”Hey, hey!” I heard the man’s voice say from behind me, quite close this time. I realized that he was close enough that I could no longer pretend I didn’t hear him.
I turned, and he caught up with me, asking my name and where I’m from, wanting to talk. And as he did, I realized.
This was the same man I’d seen waving at me in the park, at least half a kilometre away.
I’d ignored him at the time, having only stopped in the waterfront park for the sunset and really not wanting to get into conversation with a yet another strange man who wanted sex or money. I didn’t give him another thought as I left the park, hurrying up the road towards the bus station so I could buy a ticket.
So when I heard the voice behind me as I was walking, I just ignored it, pretending I couldn’t hear him. But when I realized that this was the same man, who must have followed me from the park, I had to wonder.
Was it coincidence? Was he going that way anyway and saw me and decided to talk to me? I have my doubts about this, based mainly on the fact that when I told him I was in a hurry and didn’t want to talk, he turned and went back the way he’d come. So yeah, he’d followed me. Creepy.
And this wasn’t the only time. If you’ve read my first two posts about Harassment in Cuba, you’ll have an idea where this is going.
In Camaguey a man named Jollo started talking to me, asking me about myself and telling me in a very hard-to-understand accent about all kinds of places I should go. This in itself was fine, but when I saw him AGAIN a couple of hours later he came up from behind me, said a lot of things again very quickly and when I didn’t really offer much in response (mostly because I was trying to interpret what he’d said) he turned and went back the way he came. So had he been following me? It seemed like it, because why else would he come up to me and then go back in the same direction?
Another time I was stopped in the street by a man when I’d simply stopped to look at a street sign. It was getting late and I was on my way back to my casa, and had paused for a moment to squint at the sign to see if it was the right street. My hesitation caused a nearby man to rush up to me.
Him: “Can I help you? What do you need?”
Great, right? Helpful locals are what we want when we travel. But it went on and on.
Me: “Nothing, I’m fine, thanks,”
Him: “Do you want a casa? You need a place to sleep?”
Me: “No, I’m ok thank you,” still trying to be polite while squinting at the sign.
Him: “You want a restaurant? I know good restaurant.”
Me: “Nope, I’m really ok. I just stopped to look at the sign,” pointing to the sign in question.
Him: “You want to go dancing? You like salsa? I know good place for salsa.”
Me: “No, thank you, I don’t want anything,” having by now determined that yes, this was the right street.
Him: “But I think you like salsa. Maybe later you go dancing?”
Me: “No, I’m tired. I only stopped to look at the sign. “
Him: “Ok, you want to go dancing, I know a place. Later. My name is Marco. You find me here.”
Me: “Ok, but probably not.”
Him: “But what do you need? What can I help you with?”
Me: “No REALLY. I ACTUALLY don’t need anything. I just couldn’t see the sign.”
Him: “You want something? I can help! How can I help you?”
Me: “No, REALLY. Just the sign. And now I’ve seen it, so I’m going this way.”
And that’s how it is. It all seems really friendly and helpful, but it’s friendly and helpful on steroids, because by ‘helping’ me, they’ll get a commission – from a casa, a restaurant, a salsa club, or maybe they’ll be my ‘friend’ and I’ll buy them drinks, and the drinks will be overpriced and they’ll get a kickback as well. I’m a walking ATM, if they can just convince me that I need something. And they’re everywhere in the main squares and streets. Everywhere.
In Baracoa I didn’t feel like the harassment was quite so bad, but a friend I met thought it was worse than anywhere else. Maybe I’d just started to get used to it?
One day I walked all the way down the beach to Parque Natural Majayara, where I visited Cueva de Aguas, a cave with a beautiful pool inside. To get there I had to wait for the property owner to escort me there, and he did, showing me coffee and cacao, passion fruit and lime trees along the way. We got to the cave and it was small but the water was so crystal clear it didn’t even look like water, and we spent 15 minutes or so swimming and exploring, climbing over rocks into smaller chambers with the help of his flashlight.
Just before I was ready to leave I climbed out and got my camera, taking a few photos of the pool itself, and he insisted on us taking a photo together. I then handed the camera to him before scrambling back down to the water to get a couple of pictures of me in it. As I clambered out again, he said to wait, that wanted to take a picture of me, and promptly aimed the camera straight at my boobs, right up close.
The thing is, I really don’t need a picture of my own boobs. I was immediately uncomfortable, as it seemed like he just wanted an excuse to look. I backed away quickly, telling him no thanks. He hesitated for a moment but then insisted on taking a picture despite me saying I didn’t need it. ‘Bikini, very nice, no problem, bikini…,’ gesturing towards me. Ick.
I had been very relaxed, having a good time, but with this new development the realization suddenly hit me that I was in this cave alone, in a bikini, with this strange man. Whoa. I put the camera away without even looking at the picture he took and quickly put my shorts and t-shirt back on. By now I just wanted to be away from him even though I didn’t think he’d actually do anything.
But why did this have to happen? We’d both been enjoying ourselves. His wife was waiting for us back at their house. Why did he have to ruin this experience for me by suddenly turning creepy?
Immediately after this I stopped at Playa Blanca, which had been touted as a very beautiful little beach. It was, I guess, with lovely soft sand, but the shoreline was mostly covered in jagged rocks with only one small opening to go into the ocean. There were several Cuban men hanging around, including two in the water, as well as a couple of other foreign girls. As much as I might have liked to swim, after my uncomfortable experience with the man in the cave I simply didn’t feel like getting undressed so the men could all ogle me. And then go in the tiny bit of water available with the two men there? No thanks.
Another night in Baracoa I was walking to a restaurant on the waterfront for dinner, and happened to be walking on the edge of the road due to the uneven sidewalk. A car pulled up behind me in the dark, honking like a banshee, and thinking I must be in the way of it parking, I stepped up onto the sidewalk.
The car (actually a taxi) pulled up and kept pace next to me, the driver talking to me through the open window. I continued walking, throwing him a ‘no gracias’ and trying to ignore him. He finally pulled away, but as he did a man who’d been walking with a couple of girls across the street called out to me, asking if the driver had been bothering me.
Well, yes, he had, so the man ran up to the taxi, stopped it, and knocked on the window. The driver got out. All I could think was ‘Oh my god there’s going to be a fight and it’s all because of me’ – never mind that I had done absolutely nothing to cause it.
I could hear the man who’d come to my defense yelling at the driver, and I heard the word ‘sola’, (alone) and mujere (woman). I hurried on to the restaurant, not actually wanting to be involved.
When the man turned up in the restaurant a few moments later I asked him what he had said to the taxi driver, but he’d just given him shit for bothering me. I replied that I was used to it, but thanks for looking out for me. They pointed out that the honking was pretty over the top. And they were right, but it was amazing to me just how complacent I was getting about all of it! Just another day in Cuba. At least there was no fight.
So have I convinced you to go to Cuba yet? I know this, combined with Harassment in Cuba, Part One and Harassment in Cuba, Part Two, might have turned you off. I didn’t mean for this series to be a complete downer; Cuba isn’t all bad, as you’ll see in some of my future posts about it. I actually met some really wonderful people there too!
But how do you avoid the harassment in Cuba? Well, first of all, be male. Yup, a lot of what happened was because I’m female. I have repeatedly heard from men who traveled solo in Cuba and loved it. Unfortunately not all of us actually want to change genders, so there’s not much you can do about this!
I also met women who traveled in couples and had very few of these types of experiences, and in fact would sometimes look at me like I was crazy when I told them about it. So ladies, as much as I like to promote solo travel, if you want to avoid all this, take a man with you. You’ll be seen as ‘taken’ and for the most part, left alone.
Unfortunately, two women traveling together will probably still encounter a fair amount of harassment in Cuba, but at least you have someone to laugh about it with, and to calm you down when it all gets to be too much.
So don’t let the harassment stop you from going! Just grab a guy, or mentally prepare yourself for it, and you’ll be ok. It’s physically harmless, you just need a thick skin, and a strong bullshit detector. Protect yourself, and protect your wallet, (both literally and figuratively) and you can still have a good time in Cuba!
That concludes my ‘Harassment in Cuba’ series, although there may be some bonus material coming in my upcoming post about dancing!
I have found that ‘new’ tourism destinations are worst at harassment, especially the ones that are poorer than others. They see you as a quick buck, hoping that you might be a naive traveller who might just take up their offer, and he/she will get some commission for taking you to a business.
I’ve had it in Bangkok, Cambodia, and even Russia mostly because I look Chinese and seeing that there is a surge of Chinese travellers around the world (who are, unfortunately not very worldly and fall into traps) and they think I will just think they are friendly locals who wants to show me the place.
It is annoying isn’t it? But sometimes I try to put myself in their place and think I will probably do the same if just one tourist’s commission mean I can buy something for myself.
Moral dilemmas of a traveller, we hate it but what do you do??? 😀
Although I’d be worried if you were being physically/sexually harassed….
Yup, I agree with you, especially when it’s a destination that has been ‘closed’ for a long time and suddenly starts to see floods of travelers coming in. And I totally understand why they would do it, when it might mean the difference between feeding their children or not. In Cuba the standard government salary is 20 CUC per month, but that doesn’t even cover the basics these days. And when I’m paying 20-25 CUC per night just for accommodation, I can see why they think I’m rich!
There was sexual harassment too, plenty of it (did you read part two?) and sometimes it was hard to tell if the men who wanted to talk to me were after money or sex (or both), but most likely whichever I was willing to give! And there are a lot of female sex tourists who go there, so it’s not like they’re totally grasping at straws. Thankfully, not one of them ever laid a hand on me, so it’s mostly pretty harmless, just annoying.
What worries me most is that the harassment was enough of a turn-off for me to never want to go back, and I know I’m not alone in this. So while Cuba might enjoy several years of a tourism ‘boom’, I wonder if it will really work for them long-term, especially as the country changes and becomes more Americanized, and thus not such a unique place to go.
This reminds me very much of the trip my husband and I took to Jamaica in 2010. We went in August (low season) and stayed in a BnB so we could walk around and explore. The second we’d leave the grounds we’d be followed by people trying to sell us everything you can think of (taxi? smoke? glass bottom boat? wanna meet my sister?) We were cornered more than once by men who wanted to tie bracelets on us that then cost $5.00 each. We tried to walk around the city but a self-imposed guide refused to leave our side and his buddy followed 20 yards behind making us very nervous that we were about to get robbed. We took a taxi to another area of Jamaica after being told that only Montego Bay is like that, but the second we left the car the vendors were on us, even on the beach. Halfway through our week there we were hiding out at Margaritaville, a place we didn’t even want to visit at all, just waiting for it to be time to leave. It was the first time I understood the appeal of AI (vendors aren’t allowed there.)
Jamaica is a beautiful place, the water was amazing, we had a great time ziplining; there were good moments. Sadly it was the pushy people who ruined it, and we will never go back. Everyone I know who “loves” Jamaica stays on the AI resorts.
I would like to go to Cuba, and I am hoping we won’t have problems like this there because we travel as a family. Kids open a lot of doors and create a bit more safety in my opinion (not that I’m saying have kids to avoid harassment, lol!) I really wish that those seeking tourist dollars would do it in a less smarmy way so that we can enjoy their country rather than ducking it’s people.
Wow, Jamaica sounds worse than Cuba for pushy harassment! I think in Cuba you’d be fine traveling as a family. You personally won’t get the sexual harassment (much!) and I think the rest of it is much, much worse if you’re alone. There would probably still be a few people trying to draw you into their restaurants, etc., but if you can stay away from the main plazas and parks (hard to do!) you should be ok.
I wish they’d find another way too, but I also understand why they’re doing it. The problem is that Cuba is changing so quickly, there aren’t many people there who are thinking long-term. It’s more about ‘What can I do NOW to get more money?’ and that just isn’t going to work for long.
This pretty much sums up the way I felt when I was there. A female, traveling with another female. And the ones who were having a good time were either men or women traveling with men. Cuba is great. Cubans? Not so great.
Yup! Although I did meet a German couple who also didn’t particularly love Cuba. Even if she wasn’t getting the same amount of sexual harassment that I was, the constant scamming and not being able to really talk to people got to them too!
I love your honesty. Thanks for being so real. Cuba isn’t all mojitos and dancing. Yes, it’s an incredible place but it’s also very curious to me. We spent two weeks here (a short time) and encountered such difficulties. The locals didn’t understand that we were budgeting, we didn’t have a great deal of money to spend on taxi’s and expensive shows. I found that a really difficult barrier to break through.
Ahhhh mojitos and dancing. Yes, I did some of that in Cuba! But yes, there is SO much more to this country. While the tourism industry in Cuba has been around for quite a while, it’s only in the last couple of years that it’s really taken off and I think the locals just see dollar signs. To them, every tourist is rich, and comparatively, we are. So just the fact that we could afford a plane ticket to get there means that we must have a ton of money to spend on everything. I hope that as the industry grows they will start to recognize the different types of tourist and perhaps cater to the needs of all of us rather than just assume we are all there to spend everything we have.
I agree 100%. This is exactly how I felt when I was there. Thanks for speaking up about it.
I’m glad I’m not the only one. It seems that so often I see posts about how wonderful and amazing some girl’s trip to Cuba was, and I wonder if somehow these girls escaped the harassment or if they’re just sugar-coating the whole thing?
The people who seek and surround the tourist are like that, but definitely that is not the average Cubans!
Oh, Gallego, I know they’re not the average Cubans. I met a lot of really lovely Cubans while I was there too! Unfortunately the average Cubans are much harder to meet, and these awful people are the ones us tourists seem to come in the most contact with.