Originally Posted by
VidaNaPraia
"just comped by friendly Cubans" ?????
Why would she put "friendly Cubans" at potentially serious risk with their own government by staying in what seem to be described as houses unlicensed to rent to foreign guests?
Here is a blog post from American journalist C.G. about posadas, rooms Cuban couples rent short term to get away from family for an intimate moment. According to her writings, your heroine stayed in some of these.
https://hereishavana.com/2017/05/28/...-cuban-posada/
C.G. describes one: "no window, no toilet paper, no hot water, one pillow, one towel and an Igloo cooler on the floor filled with ice .....The stench of cheap air freshener permeated everything – the sheets, my hair, our clothes, even the stale air stank. "
Oh, please; you know better. She was a guest in a number of places. There’s nothing illegal about that. In others she stayed in licensed rooms, and yes, they may have been substandard on occasion or even love nests , but that’s her choice - and she had a tent at least some of the time if she preferred that. I’ve done that in days of yore in Central and South America - like the Albergue Aha Una Ulá (sic) in Flores, $2.00 a night. This being her 30-something Trip to Cuba, she both knows what she’s doing and manages risk for herself and those she comes in touch with. The authorities she’s come in contact with, from members of the Defense Committees to police to semi-official “Amarillos” all treated her from courteously to risibly as a harmless curiosity - who’d actually WALK across Cuba as a “mochilera”?
She’s not my heroine. She and her husband are good friends of mine since 1995, and we have dived with them in several places. They’re very successful at what they do, with palatial Himes in Montana and Florida, and they lead their own tours and work for companies like Abercrombie & Kent - climbs to Kilimanjaro, $120,000 world tours by private jet, etc. I do respect and admire her tenacity, flexibility and strength to do something like walk 840 miles of Cuba from east to west.
But this thread was intended to demonstrate the relative safety of Cuba. I’d certainly not attempt this in a number of other countries.