Havana, Cuba

VIVA HAVANA!

If someone was to mention visiting Cuba on vacation twenty, thirty, or forty years ago, there would be gasps of surprise. Today, though, it's starting to become not such a big deal anymore. I'd imagine if you'd ask 50 random people on the streets, most likely none have been to Cuba still, but that direction is changing. Average tourists are now allowed to fly to Cuba for the first time since before the revolution. You don't need to be a journalist, studying, or fly to Canada, then Mexico, to Panama and finally to Cuba.

Cuba's always excited me ever since I constructed a project on Fidel Castro in 9th grade. I have to say, I know he's our country's enemy (or used to be), but he's interesting and a bit of a genius. Through that project I got to know a little more about Cuba, and I fell in love with it, well as much as one can fall in love with a place thousands of miles away from their computer screen.

The atmosphere is what I can't wait to experience the most. Everyone seems to be so lively and happy in sunny Havana. I suppose that's the way they want tourists to think of Havana now, but it seems like it's always been that way. Everything about it is so different from the United States, the politics, the way of living, etc. Life is simple.

The dancing! Cubans have a great reputation of dancing. No one can beat them in the world. I imagine myself attempting those jazzy Latin moves with tap shoes and utterly failing and making myself look like a total idiot. But that's part of the fun, isn't it?

One of the thrills of Cuba is that it was so forbidden. Like I said above, no one I've ever met has been there.

Though now with the departure of the first tourist flight to Cuba a few months ago, I will not be one of the first average American tourists to visit since the revolution. That, however, does not stop my enthusiasm to step on the island of Cuba one day.