up with. All I could think to myself was...'my God, this is where it all comes from" My wife was also intrigued to hear the Cuban people express themselves. Once we were out on the tour bus and heading towards our hotel, it suddenly hit us... we had traveled into the past. Every vehicle, building, street and sidewalk was either exactly the way it was forty years prior or in most cases, in a forty year deteriorated state. Nonetheless, it was amazing to see cars, trucks and busses of the 50's traveling all around us. It was like being in an old movie and we were the main characters.Once we arrived at our hotel, that image shifted slightly. Most touristic hotels are either new or refurbished to look new in order to attract tourism. The ironic... no... painful reality of all this, is that the Cuban citizens are not allowed to enter the premises of any hotel in Cuba. It doesn't even end there. They are not even allowed to enter restaurants, bars, or nightclubs, regardless of whether they have U.S. currency or not. It's just because they are Cuban. This to me was the absolute kick in the face. It's like if one night I decided to go to TGIF in Miami (which is where I was born and raised) and they stopped me at the door (no courtesy included), and tell me that I should know better than to try and go into the restaurant... that I should know that all US Citizens are barred from eating at a nice place. It is strictly for tourist he would say. Anyone listening to a story like that would think my elevator didn't go to the top floor. Well, it is exactly that way in Cuba today and has been that way for about thirty to thirty-five years. This was not the reason for my traveling here. I was here to learn about MY roots, my people, and my family.By day two, we had met up with a very nice man by the name of Raul. A friend of ours had given us a telephone number where we could contact him in order to hire him as a tour guide. He was genui...
