Havana Calling

With the American embargo finally lifted, this great country is set to reach true prominence.

- Adam Jacot De Boinod

Fashion stylists have already picked it for its current status of ‘focus of the world’, a focus that is now shining upon this uniquely troubled, special and intriguing island and its most dramatic of capitals.

Surely the best place to judge the readiness of Cuba to embrace the imminent stampede of American tourism is inside the control room of the annual tourism trade show. It’s all charm and chaos in equal measure! The intermittent Wi-Fi allows some of the world’s press to switch off but leaves others frustrating with their deadlines. All bustle with the heady mix of the compelling viewing of business representatives getting temperamental to no effect in front of fazed and ineffectual Cuban administrators.

Cuba, they are only too keen to tell me, broke her own records last year with three million visitors; the main tourist spots outside of Havana being Matanzas, Villa Clara, Jardines del Rey and Holguin. People flock to the island typically for the sun and sand, and for the cigars, the salsa and the old colourful cars. But they may well be newcomers to the real consequences of socialism.

How a convenience-driven nation like the USA will tolerate the inoperable is going to raise my eyebrows, especially with the lack both of products on offer in the shops or of any modernity in technology. My hotel bookshop stocks nothing but copies of Fidel Castro’s life and works and other Communist bibles. But hopefully they will come to see that it’s about something much more than creature comforts. There’s the spirit of the country, the charm of the people and the music running through their bones!