Travellers' Survival Kit: Cuba
(Vacation Work, fourth edition, 1999)

I first visited the Caribbean's largest island in January 1989, and have been returning frequenly ever since. After my first three visits, I wrote the first edition of the Travellers Survival Kit: Cuba; on subsequent editions I collaborated with the writer Emily Hatchwell, who has lived on the island.
Cuban culture has no equal: a blend of Spanish and West African blood, spiced up by numerous other nationalities including some Chinese, and simmered for several centuries under the tropical sun to create everything from salsa to state socialism.
The island's natural wealth resides in its people. Their rich heritage of music, dance and religion stands in stark contrast to the poverty into which Cuba has sunk, with the ending of economic support from Moscow and the tightening of Washington's embargo. Yet the resilience of the Cuban spirit is extraordinary, as is the welcome given to foreigners (even US visitors, who risk fines and imprisonment for breaking their government's strict anti-tourism laws).
For the more macho tourist there's the rum, and cigars, and the best collection of clapped-out old American cars in the world. Oh, and Cuba is also the largest and most beautiful island in the Caribbean, with some of the best beaches.

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