Little in this report will be news to Cuba vets, and my conduct will seem appalling to some. After all, I stayed with the same chica for five days, got excellent service and paid a premium price for it. This is not how steely-eyed veteran hombres work at all!

But I think at least some of our lurkers would be curious about the road less travelled, about seeking emotional involvement with a chica instead of running away from it. After all, it is emotional involvement that is so lacking in our everyday lives in 21st-century America. I came seeking it without really knowing it, I found it, and I left with tears in my eyes, far richer emotionally for the experience, and far poorer in wallet.

"X" and I have continued to communicate via "correo electronica" (email). I know this cannot lead to a lasting romance until and unless we learn enough English or Spanish to communicate in ways other than with our bodies. But we're making the effort, and who knows where it may lead?

To the right is a picture I find very moving. "X" is looking at the ticket for my return flight out of Cuba. It is an object few Cubans will ever see, a ticket out of a surreal existance.

I'm sure she was feeling very mixed emotions when I took the picture. It was tangible proof our time together was coming to an end; it was symbolic of the fact I could leave, and she could not; and she was wondering if maybe, eventually, I would be her ticket out.

Will she miss me or my money? I don't want to be too naive, but I don't want to be too cynical, either. She's either a brilliant actress, or she genuinely enjoyed being my "boyfriend" for a week. (She always confused the words boyfriend and girlfriend, no small source of humour during the trip). She will miss me, yes. She will miss my money, yes. So who knows? Everything's mixed up in my mind ... and in Cuba itself.

Whenever you visit Cuba, please remember that it's a tourist paradise, a place where wonderful women will compete to give you a good time, where taxi drivers chauffer you around at insanely low cost, where your Casa landlord gives up his bed for you. But the same thing that makes it great for tourists makes it horrible for natives. This gave my happiness during the trip a bitter edge that made things all the more memorable, but at a cost in human misery that I can only imagine. Regardless of our self-interest as tourists, please don't wish Castro's continuing rule, or that things not change in Cuba. It's unfair to the wonderful people who make our trips there such a joy.

Because I realized this would be at least a somewhat controversial report, I asked a couple of Club Hombre members to review it for me before posting. Dooshbag was kind enough to contribute his expertise, and I have added some quotes from him, and my responses. They are displayed to the right of the text in gray boxes so they don't disrupt the main flow of the narrative.

So, without further ado, here's the report. I hope you enjoy. Comments are more than welcome, but please read the conclusion before writing.

For some reason, going to Cuba was exciting; it felt like I was in some kind of strange alien land. And yet it didn't feel intimdating somehow; it felt warm and friendly. I think it is this curious, intangible feel that makes people want to come back. Before I even met my first chica, I was somehow hooked, and to this day I'm not sure why.

Getting there and Back (Yes, they still fly those miserable Soviet jets, and we have photo proof!)

Prelude: Fucked & Screwed at the Telegrafo

Mi Amore Cubana

• Tapping into a social network
• Mi Amore Cubana
  

• Tourist Apartheid - The Cuban government wants to keep you apart from ordinary Cubans. Here's what you can do about it.

• Cuban Restaurants are uniformly awful, regardless of price. A quick guide, and an informed guess as to why.

• A few brief photo essays:
  • Cuban State Products look a lot like their American counterparts, apparent proof that the Cuban on the street loves America.

  • Cuban State Television looks so boring I wonder if there is some distinctly sadistic impulse involved. A few select frame grabs.

  • The Russian Influence, including a donation from the People of the Soviet Union I'm betting most Cubans would rather live without.

• People approaching you all the time? Beware La Commission, my friend, for it may make you pay inflated prices for bad food. But you have little choice when it comes to casas or chicas.

• The Fabulous (and still lived in) Ruins of Cuba with dozens of heartrending photos.

• Communism, Cuba and Fidel: An Honest Appraisal

Credits:

Written, photographed and produced by DavidD.
My thanks to Dooshbag from ClubHombre.com for revisions, and Dooshbag, DonGringo and others for inspiration.

Camera: Canon EOS D30 Digital SLR; Canon 28-135mm Image Stabilizing lens
Image Processing: Apple iPhoto
Text & HTML Processing: emacs text editor
Production Computer: Apple PowerBook G4/1ghz w/SuperDrive
No Microsoft products were used in the production of this site.