"Beyond the reach of the faint lights of the Malecón, the Caribbean was black. It was by day, when the calm sea – so blue, so navigable – stretched out to a horizon so pregnant with mocking promise, that Cuba felt truly isolated. Visitors could come, but we could go too. This made our estrangement from the world bearable. But night erased the horizon, made it seem as though Cuba alone existed, floating anchorless in a dark never ending ocean. It was at night that the island came alive."