It is an amazing place to visit, like I said. At least if you're white. Havana has a buzz. Trinidad is astonishing, both for its baroque architecture and its stunning setting. And the less visited eastern tip of the island is a marvel too. The people are friendly, especially if they think you might somehow be American. And of course you're very safe. Attacking a foreigner would bring an immediate police response, which isn't the case with all (non-political) crimes on the island. Political crimes are a different matter, but as a tourist you wouldn't be concerned with those.
It's also like wandering around a 1950s film set. Indeed this is the main charm I suspect for many western visitors. It was for us. The buildings are falling apart, but in a charming way. The cars are ancient gas guzzling models held together by rubber bands. But they look great. There are no chain restaurants and hotels on the Malecon. In fact barely any illumination at all at night. And this makes it look like the promenade at Llandudno. Beautiful in its way, but a bit dead. There's plenty of capitalism (in fact dollars are wanted everywhere and everything, it seems, is for sale), but no corporations. We met loads of doctors and medical staff, but always driving taxis or serving us drinks, since they earn more from tips than they can in the hospitals.
The best places to stay are the little private pensions. These were just opening when I first went to Cuba - a thriving little private sector where the owners are genuine entrepreneurs and take pride in what they're offering (great food, clean beds, prompt service, a smile). Do NOT stay in state hotels. No one ever does any work! And that includes cleaning.
You can't avoid the slight Potemkin Village feel of Havana and Trinidad. All the shit is cleared out of sight. Therefore, as a tourist, you can have a great time. But it's not true of the interior where you can't avoid the seamier side of Cuba. The second city, Santiago, has a very beautiful, colonial-era main square. But as you drink your mojitos on the veranda in the afternoon and gaze out into 'all of human life' down below, it begins to dawn on you that the square is one massive, open air, brothel. The armed police are everywhere but so are the teenage girls and their pimps. The buyers - the paedophiles - are obviously European visitors and the cops, presumably, are there to protect them and to take their rake off. I suppose that's what the lure of dollars does to a broken economy. But it was the busiest market place we saw on the island. What it's like now, I have no idea.
I wouldn't wish further stasis on Cuba. Only revolutionaries, with their classically nostalgic and conservative outlook, would want it to remain untouched by the modern world and modern ideas. Good luck to the reformers. I hope they begin to get what they want.
