Cuba 

It is no secret that I would never go back to Cuba. Not if it were free or even if someone paid me to go. The food is terrible nothing kept warm or cool-just room temperature. The week i was there the weather could not have been worse.

Watching people disadvantaged through no fault of their own is not my idea of a vacation. Watching skinny horses made me feel guilty for what I have not relaxed from my vacation.

I had the bad fortune of arriving a day before a hurricane hit. Interesting experience to say the least.  I took my pentax camera out into the open air hallway of my "resort" with my friend yelling in the background not to go. But did I listen?Of course not I had never been out in a hurricane and wanted pictures. So out I went with my camera safely aorund my neck and was blown clear down the hall about 30 ft. I only was able to stop by grasping a pillar and hanging on for dear life while my camera pounded my face. In minutes the wind died down and I returned to my room looking like I had a run in with Mohamed Ali. My much wiser friend only shook her head.

I should have known what I was in for when we entered our resort only to be told "Remember you are in a third world country" .

When I saddled up to the bar for a drink I was informend there was only rum available. No problem I thought and promplty ordered a rum and coke only to be advised no you don't understand there is only rum. Okey dokey then I'll have a rum and rum I said not to be detered from having a good time by a lack of beverages.

The it was time to dine or not dine as the case may be. We were all ushered in at once into the dining room which to me seems to be a bit of a misnomer. There on a gigantic table lay a pig, a cooked dead pig with an apple in it's mouth. Now for those of you who don't know me I have been a vegetarian since I was a kid.  I don't mind at all other people eating meat I just don't want to and the picture of this "feast"  is burned into my brain. To add insult to injury we were all given knives like machetes and told to cut our own piece off. This was before the TV show survivor but in retropect it makes me think of that now except I paid for this priviledge.

So the accompaniment to the pork was white rice and green beans from a can. For desert was a cake with the salutation "welcome" written on it. To make a long story short, suffice it to say we had the same thing at every single meal all week. Of course later in the week the icing and greeting was scraped off the cake and it was soaked in rum. 

The week we were in Cuba there was  a gas shortage so we could only go on one excursion.  We went to see how the hand made cuban cigars are made. If I was anti smoking before this trip seeing elderly toothless men lick the tobacco leaves to stick them together as the outer covering of the cigar made me a militant anti smoker. I suppose the old men hold mint in their mouths to achieve the menthol flavour of some cigars.  

I know many people have travelled ot Cuba and love it but this space is for my opinion and I hated it. The only exception for me is the Cuban people, they are friendly and full of life with a beautiful culture. When Castro is gone maybe I'll rethink my position, until then no way Jose.