It’s been a while. Mick volunteered to write a few words about our visit to Cuba but never finished his tale. Three months later I’m reinstated as the official secretary of the trip. So I put on my black mini and a pair of high heels, glue-on red nails as a finishing touch, aaaaaaand: action! Hasta la victoria siempre.
Cuba is a special place... to me anyway. Everything there is different from anything you might know. For somebody like myself, born and raised in communistic Poland, Cuba is like trip back in time, to more exotic version of a long gone reality of my childhood… what a ride!
When we bought our tickets to Cuba I knew nothing about this country. Everybody has heard about Cuban Revolution, but we all grew up with a distorted picture of what it really was about. We all know who Che Guevara was and who Fidel Castro is, but not so much what it was that they tried to achieve in Cuba. We understand more or less what communism stands for, but based on the glorious example of Soviet Union- great theory which never worked in practice.
But Cuba is not Soviet Union. It certainly is not what you hear in media, and the last 50 years proved beyond doubt that Cuban Revolution stands for something more than just unrealistic ideas.
Che Guevara, the ultimate revolutionary... high integrity and self-discipline, willingness to excel in everything he did, fought for social justice, education for all men to end the centuries-long exploitation of people by other people. Be the best you can be, never give up, lose the small mind, set an example for others… How crazy is that?
Cuban Revolution was started by a handful of men who were fed up with exploitation of Cuban people and land by foreign enterprises while country’s regime busied itself violating basic human freedoms. The revolution overthrew the regime and started transformation of the country. Nationalization of land and industries was not in the best interest of American corporations. That’s how the fight started.
It’s a real pity that something as mundane as economic embargo messed it all up. Cuba was never given a fair chance. I guess the world has never been fair hence the revolutions in the first place. But now we’ll never find out whether they could have pulled it out. Cubans you meet on the street are nice, cultured people, but they are tired. Constant shortage of everything and the 50 years of isolation from the outer world are taking their toll. They are holding on against the odds, but nobody likes the hardship.
Speaking of Cuban people, there is this curious phenomenon. To protect the national interest, Cuban government has lots of do’s and don’ts for tourists as well as special currency (Cuban Convertible Peso aca CUC) worth 25 times more than local peso. You commute only by designated buses paid in CUC, you stay only in designated places paid in CUC, some restaurants will have designated tourist menu (again in CUC) and another menu, for the locals. Being a tourist, it shits you that you always pay more, but you understand the objective so you comply. But as a result, all tourists are considered rich and source of easy money. Even more so, that all those who live of tourism are considerably better off than the others. It seems to me that, many Cubans develop this mental attitude as if they had right to some of your money because you have plenty of it to spare and you are on their turf; sort of like Robin Hood, but using tricks, not weapons.
So our encounters with strangers turned into a game, not unlike a reality show. We would engage and probe the ground, ditch the schemers and stick with the good guys. The objective: don’t get screwed and connect whenever you can. Improvisation at its best!
I loved their food, I loved their culture; I loved their coffee, cigars and mojitos… the old buildings in Havana and the green fields in the province… I loved it all.
We stayed in casas particulares; renting a room in private houses all over the island. We met a lot of really nice people this way. We hang out on the streets a lot, squeezing in the crowded public buses and eating street food in paladares, whenever we could. It is such a colourful culture. The awkward coco taxis and chevys from the 50’s were ubiquitous in the cities, especially Havana. From all the places we went to, I liked best Vinales with its red soil, funky looking magotes (rocky hills) and farms all over the green valley. We went there horseback riding, swimming and just roamed thru the land toying with an idea to come back there one day for climbing. Everybody was recommending us to go to Trinidad which is an old colonial town, pretty, but literally overrun by tourists. I didn’t enjoy it much there; maybe because our hosts were phoneys. I just couldn’t relax there. On the other hand, I had a really good time in Cienfuegos which itself is not much of an attraction. Sometimes a cigar on the waterfront in a nice sunny afternoon can make it up for the whole experience. Really, it is about how we feel, not where we are.
The infamous beaches of Varadero are fucking amazing. Blue sea, crystal clear waves, warm water, golden sand… you name it, they got it. But it is a strictly resort area, hotel guests only. We pulled it out under the radar, but altogether it was not my kind of scene. One more place we visited was Matanzas. Again, not much there but we wanted to catch the Hershey train- the last electric railroad on the island. It took us to Havana thru the beautiful country of green hills, palm trees and picturesque farmland. It was a great little ride, totally worth it.
We were in Cuba in December 2010 and spent there 3 weeks- not enough to see the whole island but enough to get an idea. I loved what I found there and hope that one day I will come back for more.
En route to Mexico, Aeromexico lost our only luggage; it was an epic with happy ending but not thanks to the airlines; we wasted a lot of time chasing our tails and I ended up going by bus from Veracruz to Mexico City where I found our bag, unlabeled and buried under a pile of alike suitcases and bags. At least I found it.
After we collected our super cool greatly missed van from the port of Veracruz, we spent 5 weeks cruising in Mexico. It was great to be back. We caught up for a week with Natalie and Morgan on the pacific coast of Oaxaca, and had bliss in Guanajuato (GTO), hanging out with Katie and other friends. GTO is one of those towns where people come to visit and stay for years; it’s just too good to give it a miss. Mexico is a timeless place and they say that Pacific Ocean has no memory.
End of January 2011 we crossed over to Texas and for the following 3 weeks were playing hide and seek with the passing cold weather fronts. We shopped for gear, slept on Walmart parking lots and bitched a lot about cold. Others than visiting our friends in Wyoming and meeting some nice people in New Texas, this part of trip was uneventful.
We are in Canada now, in Calgary- back where we started. We are staying with my godmother’s family on the western outskirts of the city, slowly wrapping up the trip.
We made it there and back, blew all our money but the reserves, had a few good laughs and now we are ready to stop. You could say, just couple of fortunate wankers that went for a ride… I say, life is good and god is great.
While I have you here, one more thing. Time and distance make everything fade away and 2 years and 80 thousand kilometers under the wheels it’s plenty of both… thanks for keeping in touch, so we could have you in our lives. It means a lot.
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