A Cuban resident in Tenerife, known on TikTok as Amanda Cubana en Tenerife (@liubisamandarodriguez), shared yesterday the story of her return to Cuba from the Canary Islands, a journey that took place about 13 or 14 years ago and which, in her own words, "was worse" than the outbound trip.
The story begins at Tenerife airport, where her brother left her with two suitcases weighing 23 kilos each, a 10-kilo carry-on bag, and a flat-screen television he had bought for 300 euros to take to Cuba, where the same model cost the equivalent of 900 euros.
The flight to Madrid was delayed because the airplane arrived damaged. "The flight from Madrid arrived broken and it was going to take time to fix it," Amanda recounted. When they finally landed at Barajas, the Air Europa flight to Cuba —scheduled to depart at three in the afternoon— had already left.
The airline provided accommodation to the affected passengers at the Hotel Presidente in Madrid, where at that time, then-Prince Felipe was holding conferences. However, before arriving at the hotel, Amanda had to drag all her luggage, including the television, through the airport by herself, without finding a available cart, until a man offered to help her.
The first bus driver from the hotel refused to transport the television because of its size. Amanda's response was decisive: "If the TV doesn't go on, then I'm not getting on because I have to take my TV." Eventually, a female driver agreed. The next day, the scene repeated itself with another driver, although this time the bus was larger and had a trunk, so in the end, there was no problem.
The practice of bringing appliances on trips to Cuba hasn't surprised anyone, as the main subject herself acknowledged. "But who thinks of taking a TV so far, to such a distant country? I mean, it's the Cubans, who else would think of it?" she joked. This custom, which has decades of history, is a response to the chronic scarcity and exorbitant prices on the island, where a flat-screen television can cost three times as much as in Spain.
The problems didn't end upon landing in Havana. Amanda lives in Camagüey, over 500 kilometers from the capital, and had tickets purchased for that same day. The father of her children had brought the kids from Camagüey to Havana to meet her, but a one-day delay threw everything off. "It was all a problem, chaos," she summed up. They had to change and pay for all the tickets back to the province again, using tourist transportation services whose exact name she doesn't remember.
Finally, she arrived in Camagüey with her suitcases and her television. "I had a TV in Cuba, yes, a color one and all, but it wasn't modern, it didn't have a flat screen or anything like that," she explained to justify the effort. She was not the first Cuban to live an experience like this upon returning to the island, nor will she be the last.
Amanda concluded her story with a reflection that resonated with her followers: "That happens to everyone, especially to us Cubans who are out in the world. Kisses."
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