A trip to Cuba conjures images of white sand, palm trees, and endlessly blue water. For one Pembina Valley family, this picture was replaced with the startling realization that a hurricane was headed their way.
Lili Krushel, who works with the Winkler & District Chamber of Commerce, says that when she and her family first arrived at their resort in the Caribbean nation, it “was like paradise.”
Even on the first day, though, there was a sign that something might be amiss.
Trouble brewing
Upon check-in, resort staff informed Krushel and her fellow travellers that there would be a “mandatory” meeting the next morning.
“We all headed down to the meeting the next day, and this is where we got a bit spooked,” she says. “We go to the basement ballroom and in five different languages, they're announcing that a hurricane is coming and that they're doing their best they can to keep the services.”
Krushel says that the message also came with the warning that, depending on the development of the storm, services at the resort could be interrupted.
The travellers were also told that evacuation might be necessary.
“They kept saying, ‘Just stay calm. Everything is fine,’” says Krushel, adding that the resort staff did a "wonderful" job of keeping everyone in high spirits with salsa lessons, an open bar, and a buffet after the troubling announcement.
While the guests were salsa dancing and enjoying Cuban hospitality indoors as they tried their best to allay their fears, torrential rain and high winds were raging outside.
“The little lobby was really full of laughter and fun, but at the same time, at the corner of your eye, you could see maintenance taking a lamp away or moving a couch away, or putting boards on the TV screens,” she says. “You still felt it. You witnessed that they were trying to prepare for something really big.”
Fortunately, Krushel and her family did not have to evacuate their rooms. After an uncertain day and night, the hurricane conditions let up. The next day, the Krushel and her family began touring the region.
“The weather was better, so we went to see Varadero,” she says.
A further mishap
When the family got back from their excursion, they were faced with another road bump: a power outage.
“We were on the 7th floor, so we had to climb all the stairs,” she says. “Thankfully, at our hotel, that was the only day that we had experienced a power outage, but at other hotels, I believe [they happened] a few times during the week. At the airport, when we were flying out, [in the span of] about 2 hours of waiting, we had three power outages.”
To add to the flurry of events, there was also an earthquake while Krushel was in Cuba. While she and her family couldn’t feel it, the proximity of this event was also cause for some concern.
“I'm pretty relieved that we didn't feel the earthquake because even though we stayed in a really, really nice hotel, things seemed to have not been kept up well,” she says. “I'm glad the earthquake did not hit our area because I'm not sure about the structural integrity of the hotel.”
In the course of just a few days, Krushel and her family captured a glimpse of the misfortunes and inconveniences that Cubans deal with daily.
“I can only imagine how the rest of Cuba lives. It's so hard to imagine because they barely have any power,” she says.
One disaster after another
Cuba’s string of devastating occurrences began with a power grid failure last month. In the wake of sweeping power outages, the Caribbean nation was also hit by the hurricane and earthquake.
There hasn’t been time to recover from one mishap before the next one occurs. It’s creating immense struggles for Cubans — from no way to chill food through the outages to navigating flood waters and cancelled classes and infrastructural problems, it is a lot for the country to handle.
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Krushel and her family saw the struggles firsthand.
“We chatted with locals. [It] was really heartbreaking to hear their stories. On the streets, there were almost no cars because of a gasoline shortage. That was really very different from what we've seen before,” she says. “We were in Cuba about six years ago and there are obviously the beautiful American classic cars. There were Russian cars, there were some newer Chinese cars, but now we could only see taxis because there's a shortage.”
As the group connected with more locals, it became clear that the disasters touch each aspect of their lives.
“Talking to our waiters, talking to the people on the bus on our way to the airport, it was quite shocking. Some of the things that we take for granted here they don't have there,” says Krushel, adding that there are shortages on things Canadians consider common, like medicines, potatoes, and chocolate.
Cuban resilience
Even amid the pervasive difficulties, Krushel says Cubans keep an optimistic outlook.
“I was really astonished by how positive they still remain and how grateful they are,” she says.
According to Krushel, tourists are a bit of a boon in situations like these. She says that one of the locals she talked to mentioned that another tourist had gifted his family rechargeable lamps a few weeks prior. He said the lamps made a measurable difference for his family during the outages, and he was grateful.
“I'm just really amazed at how well they can take it and even though they don't have a lot of food to eat, and we complain about the food that we eat in the resorts, they're giving us the best that they have,” she says. “I think that's the reason we go back to Cuba — the beautiful beaches and the really, really kind people.”
Click here for a blog post with thoughts on how to support Cuban people.
With files from Robyn Wiebe