[gary]

In March of this year, I journeyed to the island nation of Cuba.

There is only a 92 mile stretch of water separating Cuba from the United States.

However, owing to the US embargo, flying to Havana is tricky and involved
flying Sydney to Dallas, Dallas to Toronto and then on the once a night
Air Canada flight from Toronto to Havana.

Since 1960, the United States State Department does not allow its citizens to
travel to Cuba for the purposes of tourism. If you are an American, you
can't go there to enjoy yourself including laying on the beach,
smoking cigars and drinking mojitos.

Australians, enjoying greater freedom than their US counterparts, can
go there, travel independently and freely and enjoy themselves as much as they like.

Wandering the streets of Old Havana, you can quickly forget what year it is.

That lamp post/fan/chair/radio/caged elevator isn't some fake antique. Everything is an antique.
Old cannons and cannon balls are used as bollards by the dozens in the streets.

The pace of life is relaxed, the people friendly.

If a taxi driver asks if you need a taxi and you tell him you are just walking, he will reply "enjoy your walk".
If a restaurateur on the street asks if you would like to see the menu and you have already eaten,
he will wish you with a smile to "have a good night".

Live music permeates from the bars and Cubans walk with a distinctive
sway of the hips and seem to know how to dance from birth.

Many in the west will wear brand X, go to a concert with 4,000 other people
or subscribe to a celebrity's Twitter feed in search of what it is to be cool.

Right now in Cuba, everything is just naturally, authentically and effortlessly cool.