Trip to Cuba was quite an experience

If you had a chance to check out the “other” paper, L.A Times, on Sun., Jan. 15, did you see the piece on the front page of the Travel section, “Cuba, suspended in time?” I just returned from Havana last month on a legally U.S.sanctioned humanitarian mission to bring medical supplies and clothing to the 1,500 Jews left in Cuba. There were 15,000 in 1959.

The article painted a beautiful portrait of the land I had just visited. The people, food and culture are amazing, but the music is infectious. I am not Hispanic, yet for the past four weeks since my return I have listened to little else but the Cuban CDs I bought and the Cuban music that is on my AOL.

The only caveat to the story would be like the commercial— don’t bring your American Express. Actually, no credit card or cell phone that has a U.S. primary billing address will function in Cuba. So you will need a lot of cash, but if you use American dollars, they will punish you an extra 10 percent (total of 20 percent ) on the exchange. That is Castro thumbing his nose at us for the recent baseball embargo. U.S. traveler’s checks are best with only a 10 percent exchange rate imposed.

Castro used to have his idealism subsidized by the Soviet Union, but now, economic times are harder, the natives are getting restless, and Castro is looking the other way at a lot of capitalist ventures.

One such change is the Paladar (restaurants in people’s homes). Nothing fancy on the outside and in the middle of residential neighborhoods, but when you open the doors and get seated in one of the four tables in their living rooms, get ready for a feast that is spiritual.

Go visit “Cuba, suspended in time” while it still is, because it appears that changes are afoot and they have started down the slippery slope towards selling tourism which is bound to bring change. It has already started. Ian H. Taras Agoura Hills