Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Rest of Cuba postings coming soon
The rest of my Cuba posts with accompanying pics coming soon! Kept a journal as internet access is almost impossible to get in Cuba. Have to type up my entries eventually....someday....maybe...soon.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
This morning at breakfast, Maria seemed a little disturbed. Louisa announced that there was an emergency. Turns out that there was a government inspector in the building and since they were not supposed to rent out to 3 people, it would be a problem. This kinda explained why Maria had first told us she could only take 1 or 2 of us and then when she changed her mind the next day she only let Vero and Barry sign the records book. So basically she only had the records of 2 people not 3. So the 3rd person, me...goes unaccounted for and the 30 cuc/ night is extra money for her.
We kinda empathised with her because we found the system here so restrictive when it came to how much money one can make or how many businesses you can have. I don't know if I'd do the same thing if I was in Maria's shoes, but i certainly understand why she'd try to take advantages of loopholes in the system.
Anyways it was a pretty tense morning, because the government official was making his way from apartment to apartment to make sure people were not renting out more rooms than they were allowed to . We were stuck in the apartment at the moment for fear of bumping into him in the elevator or on the stairs and anytime the bell rung, everyone would jump up in a panic. The plan was that Louisa would answer the door and lie that Maria was out....apparently he'd have to come back at another time when she was in and couldn't inspect the apartment till then. In the meantime we had to move my stuff into the other rooms and we had to be absolutely quiet when he was at the door.
We had to go out eventually....he seemed to be taking his sweet time making his rounds, because we had been waiting for a while wondering what to do next. One casa particular owner in the building had to rush her mum to the hospital because the mum had a panic attack. That's how scared they are of the government official. The latest update of what was happening and the whereabouts of the official was being relayed by phone from other tenants in the building to each other.
They even had to hide their antennas because they illegally get channels from Florida.
At one point we had to hide in a room and under the beds. Because they heard he was making his way towards their apartment. It was a false alarm. Louisa came to get us and laughed when she saw us hiding. No, no she told us...Vero and Barry dont have to hide, because we have their records its Yinka alone that has to hide next time...great! When she saw the look on my face she was like: its because you look Cuban thats why....i still dont get that...if i looked Cuban it makes more sense that I sit in the living room when the official arrives and act like a friend of the family or something instead of hiding under a bed.
We were rushed out when we had an update again on his whereabouts....Vero and I took the elevator whilst Barry took the stairs. It would look bad if he ran into all 3 of us, because we'd have to explain where we were staying. Me looking like a Cuban would not save us then, because my inability to speak Spanish would be a dead give-away.
We actually had to walk separately for several blocks as per our instructions...in case we were being followed. It seems it happens a lot in this communist style country. There were also inconspicuous cameras all over Habana and i imagine the authorities would see that we've been travelling together if they really wanted to check up on us or Maria's establishment.
We eventually got together and continued doing our touristy stuff. We went to the capitolio building to take pictures with the swarms of tourist there. We skipped going to the art museum after walking all day in the sweltering sun...i think we get the idea when it comes to Cuban art....its all over the place.
Jose works part time as a lorry driver and left early this morning on an 8 hour drive to Centifuegos, another province. So far still no sign of the inspector. Maria had to take an anxiety attack pill. I hope we leave before he returns later this week.
We kinda empathised with her because we found the system here so restrictive when it came to how much money one can make or how many businesses you can have. I don't know if I'd do the same thing if I was in Maria's shoes, but i certainly understand why she'd try to take advantages of loopholes in the system.
Anyways it was a pretty tense morning, because the government official was making his way from apartment to apartment to make sure people were not renting out more rooms than they were allowed to . We were stuck in the apartment at the moment for fear of bumping into him in the elevator or on the stairs and anytime the bell rung, everyone would jump up in a panic. The plan was that Louisa would answer the door and lie that Maria was out....apparently he'd have to come back at another time when she was in and couldn't inspect the apartment till then. In the meantime we had to move my stuff into the other rooms and we had to be absolutely quiet when he was at the door.
We had to go out eventually....he seemed to be taking his sweet time making his rounds, because we had been waiting for a while wondering what to do next. One casa particular owner in the building had to rush her mum to the hospital because the mum had a panic attack. That's how scared they are of the government official. The latest update of what was happening and the whereabouts of the official was being relayed by phone from other tenants in the building to each other.
They even had to hide their antennas because they illegally get channels from Florida.
At one point we had to hide in a room and under the beds. Because they heard he was making his way towards their apartment. It was a false alarm. Louisa came to get us and laughed when she saw us hiding. No, no she told us...Vero and Barry dont have to hide, because we have their records its Yinka alone that has to hide next time...great! When she saw the look on my face she was like: its because you look Cuban thats why....i still dont get that...if i looked Cuban it makes more sense that I sit in the living room when the official arrives and act like a friend of the family or something instead of hiding under a bed.
We were rushed out when we had an update again on his whereabouts....Vero and I took the elevator whilst Barry took the stairs. It would look bad if he ran into all 3 of us, because we'd have to explain where we were staying. Me looking like a Cuban would not save us then, because my inability to speak Spanish would be a dead give-away.
We actually had to walk separately for several blocks as per our instructions...in case we were being followed. It seems it happens a lot in this communist style country. There were also inconspicuous cameras all over Habana and i imagine the authorities would see that we've been travelling together if they really wanted to check up on us or Maria's establishment.
We eventually got together and continued doing our touristy stuff. We went to the capitolio building to take pictures with the swarms of tourist there. We skipped going to the art museum after walking all day in the sweltering sun...i think we get the idea when it comes to Cuban art....its all over the place.
Copyright S.Baran
Copyright S.Baran
Jose works part time as a lorry driver and left early this morning on an 8 hour drive to Centifuegos, another province. So far still no sign of the inspector. Maria had to take an anxiety attack pill. I hope we leave before he returns later this week.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Monday, March 10, 2008
Vedado looked more modern or rather more like a 'normal' city.
I'm not big on threesomes and there have been times during our trip when walking around aimlessly, I feel like taking off on my own for a change....but we are supposed to be a team so....plus my Spanish sucks and I wouldn't be able to get very far..who am i kidding. I usually don't feel this way for long...
When we got to the Coppolia, it was closed, so that was that. Later we found out from Louisa that the Coppolia was a bit overrated and was famous because it was the only ice cream parlour that was still open during the 'periode especial' (Cuba's version of Ghana's '83 hunger days)
later this evening we made our way slowly to the Meson de Flota, an elegant restaurant that had Flamenco shows. The food was de-lish and the flamenco show was excellent...passionate, energetic and captivating.
We called Stephan to arrange for him to pick us up to Varadero on Thursday. Its risky but convenient.
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Sunday March 9
we went to a major department store here that has a picture of G.W. Bush and some other fellow on it and the caption reads "Culpables!" - Guilty!. That's a strange name for a store but i guess they are trying to make a point here.
Vero and Maria went to mass this morning at the cathedral in the Plaza near here. I opted out of that ordeal. We met up with them later on and went to watch a ritual of a different kind at the Camellon de Hamel in Centro Habana. 
It was a traditional Santeria/ rumba dance. The Santeria are a sect here that have traditional religious beliefs that originate from West Africa....Nigeria to be precise. Apparently quite a lot of people in Cuba practice both Santeria religion and mainstream Christian religion. I know lots of people do this in Africa as well. The music and drumming was very similar to West African music, and the place had images of what i imagine were their deities.....with names like baba this or the other and Shango....I was not allowed to film any of the show....but i got some video on it before i was spotted. It was aight. The loud speakers were unnecessary in such a small place. All in all it was OK.We took a taxi back to Habana vieja and set out to look for the Museo de chocolat. The line up for that one was crazy, so we passed on that experience for now.
We then walked along Obispa street, their version of Robson (Vancouver) street or Oxford(Osu) street, to sight see and take pictures. we stopped for some ice cream (once again i was bothered by the fact that the cones are not covered with some sort of protective paper for hygienic purposes). But I'm the only one who seemed to mind.
Barry and Vero were a little 'happy' after we stopped for some mojitos and daquiries and were singing arm in arm as we made our way home. It was quite cute actually.
My Spanish has improved so much in the few days we've been here. I went from only being able to say a couple of words to now stringing them together to make a somewhat coherent sentence.
my favourite expression here is the one they use when they answer the phone here, instead of 'hello': 'di mí' or 'Diga mí ' (polite version ) - which means 'talk to me' or 'tell me'
Saturday, March 8, 2008
Saturday March 8th 2008
photo courtesy of S. Baran
Went out early
this morning to take some pictures with Barry in Centro Habana. It had rained quite a bit last night so the area was pretty wet...and icky. I thought Habana Vieja was pretty dreary at times but centro habana was worse. The people here seem poorer.
There were piles of garbage, dog shite (can't stand that about this place)...it was like a landmine field....kept having to hop around to avoid them....limping dogs everywhere.....the filth....it was pretty dreary, but through it all we managed to see some beauty in the place and took some amazing photos.
We also gave away a few more of the gifts we had brought. Barry gave away a few pen and dolls to the kids on the street.
We also gave away a few more of the gifts we had brought. Barry gave away a few pen and dolls to the kids on the street.
photo courtesy of S. Baran
Today is "Wifes Day" in Cuba, so lots of people were buying flowers. I noticed though, that they generally like to buy flowers here...every morning we see flower vendors either riding their bikes and calling out for people to but flowers or they set up a quick stand to sell them. And people buy them too, every morning.
We went out for dinner tonight with the Castillos....It was nice to see the family in a different setting. Maria and her husband are really nice and they really go over and above to make us feel welcome and comfortable. We hang out for a bit with the whole crew when we got back and danced salsa with them.
Louisa calls her husband Tutankhamun. He's 45 years old but its hard to place an age. He could bee anywhere from 35 - 55. Its amazing that the average life expectancy here is 75 years with their so-so diet and smoking habits.
I was pretty impressed to see Jose's older 73 year old brother briskly walk up a 6 story flight of stairs, carrying a ladder without being out of breath. All this with a cigarette in his mouth or when Jose himself run up a the same 6 story flight of stairs to bring down the manual elevator that would bring us up....and he's a big smoker too. I had to catch my breath when I went up those stairs and i'm younger and dont smoke....
These are some of the things I've noticed Cubans don't play with:
(at least those here and in Matanzas)
Somehow Maria is ok with us staying till next week Thursday...we thought we had till Sunday to find a new place, but she now says its ok to stay till we leave Havana on Thursday. Hmmmm....strange turn of events but I'm not complaining.
Louisa calls her husband Tutankhamun. He's 45 years old but its hard to place an age. He could bee anywhere from 35 - 55. Its amazing that the average life expectancy here is 75 years with their so-so diet and smoking habits.
I was pretty impressed to see Jose's older 73 year old brother briskly walk up a 6 story flight of stairs, carrying a ladder without being out of breath. All this with a cigarette in his mouth or when Jose himself run up a the same 6 story flight of stairs to bring down the manual elevator that would bring us up....and he's a big smoker too. I had to catch my breath when I went up those stairs and i'm younger and dont smoke....
These are some of the things I've noticed Cubans don't play with:
(at least those here and in Matanzas)
- their 'panne' (bread)
- flowers,
- 'ron' (rum)
- for some strange reason icing cakes...i see people walking around with them everywhere
photo courtesy of S. Baran - baseball
- lastly but most importantly their music, be it 'son', traditional cuban music or reggaeton.....
Somehow Maria is ok with us staying till next week Thursday...we thought we had till Sunday to find a new place, but she now says its ok to stay till we leave Havana on Thursday. Hmmmm....strange turn of events but I'm not complaining.
Friday, March 7, 2008
Friday - March 7th
Had a long interesting talk with Louisa, Maria's daughter in law. She's about my age, painfully skinny and a chain smoker but she's very down to earth and lots of fun. We were talking about life in Cuba and how tough it can be....i wish i had my camera rolling but some of the topics might be sensitive and i didnt want to put anyone in trouble.
Maria made us a fabulous dinner of fries, fried sweet potatoes, rice and beans or Comida Creollo (their version of waakye)
Later on we went to this hole in the wall on Obispa street. It was pretty dead at first but the band there brought some life to the place with their Cuban style music. It was pretty intoxicating.Vancouver seemed miles away as we sipped on our daquiris and watched this wild girl swaying her hips expertly and dancing all night to the music. The girl later came to our table and hugged and kissed Vero several times on her forhead, saying she reminded her of a relative ...I heard the word 'belinda??' several times - meaning 'beautiful' I think - They are very passionate, these cubanitas.
Maria made us a fabulous dinner of fries, fried sweet potatoes, rice and beans or Comida Creollo (their version of waakye)
Later on we went to this hole in the wall on Obispa street. It was pretty dead at first but the band there brought some life to the place with their Cuban style music. It was pretty intoxicating.Vancouver seemed miles away as we sipped on our daquiris and watched this wild girl swaying her hips expertly and dancing all night to the music. The girl later came to our table and hugged and kissed Vero several times on her forhead, saying she reminded her of a relative ...I heard the word 'belinda??' several times - meaning 'beautiful' I think - They are very passionate, these cubanitas.
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Searching for a Casa - Thursday march 6 2008
We woke up bright and early to make our way to Havana. At Matanzas station we meet Stephan, the owner of a tiny 2 door Lada vehicle, who negotiates to take us to Havana. Barry and I were weary about taking this car, we had originally planned to take a bus. But Vero sat in the car and wouldn't budge. We were worried it was illegal, because we had read in our lonely planet guide book that it was illegal for the locals to give rides to foreigners in their private cars....and i imagine it would be especially illegal to charge for it. Also the car was...tiny! But Jorge (who had dropped us off at the station) and Stephan assured us that it was perfectly fine....so the 3 of us squeezed into the back of this Lada (one of the most common brand of cars found here), with Stephan driving and his poor nephew in the passenger side with one of our heavy suitcases on his lap. (no space in the trunk of the car). After 3o minutes of torture, the nephew opted to drive while Stephan a bigger, stronger guy decided to sit with the luggage. Stephan had apparently been a baseball player in the 80s and 90s and had played in Canada for cuba during the olympics....now he didnt even have money to buy himself a baseball glove.
An hour or so into our journey, we were stopped by 'Transito' - traffic police. It became obvious that it wasn't legal to take us in the private car, when Stephan told Barry that if the cops asked, he should say that he knew Stephan from softball tournaments in Canada and that they were friends since the late 80s - the time he had played in the championships. Fortunately for us the transitos had not noticed the 'gringos' in the car. It was just a random check.
An hour later, we were in Habana Vieja. It took Stephan a while to find the Casa Particular that we had booked. Barry went to check it out and decided not to go with it anymore. He said it was a dump of a place. The owner smoked and the whole place reeked of cigarette smoke.
I could tell that Vero wasn't feeling the place and in all honesty, I wasn't either. My first impressions of Habana Vieja was that it looked like a mix of Old Accra...James Town, Korle woko and a little bit of some old spanish city. The narrow streets, some with coblestones, horse and buggies, even more decrepit looking old building than there were in Matanzas, the stench of garbage from time to time, quite a few people sitting in their doorways and staring at you as you passed, lots of yelling across balconies, whistles, stuff being thrown from balconies....it was all a little ghetto to me...but it was just the first day....it might grow on me.
Eventually we found a place...or rather 2 places. The next place looked nice, owners, whom I'll call Maria and Jose Castillo seemed very friendly. but they were only allowed to rent to 1 or 2 people max even though they had an extra room, so we had to split up into 2 different Casa Particulars which wasn't ideal. The plan is to find a new place for tomorrow.
After spending the rest of the afternoon looking for a casa particular that would accommodate all 3 of us without any luck, we stumbled into the Hotel la Floridita or some name like that....supposedly one of Hemmingway's many hangouts to regroup and have lunch. We were tired and needed to come up with a game plan in case we didn't find a place for tomorrow. We spoke to our hostess Mayi about this and surprisingly she said all 3 of us could stay till Sunday...I don't know how it all of a sudden became legal for us to stay there...but we were extremely grateful and didn't question the change.
We went to the Plaza Cathedral today which was nice. We had dinner there and took a walk to a spot where we thought they'd have some Tango...it was supposed to be surprise for Vero, who liked to dance. But alas, they were closed and apparently just opened on certain days.
An hour or so into our journey, we were stopped by 'Transito' - traffic police. It became obvious that it wasn't legal to take us in the private car, when Stephan told Barry that if the cops asked, he should say that he knew Stephan from softball tournaments in Canada and that they were friends since the late 80s - the time he had played in the championships. Fortunately for us the transitos had not noticed the 'gringos' in the car. It was just a random check.
An hour later, we were in Habana Vieja. It took Stephan a while to find the Casa Particular that we had booked. Barry went to check it out and decided not to go with it anymore. He said it was a dump of a place. The owner smoked and the whole place reeked of cigarette smoke.
I could tell that Vero wasn't feeling the place and in all honesty, I wasn't either. My first impressions of Habana Vieja was that it looked like a mix of Old Accra...James Town, Korle woko and a little bit of some old spanish city. The narrow streets, some with coblestones, horse and buggies, even more decrepit looking old building than there were in Matanzas, the stench of garbage from time to time, quite a few people sitting in their doorways and staring at you as you passed, lots of yelling across balconies, whistles, stuff being thrown from balconies....it was all a little ghetto to me...but it was just the first day....it might grow on me.
Eventually we found a place...or rather 2 places. The next place looked nice, owners, whom I'll call Maria and Jose Castillo seemed very friendly. but they were only allowed to rent to 1 or 2 people max even though they had an extra room, so we had to split up into 2 different Casa Particulars which wasn't ideal. The plan is to find a new place for tomorrow.After spending the rest of the afternoon looking for a casa particular that would accommodate all 3 of us without any luck, we stumbled into the Hotel la Floridita or some name like that....supposedly one of Hemmingway's many hangouts to regroup and have lunch. We were tired and needed to come up with a game plan in case we didn't find a place for tomorrow. We spoke to our hostess Mayi about this and surprisingly she said all 3 of us could stay till Sunday...I don't know how it all of a sudden became legal for us to stay there...but we were extremely grateful and didn't question the change.
We went to the Plaza Cathedral today which was nice. We had dinner there and took a walk to a spot where we thought they'd have some Tango...it was supposed to be surprise for Vero, who liked to dance. But alas, they were closed and apparently just opened on certain days.
BTW
- I thought it was interesting when we went for a walk with Izmarie in Matanzas and Vero jokingly said she needed to find a boyfriend in Cuba and by the time we got back to the house, left the groceries and headed to the beach a couple of blocks away (literally within a 15 mins timeframe), a handful of women had already heard about Vero's comment and wanted to hook her up with a young guy they were with. They might have been serious about their marriage propositions to Vero (we all knew it was for papers or 'kraata' as we say in GH) but Vero was only kidding and was quite embarrased at how seriously they took it. All i can say is, news sure travels fast in Matanzas.
- Funny how a lot of the guys here look alike. We noticed how every 3rd guy in Matanzas looked like Jorge.
- I noticed that a lot of women and men are big in Cuba. There were a lot of them with their bellies hanging out, but they were not bothered in the least about their weight and coming from a health and fitness crazy city like Vancouver, this was a refreshing change. The interesting thing is that a lot of the locals here do actually exercise regularly.
I noticed quite a few women working out every evening....going for brisk walks with weights or jogging, including our own Izmarie who seemed to exercise 2x a day. But no-one struck me as being super fit or buff. If only they'd cut down on the deep fried pork, chicken and plantains, but thats probably why they exercise to have a balance. Good for them.
Photo copyright of S. Baran
- I actually felt very comfortable on the beaches here even though i felt i was out of shape. Compared to a lot of the rubenesque Cubans and pudgy tourists, i looked svelte....sad to compare this way, but true.
- The 2 common utterances...if you can call them that....i keep hearing here are: 'Caborone' (swear word of some description) and 'Mi Madre' - my mother. I hear this a lot when someone is trying to lift something heavy or they hear some thing incredulous.
- So far we haven't been hassled as much as we thought we would be. Just one woman begging for milk for her child. We read that this was a common scam here and because it was illegal to beg for money, people would use this method and when you bought milk for them they'd go and trade it in for money.
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Wednesday March 6th - Sleep, vanity and cuban cigars
I think i should give up on losing any weight here. My sleep pattern is out of wack...the food here is not the most healthy. I guess my vain self would like to look svelte in my bikini on the beach...but its not going to happen. Not in a week anyhow. My only consolation here is that the local women are not the slimmest people in the world and they are not shy at all when it comes to dressing.
We went back to Varadero again. We knew the system a little better now, so we caught a bus quite easily. The beach was paradise. I can't imagine doing this every day for a week....mercifully we are not. But lots of people do the whole touristy thing: Staying at an all inclusive hotel..waking up, having breakfast,swimming in the pool, afternoon siesta, lunch, swimming at the beach, dinner, listening to pretty much the same band playing every night..and then retiring to bed to do the same thing all over again...for a whole week! or two...
We passed through Jorge's on our way back to collect a box of cigars that he wanted us to bring back to a friend in B.C. Barry was a bit weary about taking them, because he didn't want to risk taking something he didn't pack, in the unlikely chance that he was smuggling contraband/drugs that way. As a precaution, we went through the box to make sure it was OK....not that we'd know the difference between tobacco for cigars and some Cuban drug. But it looked OK to us...so hopefully it is OK. i certainly don't need anymore 'wahala' on top of my appointment with immigration on our return.
Tomorrow we leave early for Habana, with a tour through Matanzas city center on our way to the bus stop.
It's amazing how much money we've gone through in just 4 days. It was a bit worrying when we added it up, because we are living pretty frugally...but Cuba ain't cheap and Habana is going to be more expensive...so we have to get creative somehow with our spending habits with our remaining time here.
We went back to Varadero again. We knew the system a little better now, so we caught a bus quite easily. The beach was paradise. I can't imagine doing this every day for a week....mercifully we are not. But lots of people do the whole touristy thing: Staying at an all inclusive hotel..waking up, having breakfast,swimming in the pool, afternoon siesta, lunch, swimming at the beach, dinner, listening to pretty much the same band playing every night..and then retiring to bed to do the same thing all over again...for a whole week! or two...
We passed through Jorge's on our way back to collect a box of cigars that he wanted us to bring back to a friend in B.C. Barry was a bit weary about taking them, because he didn't want to risk taking something he didn't pack, in the unlikely chance that he was smuggling contraband/drugs that way. As a precaution, we went through the box to make sure it was OK....not that we'd know the difference between tobacco for cigars and some Cuban drug. But it looked OK to us...so hopefully it is OK. i certainly don't need anymore 'wahala' on top of my appointment with immigration on our return.
Tomorrow we leave early for Habana, with a tour through Matanzas city center on our way to the bus stop.
It's amazing how much money we've gone through in just 4 days. It was a bit worrying when we added it up, because we are living pretty frugally...but Cuba ain't cheap and Habana is going to be more expensive...so we have to get creative somehow with our spending habits with our remaining time here.
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Varadero - Tuesday March 4th 2008
One of my traveling companions, whom I'll call Vero (the other I'll call Barry) asked what Izmarie and her family usually had for breakfast and was told that on the rare ocassion when they had breakfast, they had tortillas. Now, we've been having eggs since we got here and I think Vero was getting tired of it so she asked if it was possible to have a tortilla for breakfast instead. Izmarie said no problem. We came down for breakfast this morning and found out that a tortilla in Cuba is very different from a tortilla in Mexico..... here it means....eggs, omelette style. So, for the fourth day in a row we had eggs (tortilla style this time), bread, honey, butter, pawpaw juice and espresso style coffee. Milk seems hard to come by here, so you either had your coffee black or with honey.
The plan was to go to Varadero today. So we walked to the bus stop afterwards to wait for the bus. There didn't seem to be a real system with the transportation. A bus would pull up half a block away and the throngs of people will rush towards it, like we do with trotros in Ghana. A lot of the times the bus will fill up fast and the unlucky crowd left will have to wait some more. The bus drivers didn't help matters by pulling up at different places everytime....sometimes as far away as a block and we'd all have run like sheep to try and get a spot on it. When we first rushed to a bus, Barry told Vero that she'd have to push her way through, if she wanted a seat. We'd lost the chance on one bus because she assumed there was some orderly queue in the chaos....she said she didn't want to have to fight to get on the bus. But after we missed getting on a couple more buses, she learnt to push her way to the front of the lines and we were able to finally get seats to varadero.
Varadero beach was beautiful!
Clear blue water, white sands.....just like on the brochures and postcards..it was amazing and it stretched for as far as the eyes could see. I got to go snorkelling for the first time ever. It was so cool to be swimming with fish all around...I could literally pick up a fish as i was swimming and this was all in pretty shallow water.
Coming back home was not as fun...It took about 2 hours to get an empty bus to Matanzas and the driver and mate were kind of rude. Idon't know why...I think it was because we were foreigners and we were paying in the local currency....but they ordered me off the bus, till Vero pleaded with them. Barry just thought they were being discriminatory because of me....who knows.
Despite our challenges with public transportation, we still plan to go back to
Varadero tomorrow. Jorge showed us a better way to get there..its litte more expensive as its in Convertible Pesos (CUC) , but at least we'll have some peace of mind.
Thursday we are going to go to Habana Vieja (old Havana).
The plan was to go to Varadero today. So we walked to the bus stop afterwards to wait for the bus. There didn't seem to be a real system with the transportation. A bus would pull up half a block away and the throngs of people will rush towards it, like we do with trotros in Ghana. A lot of the times the bus will fill up fast and the unlucky crowd left will have to wait some more. The bus drivers didn't help matters by pulling up at different places everytime....sometimes as far away as a block and we'd all have run like sheep to try and get a spot on it. When we first rushed to a bus, Barry told Vero that she'd have to push her way through, if she wanted a seat. We'd lost the chance on one bus because she assumed there was some orderly queue in the chaos....she said she didn't want to have to fight to get on the bus. But after we missed getting on a couple more buses, she learnt to push her way to the front of the lines and we were able to finally get seats to varadero.
Varadero beach was beautiful!
Coming back home was not as fun...It took about 2 hours to get an empty bus to Matanzas and the driver and mate were kind of rude. Idon't know why...I think it was because we were foreigners and we were paying in the local currency....but they ordered me off the bus, till Vero pleaded with them. Barry just thought they were being discriminatory because of me....who knows.Despite our challenges with public transportation, we still plan to go back to
Varadero tomorrow. Jorge showed us a better way to get there..its litte more expensive as its in Convertible Pesos (CUC) , but at least we'll have some peace of mind.
Thursday we are going to go to Habana Vieja (old Havana).
Monday, March 3, 2008
Monday, March 3rd 2008
Today was a good day. We had what will become our standard breakfast here of eggs (Huevos), bread (pan), butter (mantequilla), honey (miel), fruit juice (Juego de las frutas), fruit cup (Taza de frutas) and really good cuban coffee (café cubano).
We took a long walk with our hostess, Izmarie to a little fruit store in someone's house. The walk was about an hour long, but scenic.
Cuba has so much character. Some people say the architecture here is old, dilapidated and falling apart, but i think it adds character. I love the simplicity of life and the quaint cars.
We went for a swim in a little beach, a block from our Villa Azul. It wasn't the blue water, white sandy beach you see in the brochures. It was rocky and the shore was littered with broken bottles, but it was fun all the same.
We stopped by to see Jorge and his wife Izkra.
They have a lovely Casa Particular overlooking the ocean, but it was booked already. There had been a Canadian living in one of the rooms for 3 months and he'd just left but it was already taken.
Izkra explained that my situation with the immigration officials was because I looked Cuban and since Cubans were restricted from leaving the country, they had to make sure I wasn't pulling their leg about being from Canada. It was a little frustrating for me, because without fail anytime I travel, I get called aside and questioned at length. It's been the case at the airports in Ghana, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, the UK and YVR always...I must fit a profile of some suspects they have in their records or something.
I also get stared at a lot when walking the streets here in Matanzas. "People probably think you are a 'jinetera'', Jorge told me. Now a 'jinetera' (pronounced hi-ne-te-ra) is a woman who attaches herself to male foreigners for monetary gain. I should be used to it by now after being called 'ashawo' (prostitute) to my face several times in Ghana...but I don't think I am.
I tried to send an email to friends and family to let them know I was here safe and sound. Apparently people only have access to an intranet not the internet. So they only get mail through outlook express etc...but they can't surf or view browsers. Jorge and his wife were astonished when we told them about google earth. They thought we were making it up at first, when we told them we had seen their house and the whole area on google earth. They kept shaking their heads in amazement. Jorge's monitor broke as I finished writing the mail, so i don't know if it went through.
I should cut down on my food intake here. I'm not eating much, but the food here is pretty greasy. Plantain chips, deep friend chicken and pork....it's all good. I'm just glad I don't have to think about work.
We took a long walk with our hostess, Izmarie to a little fruit store in someone's house. The walk was about an hour long, but scenic.
Cuba has so much character. Some people say the architecture here is old, dilapidated and falling apart, but i think it adds character. I love the simplicity of life and the quaint cars.
We went for a swim in a little beach, a block from our Villa Azul. It wasn't the blue water, white sandy beach you see in the brochures. It was rocky and the shore was littered with broken bottles, but it was fun all the same.
We stopped by to see Jorge and his wife Izkra.
They have a lovely Casa Particular overlooking the ocean, but it was booked already. There had been a Canadian living in one of the rooms for 3 months and he'd just left but it was already taken.
Izkra explained that my situation with the immigration officials was because I looked Cuban and since Cubans were restricted from leaving the country, they had to make sure I wasn't pulling their leg about being from Canada. It was a little frustrating for me, because without fail anytime I travel, I get called aside and questioned at length. It's been the case at the airports in Ghana, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, the UK and YVR always...I must fit a profile of some suspects they have in their records or something.
I also get stared at a lot when walking the streets here in Matanzas. "People probably think you are a 'jinetera'', Jorge told me. Now a 'jinetera' (pronounced hi-ne-te-ra) is a woman who attaches herself to male foreigners for monetary gain. I should be used to it by now after being called 'ashawo' (prostitute) to my face several times in Ghana...but I don't think I am.
I tried to send an email to friends and family to let them know I was here safe and sound. Apparently people only have access to an intranet not the internet. So they only get mail through outlook express etc...but they can't surf or view browsers. Jorge and his wife were astonished when we told them about google earth. They thought we were making it up at first, when we told them we had seen their house and the whole area on google earth. They kept shaking their heads in amazement. Jorge's monitor broke as I finished writing the mail, so i don't know if it went through.
I should cut down on my food intake here. I'm not eating much, but the food here is pretty greasy. Plantain chips, deep friend chicken and pork....it's all good. I'm just glad I don't have to think about work.
Sunday, March 2, 2008
1st day in Matanzas
We landed safely in Varadero around 5:45 a.m. local time. The constant turbulence and sudden weightlessness during the flight was torture, so I'm glad we are back on solid ground.
My first impressions of Cuba: Its like being in West Africa or Togo to be precise. The climate, the dynamics of the people, the houses (at least here in Matanzas, the province where Varadero is situated in) and even some of the older buildings reminded me of old Accra...it was uncanny. The one difference was that it wasn't humid which was nice.
We got a taxi for 25 convertible pesos (CUC) to Matanzas city, about half an hour from Varadero.
We met up with Jorge, our connection here and went with him to our 'Casa Particular' (Family run guest house). The driver was amazed that we knew exactly where Jorge's house was and were able to direct him to it, once we got to the area. Thanks to the wonderful technology called Google Earth, we knew exactly where he lived, where we would be staying, where the closest beach was etc. etc.
Oh yeah, I forgot there was a little, shall I say, wahala at the airport on account of my being black and I suppose looking like a Cuban. I don't want to jump to conclusions just yet, but of the 3 of us, I had the longest chat with the airport officials. I had to explain where I was from originally, what the names of my parents were....they didn't seem to understand the concept of a black person being from Canada. They kept speaking to me in Spanish even though they could speak a bit of English and I spoke almost zero spanish. I kept saying 'no habla espanol' but they must have thought I was lying. Eventually they let me go and made a note on my visa slip to come see immigration before I left the country. Great!
I try not to bring up the race card as much as possible, but there are certain situations that arise and you know it's because you are black. I didn't grow up in a racist environment, so I wouldn't say I'm overly sensitive to it. But its happened a few times already today, where I've been given the evil eye by people, i imagine because I'm rolling with two Caucasians.
Today, we went to a restaurant, 'la Bahia' (The Bay) that had been recommended by Jorge. It was supposed to have decent local prices of about 2 cuc per meal (a little over 2 CAD). But when we we got there, we were shown a menu with 12 - 15 cuc prices. I had read this would be the case in a lot of restaurants. Foreigners paid at least 5 times more than the locals for the same service. But it was a bitter pill to swallow when the restaurants filled up with locals and they were obviously being given a different local menu for the same deep fried chicken, boiled cassava and rice and beans meal we were having. We wanted to understand why and and asked to see the 'other' menu. The waitress was peed off and brought another menu alright, except this was a 3rd menu that was even more expensive than ours. I guess they had a variety of menus, depending on the foreigner.
They were trying to be smart with us, but we knew that already. We won't be returning to La Bahia' for sure, but it was certainly an eye opener and a confirmation of the sad reality of parts of the corrupt system here.
My first impressions of Cuba: Its like being in West Africa or Togo to be precise. The climate, the dynamics of the people, the houses (at least here in Matanzas, the province where Varadero is situated in) and even some of the older buildings reminded me of old Accra...it was uncanny. The one difference was that it wasn't humid which was nice.
We got a taxi for 25 convertible pesos (CUC) to Matanzas city, about half an hour from Varadero.
We met up with Jorge, our connection here and went with him to our 'Casa Particular' (Family run guest house). The driver was amazed that we knew exactly where Jorge's house was and were able to direct him to it, once we got to the area. Thanks to the wonderful technology called Google Earth, we knew exactly where he lived, where we would be staying, where the closest beach was etc. etc.
Oh yeah, I forgot there was a little, shall I say, wahala at the airport on account of my being black and I suppose looking like a Cuban. I don't want to jump to conclusions just yet, but of the 3 of us, I had the longest chat with the airport officials. I had to explain where I was from originally, what the names of my parents were....they didn't seem to understand the concept of a black person being from Canada. They kept speaking to me in Spanish even though they could speak a bit of English and I spoke almost zero spanish. I kept saying 'no habla espanol' but they must have thought I was lying. Eventually they let me go and made a note on my visa slip to come see immigration before I left the country. Great!
I try not to bring up the race card as much as possible, but there are certain situations that arise and you know it's because you are black. I didn't grow up in a racist environment, so I wouldn't say I'm overly sensitive to it. But its happened a few times already today, where I've been given the evil eye by people, i imagine because I'm rolling with two Caucasians.
Today, we went to a restaurant, 'la Bahia' (The Bay) that had been recommended by Jorge. It was supposed to have decent local prices of about 2 cuc per meal (a little over 2 CAD). But when we we got there, we were shown a menu with 12 - 15 cuc prices. I had read this would be the case in a lot of restaurants. Foreigners paid at least 5 times more than the locals for the same service. But it was a bitter pill to swallow when the restaurants filled up with locals and they were obviously being given a different local menu for the same deep fried chicken, boiled cassava and rice and beans meal we were having. We wanted to understand why and and asked to see the 'other' menu. The waitress was peed off and brought another menu alright, except this was a 3rd menu that was even more expensive than ours. I guess they had a variety of menus, depending on the foreigner.
They were trying to be smart with us, but we knew that already. We won't be returning to La Bahia' for sure, but it was certainly an eye opener and a confirmation of the sad reality of parts of the corrupt system here.
Saturday, March 1, 2008
Airborne for cuba
I have a pounding headache and I'm exhausted, but I'm glad we are finally airborne and a little closer to Cuba. I had a mini drink at the airport before the flight...you know, to take the edge off....but I don't know if it did much for me.
Our plane was delayed by an hour. Technical problems. So we were given a new plane. I've never been on a charter flight and was a little alarmed at how small it was.
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