Cuban ‘All-Exclusive’
My wife, Louisa, and I have just spent a week-long, all-inclusive holiday at a resort in Cuba, which is quite remarkable since both of us have always averred that we would never do such a thing. But it was just too difficult to resist. Many friends from our church community and in our book club (25 years and counting) frequently go on winter cruises and to all-inclusive resorts in Mexico and Hawaii, as well as Cuba. “Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it,” has been their mantra, and “Do it while you can; soon you’ll be just too old and decrepit and then you’ll be sorry.” So when a good deal hit my inbox from Sunwing Holiday excursions with direct flights from Edmonton to Santa Clara, Cuba, we took the plunge.
“So how was your holiday in Cuba?” has been a question asked many times since our return. It is a difficult question to answer.
Cuba is a beautiful country with a fascinating but sad history. A column’s length cannot do it justice. Suffice it to say that, since Christopher Columbus arrived on its shores in 1492 and thereby “discovered” America, disease and brutal slavery quickly exterminated the native Guaunahatabey, Ciboney and Taino peoples. After their demise, the Spanish conquerors forcibly imported black slaves from Africa to serve as free labour, and through the ensuing four centuries numerous battles were fought over Cuba by Spain, Britain, Russia and the USA. Fifty-eight years ago, a rag-tag band of communist guerillas under the leadership of Fidel Castro, his brother Raul and Ernesto “Che” Guevara turfed out the U.S.-supported dictator, Fulgencio Batista, and ushered in the modern Cuban era. With the collapse of the sugar industry in the 1990s, due mainly to a U.S. embargo, Castro turned to medicine and tourism as the main sources of income for his island domain.
Two-tiered systems
Tourism has certainly thrived in Cuba despite the American embargo. We drove along the 48-km ocean causeway from the central Cuban city of Santa Clara to the Grand Memories island resort in a splendid blue and white Chinese tour bus. The Castro regime funded and built the causeway expressly to provide access for tourists to the gorgeous beaches on Cuba’s northern islands to generate hard currency income.
The resort, like all the resorts in Cuba, is owned by the government, and the influx of money (a strange, two-tiered monetary system) provides the regime with much needed foreign currency. The resort is beautifully situated and we had a 4th floor junior suite overlooking a splendid white-sand beach and the incredibly blue ocean. The food wasn’t great, but was available in unlimited quantities, as was the liquor. The servers were always well-dressed in crisp, white shirts and black slacks, and were unfailingly friendly, despite the frequently boorish behaviour of some of the (mostly Canadian) guests.
On the same causeway that we used to reach our resort, we saw many old red and white buses which, we later learned, transported the workers to and from their decrepit Soviet era apartments located in towns near the beginning of the causeway. The average income of Cuban workers is about $30 – $40 Canadian per month. Louisa and I spent about $4,000 on our week’s holiday; thus, about as much as the annual salary of the workers who served us.
“Yes, but, if you and all the other tourists would stop coming to Cuba, then these poor folks wouldn’t have jobs at all. And, besides, they don’t have to pay taxes, and health care and education (including university) is free, so you can’t really compare their cost of living to ours.”
All this is probably true.
It’s complicated.
But during the entire week of my Cuban vacation I had a nagging feeling that something was wrong with the picture we were experiencing. I knew that our bus drivers, guides, waiters, bell-boys and room-service maids could not themselves ride in our beautiful blue buses, dine in the resort restaurants, walk the white-sand beaches or snorkel in the azure waters of the Caribbean. Our inclusive vacation excluded them. And, by the way, I kept thinking about Jesus’ parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31).
