t The colorful center of Trinidad, surrounded by verdant mountains
t The colorful center of Trinidad, surrounded by verdant mountains
Experience Cuba
The largest island in the Caribbean offers a unique and complex blend of spirited Caribbean culture infused with communism. Its heritage is steeped in struggle. Monuments to the wars of independence with the colonial power Spain, in the late 1800s, and to the revolution in 1959 that swept away the corrupt U.S.-backed regime of Fulgencio Batista, are found in every city. Though long-time president Fidel Castro passed away in 2016, his larger-than-life presence is still everywhere, along with that of the other leading revolutionary hero Che Guevara, in billboards and media exhortations.
The recent thawing of relations with the United States, and consequent easing of travel and trade restrictions, have helped Cuba’s beleaguered economy. However, day-to-day life is still a struggle for most Cubans. In the countryside, ox-drawn carts are still a common means of transportation. Nonetheless, despite material hardships, Cuba is an incredibly uplifting place. On the sometimes crumbling, sometimes splendidly restored, streets of colorful, centuries-old towns and cities, the sounds of son, salsa, and rumba fill the air, and casas de la trova (open-house clubs) keep traditional forms of music alive. This is the case across the island, in the culturally rich capital of Havana, where nearly a fifth of the island’s population of 11 million live, in time-warped little Trinidad in the south, and in sultry Santiago de Cuba in the east.