Cuba

:00:00. > :00:19.Cuba is at a turning point. Decades of isolation from the USA are set to

:00:20. > :00:23.end and tourism is leading a new spirit of enterprise. The wheels are

:00:24. > :00:32.in motion but I was wondering exactly how and where Cuba is headed

:00:33. > :00:37.right now. The economy may benefit, but is this country in danger of

:00:38. > :00:45.losing its soul. The most precious assets that make this place, well,

:00:46. > :00:47.Cuba. In my first trip here in nearly 20 years, I'm in a mission to

:00:48. > :01:04.find out. It may be a small island 90 miles

:01:05. > :01:09.off the coast of Florida, but Cuba has a unique story to tell. Ever

:01:10. > :01:14.since Fidel Castro and his hand of revolutionary seize control in 1959

:01:15. > :01:22.the country has followed its own socialist path. The USA imposed a

:01:23. > :01:41.trade embargo on Cuba in the early 60s and Americans here were told to

:01:42. > :01:47.return home immediately. Classic cars like this were left behind when

:01:48. > :02:11.the rich American playboys left town after the revolution. Now, it looks

:02:12. > :02:14.like they are on their way back. Because relations have thawed

:02:15. > :02:19.between the two countries and vintage cars are a hit amongst

:02:20. > :02:29.tourists who are here already. You are restoring this 1958 car, a

:02:30. > :02:46.lovely car, can I help? Please. Sit down. Check the window wipers. Is it

:02:47. > :02:56.popping? Perfect. It is beautiful inside this car with all of these

:02:57. > :02:57.wires. I feel like a master craftsmen even though I was just

:02:58. > :03:17.doing this. Nonetheless, wow! This man was a taxi driver five

:03:18. > :03:23.years ago with his allotted 9059 car. Now he is taking advantage of

:03:24. > :03:28.government reforms and is a partner in a business that restores and

:03:29. > :03:41.highs are classic cars to tourists. There are now 22 cars in total. This

:03:42. > :03:52.is such a rewarding job. Look, it is already getting cleaner. The United

:03:53. > :03:58.States allow all the tourists to come here, it'll be very important

:03:59. > :04:04.for us and that is this is particularly. The business brain

:04:05. > :04:13.behind the business is his wife, was already been invited to Washington

:04:14. > :04:19.by the vice president. She is lucky because most Cubans can't travel. It

:04:20. > :04:23.is very important when he finishes this restoration to get money for

:04:24. > :04:28.that work. We will live much better because we can't travel and we will

:04:29. > :04:37.live like capital is but we worked a lot. We live better as well. There's

:04:38. > :04:42.only three in Cuba. Only three in the whole of Cuba? In a country when

:04:43. > :04:45.even a brain surgeon can only earn $30 a month, running a private

:04:46. > :04:50.enterprise can be relatively lucrative. It was this man who was

:04:51. > :05:01.quick to see the appeal of the ditch cast to foreigners -- vintage cars.

:05:02. > :05:05.Beautiful! , go for a drive? He was not always a fan of these cars. Now

:05:06. > :05:12.she has names for all of them, including her favourite, Lola. At

:05:13. > :05:18.the beginning I did not like to drive but now I love to drive. It is

:05:19. > :05:33.very easy and not very common to see a woman driving this kind of car.

:05:34. > :05:38.What is happening here? It is a Wi-Fi area and they are connecting

:05:39. > :05:46.with the Internet. That is the hot spot where everybody comes to get a

:05:47. > :05:51.line. Yes. The Internet was the revolution the past Cuba by. For

:05:52. > :06:01.most, it is unaffordable and restricted. Take a stroll around

:06:02. > :06:07.town and you see more evidence of a golf and wealth. Two parallel

:06:08. > :06:14.currencies, what the locals and won the tourists. You should buy that

:06:15. > :06:21.one. I should buy this one? This man tried to explain it to

:06:22. > :06:34.your two different types of currencies?

:06:35. > :06:47.OK. Soon, I'm glad it will happen when the embargo is. Further

:06:48. > :07:03.explanation I will give you a tip. Thank you very much. Take care. On

:07:04. > :07:07.the flip side there is a strong sense of national pride here. Of

:07:08. > :07:27.pulling through and many local communities have thriving cultural

:07:28. > :07:34.scene. This is a shrine to Cuban's African roots. Rohrl, intense and

:07:35. > :07:48.sometimes angry. Always emotional and passionate. This man is the

:07:49. > :07:54.brainchild of the local after. He encountered opposition from the 30s

:07:55. > :08:07.promoted him of promoting dangerous mystical beliefs. -- authorities who

:08:08. > :08:41.accused him. And then rather rashly, the

:08:42. > :08:56.performers let me join in. From the Rohrl and passionate, to the sublime

:08:57. > :09:01.-- raw. It was founded in 1962, today with 3000 students is the

:09:02. > :09:09.biggest in its kind in the world -- of its. This couple are partners on

:09:10. > :09:11.and offstage and they feel ballet has a unique place in the Cuban way

:09:12. > :09:43.of life. As rising stars, they live in a nice

:09:44. > :09:48.part of town with a young daughter. But they say there is no sense of

:09:49. > :10:20.celebrity here. But people recognise you? As night

:10:21. > :10:32.falls in the city, old Havana loves to celebrate its artistic side. The

:10:33. > :10:39.grand Theatre is a Havana landmark since 1838. But with the Castro's

:10:40. > :10:48.believe that art is for all, it is a for the people, not just the

:10:49. > :10:52.privileged. It is a big charity gala tonight, the talk of the town, and

:10:53. > :10:57.choreographed by the living legend of Cuban ballet. The performers get

:10:58. > :11:04.themselves ready. APPLAUSE. And so too the centrepiece

:11:05. > :11:09.of tonight's show. Anette and Dani perform

:11:10. > :11:19.a sequence from the ballet Giselle. It may look effortless, but this is

:11:20. > :11:26.the result of years of dedication and a passion that I've already

:11:27. > :11:35.noticed so many Cubans share. Head out of Havana and there is

:11:36. > :11:53.an awful lot more to discover My next destination is Trinidad,

:11:54. > :12:02.the sugar town, halfway along the coast of the main island, some

:12:03. > :12:11.350 kilometres from the capital. One really cool thing I've noticed

:12:12. > :12:15.about Cuba is there is hardly any We've been driving down some

:12:16. > :12:27.of the main arteries in the island on our way to Trinidad, and

:12:28. > :12:30.I've hardly seen any cars. This is what perpetuates the notion

:12:31. > :12:34.that Cuba is stuck in a time warp. A perfectly preserved Spanish-era

:12:35. > :12:41.colonial settlement. Tourism is Cuba's biggest industry

:12:42. > :12:45.and it is currently booming, fuelled by the rush of people

:12:46. > :12:48.anticipating the end of an era with Hotel rooms in the capital

:12:49. > :12:54.especially are now very heavily booked, which leaves traveller

:12:55. > :12:57.on a limited budget with a very This is basically the Airbnb

:12:58. > :13:09.prototype, whereby people lease out their spare

:13:10. > :13:12.rooms to tourists, and for many this But where is

:13:13. > :13:21.the man that actually runs this B? Let me introduce you

:13:22. > :13:36.to Luna de Miel. Turns out Julio has several

:13:37. > :13:44.strings to his bow, not just a hotelier, but also a horse

:13:45. > :13:50.whisperer. And you're going to show me exactly

:13:51. > :13:54.how to keep the horse calm and make her trained,

:13:55. > :13:56.is that right? You see she's started

:13:57. > :14:01.to be nervous? And of course, Luna's restlessness

:14:02. > :14:07.can reveal itself in other ways. You actually talk into the ear,

:14:08. > :14:19.or not? This is the funny thing, we never

:14:20. > :14:27.whisper, we never whisper at all. What we do is first establishing the

:14:28. > :14:29.leadership, I have a solution for you,

:14:30. > :14:41.you and me, we lose the hair. I know that a hair transplant

:14:42. > :14:44.could be very expensive but you can Yes, you look

:14:45. > :14:50.like a heavy metal rock star. Which is appropriate as Julio's

:14:51. > :14:52.favourite band is Iron Maiden. The only thing you need is

:14:53. > :15:00.a horse and a cheap hat. On a more serious note, Julio and

:15:01. > :15:03.his wife, who is a trained accountant,

:15:04. > :15:05.are more proof on my trip of the entrepreneurial spirit that is

:15:06. > :15:07.blossoming all around the island. What I expect, I need,

:15:08. > :15:13.because it's my way to be more free I'm not afraid

:15:14. > :15:22.of too many things, because I know Cubans are smart enough, and they

:15:23. > :15:29.won't lose the Cuban identity. So some Americans, because I work

:15:30. > :15:33.a lot with American people, and they say oh,

:15:34. > :15:34.soon you will have McDonald's. But maybe we can have things similar

:15:35. > :15:47.but in our style, in our Cuban style because I like the hamburgers, and I

:15:48. > :15:50.like coffee, because I like to enjoy good

:15:51. > :15:52.coffee, but it will be our style. Julio took me on a trip

:15:53. > :15:55.around Trinidad, On the town's cobbled streets

:15:56. > :16:02.it is the most practical way. So it's no Mercedes

:16:03. > :16:12.but it's really good anyway. Common sense will

:16:13. > :16:15.tell you what to do. And our man

:16:16. > :16:34.of many talents isn't finished yet. Julio runs photography courses

:16:35. > :16:40.for tourists too. Here is an interesting location,

:16:41. > :16:48.what do you like about here? The conception of this kind

:16:49. > :16:54.of photography is like hunting. Hunting, but instead of using a gun

:16:55. > :16:58.or a rifle, you are using the Julio actually likens his style to

:16:59. > :17:07.a gunslinger, the John Wayne In the cowboy movies, you see before

:17:08. > :17:19.shooting, they do with their This is the feel you should have,

:17:20. > :17:23.feel the adrenaline. The adrenaline and the movements,

:17:24. > :17:27.this is the way to keep the camera. The beautiful tower is the symbol

:17:28. > :17:42.of Trinidad, so I will shoot Don't chase the picture,

:17:43. > :18:00.the picture will come to you. What's your favourite song by

:18:01. > :18:13.Iron Maiden? I think all of them,

:18:14. > :18:15.but Run To The Hills. Run To The Hills,

:18:16. > :18:18.remind me how that goes again. Just down the coast and

:18:19. > :18:45.about 180 kilometres south-east This is where you find

:18:46. > :18:50.the historically significant Bay of Pigs, the scene

:18:51. > :18:53.of the failed invasion by Cuban opponents to Castro in 1961, which

:18:54. > :19:00.was backed by the US government. Any invasion these days is from a

:19:01. > :19:07.new rush of tourists to sample the island's nature, which potentially

:19:08. > :19:14.itself creates a new problem. Because up until now, Cuba has been

:19:15. > :19:16.fiercely protective And that includes

:19:17. > :19:33.protecting this fellow. The critically endangered Cuban

:19:34. > :19:39.crocodile. This breeding farm was created at

:19:40. > :19:44.the behest of Fidel Castro in 1962. There are some 4,000 crocs here

:19:45. > :19:49.in total, But the markings,

:19:50. > :19:59.are they distinctive? The colours and the markings

:20:00. > :20:03.of the skin? Yes, it's one of the characteristics

:20:04. > :20:08.of the Cuban crocodile. One of the differences between Cuban

:20:09. > :20:16.and American. Yeah. Whoa, look at that, one

:20:17. > :20:18.movement from me. When they get bigger I'll be

:20:19. > :20:24.the one that's jumping. Crossbreeding with

:20:25. > :20:26.the thriving American crocodile is the biggest current threat

:20:27. > :20:33.from the Cuban croc's survival. This area we prepared

:20:34. > :20:40.for the re-population. They need the area for warmth,

:20:41. > :20:44.for the sun, and for shadow. And this is what makes the Cuban

:20:45. > :20:47.crocodile so unique. They can jump this high using

:20:48. > :20:56.the tail. And all this is to protect

:20:57. > :20:59.the species of the Cuban crocodile? And to stop it from being overrun

:21:00. > :21:04.by American crocodiles. Do you think there is

:21:05. > :21:08.something symbolic here? But sunrise the next morning gives

:21:09. > :21:29.me one more special glimpse This is Salinas de Brito, the

:21:30. > :21:43.biggest swampland in the Caribbean. It is also home to 33 kinds of

:21:44. > :21:50.aquatic birds, including one of the most glamorous, the pink flamingo,

:21:51. > :22:00.who come and go as they please. Now, not all residents

:22:01. > :22:03.of Cuba enjoy that kind of freedom, of course, and certainly not over

:22:04. > :22:07.how the country is run. But who knows where the current path

:22:08. > :22:16.of reform and change may lead? There is no turning back now for

:22:17. > :22:20.Cuba, and the rest of the world will watch with keen interest to see how

:22:21. > :22:24.this feisty, proud island negotiates