Chilkat Valley News - Serving Haines and Klukwan, Alaska since 1966

Residents who traveled in Cuba during the winter describe the Communist nation as a place of crumbling infrastructure and pollution, but also of rich culture and friendly people.

Cynde Adams and Bart Henderson spent two weeks exploring the capital and participating in the salsa dance scene. Tod Sebens bicycled more than 620 miles across the island nation in 25 days.

To meet travel restrictions, the couple went as part of an “educational exchange.” Sebens used an allowance for religious visits, securing approval for the trip through Saint Michael’s and All Angels Episcopal Church of Haines.

Former Juneau residents and dance group leaders Antonio Diaz and Heather Haugland, now of Bellingham, Wash., led a group of about 20 people from Washington and Alaska that included Adams and Henderson.

Diaz and Haugland knew Cuba from previous visits. “They were connected. It was a really great way to see Cuba…We were in the scene. They immersed us,” Adams said. The group went salsa dancing during the day and to concerts and clubs at night.

They spent a few days in the preserved colonial town of Trinidad, a UNESCO World Heritage site, where they roamed pastel-colored, cobbled streets. But most of the time was spent in Havana, which Adams said was “in desperate need of maintenance and repair.”

The beautiful old Spanish colonial architecture has become dilapidated due to lack of maintenance, as have the “ugly Russian buildings” from the country’s alliance with the former Soviet Union.

“There’s definitely a concrete jungle feel” accompanied by an “overwhelming feeling” when taking in the city’s state of disrepair, Adams said. Vacant buildings, garbage in the street and low traffic made some streets seem abandoned, she said.

The hotels and cathedrals in Old Havana are in slightly better condition, she said.

Breakfasts at the government-owned hotel in Havana included old, fermenting fruit and hard-boiled eggs. Dinners were so bland they started searching out “paladares” or privately-owned restaurants.

Cuba seems to be “slowly letting a little bit of capitalism seep in,” she said.

Adams, who knows some Spanish, said while Cubans appear happy, they also seem aware of their country’s lack of balance.

Visitors can’t buy products like cigars or rum, but they can acquire artistic or educational items. A print she bought from a street artist shows butterflies flying out of a hand and featured “a road to freedom.”

Music and dancing are an important part of the culture, and the people are very proud of it, she said. Training in music starts at a young age in Cuba. Adams said she and Henderson were “blown away” by the “professional-level” performance of jazz and salsa music at a high school for the arts in Havana.

Music is everywhere, with people on the street or at restaurants playing horns, drums, guitars and pianos, she said. Street musicians include salsa quartets or a couple guys beating a drum to a fun Caribbean or salsa-style beat.

One day, Adams saw an old lady walk up to a fruit cart. A teenage boy was nearby. The two heard music playing, “did a little move in the street together,” laughed, and went their separate ways.

Adams said that while residents all have health care, and education and music are priorities, Cuba provides little opportunity to its people.

“It seems to me that there’s just no way that the government can take care of running a country or a city. They just can’t do it… It’s like somebody owning a huge business and not hiring any managers.”

Sebens said he went to Cuba because he was interested in traveling in a warm climate and had already been to Mexico.

The people he met were gracious and kind, he said, but the country’s air was often polluted, and many buildings’ exteriors, including ones with beautiful architecture, were in disrepair. “A second-world country, with third-world sections,” he said.

Sebens rode east to west, from Santiago de Cuba to Cuba’s capital, Havana, following prevailing winds and riding mostly through the country’s interior.

He brushed up on his Spanish and took a new, 24-speed mountain bike, a Trek Wahoo 29er.

Except for about 70 miles of coastline near the ride’s end, the roadside scenery was unremarkable. Often, he was surrounded by sugar cane fields, farms and pastures. The exhaust of aging cars and emissions of nickel smelters combined to create clouds of pollution in places. “The pollution hangs over the towns. You take a deep breath and ride through it.”

He stayed in “casas particulares” or “private houses,” similar to bed and breakfasts that were nice inside. Meals of chicken, pork, and fish there weren’t as flavorful as Mexican food, he said, possibly owing to the cost of ingredients made more expensive by U.S. trade embargoes against the country.

Cubans have little cash but receive health care and education, as well as subsidies for utilities, Sebens said. A waitress he tipped $2.50 for a $2.50 meal thanked him profusely and insisted he accept her gift of a refrigerator magnet.

A trip highlight was taking in the “fascinating history” at the Che Guevara Mausoleum in Santa Clara, which houses the revolutionary’s remains and personal effects, as well as a photographic history of his life. Guevara’s victory at the Battle of Santa Clara in 1958 prompted dictator Fulgencio Battista to flee, capping the revolution.

Connections Sebens made included a woman who spoke no English and used a walker, who took Sebens home to spend a night with her family. When he returned the favor the next day with some small gifts, including Ibuprofen she needed, she was moved to tears, he said.

He advises those interested in making a similar trip to learn a “decent amount” of Spanish. “You’re lucky if you find anybody who speaks English.” And don’t worry about crime. “It’s pretty nonexistent, especially toward tourists.”