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Bringing up the rear, as Communism walks into the parlour for a capital makeover, Cuba is just walking through the swing door. Revolutionised, somewhat ravaged, part good, part ugly, totally rummy, here’s a country that loves the traveller as much as the traveller is going to love her. Stung sharp by the collapse of the Soviet Union that used to subsidise the Cuban economy to the tune of millions of dollars, Cuba went into a severe and protracted economic recession.

Ten years hence however, Cuba managed to recover somewhat and is courting you, the tourist, carrier of valuable foreign exchange, with customary Cuban gusto.

And why would you not go here? Time was when cash-strapped, ideology-rich co-eds flocked to the sugar plantations to help sow and reap; time is now when snazzy beachfront hotels and a spruced up country welcome the Caribbean enthusiast. Beaches, sunshine, the throb and shake of salsa and son and rumba, the rum, mellow habanos, rich coffee, angst and enthusiasm fill your every cup to the brim. Visit now; get there before Castro really dies.

Cuba is well known for producing some of the world’s finest cigars such as Monte Cristo, Romeo y Julietta and Cohiba.

Cuba is the largest island in the West Indies and therefore Cubans refer to their island as 'El Cocodrilo' -when viewed from above, Cuba is believed to resemble a crocodile!

Historically Speaking

Before Columbus reached it in 1492 Cuba was home to three major peoples: the Guanahatabey and the Ciboney lived in the western part of the island, and the Taino lived the eastern part. The history of Spanish occupation is a bloody one for both the indigenous people who were killed in the colonial abuse and constant fighting, and the Spanish on whom the disease, hurricanes and battles with competing colonial powers took a huge toll. The 16th century though, saw the Spanish better off. A huge demographic shift sponsored by the colonisers involving a massive import of slaves from a newly colonised Africa eased conditions considerably.

Two wars of independence were fought in the late 19th century against the Spanish. While the first (1868-1878) ended in a stalemate, the second (1895-1898) ended with the involvement of the Americans. Cuba was independent in name for two years after but continued to be under US occupation till 1902. A series of dictators ruled Cuba thereafter, such infamous names as Carlos Pro Soccaras and Fulgencio Batista are associated with this period during which, effectively, Cuba was a satellite state of the US. Through the 1950s, a difficult and hard fought civil war rocked this island nation; in 1959 the Communist guerrillas led by Fidel Castro established the socialist republic.

In 1961 after the Bay of Pigs fiasco that was a part of the US strategy to keep its ‘backyard’ from turning Red at the height of the Cold War, Cuba was declared a Marxist-Leninist state. As a Marxist Leninist state, Cuba moved decidedly towards the Soviet camp in a world that was split neatly into bipolar alliances, doctrines of non-alignment notwithstanding. In 1962 came the famous Cuban Missile crisis: the world waited with bated breath as the USA and USSR headed for a nuclear confrontation over Soviet missile installations in Cuba.

Fidel Castro stepped down as Cuba’s head of state in 2008 and his brother Raul was made the president. The US is still to normalise relations with its island neighbour, the reasons for which lie mostly in its strong anti-Castro lobby of expatriate Cubans. But Cuba has good relations with many countries: it has friends in Latin America, particularly Venezuela, Peru, Argentina and Colombia, it also enjoys a good relationship with Canada, many European countries and the People’s Republic of China.

Habitat

Cuba lies just south of the Tropic of Cancer at 21 30° N in the blue-green waters of the Caribbean on the edge of the North Atlantic. At 110,860 sq km it is the largest of the Caribbean islands. The topography of the island is for the most part of plains, both flat and in places undulating. The southeastern part of the island is mountainous.

Much of Cuba’s forests were cleared out during the Spanish occupation to accommodate sugarcane cultivation and cattle grazing. A reforestation programme aims to rectify the damage. The fauna is a mixture of semi deciduous forests, rainforests, and coastal and upland scrub. Where the soil is deficient, like in the savannah, the vegetation is sparse savannah-type, in the Sierra de los Organos there is limestone vegetation, in the coastal areas and wetlands one finds xerophytes and mangroves. In the southeastern mountains there are pine forests.

The best-preserved areas are the Parque Nacional Sierra de los Organos, the Reserva Ecologica del Macizo de Guamuhaya, the Reserva de la Biosfera Sierra del Rosario, and the Montanas de Moa-Nipe-Sagua-Baracoa. There are more than 7000 species of flora on the Cuban island, including some rare specimens like the Pinguicola lignicola, the only carnivorous epiphyte, the Solandra grandiflora, one of the world’s largest flowers, the cork palm, a living fossil, and the Pleurothallis shaferi, a minute orchid. There are about a 100 species of palm on the island.

There aren’t any large mammalian species on the island. The animals found in Cuba include the manatee, bats and hutia. There are a variety of reptiles ranging from the Cuban crocodile to iguana and salamander. The smallest mammal, the shrew-like amiqui, is found in Cuba. You’ll also find the Cuban pygmy frog and the butterfly or moth bat.

Bird life is plentiful in Cuba: the bee hummingbird, the carpintero reel woodpecker, the caracara, pygmy fowl, the Cuban green parrot and the Zapata wren are only some of the species found here. The Cuban Trogon is the national bird. Bird life is at its most plentiful in the Zapata peninsula, which also attracts numerous migratory waterfowl and swallows.

Cuba has many UNESCO biosphere reserves and 14 national parks. The biosphere reserves are Cuchillas del Toa, Guanahacabibes in the west, the Sierra del Rosario, 1 ½ hours from Havana, Baconao in the east, the mangroves of Cienaga de Zapata and Buena Vista.