More Jibacoa

Yup. No American investment in Cuba. Verboten!

This photo was taken at the duty-free store at the airport in Varadero.

We also saw Red Bull everywhere this time. "Heche en Austria" of all places!

The work-around is always that the product is actually manufactured in a third country. Coca-cola is "heche en Mexico". Jesse Helms is dead. Does Dan Burton know about this?

Because Blogger makes posting photos with commentary ridiculously difficult, I've posted some more photos from Jibacoa, including a few more pictures of our visit to Santa Cruz del Norte, to my Flickr stream. You can access it here (I hope).

Two notes about this trip: first, we spoke with a Cuban about the government's plan to lay off half a million government workers and have them move to entrepreneurial pursuits. The Cuban (being a bit of a black market entrepreneur already) thought it was a fine idea!

The second note is about our fellow-travelers at the resort. Very interesting and new companions this time - a large contingent of Caribbean expats living in the UK who came on a group junket. Jamaicans, Trinidadians, Barbadians... you get the idea. From the group matriarch who seemed to be everywhere in an admirable collection of headgear, to a very well-behaved and sweet gang of little ones, a more pleasant group of fellow occupants we couldn't have hoped for. The rest were non-Caribbean Brits (Euro-Brits? White British people? What's the appropriate term in this context?), Canadians, and a few Germans.

Endlessly fascinating. Cuba, a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. We're waiting with curiosity to see what the Wikileaks cables serve up about this complicated country which has gone through so much change lately.

ronnie