I went to Cuba for a study abroad trip in 2019. I was a Spanish major and was required to have a study abroad. We were there for only 2 weeks, but even in that short amount of time I learned so much.
Politics:
I’m not someone who likes to get into politics, but understanding how the country operates is important in realizing how and why Cuba is so different from the United States.
Cuba is a socialist country. Socialism, according to National Geographic is a political and economic system in which property and the means of production are owned in common, typically controlled by the state or government. That is very different from the United States (where I’m from) which is capitalist. Capitalism, according to Oxford Dictionary, is an economic and political system in which a country’s trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state.
Somethings that really showed how different socialism and capitalism is were:
- All Cuban citizens had a certain amount of money they got from the government that paid for their groceries.
- All healthcare was very cheap and a lot more readily available (there are upsides and downsides to this).
Places I Visited:
- Havana (the capitol of Cuba)
Old Havana is more modern than the rest of the city. I was able to see the capital building. Everything in the city was very old.
Cubans stared at our group a lot, especially me because of my blonde hair and pale skin. I saw several people dressed in white uniforms due to their Afro-Cuban religion. Most people wore more modern clothing in Havana, such as jeans and shorts, unlike many other parts of Cuba. This was due to extremely hot weather and a lack of umbrellas to sell.
- Santa María Del Mar
- Matanzas
I loved going to the beaches! They were so beautiful. There were a lot of crabs of various sizes along the road and all over the beach. There were a lot of tropical fish and crystal clear water to explore. I had the most fun when I was on the beaches.
- Cienfuegos
In Cienfuegos, we saw a lot of art sculptures and beautiful, colorful buildings. I really liked the different and unique colors of all the buildings everywhere. They had very nice garden areas in the center of the city. There were plenty of benches and places to sit and one of the parks had WIFI. There are specific places in Cuba called “WIFI Parks” that allow you to use your WIFI. Besides those places, WIFI isn’t available like it is in the U.S. To call or talk to my family I had to go to one of the WIFI Parks. So having one there was a real treat!
Another one of the differences between Cuba and the U.S. is the economy. There was a lot of trash all in the water and on the ground. The buildings definitely weren’t all maintained as they should be. There were also a lot of homeless people.
You won’t see barely any newer cars in Cuba. They only had older cars because in the 1950’s Raul Castro abolished the need for foreign cars so any of the cars there were old cars from the 1950’s or Russian cars.
- Pinar del Río
- Viñales Valley
Viñales was the most beautiful place we went to in Cuba, in my opinion. Viñales is known for being in a valley, and we stayed in the heart of the valley while we were there. There was a lot of tourism and many restaurants, shops, houses, etc. One of the ways you could tell it was so touristy was by walking in the city and every time you walked past a restaurant or store there were people yelling at you to come inside. That was very interesting and unexpected.
It’s fun to walk around and seemed much safer than any of the other places I stayed at. It seems less like a city with more of dirt roads than paved highways. There were also many farmers and lots of different farm animals throughout the city.
- Trinidad
Trinidad had beautiful hotel such as the one in the picture above.
Where I Lived:
We stayed in Cuban people’s homes who were part of the program for allowing foreign visitors to stay in their houses in exchange for money. It was a very interesting process to never have been in Cuba before and then I was staying with Cuban people who don’t speak any English! It’s pretty wild. I stayed in 3 different people’s homes. We moved around a lot because we were visiting as many areas of Cuba that we could.
In Havana, my friend and I had a walk of about 15 minutes each day to walk back and forth. We got cat-called and were all alone. Our cell phones didn’t work in Cuba unless at a WIFI park so we had to rely on the directions we were given. It was challenging, but a very fun experience.
School:
The first week that I was in Cuba, I had to have school every morning. My teacher did not speak any English so it was challenging and fun to communicate and try to understand what she’s teaching us. I liked learning about the history of Cuba, the government and the different systems they have. They teach Esperanto at the school, which is a universal language.
The school had an upstairs which is where we ate our meals. The food at the school was very good. There were a lot of stray cats and dogs. There were also many houses surrounding the school and people always around.
Food:
The Cuban food overall was actually not very good to me. The food we were able to have at the school was pretty good, but at every restaurant we went to the food tasted bland and overall not tasty.
There were many restaurants we went to and I noticed that at all of them there was a wait of at least 1 hour to get your food. In the United States people would walk out if their food took that long so it was a different experience.
Most of the breakfasts were fruit and fruit juice and maybe some bread. The lunches and dinners included rice dishes, beans, bread, fruit, chicken, etc.
Fun:
- My class and I were able to sit in a small children’s dance/ballet class.
- We went to Casa de la Música in Havana. There was loud music, lots of dancing and a stage show with the same singers and dancers.
- I was excited that we got to explore where a movie scene from Juan de los Muertos was shot. I had watched that movie very recently so I was able to picture the movie scenes exactly.
- In Pinar del Río, there was a cave we were able to explore. We had a tour, and the coolest part was that the way out was via a boat ride.
- We learned salsa and tango dances at school. I’m not much of a dancer, but it was fun being able to have fun and learn a different cultures dances.
I’m thankful for the experience to be able to go to Cuba. I learned a lot more Spanish and Spanish history than I did sitting in a classroom during college. As always, if you have any comments or question you can ask me down below or contact me. I hope you enjoyed this post! 🙂