FORWARD
For
Americans, Cuba has been the forbidden fruit—a skin of Detroit sheet metal
covering a center of tasty rum, swirling cigar smoke and sandy beaches.
Until
January of 2016, when the people to people exception opened independent travel
to Americans, there was no role for this guidebook. Legal travel to Cuba was through planned tours ranging from
7 to 13 nights. Those tours, at QE
II stateroom prices, enveloped travelers in an all-inclusive bubble. Backpackers defying the
embargo, were travelers on a shoestring tightly holding Lonely Planet, while scrolling through backpacker social
media.
My
intended reader is neither unwashed (great or otherwise) nor anointed. Cost is an object, but so is
comfort. She recognizes the danger
of a luxury cocoon as well as the tedium of a shared bathroom.
Money
is only one resource to marshal.
Equally important are time and energy. Although I welcome youthful backpackers, I don’t assume
my readers have the boundless energy of the young. I don’t. Travel
should be a stroll, not a marathon.
Similarly,
time should be savored, not wasted in endless lines, that can be part of life
in Cuba. I have a few tips that
will save you hours. I caught one
error in Lonely Planet that may save you days.
This
book has nearly two hundred pictures.
Is a picture worth a thousand words? I have seen horrible pictures that were worth only a few
expletives. But I’m advising
you where to eat, sleep and sightsee.
Pictures provide you with a tool to make your own decisions, piercing
the hyperbole of the intrepid travel writer. I took most of the pictures. Those taken by Jan Sanders will be followed by a “JS”, those
by Jacqueline Heskett a ”JH”, and those by my wife an “RS”.
I
do have the big picture. Pictures
are big. A picture contains more
data than a thousand words. Be
patient. Downloading will take a
little extra time.
To
fully enjoy this book, please read it with a computer, tablet, or color
e-reader. Otherwise, the pictures
will be in fifty shades of grey.
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