What do you do when you are under boat arrest (if you
haven’t read Cuba Part I you might want to do so now).
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| Havana Taxi |
Well you eat up your stores, drink rum and watch
movies. Fortunately the only contact we
were allowed was with a couple of local fishermen who brought out ice every
other day, so at least there was ice for the Cuba libra’s. We also discovered a film called Fidel! In our
digital collection. We had started
watching it at the marina but it was heavy going and I had fallen asleep. Watching it for the second time after
experiencing a bit of Cuba we were both gripped and fascinated by his life
story.
Our boat arrest happened thanks to bad weather which
forced us into Maniti to shelter and we hadn’t realised just how restrictive
the authorities would be. Before we left
the marina for our sail along the coast of Cuba, the Guarda had said we could
only anchor at most of the locations on our list of places we wanted to
visit. No problem we thought not
realising he meant not even get off the boat.
It seems that they are only allowing people ashore at
designated marinas which are few and far between. We still can’t make up our minds if this
policy is because a) if you are not at a marina you aren’t spending Cuban
dollars, b)they don’t want you seeing the poverty in some of the more remote
parts of the island or c)they are terrified if you leave the boat someone will
steal it and sail off.
Once the weather finally cleared and we were able to
leave Maniti we reverted to plan B. Go
back to the marina, hire a car to tour the island, spend some time in Havana
and fly back to Holguin the nearest airport to the marina. The arrangements were made incredibly quickly.
The car was available that afternoon, the flight booked and our
accommodation at a convent in Havana confirmed. The show was back on the road.
Picking up the car we were shown how to remove the aerial
and windscreen wipers (car parts are in very short supply). Then we headed off
for a drive ending up at a little town nearby , St Lucia, where we found a
typical Cuban bar. A concrete slab with
a roof and waist high railings around the outside and a few tables and chairs
served from a kiosk. They provided disposable
plastic glasses which they filled from a beer pump or you could bring your own
gallon plastic water bottle. The few
Spanish words we knew were enough to allow some basic communication – it was all
that was needed for a very pleasant early evening drink. This was more like it.
The next day we left the boat early and headed for Holgin
to pick up our airline tickets. The
place was full of people. I was reminded
of China. Can’t put my finger on it. Was it the soviet influenced architecture,
the queues to get into shops or restaurants or just the sheer number of people
milling around in the middle of the day.
Our car journey took us to Las Tunas where a lunch time
walk took us past a park where a 12 piece Cuban trovo band were
practicing. Probably some of the best
music we heard in our time in Cuba. Then
on to Camaguay where we stayed in our first Casa Particular – an individually
owned/run b&b that you find all over Cuba.
The lady owner was pretty upset we didn’t want dinner as well but we had
decided to eat out. Shame, she was a great cook. She also insisted that we learn Spanish
before we come back again as she wanted to speak to us directly – rather than
through her daughter.
At the tiny restaurant we went to, we were the only
diners – virtually sitting in their kitchen.
Our host was hilarious. So keen
to please. He couldn’t believe his luck
when a student with a guitar stopped in for a coffee. He immediately pressed him to work – singing
and playing for us. Turned out the
student was a medical student from Argentina who spoke English. The evening was rounded off at the Casa de la
Trova, with Cuban music and dancing.
Perfect evening.
Most cars in Cuba are owned by the state and are obliged
to stop and pick up people hitching along the mostly deserted roads. Sometimes this is organised by the local
police who have clipboards to manage the large numbers of people waiting. Although we didn’t have to stop we soon got
into the routine and gave lifts to around 20 people each day. No sooner was one out than another hopped
in. Since they could have been picked up
by a truck where they would have to stand in the back, they couldn’t believe
their luck. Most were very quiet but
some were extremely chatty – not easy
when we only had about 40 Spanish words between us.
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| Sighting of another car |
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| Local taxi |
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| Local bus |
One chatty duo helpfully showed us where we could eat
when we stopped for lunch one day. It
was a state run restaurant – Chinese for some reason. The
place was filthy and the food greasy and cloying. Still it gave us a reference point for what
some locals get to eat. I’m still
finding it hard to enjoy Chinese food. We
were charged in convertible pesos which are 25 times as much as local
pesos. They have worked out how to milk
the tourists very well.
Our cross country car trip took us to Trinidad where we
bought an unusual Che painting from a local artist, then across the mountains
to Santa Clara for more Che spotting.
Santa Clara is where there is a huge memorial and where his body was
interned after it was found in Bolivia.
The town is also the site of a major battle between 20 revolutionaries
and 480 Batista troops. The
revolutionaries managed to ambush the train the troops were on and their defeat
lead to Batista fleeing the country. The
revolutionaries marched on to Havana to take control of the country.
I told you we got into that movie! We probably know more about Cuban history
than is healthy. It was bizarre to be
visiting all the places where the events took place. All washed down with a 3 hour trip to the
Museum of the Revolution in Havana.
Historian tho I am, Mark was having to drag me around for the last hour
as he rushed into rooms and took pictures of chairs Churchill had sat in or
bullet holes from attacks on the building.
After the provincial towns we had visited and the family
casa particulars we had stayed in, we weren’t prepared for the great
Habana. Vast avenues of crumbling
colonial splendour took us into the old city where we were staying. Our hitch hikers had abandoned us so we were
left to find the convent where we staying on our own. As it’s a warren of one way streets we
provided much amusement to the locals sitting in doorways as we came round for
a second or third time going the wrong way up a street.
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| Convent garden |
The convent is no longer working (much to Mark’s
disappointment – he was hoping to see novices in their nighties...) But it was
a real haven for us. A basic room (a bit Greek)
looking into the convent which had a lovely garden courtyard surrounded by colonnades. Worryingly our guide book suggested avoiding
the area around the convent after dark.
We were in a pretty poor area, but soon got to know some of the locals,
buying bread at the bakery and drinking beer in the local bars.
A couple of blocks away from the convent we were back in
Disney. That’s a bit unfair but the contrast
was stark. UNESCO reclaimed squares,
western bars, restaurants, trovo bands on every corner, 5 star hotels, tour
buses, the entire tourist smorgasbord.
It was fascinating to see and we did indulge - doing the museums,
galleries, cigar factory, restaurants and bars but it could have been anywhere
– well maybe not.
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| Havana Pint |
So we left Cuba feeling very confused – and we still
are. We keep being asked what was it
like. Confusing and full of
contrasts. From the shack we saw housing
a family in Manati to the grand villas in Havana. From the shy people falling asleep in the back
of the car to the brash touts trying to fleece you in the tourist centres. From the feeling that we were walking dollars
to the genuine interest shown in us in the more rural areas.
The people of Cuba are equally confused. They are furious that some people have to
live in awful conditions (stables one chap called them). They have espoused the idea of equality and
this is not right in their eyes.
Although you will see people throughout the world living in similar
‘stables’, Cubans are appalled that their fellow countrymen have to. They also are indignant that Fidel (although
they never mention him) has squandered their agricultural wealth and that they
have been left with a decrepit legacy of Russian infrastructure. Will Raoul do better? – he seems to be opening up the country to
tourism. In fact Jimmy Carter was there
to discuss access for US citizens during our stay.
We are glad we went but it just wasn’t worth taking the boat
we might as well have flown from the Dominican Republic, which was an option we
had considered. It didn’t help that we
only had 4 weeks to spend there and the sailing weather wasn’t kind to us. It seems on the north coast it’s difficult /impossible to
do any coast hopping cruising but it may be different on the south coast. If we did it again we would also spend more time in the more
rural east and less in Havana and the tourist destinations like Trinidad.
The ultimate irony we felt was the flagrant tourist consumerism
especially in Havana which is what Fidel originally set out to get rid of with
the Revolution. Plus ca change... Vive La Revolution!
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