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Cuba: Trains, Tractors & Tomato Trucks (back to Homepage)
In 1997, my pal Barry & I hitchhiked westwards from the beach resort of
Veradero to the westernmost tip of Cuba in search of some isolated beach,
cold beers, and some legendary scuba diving. But like most road trips, half
the fun is getting there…and in this case, that took an overnight ride
in a semi-truck, a train, an overloaded people truck, a farm tractor, a very
slow tomato truck, and a sportscar driven by a crazy Italian. While the
return trip wasn’t as diverse, it did require an exciting quest for
‘la chocalata’ (the infamous codeword for illegal, subsidized
gasoline) in our new friends’ gas-hungry 1956 Ford.
Along our journey, we learned
that this what this dual-economy nation lacks in consumer goods and new cars,
it makes up for in stunning landscapes, superb nightlife and most of all,
fantastic people. And the scuba diving? Too windy…didn’t go.
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