Acuario Nacional de Cuba

            So this afternoon I decided to take a little solo adventure down the street to the Acuario Nacional de Cuba.  We pass it everyday on the bus ride to and from school and I decided that I could use my Tuesday afternoon in a better way than just getting some sun on our balcony.  Best decision ever.  I love aquariums, always have.  I still remember being on a trip to Boston my junior year of high school and throwing a tantrum that would make a two year old proud because we didn’t get to go and see the turtle exhibit at the aquarium.  Not my most shining moment.

            So as I walked up to the Aquarium, I was struck by the fact that the parking lot was so small.  I lived in Orlando until I was five and Sea World is one of my favorite places.  They have football fields that they have converted into stretches of asphalt so that hordes of tourists can come and see everything.  This parking lot was more along the lines of a Burger King or MacDonalds.  Big difference.

            As I walked up to the counter to pay for my ticket I had to do a double take because I only had to pay about fifty cents.  Fifty cents!  That also included getting to see both the sea lion and dolphin show.  To get into a major attraction in the US, I don’t even remember, easily thirty or forty dollars.  One of the benefits of a communist country is that, based on its principles, prices stay pretty cheap compared to a capitalist country.  But there is definitely a trade off.

            The hardest thing that I saw walking through this sprawling outdoor complex was the fact that so many of the attractions were shut down and boarded up.  Here is where the trade off comes into play because the prices are cheap compared to that of a capitalist country but the people still cannot afford them.  So no one comes and they cant keep the attractions open.  I was one of maybe twenty or thirty people walking around.  Compared to any kind of theme park or aquarium in the US, it was as if it was closed. 

            All of this made me realize that in a communist country, no one is competing for attention.  There is no drive to make it the best and most appealing park.  As I was standing outside of one of the tanks of the sea lions, I kept watching it circle around the tank again and again, stopping to touch its nose to the corner of the glass in the same place over and over no matter how many people tapped on the glass or tried to get its attention.  It struck me that so many people here are like that. They keep going through the motions, repeating the same monotonous task.  It was one of the saddest things that I had ever seen because life isn’t meant to be lived that way.  Not at all.  The strangest part was that it was right on the ocean, literally, there was a place that you could go for a swim.  This beautiful, amazing view of the rough seas and no one was there to appreciate the splendor.  It broke my heart, for the first time, my heart broke for the people of Cuba.