Independence, Revolution and Victory...

The only currency available to foreigners in Cuba is the Convertable Peso, commonly known as the CUC. We were able to buy CUCs at the hotel. We were told there are few banks selling CUCs in Havana, and at one, we noticed a long queue outside. 1 CUC = 1 USD, so we suppose this is a pegged rate. Funny how the currency is tied to that of an enemy country!

Cubans earn non-convertable pesos (CUP), and shops catering mainly to locals only accept CUPs. 1 CUC = 25 CUP. We don't know if locals can buy CUC, but they can certainly sell them and buy with them.

With Lindblad catering to our every need, we had little cause to use CUC except for the mandatory CUC0.25 tip in bathrooms and the occasional CUC1 needed to buy off someone insisting on selling you something. Most of our fellow expeditioners were much more enthusiastic shoppers than we, and spent hundreds if not thousands of CUCs on souvenirs, local art (which can be really quite good), cigars (which were sometimes smoked real time) and Santiago de Cuba rum.

Jeff Philippe was the expedition leader for the Havana component of our Cuban tour.

Our breakfasts were mostly taken at the Hotel, while lunches and dinners over several days were at a wide variety of restaurants. These meals were invariably way beyond the means of most Cubans and (we heard) even the quality and quantity of the food was specified by the government, lest tourists come to believe there are food shortages.

Our restaurants were in spectacular or interesting locations, like in old forts, atop tall buildings, or on the waterfront. And, after a while, the meals suffered a degree of repetitiveness. We had lots of chicken, then pork, lobster and maybe beef. Preparation and presentation was quite variable. Accompanying vegetables or salads were pretty limp. Vegetarian options were always available.

Sometimes we could have "local Cuban food" which was something like shredded beef with a brown rice mixed with beans. Such meals were usually quite delicious - it's probably always a good idea to eat local food!

One feature of every restaurant meal, without fail, was a band of musicians with varying interpretations of the Buena Vista Social Club. All bands had CDs and maybe DVDs to sell, and we were pressured to buy them for about CUC10. If we didn't buy, we were expected to tip the band, a "requirement" which caused some embarrassment until we worked out the drill.

Our people to people obligation led to our guides covering recent Cuban history extensively, and we were taken to monuments and museums celebrating Cuba's independence and the revolution. Of particular interest (to both the guides and our American co-expeditioners) was the shambles of the USA Bay of Pigs invasion. It seemed to us two Aussies (we were the only non-Americans in our entire expedition) that the intention was to politely rub American noses into the humiliation of the Bay of Pigs, but those we asked took it in very good spirits and appreciated a refresher on the shame of the past.

The former Presidential Palace, now Revolutionary Museum and the most stunning edifice in Havana.

We covered, but didn't dwell on the time up to Cuba's wars of independence, but it was all new information to us! Our potted understanding (given here to aid our own memory) is that...

• Prior to the "arrival" of the Spanish, Cuba was occupied by three American Indian tribes.
• Christopher Columbus signalled the end of that era with his arrival in 1492, claiming the island for Spain.
• In the 1510's, the Spanish started establishing villages, including Havana in 1515.
• European diseases all but wiped out the natives, and slaves had to be imported to provide cheap labour, just like in the rest of the Caribbean.
• The European Seven years War resulted in invasion by the English, who, during their 11 month supremacy in 1762, transformed Cuba by opening up trade with the American mainland and the Caribbean.
• The Haitian slave revolt led to thousands of French overlords coming to Cuba around 1790, accelerating slavery here, and leading to rapid expansion.
• A rebellion in 1868 was the start of 10 years of war as Cubans attempted to free their island from the yoke of Spain. There were massive casualties, and in the end the rebels lost by Spain promised greater autonomy.
• 1892 saw the Spanish Cuban American War and the rise of the (now) national hero Joseph Marti who united Cuban expats in the quest for independence.
• In 1902, Spain surrended to the USA who granted Cuba independence but slyly retained significant powers including the rights to a permanent military presence at Guantanamo Bay.

Ornate reception room of the former Presidential Palace.

Apparently everyone in this van died in the hail of revolutionary bullets.

The first half of the 20th Century saw great expansion as US interests developed the country while trying to manage unstable governments. The Mafia, largely free of US control here, made great inroads in Cuba. In 1933, Fulgencio Batista seized power in the Sergeant's Revolt and dominated politics for about a quarter of a century. Srong socialism applied in the Batista era but the seeds of revolution were sewn by strong labour unions but high unemployment and a persecuted middle class.

Bullet holes in the wall of the then Presidential Palace mark the 1958 Revolution.

The 1959 Revolution was led by Fidel Castro. But we see and learn in Cuba that collaborators Che Guevara and Camillo Cienfuegos are equally celebrated. Cubans fondly remember Marti for his role in independence, but it seems that the true modern heroes in their hearts are Castro, Guevara and Cienfuegos. Their portraits and memorials are everywhere, and posters and billboards (there is no commercial advertising in Cuba) are everywhere full of "revolución para siempre" sentiment.

Giant memorial to Jose Marti, the father of Cuba's second independence war.

Che Guevara at Independence Square.

And Camillo Cienfuegos on an adjacent government building.

There can be no doubt from our visit that Cubans are profoundly proud of their revolution. During our stay in Havana (and, we expect, beyond) we were shown numerous examples of the benefits of socialism under Castro. In particular, we learn (repeatedly) of the excellence of universal Cuban free education and free healthcare. These particular topics are justifiably sources of Cuban pride, but we suspect that our local guides take particular pleasure at extolling them to the American audience, given the high cost and highly publicised inequities of both in the USA!

How totally free education works, as explained in the exquisite ceremonial room of the University of Havana.

Stunning sculpture of the revered revolutionary leader.

Castro nationalised US assets which Batiste had encouraged, inevitably aligning Cuba more with the USSR, and when, in 1962, the US uncovered nuclear missiles in Cuba and provided the impetus for the next great source of Cuban pride, the abortive US invasion at the Bahía de Cochinos, the Bay of Pigs. The CIA exploited disaffected Cubans who had made it to the USA and established a counter-revolutionary force which struck at the Bay in April 1961, south-east of Havana, but were humiliatingly defeated within three days. This Cuban Missile Crisis had famously brought the world to the brink of nuclear war for a short while.

Museums generally in Cuba seem to have no difficulty in mocking the American leaders associated with the Bay of Pigs.

World's longest cigar rolled in Castro's honour, at a "tobacco cafe".

Lighting up a fresh Cuban cigar.

Debris from a cigar rolling demonstration.

The debacle seriously embarrassed the Kennedy administration, strengthening Fidel Castro's reputation and hold on power. Moreover, it cemented the enmity between the USA and Cuba, and added an extra dimension of strong pride amongst Cubans, opening vast new opportunities for cartoonists and on political billboards. It is only in recent years, that the icy relationship has started to thaw, hence our expedition!