TRAVEL INSIGHTS

It’s our duty to spread the love

Whether we’re roaming around the seldom-visited neighbourhoods of popular cities, or wandering through smaller towns and villages in the countryside, let’s also patronize their local businesses in support of those communities. Have lunch in their paladares, sip guarapo at a roadside stand and buy fresh avocados from the street vendor. Let’s use our wanderlust as a force to benefit the places and people we visit.

It’s not about location

It doesn’t matter if you’re an independent back-packer staying at a casa in a village or a beach-lover staying at an all-inclusive resort, real Cuba is always accessible to you because it’s in the Cuban people themselves, and they’re everywhere. It’s your behavior that matters. Whether or not you engage with them in a meaningful way – that’s what changes the game.

 The magic is in the story

Curated tours are useful and important because we need the history and data as a foundation. But our work as purposeful travellers doesn’t end there. We also need to wander and interact with locals - shop at their markets, cheer with them at a baseball game, play dominoes with them in the street, but most importantly - talk to them. They all have a story to tell, and those stories will help us connect the dots between information and observation. That’s where the magic happens.

 All of Cuba isn’t touristy - only the touristy bits are

Cuba is VAST. The area taken up by the hot spots is just a fraction of the country’s land mass. There is so much more to experience including points of interest that never appear in a travel guide or on a checklist, elements which can only be sensed -- not seen. The only way to find them is to get out there and explore more.

There’s a better way to help

There is more to giving than just doing what we know will put a smile on someone’s face. We need to be proactive in avoiding the negative impacts of tourism, such as contributing to a culture of dependency by random giving in the street. Let’s focus on more effective ways to help a community, such as patronizing local private businesses or giving to organizations equipped to identify and distribute our donated items to those most in need. With more thought and a little research, we can boost our power to make a positive difference to the lives of those we’re trying to help.