Viva Cuba!

If you’ve been reading chronologically, you may have noticed that we just jumped about 4,600 miles east, from Hilo to Havana…while maintaining roughly the same latitude (Havana is 4 degrees further north than Hilo, 23 vs 19 if you’re curious).  In some respects, the two islands aren’t that different.  Like Hawai’i, Cuba grows excellent coffee.  Like Hawai’i used to, Cuba grows lots of sugar cane.  And like Hawai’i never did (at least the legal kind!), Cuba grows world-class tobacco.  Perhaps the best in the world, according to those who know far more about the topic than I do.

What other parallels can I draw between Hawai’i and Cuba?  Well, both have a similar hot ‘n’ humid tropical climate, beautiful beaches, and lots of palm trees swaying in the trade winds.  Both have wonderful music and enchanting dance and delicious drinks made with rum (a happy byproduct of all that sugar cane!).  And in both places the native speech can be a bit tough to comprehend, although my ear for both Hawai’ian Pidgin English and Cuban Spanish (which is spoken muy rapido!) got better with each day I visited the respective islands.

I spent a fascinating 10 days in Cuba this month, and will be posting about it for probably several weeks.  How is Cuba different from Hawai’i…and any place else on earth?  Tune in tomorrow and I’ll tell you more about this amazing land and her people.  Hasta manana…