love in Cuba