Cuba's All-Inclusive Holiday During A Food Shortage, Hyper Inflation, Electricity & Internet Blackouts
March 1, 2024•390 words
My son just got back from his all-inclusive resort holiday in Cuba. They went to a brand-new 4 or 5 star resort. Unfortunately, they experienced children begging for food and resort workers warming up canned beans and canned chicken at the all-you-can-eat-drink resort. For 2 weeks, they had to leave the resort to seek food and toiletries.
No businesses wanted Cuban pesos; they only wanted US dollars. A meal for two - a grilled ham and cheese sandwich, a skinny grilled bread with cheese but not cheese (not sure what it was), and a thin slice bologna costing $25 USD.
No coffee is available at the all-inclusive resort, and no coffee is available off the resort. No sugar-free pop is available. Not a single fast-food restaurant is to be seen anywhere on the island. Children everywhere begging tourists to give them food, any food. Some Canadian vacationers begged to get their money back and wanted to fly back to Canada immediately, to no avail. They were stuck in Cuba for two weeks.
The all-inclusive resort said it had Wi-Fi 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Unfortunately, there was no Wi-Fi due to power outages and government crackdowns with individuals communicating online due to economic hardships the 11 million population has been facing for almost a year.
At the all-inclusive resort, there was plenty of rum and beer only, and it was widespread to see older or elderly individuals from mainly Quebec highly intoxicated in the morning, afternoon, and evening. These Quebec vacationers were oblivious to the Cuban nation's economic plight.
Due to the food shortage, degraded sanitation, and lack of water filtration in Cuba, people cannot drink the running water due to waterborne diseases such as Zika virus, cholera, hepatitis A, schistosomiasis, and typhoid. The all-inclusive resort needed more bottled water. The resort workers quickly drank the bottled water that came into the resort. Then, the workers would refill the bottles with unsanitary running tap water to give to the vacationers at the resort.
Words of wisdom... Always research the country you are going to vacation in before you go on vacation, and if there is a food shortage, don't go.