Why you should travel to Cuba before it looks like everywhere else

cnn ^ | 4-13-2015 | James Williams and Daisy Carrington

[Citizen Zed]

Cuba is not like other places, or rather, not like anywhere that exists today.

To some outsiders, it looks firmly stuck in the 1950s. Vintage cars roam the streets, the landscape is absent of strip malls and global chains, and the buildings -- though crumbling -- hark back to a grander time.

[TalonDJ]

“And, yes, the capitalistic borg will dramatically change Cuba forever, like it always does”

The funny thing is what is down there now IS capitalism. Just the fruits of capitalism flash frozen by communism and preserved. All those old ‘quaint’ buildings and cars are the undead corpse of a country in the throws of prosperity when communism killed it.
Anyone thinking, “How nice, Communism makes things look all quint” is an idiot. They preserved all all the old stuff because they couldn’t afford to do anything else.

[Cementjungle]

Americans still can't go there to just visit... we can only go on a tour that books your every moment of each day with "people to people cultural exchange" activities.

As a photographer, I would love to go and photograph the old architecture, cars, etc... but I'll wait until "normal" travel is allowed.

[moehoward]

“I’ll take one of those red headed Yolandas”

[Covenantor]

Whoa! Could that dirty dog Fidel be Elizabeth Warren's real daddy?

[Fledermaus]

Hey CNN morons...that is only the part of Cuba they will LET YOU SEE. Try going off the approved roads and you’ll be arrested.

The place makes Detroit look like paradise.

[Fledermaus]

Beat me to it.

[The_Media_never_lie]

When I was still in the reserves (early 90s), there was an aviator in my reserve group who worked for CNN as a journalist during the week. He was a very nice man and a favorite son, golden haired boy.He was assigned to do a story on Rhodesia for CNN. Being a recent college graduate and maybe a journalism major, he knew nothing about the history of the anti-apartheid struggle And the former glory of the country he was in. He remark constantly about how quaint the place was with the British customs. I can imagine the sympathetic stories that would come from his visit there. He honestly did not know.

[The_Media_never_lie]

When I was still in the reserves (early 90s), there was an aviator in my reserve group who worked for CNN as a journalist during the week. He was a very nice man and a favorite son, golden haired boy.

He was assigned to do a story on Rhodesia for CNN. Being a recent college graduate and maybe a journalism major, he knew nothing about the history of the anti-apartheid struggle and the former glory of the country he was in. He remarked constantly about how quaint the place was with the British customs. I can imagine the sympathetic stories that would come from his visit there. He honestly did not know.