tourist vs. visitor

Tourists stay in hotels and resorts. They want everything to be the same as it is at home, including their coffee and they tend to get easily upset by the lack of services, conveniences and effort needed in travelling from their country to another.

Visitors stay in private homes, explore strange streets, meet the locals, take the local transport and take on the customs and the food of the area willingly.

I tend to be the latter. I don´t think you will ever find me on a resort with it´s all inclusiveness. I like getting the local money and bartering. I like meeting the locals and taking their pictures for a few coins. I´ll drink rum in a dark park with strange men if it means a few laughs and an adventure unknown. And I´ll gladly eat dinner in a tin shack pieced together after the devestating hurricanes and have the most delicious fresh fish I have ever had.

But, I will also take the organized tour when they spoon feed you the sights. It´s sometimes impossible to see anything otherwise you rent a car and hire a guide.

Today, I will visit El Cobre. Apparently the room of miracles contains among it´s 1000´s of offerings, a small golden guerilla fighter donated by Lina Ruz, Fidel´s mother. Hemingway´s Nobel prize for The Old Manand the Sea was there until it was stolen (and later recovered).

Tomorrow, I will go on a tour to Baconoa, which is in a natural park and down the coast. I will see more of the Sierra Mountains and the coast line. There will be a dolphin show and for extra you can swim with them. Ya, it´s cheesy.. but I have always wanted to swim with dolphins so I will.

But, despite my touristic ways.. I am a visitor to Cuba. I love the gritty pissy bits and the beautiful polished bits just the same. I´m just more likely to eat in a local dive than a shiny hotel restaurant. And I´m more likely to stumble through a conversation with hand signals and pictures than not.