Not a week goes by without someone writing to me and asking if it's risky to vacation in Cuba, if there are shortages of all-inclusive hotels, or special cases (Host family). Such concern is not a coincidence, but the result of a well-oiled rumor machine that is trying to undermine the efforts of the Cuban tourism industry, which has been hit hard since the pandemic and which is trying with the best of intentions to get back on track in the world.
Every time I tell them that there is no risk and no problem to have a great vacation in Cuba. But vacationing in Cuba doesn't mean going to a Club Med, but rather embracing the change of scenery and having new experiences. When I lived in France, I remember French people complaining about not being able to eat their traditional “steak fries” while in Turkey!
So in Cuba, say goodbye to McDonald's, Burger King and the king of Putin to discover something different, like fried plantains (chicharritas or tostones), colorado (brown beans) or black beans (frijoles), served first as soup , the latter with rice (arroz moro or congri), cassava (yuca) served with a little olive oil and crushed garlic, hormone-free pork prepared in various ways, not to mention fish and seafood such as pargo (snapper), lobster and octopus .
This does not mean that everything is fine in Cuba. No, Cuba is still struggling and, like most of the world, is suffering from the effects of the global recession. Rising production costs, including for food, have enormous effects. In this context, at the end of December the Cuban Prime Minister announced a series of measures to improve the situation to some extent. Among other things, we have announced an increase in the price of gasoline (a liter still usually costs around a dollar!), an increase in electricity tariffs for large consumers and better tax controls for young entrepreneurs. Private.
The rumor mill was immediately set in motion from Florida to announce the worst possible scenarios in order to rouse the island's population and harm tourism, the second source of foreign currency inflows. But what could be more natural for a government than to want to prevent tax evasion? Or make the biggest electricity consumers pay more, especially in a context where heating oil shipments represent a risky gamble for companies agreeing to ship oil to a country that still has the United States on the list of countries that do Promote terrorism?
The death of a friend from Cuba
My friend Elvis (real name: Daniel Côté) left us. A big fan of Elvis Presley, he displayed a lot of flags (every July 26th he hung the Cuban flag on the front of his store; the same on June 24th with the Quebec flag or on May 23rd with the Patriots flag). ) on the corner of Avenue Papineau and Rue Marie-Anne aboard his legendary flagship Ameublement Elvis. His shop, a veritable Ali Baba's cave decorated with photos and busts of his favorite singer, even appeared in travel guides and people came from far and wide to photograph this unusual place.
Daniel was a good and generous man. Generous with his time, because he could spend hours looking for that little missing part in your old fridge or your old washing machine or your old dryer and use that moment to chat about the zeitgeist, the Montreal Canadian or the Montreal Canadian stupidity in particular municipal regulations. Generous because he helped those who really needed it – crippled by life, left behind, alcoholics or junkies in withdrawal – by offering them work and teaching them how to make something new out of something old.
One of the things that connected us was the fact that we were both married to a Cuban woman. Daniel was a pioneer in trade relations with Cuba. He also sold and donated several school buses to Cuba, those yellow buses that we still see on the streets of the socialist island, and even offered on-site customer service. The same applies to used or simply “poached” refrigerators. We also bonded over our unwavering love of Cuba, where he dreamed of ending his days warm and toasty with a mojito overlooking the sea.
Many of us are orphans today. You leave a big hole in our lives, Daniel-Elvis, but we will not forget you.