Cuba is a wonderful country with its beautiful nature and salsa rhythms around every corner. To travel Cuba as a couple or as a group of friends is great and I promise that it is a unique experience. But, if you are a solo traveler of the female sex, you might find it very tiring. In fact, you will probably find it quite tiring even if you are not in that position.

I had the luck to meet a wonderful group of people here in Cuba. It started with Celia, a lovely Mexican/American girl who I met at my first casa in Havana. She decided to join me to Viñales and in our search for transportation we found Fanny, from Belgium. We went with a Collectivo to Viñales and on a horse ride to the tobacco farms, we met Aitor and Dani from Barcelona, Catalonia (not Spain, or Aitor is not from Spain at least. Very important!).

So I spent my time in Cuba with this crazy crew! Very lovely I must say, but even with amazing people surrounding you Cuba can become to much.

People here are desperate. They need to make money and of the little they make, they get to keep close to nothing. I'm all for reasonably high taxes, but the tax pressure here is insane! This is not the only problem. Because of the complicated relationship with USA, it is very hard for Cuba to trade with other countries. This leads to a lack of resources and in the longer term poverty and desperation. It's important to remember this, because people will try to rip you off everywhere. People are extremely nice, friendly and helpful, but it is still very hard to know who to trust and who not to trust. It's sad but true.

To be a woman in Cuba can not be easy. Sexual harassments like kissing sounds, "I love you"s or even things like force kissing, are not uncommon. After 4 months in South America, I thought I got used to being treated like something between a dog and an object, but it is so much worse here in Cuba. Unless you walk together with a man. The 50s feeling is nice, except that the view on women didn't really change since then either. It might even have gotten worse, I don't know, I wasn't alive in the 50s.

All in all my stay in Cuba was amazing! Credit goes to my wonderful new friends. Together we've seen beautiful beaches, green hills and old colorful houses. We've laughed, cursed and then laughed a bit more. Some of us have cleaned ourselves in horse pee after falling in horse shit (Celia feel guilty). Some of us have taken way to many pictures and I'm pretty sure all of us feel happy with our stay but relieved that it's now over.

I don't think I could have ended my South America trip better!