Get to Know Cuba… First?

By Kamil Kenders

HAVANA TIMES – I traveled to Bayamo for the first time at almost 40 years old. It is undoubtedly a beautiful city, the city of horse-drawn carts, as every Cuban and anyone who frequents the island knows. Cuba is full of beautiful cities, places of unimaginable beauty.

There is a song that in its chorus says: “Get to know Cuba first and foreign lands later.” And yes, a foreigner who visits this island falls in love with it, but, unfortunately, few of us Cubans can enjoy the beauty that surrounds us. Just traveling from one province to another costs thousands of pesos, plus accommodation and food.

You need a year’s salary to be able to travel from one province to another. Staying in a hotel is also out of the question, not only because the payment is generally made in dollars, and although in some places you can pay in national currency, the price per day is super high, and it doesn’t matter if the hotel is good or bad, it‘s always expensive. And for the average Cuban, it is impossible to afford it.

Just imagine paying 300 Cuban pesos or more for each dollar. However, the point of this post is not precisely that.

I arrived in Bayamo with my partner, and not for sightseeing. Their family is from Bayamo, and we came to address a health problem, because in our country’s capital, although (supposedly) the best hospitals are there, no one is attended to unless through a friend or by paying. So, given the circumstances, we decided to come to this eastern land where fortunately, there are doctors in their family, and hence, everything can be better resolved. The issue of medical resources is another story.

I have seen little of Bayamo, just a few streets near the city center, but one thing is evident, and that is its cleanliness, although the family tells me that sometimes days go by without the garbage truck coming by. Its people seem nice and helpful, something that many Havana residents lack. I am struck by the vendors, people who sell sweets, cookies, vegetables, greens, and fruits. It is true that the family lives on a street very close to the city center. The prices are very similar to those in Havana, although some are cheaper (not much), and others, even more expensive.

My partner’s friends say there is no life here, no options, or places to go to have a good time. Except for some cafes, but all with similar characteristics, and super expensive.

They tell me that Bayamo had very prosperous years, just before COVID-19, when it even seemed like another country. Prices were very low, and there was abundance everywhere, but now poverty and sadness of spirit wander every corner of the island. Necessity forces, as a popular saying goes.

It is a pity; our country, as I mentioned at the beginning of this post, has places of great beauty, from the eastern tip of Maisi to Cabo de San Antonio in the west. But it is no longer anyone’s concern to guarantee well-being and beauty for the people to enjoy our land.

The glory goes to the travelers, convinced of those words that Columbus said when he stepped on our soil: “This is the most beautiful land that human eyes have seen.”

And someday (I do not lose faith), each of us, Cubans, will be able to visit every corner of our own island.

Read more from the diary of Kamil Kenders here.