We really need to make sure everybody knows
SANTA LUCIA, CUBA — As Cody LeCompte anxiously awaits the end of his Cuban vacation from hell, dozens of other Canadians have just arrived on the tropical island eager to begin their holiday in the sun.
A busload of new tourists pulled in early Saturday to the Gran Club Santa Lucia, the same resort where the Simcoe teen has been detained for over three months.
It seems most, but not all, are aware of Cody’s plight, having heard the story in the news over the last week or so.
And while it was too late for this bunch to change their travel plans, many said they would not be renting a car in the Communist country after hearing the 19-year-old’s story.
“Although, there was one man I met in the hotel lobby who was planning to rent a car until he overheard me talking on the phone to the Canadian embassy,” said Danette LeCompte, who is over $30,000 in debt from trying to get her son home.
That man is just one of many Canadian tourists who may be spared a similar fate to Cody thanks to the single mom.
“I’ve been telling everyone I meet not to rent a car while they’re here,” Danette said. “I just don’t want anyone else to have to go through what we’ve been through.”
Many Canadian tourists have started conversations with the LeComptes about Cody’s story not knowing who they are.
And they are stunned when they find out.
“Oh my God! That’s you?”china Tours one man from North York said to Cody, after the teen’s uncle, Gary Parmenter broke the news.
It’s too early to tell how Cuba’s tourism industry will be affected, if at all, in the wake of Cody’s story.
“I have had hotel staff tell me though that they’ve had a lot of cancellations,” Danette said.
Cody has been detained in Cuba since the end of April because of an accident that wasn’t even his fault.
Although the teen’s story has been talked about across the country recently, Montreal native Isabelle Ledoux, 35, hadn’t heard anything about it until she bumped into Danette at the resort.
Ledoux said she has been to Cuba nine times, so she is well aware of the perils of rental cars.
“We really need to make sure everybody knows about this so it doesn’t happen to anyone else,” she said. Ledoux said even though she arranged her trip to Cuba online, she received a notice in the mail with a list of warnings on it.
“If my travel agent had told me about these Cuban laws (that can leave a tourist detained indefinitely), we never would have rented a car,” Danette said.
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