November 28, 2006

No Climbing for You

Today's Wall Street Journal has a report on Cuba's Rock Climbers:

Cuban rock climbers irk Castro & regime

VINALES, Cuba - Seventy feet up a sheer limestone cliff known as La Cuchillita, or Little Blade, 17-year-old Roylandi Gonzalez held onto a ledge by his fingertips. Then he glanced down to check the harness around his waist, grabbed hold of the rope that was tethered above him and started shimmying downward.

Over the past several years, adventurous Cuban youths such as Gonzalez, schooled by an influx of foreign rock climbers, have turned this western town into an extreme-sport mecca. Climbers test their mettle on dramatic crags, barely touched by man, which soar above a green valley designated as a United Nations World Heritage Site.

But climbers who have conquered Vinales's jagged peaks and imposing walls are now bumping up against a more formidable obstacle: the Communist political system. As Gonzalez touched earth and removed his hard hat, he cast a wary eye for park rangers and police. "They threaten us and chase us off the hills," he said. "There's something about rock climbing that really seems to worry our government."

It's not the climbing of rocks that bothers the Cuban government, it's the access to and commingling with foreigners that worries them

Posted by Val Prieto at November 28, 2006 02:36 PM



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Comments

Or, could it be, that maybe the sport itself seems to be too representative of FREEDOM?
Just a thought.

Posted by: Marta [TypeKey Profile Page] at November 28, 2006 06:15 PM


Val,

Something about "upward mobility" a communist can't handle.

.....or maybe its me.

Posted by: JackW [TypeKey Profile Page] at November 28, 2006 07:59 PM

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