OFF COURSE IN CUBA
National Geographic Traveller India|May 2020
Saying yes to bright-eyed strangers and no to Caribbean clichés rewarded a traveller with an atypical intrigue
MUGDHA MAHALANABISH
OFF COURSE IN CUBA

I SCANNED THROUGH THE PAPER AND DIALLED THE DIGITS R HAD HASTILY SCRIBBLED ON THE NIGHT BEFORE. STALKING HIM ON SOCIAL MEDIA WAS OUT OF THE QUESTION. “THERE’S NO INTERNET IN CUBA!”

—I’d heard returning visitors exaggerate, submitting to a quirk that lines up with a Marxist-Leninist socialist state. The truth is that Internet access has historically been limited to centralised public spaces in the country and it was sometime last year that the government extended access to Cuban homes, albeit selectively. In short, looking for R, whom I had known for about a day, felt like a riddle.

The dial tone gave up for the third time. R was not to be reached.

We had been drinking at a nondescript bar somewhere in Central Havana when he’d playfully handed me his cell number. A karaoke session unfolded in the background, the singers attempting American pop songs. Fidel Castro’s dictionary would probably chalk it up as ‘Yankee Imperialism.’ “I do not approve of gringos telling Latin American Caribbean stories,” a dear Colombian friend had once told me. “Oh and please do not click pictures of riding one of those old classic cars, puffing on cigars,” he’d added for good measure.

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة May 2020 من National Geographic Traveller India.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة May 2020 من National Geographic Traveller India.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.

المزيد من القصص من NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC TRAVELLER INDIA مشاهدة الكل
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