When Fidel Castro was barred from the U.N. 50th-anniversary parties and fun, Christopher Hunt's curiosity was piqued. He decided to spend a winter in Cuba, avoid New York's icy misery, practice his Spanish, absorb some Cuban culture, and maybe even meet Fidel. In the time-honored tradition of great travelogues, everything goes wrong and everything goes right. He finds wonderful people while trying to meet Castro (including the man who played Grandpa Munster on the 1960s television show, The Munsters), and sees a lot of Cuba, from Havana alleys to resort beaches to the mountains that sheltered Castro and his band of rebels years ago. Some questions get resolved, while unanswerable Cuban quandaries take their place, such as how Cubans balance fear, hunger, passion, and hope in a country of food shortages, endless lines, and police surveillance. Hunt's finely rendered account of four months in Cuba whets the appetite for more about Cuba and more penned by Hunt.