It's funny that my first post outlining an actual trip is about Cuba. Somewhere that's pretty, well... average. I went for a simple family vacation to Blue Bay Cayo Coco, a 4-star resort on the island of Cayo Coco, which is situated just along the north coast of the country. The two islands, Cayo Coco and Cayo Guillermo are home to no actual Cubans, only resorts and tons of natural wildlife and land.
I, admittedly, was not excited for this trip. After dreaming and blogging about exotic places, the last trip I wanted to take was to a resort where any given Canadian has travelled to. I had never been to an all-inclusive resort, and was convinced that they were boring, wasteful and only for unimaginative travellers. However, this trip surpassed every expectation I had. Perhaps that's because I had no expectations, but I was nevertheless pleasantly surprised by how much I learned on this vacation.
The vacation itself was great. We swam in the ocean, the pool, sunbathed (I got my first sunburn in my life on the second day), sailed on a catamaran, drove speedboats through mangroves (where I almost threw my brother overboard), went snorkelling in a lagoon and simply relaxed. I spoke with many people who worked at the resort. Although some of them were not very fluent in English, they always tried their best to communicate and were always pleasant.
The nightly entertainment was my favourite. They have a group of dancers from various other towns/cities in Cuba who are trained as professional dancers and work at that particular resort. They were amazing. I was immediately interested in speaking with them because they were around the same age as me, and was curious to see what their lives were like. On the third or fourth day, one of them approached my brother and I and we spoke with him for a couple hours. He was quite fluent in English and French and had so many interesting things to say. He explained to me more about the political situation in Cuba, and answered simple, silly questions I had, such as 'Do you guys have Facebook?'. They had been dancing for most of their lives. Emilio, who I quickly became friends with, has been dancing since he was ten years old. Another friend, Hassan, went to a professional dancing school for three years to obtain that particular job. When I asked them what they see themselves doing in five years, they simply said 'dancing'.
Their presence made my vacation so enjoyable. Apart from having a ton of fun with my brothers, who I don't get to see very often while in university, the dancers and other entertainers became my friends at the resort. They would come to work early and we would go play volleyball on the beach, or just sit and chat. I learned a bit of Spanish from them, a language I used to dislike very much, and am now ready to dive in and become fluent in. My family wants to go back next year, and I told them that I will come back and I will be able to speak Spanish with them. But, who knows if they will still be working there or not.
When it was time to leave, I was quite sad. Unfortunately, this feeling hasn't quite left yet, and I've been back in Canada for a few days now. To have met people my own age, who laugh and joke the same way I do, that enjoy the same things, but who live in such different conditions makes my heart hurt. They gave me their e-mail addresses to write them, but when I did, they were returned with a delivery failure notification. I researched a bit on the internet and realized that the only e-mail addresses permitted that you don't have to pay for are those given to government and business workers. So, if you're a Cuban, and you're lucky enough to know someone in these fields that may let you use theirs, you can. But that means you basically have to write down what you want to say in the e-mail and give it to them to type. The sad part is that this is actually illegal, and the e-mails are on a public server, which is why sometimes they don't even go through properly.
I know that this wasn't some revolutionary trip, where I helped the world. (I cleaned up the whole piano bar for a bartender on my last evening when there was a particularly rowdy and messy crowd- that was my good deed for the trip, other than tipping the cooks and cleaners.) However, I learned a lot about the economic and political situation in Cuba (much more than I've written in this post) and am so happy that I was able to connect with people who live there. This, undoubtedly made it harder for me to leave, but I'd rather feel the hurt of leaving a bit of myself behind somewhere, than have visited a place and not experienced it to the fullest. Of course I was also disappointed that I wasn't able to visit any of the bigger cities, to experience true Cuban lifestyle, but I was promised by my Cuban friends that if I returned next year, they'd take me to visit some of the surrounding places.
One lesson I truly do need to learn about travelling though, is this: “All the pathos and irony of leaving one’s youth behind is thus implicit in every joyous moment of travel: one knows that the first joy can never be recovered, and the wise traveler learns not to repeat successes but tries new places all the time.” – Paul Fussell
Whatever happens next year will not be a replication or continuation of this year. Unfortunate, yes, but I think it's a great lesson to learn before I get my hopes up.
¡Viva Cuba Libre!
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