For a growing number of British holidaymakers Cuba is a Caribbean paradise but it is also a land of cutbacks & economic instability. Stephen Smith comes to live on the island & his search for the real Cuba inevitably becomes a search for Fidel Castro too. Before meeting his quarry Smith travels extensively through the land of miracles in an old American automobile. His highly-personalised account features a bloody initiation into a voodoo-like cult dining on giant rat & checking into the Love Hotel. & he goes on manoeuvres in the Everglades with armed but not especially competent Cuban exiles dreaming of a second Bay of Pigs. With disarming wit & considerable insight Stephen Smith investigates a country where communism & voodoo coexist & where the influence of its leader of forty years continues to throw a long shadow.