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My son and I were staying at Cayo Santa Maria, a small island off Cuba’s northern coast. I love this place for its pristine, white-sand beaches, blue emerald waters and lush vegetation. I love the fact that Santa Maria is an area of Wildlife Refuge. I love the peacefulness of this place. This recent trip is not about relaxing on the beach though, since my son gets restless after a few days of swimming and basking in the Cuban sun, he wants action. Our plan: rent a car and drive to historic, colorful city Trinidad on the Caribbean side of Cuba. Excited, we walk to a car rental place. “ Yes, they do have a car. No gas though.” The person at the counter says. “When will you have gas?” “Maybe tomorrow!” “Come back tomorrow” Same answer we get tomorrow and the day after. Now he is telling us about the hardship Cuba has been experiencing since President Trump super-embargo, and about the troubles in Venezuela that causes the food shortages as well as gas. On day 4, we get lucky. The car is ready with enough gas to get us to our destination. We do get a roadmap with road marked all the way to Trinidad plus instructions what to do and what NOT to do. The second part is longer and if I must say it is a little bit scary. We reached Santa Clara. I am following my 14-year son’s directions and surprisingly soon enough we are out of the city, following beautiful country road. Royal palms trees are swaying in the wind, cows grazing, interesting rock formations along the side of the road like in a picture-perfect tour guide brochure…I am enjoying the view very much but, suddenly the road is getting narrower and we are on the steep climb. Some children are running out of their houses, waving at us. I start to wonder when was the last time they have seen a car driving by? There is not enough space to turn around. We study the map and it looks like we are going the right direction. So, I keep driving, praying quietly. The road gets more rugged, no houses anymore, just a jungle, dark, dark jungle. I am close to having a full-blown panic attack when we see some lights in the distance. 15 mins later we are in an intersection on the top of the mountain with big white building straight out of Stephen King movie building on left on some smaller clatter of buildings on the right. Right we decided and the little road leads us to a military looking building which turned out to be a Los Helechos hotel. When we entered the reception, they looked at us like we came from Mars. I guessed by this point that they are not used to have people just dropping by. The excursions to this area are guided tours and traveling without a guide in this area can be difficult. While the clerk was talking on the phone, we studied a large 3 d map in front of us. We realized we were at Topes Collantes, locates between Cienfuegos and Trinidad in central Cuba. Finally, he was ready to talk to us, telling us there was no room, while I was telling him I could not drive anymore, and we must stay. After back and forth arguing he produces a set of keys, told us to go left and right and right again to a cabin #4. I am sure he was not supposed to do that, but he did, and it probably saved our lives since the road on the other side of the mountain was washed off by heavy rain. The next morning, we had the most amazing day exploring the lushes Parque Guanayara which lies deep in the Escambray Mountains. We hiked through the misty forest, explored caves, met locals harvesting the coffee, stud under the waterfall, swam in the crystal-clear water hole. We wished we had more time in this paradise. The paradise control by the communist government and military but still untouched in so many ways by commercial development. Paradise and paradox meeting here in an unusual symbiosis.