Please note that information in this report could be very much outdated in a few months or weeks. Cuba is in an ongoing state of crisis due to compounding effects from the 2020 pandemic, the 2022 Ukraine war, and a global inflation in 2023. So things might be dramatically different when you visit Cuba - hopefully for the better.
Travelling a poor country as someone privileged to live in one of the richest nations in earth is always an ambiguous experience, and it often happens that you get a wrong impression of what life is really like in that country.
Unrelated to this but I often also feel quite a bit of shame when taking up resources from the local population as a tourist - even when the local economy is relying on tourism as a main income source. I take up a similar amount of resources in my home country but there I have more efficient and sustainable ways to support my needs and don’t need to rely on - potentially extremely wasteful - services as when travelling as a tourist. That being said I usually strive to live close to the local „way“ and don’t attempt to recreate the lifestyle I enjoy at home where possible. This has been challenging in Cuba as the average Cuban lives well below the poverty line.
Something I often hear from other people are simplified stories of what life must be like in this or that country/continent or reductive explanations of why poor conditions or at least conditions they perceive as poor might exist.
Often these explanations touch on some actual issue but also completely miss the mark - often this is when racism or exceptionalism comes forward - think of statements like “X people are just inherently lazy/stupid/badly organised.” This is a bias that many living in the global north or “West” have deeply ingrained and I mostly give them the benefit of the doubt that they don’t really believe that some cultures or humans are inferior to others - it’s such a common narrative that I suspect people don’t really think about it too deeply since it would severely threaten their worldview if they found out how chaotic things really are.
Anyway this was a lengthy introduction to my short account of travelling the island of Cuba for a bit more than two weeks in late 2023.
It is relevant to mention that the person I was travelling previously spent several months studying in the country and as such had a much deeper look into everyday life. I don’t speak Spanish apart from basic phrases, but I can understand basic conversation if I concentrate and the topic at hand is not too complex or the speakers accent too strong. However Cuban Spanish is hard to understand even for some Spanish speakers - but it is a beautiful accent.
I spent most of the time in Cuba in the capital city Havanna or Habana as it is called locally about a week in total. We also made a day trip to the famous tobacco fields in Vinales as well as visiting the towns of Cienfuegos and Trinidad.
Cuba has a fascinating and rich history from the period of Spanish colonialism to independence and communist revolution. Repeating all the history would make this post way too long and I would essentially just copy from Wikipedia but I am going to mention some relevant bits here and there. If you are interested in the history of Cuba I would recommend to read X.
Havanna or Habana as it is called locally is the biggest city in Cuba and also the place where most tourists spend at least some time as the international airport is close and the infrastructure is best developed. The richer tourists often move on to the giant beach resorts at Varadero or Trinidad. Habana has exceptionally beautiful architecture mostly in the colonial style with some highlights I enjoyed being the Hotel Nacional, the old city centre (Habana Vieja), the Capitol, and the oceanside walkway called Malecon. There are also some large buildings and monuments in the Soviet Brutalism style. Many of the colonial style buildings are ancient which really adds to their charm. Especially as someone who dislikes the glass, concrete, and steel cubes that most modern cities seem to be comprised of, the ornamental colonial style is pleasing to look at. Due to the age of the buildings and the lack of maintenance material and machines many buildings are in an advanced state of disrepair and decay. In my opinion this is not so bad if just the paint job is old and chipped off in places - I actually like the ancient look of these buildings - but other buildings look dangerously close to collapsing or have already collapsed in parts. Cuba is also suffering from destructive tornadoes on a regular basis which I imagine makes it more complicated and costly to keep the buildings in shape.
Poverty in Cuba is high in 2023, and many Cubans live below the poverty line. Often when speaking to locals the first thing they mention is the bad state of economy and the worsening living conditions. Some people told us it is now worse than during the special period after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s.
Food, water, and fuel are scarce, as well as basically any other item of daily life. Industry used to be mostly sugar cane, rum coffee, and cigars and has in parts stopped production, with the majority of the countries sugar cane plants permanently closed due to a lack of fuel. Interesting is the agricultural sector. Because of missing chemical fertilisers and other modern materials Cuba has adopted organic and seasonal farming including a permaculture approach. I think this is close to what a lot of sustainably minded people would advocate for in my home country. It is sad that the environmentally conscious measures here are born out of a dire lack of resources, chemicals, and modern farming equipment. I know too little about farming to pass any judgement here - but it was clear that Cuba is barely able to support its population with food. Whether that is related to a less efficient system of farming or widespread corruption in the government is not entirely clear from my perspective. If you see something you need sold for example from a cart by the side of the road you have to buy it immediately - there is no guarantee it will be available tomorrow. Also as I mentioned the food is very seasonal, so if it is season for yucca, you eat yucca. If it is the season for tomatoes, you eat tomatoes. The variety that we take for granted in the west all year round is simply not possible.
People living on the countryside have a more spartan lifestyle often lacking electricity, any transport methods besides horses, or access to other modern infrastructure, but they also seem to be able to support themselves much better in terms of food as those living in the cities. This makes sense since city dwellers are often relying on tourism as their main source of income - which is reduced to less than 30% of pre-COVID numbers.
People do get a monthly ration “libreta” for supplies. However this is just enough to survive and even then the ration is often incomplete recently. One resident I spoke to told me that this month’s ration only consisted of sugar - no rice, beans, flour, and other essential items.
If you do not have other means to support yourself you are subject to starvation or worse.
Cubans are ingenious in finding solutions to their limited resources for example starting small vertical gardens in the cities, hacking and repairing machines almost indefinitely. Also there seems to be a very strong sense of community, of “being in this together” - at least from the outside it seemed so. Arguably this is because it would be hard to survive otherwise, but it also speaks to the incredible resilience and empathy of the Cuban people.
After the collapse of tourism during the pandemic the war in the Ukraine led to a blockade of oil deliveries from Venezuela by the US and also reduced oil deliveries from Russia, the main sources of fuel for Cuba - where in turn most of the electricity is produced by fuel plants.
The government blames a lot of the hardships affecting the Cuban people on the “bloqueo”, the economic blockade that US that is in place since the revolution. It is not obvious to me how much of it is due to the blockade. However the ruling junta or whatever you might call the government which is essentially a military dictatorship with a socialist paint job seems to enjoy a lavish and luxurious lifestyle that is completely at odds with how the average people live in Cuba. Cuba also is infamous for being one of the most unfree countries in terms of journalism and independent reporting so it is hard to trust anything you hear or read through official sources. But talking to the Cuban people the opinion that the ruling junta enriches themselves to an unbelievable extent and leaves barely enough scraps for the masses to survive is widespread and anti-government sentiment is growing.
To my uninformed outside perspective the system also has positive sides - if you can call them that in light of the most basic human needs often not being met. Healthcare and education are free for all Cubans and seem to be exceptionally good. There are the aforementioned basic rations that are available to all citizens. There is almost no homelessness or unemployment and most Cubans own their small homes. Drugs seem to be basically nonexistent if you don’t count the widespread alcoholism - most likely related to the draconian sentences related to drug offences. Cuba developed not only one vaccine for COVID but three: for children, adults, and the elderly. It is however not clear if this was not mostly a prestige project by the government as one resident explained.
All in all as one Cuban put it, the system in Cuba has many problems but the capitalist system is also cruel as you are completely on your own if you don’t have the means to support yourself.
Cienfuegos is a small city that feels very rural compared to Habana. You can probably see most of it in a day. It has big avenues and plazas that feel very French, I think I read something about there being a French influence in its construction. There are few tourists around and most of the time it felt like we were the only ones there. Something that struck me as unusual was that most people had their doors open during the day and most of the night, so you could kind of peek in when walking by. Also wearing Gummistiefel seemed to be the latest fashion craze, something I attributed to it being more rural. I also saw this in Habana though. Most streets did not have streetlights and were pitch dark at night. I did not feel unsafe however, as in basically all of Cuba there is little crime, so we were walking at night through alleys I would never enter in other countries. Although some residents reported that this is changing in parts due to the current economic plight.
Trinidad was much more geared towards tourism and due to the currently low number of tourists it sometimes felt that those offering services to tourists - usually taxi services or horseback riding tours - were becoming increasingly desperate. One guy organising horseback tours told us that he never saw a December as bad as this year. Usually the winter months are the high season for tourism as the weather is still great to go to the beach and not too hot or humid.
Near Trinidad are some of the most beautiful Caribbean beaches I was blessed to be able to visit firsthand. Even though parts of the seaside are polluted by godawful giant hotel complexes, the beaches themselves are under environmental protection and gorgeous.
Vinales was a different experience. Here people either are farmers or operate small posadas for ecotourists. Apparently many gave up catering to tourists during the pandemic and went back to full time farming with no intention to go back. Meeting some of the local tobacco farmers was interesting. Apparently it is common to reach old age (90+) smoking about 6-8 cigars per day as well as enjoying the health benefits of rum which they call “vitamin R”. I think their otherwise healthy lifestyle plays a bigger role. Daily life there consists of farm work, siesta, and more farm work, as well as a diet consisting of the organic vegetables they grow themselves. Many Cubans are vegetarians as slaughtering cows is prohibited by threat of prison and there are no industrial livestock farms. For this reason most meat is either chicken or pork and very expensive for the average Cuban. Much of the animal protein is also reserved for tourists, for example it is illegal to hunt and transport lobsters - but lobster is almost always available in touristic places for a hefty price.
Unlike with vegetable crops like rice, plantains, or beans the government is playing a big role in the farming of tobacco or coffee. Farmers are required to give 90% of their harvest to the government and are heavily monitored to make sure that they report the correct amounts. They get optimised seeds and expert knowledge from the government as the tabac harvest is very important to Cubas economy, cigars being the major Cuban export the island is famous for worldwide besides rum.
I hope the situation will improve for the average Cuban people and not deteriorate further. There seems to be growing dissatisfaction with the way things are run and many young people emigrate if they have the opportunity. I think the lifting or easing of the blockade would improve things, however it seems a bit too easy to blame everything on the blockade. An inefficient economy, militaristic government, as well as little incentive to improve things probably also are important factors. The Cuban Revolution is now more than 70 years ago. Few people who participated in it directly are still alive. I can understand why the younger generation would like to improve things and does not have the revolutionary fervour that let the older generations endure hardships without complaints.
I did learn a lot more about Cuba and the history of the country and I hope this travel report has given you some insight into what life is like on the biggest Caribbean island in 2023.