My Last Trip To Cuba - 18.09-29.09.1999

"Bienvenidos A Cuba" (Welcome To Cuba) - this big sign that you see from the airplane window is a dream coming true for me. From the first look it feels as if I arrived to an ordinary country with a nice and developed (externally) airport terminal and I start wondering if all the stories I have heard about Cuba true?

The decision to visit Cuba was a tough one, I heard so many stories about the impossible way of life, the poverty of the local residents, the prostitution and criminal rate all of this made me think twice about going to visit Cuba. To be 100% sincere I had a much greater fear, I have been dreaming on going to Cuba for such a long time that I was afraid that once I will get there it won't be like I expected it to be and I will be disappointed. But when a few friends told me they are going to Cuba I said to my self "you just have to go no matter what".

We arrived to Havana Cuba airport at 21:30 after a fourteen hours flight from Israel with a stop over of five hours in Paris. I was exhausted from the long flight but the adrenaline level in my blood was so high that I was ready to what Cuba had to offer.

The second you get in the terminal you start to understand that you have come to a different place on this planet. It seems as if time stopped for about forty years and you are in some kind of a time vortex. When you step out of the terminal the fact you came back in time hits you when you see the old cars and the roads but it is an experience that is part of the essence of Cuba.

One fact you have to keep in mind if you ever plan to visit Cuba - it has its own rules as to time and schedules. You can not be 100% sure that despite the fact you have a confirmed hotel reservation, you can come to the hotel and find out they are very sorry but they are full. It won't help you to argue, this is a day to day situation that tourist finds themselves when visiting Cuba (just like I found out). I went to a better hotel (at list I thought it was - the price per night was higher) and was amazed by what was supposed to be a better hotel. A leak in the corridor next to my room spread a repulsive smell of moisture in the room and a few cockroaches ran to find a hiding-place the second I opened the room door. It is almost obvious that hot water was something I won't find and as we wanted to still go out to see at list one club that night I decided that I will deal with the hotel problem in the morning. I was so excited as we learned that we can catch a performance of "NG La Banda" that night at "La Casa The La Musica" so all I wanted to do was to go out of the hotel and go the club. (Which was exactly what I did).

When we arrived to "La Casa De La Musica" two beautiful Cuban girls approached me and asked if I would like to invite them with me to the club.

I was warned that this could happen by lots of my friends that visited Cuba in the past. "The best way to avoid them is to ignore and keep moving" was the advice I got and followed. (If you did not got it by now those "girls were practicing the oldest profession in the world. Due to the fact that the Cubans are so poor you can find this girls at almost any club you go. The police and authorities are doing what they can to end this phenomenon. One of the acts was to close the "Palacio De La Salsa" the best salsa club and the most popular by the "girls" and by the tourist who are the reason why the "girls" come to the clubs. But in spite their effort and the fact you can find a cop, literally in every street corner they can not overcome this problem. You can comfort your self by the fact that if you do ignore them they will leave you alone. [That is if you want them to leave you alone]).

When I came inside the club it hits me I am in Cuba and about to view one of the best salsa ensemble of Cuban music. The weariness from the long flight, the hotel problems vanished the second I entered the club I was 100% ready to what Cuba had to offer, or at least I thought I was. A warm-up band was on stage you know when you say a warm-up band you think o.k. But in Cuba a warm-up band is better than any band you can find appearing in the world. I was shocked by the quality of the musician and the sound, but I think that what can describe best the Cuban bands in difference from any other salsa band I saw in my trips all over the world, is the show you get from the band. In 1996 Los Van Van was in Israel and I can easily say this was the best performance I ever saw and what I have seen at that club was the same passion and liveliness I saw at the Van Van performance. Not to mention that when "NG La Banda" went on stage I was so in to the music that my friends tells me it was like I was elsewhere probably in "Salsa Heaven". I got back to the hotel at about 03:00 and was so weary that I didn't mind the smell or my new friends the "cockroaches" and fall asleep in a second.

TO BE CONTINUED...