Op reis met… (03-033)

Op reis met… (03-033)

9 travel stories, compiled around a central theme: South America. Several great authors have given a chapter from one of their travel books. Chatwin and Theroux about Patagonia, Redmond O´Hanlon on the Orinoco and Amazon. Good story by Ryszard Kapuscinski on Honduras called the Football war, though football only was the catalyst and the story is about the situation in the country. Intriging.

Nice preparation for the summer holiday.

Cuba

Two weeks ago I wrote the following in a park in Cienfuegos, Cuba. It is perhaps not really a travel story, more my two cents worth on the situation there.


Two economies in one country. It seems impossible, yet it is exactly what Cuba has been doing for the last decade. Having travelled here for over a week now, I have experienced first hand what modern Apartheid looks like. Using my common sense, it tells me that this situation will not last. It is a certain recipe for trouble.

With the collapse of the Berlin wall, Cuba lost its main source of income, the Soviet subsidies. I was told that the crisis was so huge in the early nineties, that the people ate anything they could lay their hands on, even the birds that fly around me in the park at this very moment, wouldn’t haven been safe back then.

( Read more... )