SPRING 2014 CUBA PART 2

Chevy ??

Cuba, it was said more than once, “if you think you understand, then you don’t know anything.”  First impressions, it looks a lot like Mexico, only cleaner.  The vegetation may be wild and unkempt, it is the tropics after all, but the streets are clean and there is little or no litter.  Te number of American cars on the road is mind boggling.  A conundrum for you.  Many people are poor but I saw no poverty (that statement makes sense to me I hope it conjures an image for you).  It is a place of contradictions, with Fidel out of the picture, the free enterprise model of economics is much more prevalent.  Raul Castro, Fidel’s younger brother and President of the Council of Minister (Cuba’s ruling body) is the pragmatist while Fidel is/was the idealist.  People are allowed, if not encouraged to establish private businesses.  It is now possible to buy and sell houses, rather than trade them.  Healthcare is free but you are informed how much your procedures are costing the state.  Everyone has a monthly income, whether you are gainfully employed or not,  and a ration card.  The state owns everything but you own where you live, kinda.  The country has mostly been controlled by Spanish Catholics, but most people do not ascribe to a religion.  All churches are allowed to have their own places to worship to the point where the government built a Russian Orthodox church so those in the Russian Embassy would have a church.  The government provided interest free loans and subsidies for the purchase of new refrigerators to reduce the electric consumption.  Or maybe that is what they are planning on doing and it was an incentive to purchase new stoves to minimize the use of kerosene that has already taken place.  In an effort to boost food production, under-utilized state-owned land has been allocated to private farmers and cooperatives.   As you see, way too much data is crammed in to my brain to retain the details, and I have only just begun to share my understanding of wha tCuba is today.

Bicycle Taxi

 Food, no travel(b)logue is complete without a discussion of food and there was no shortage of food.  Did I say earlier that this was a tour with Road Scholar?  They make sure you get your three squares a day.  Mealtimes run more to the European schedule, with breakfast 7-9, lunch 12-2 and dinner isn’t available until 7 at the earliest.  So what did we eat?  Let’s start with if you can’t face an ongoing diet black beans, rice and chicken, Cuba is no place for you to visit.  It seems beans, rice and chicken is the National dish.  I saw people sitting in a park eating beans and rice from take-out containers or apparently brought from home in plastic containers..  Do not even consider trying to be a vegetarian in Cuba, the vegetable choices are limited but back beans and rice are never ending.  Black beans come in two ways; 1) mixed together in a grey/black mass/mess referred to as congri, or 2) served separately when they are referred to as "Moros y Cristianos" Moors and Christians (quite the evocative name).  Occasionally black beans are replaced with pinto beans to change things up a bit.   But white rice is the staple in terms of starches.  Rice, along with black beans, oil and sugar are included in the monthly ration card.   We were told that out in the country each person got a rum allocation each month, as well as basic staples on their ration card, need to incentivize those farmers!!  I don’t believe we saw any potatoes, except perhaps potato chips mixed in with plantain chips on one occasion.  There was some plain boiled yucca (yuck) which showed up several times.

Load of Carrots Central Havana

I don’t know if the Cubans drink a lot of alcohol but they did their best to see we enjoyed our beverages at mealtimes.   Serving staff in the paladares were universally friendly and helpful.  Btw: A paladar is a term used in Cuba to describe restaurants not run by the state (another example of the attempt to open the economy up to free enterprise) Mostly family-run, paladares came about as a alternative to the state-run restaurants.  They were designed to serve tourists seeking more interaction with Cuba and Cubans, and looking for homemade Cuban food.  They run on the tourist or CUC economy, Cuban Convertible Peso (pronounced “kook”), as opposed to the Peso or domestic economy.  More discussion of this at a later time . . . told you way too much data.  

Balconies & Laundry

 Back to beverages, lunch and dinner came with two drinks but invariably we were provided a welcome cocktail.  Most often this took the form of a Mojito. rum, mint and sparkling water.  We also received some wonderful sangria, a Daiquiri (pronounced “di kiri” in Cuba), made famous by Hemingway I believe, or a Cuba Libra (rum and coke).  Just so you know the Coke was Coca-Cola as we know it but produced and bottled in Mexico and as a consequence not imported from the US. Guess that provides the opportunity for another discussion of what American products make it in to Cuba and the how and why.  The local beer, Cristal and Bucannero were often the drink of choice. Just keep in mind we were told you shouldn’t drink the water, so what’s a body to do?  You need to keep hydrated, right.

Balconies & Laundry

 A bit of shredded cabbage and a slice of tomato was as close as we got to seeing anything resembling salad and sometimes there were bottles of oil and vinegar for use as a dressing.  We saw lamb, pork and duck.  The chicken, of which there is plenty, is almost exclusively imported from the United States, a topic for future discussions.  Beef is mostly unavailable, their cattle are a Holstein/Brahmin mix and are “protected” as a source of milk, children get a daily allocation of milk.  Sweet fried plantains show up for breakfast lunch and dinner and are quite delicious.  We saw some strange deep fried “fritters” of indeterminate ingredients several times and a really tasty mystery meat that was all knuckly bones and gristle, but oh so good. 

I'm told it's an Edsel

I was in heaven, dessert often included flan, one of my personal favs that Mick will have nothing to do with.   One time we were served a mango puree and a soft white cheese, simple and tasty.  Another time, and by my reckoning one of the nicest desserts, was a stewed or poached guava (I think) which had the seeds removed and floated in a syrup that tasted of cinnamon, yum!!  We saw little ice cream but on more than one occasion we saw the locals standing in line waiting for the ice cream shops to open.  You can’t predicted what flavors will be available on any given day but that seems to be of little importance.  Some folks were coming for scoops, and according to our guide not just one scoop, while others had insulated containers which presumably they were planning on filling to take home.  

Balcony and Laundry

Breakfast was a buffet and there was far more choice in Havana than in Cienfuego.  There were hard boiled eggs, scrambled eggs and an omelet station that prepared whatever you pleased.  There were cold Spanish sausages and cheeses, tomatoes and cucumbers, olives and raw vegetables, well actually they were mostly canned, bacon and black beans, fried plantains cereals and yougurts and a most amazing selection of breads.  Mick became addicted to little corn breads and I found some really good croissants.  Plenty of fruit, little bananas, watermelon, mango, papaya, pineapple, always a fruit salad and sometimes guava, dates, raisins and prunes.  The only thing missing, honey or jam for my toast . . . there was a sweetish brown paste where you would expect to find the jam but I never did identify what it was and it certainly didn't look like something that belonged on bread.

I've gone on a bit here without even telling you what we saw and did, my head is just too full of what Cuba is today,  The easiest way to get in to Cuba is through an educational activity sponsored by the US government.  Road Scholar is one of the licensees for these kinds of trips and they are tasked with presenting people to people experiences.  Mal Paso Dance Company was on such experience.  We saw an excerpt from  one of their programs and were then invited/expected to have conversation with the troupe about the arts in Cuba.  This would be the case with all the venues we visited, a demonstration, a lecture, a tour and conversation.  Some of the places we visited were private business or homes, while others were state sponsored.  At no time did I feel like we were hearing the "Party Line".  Often our questions were direct, exposing the American bias against communism/socialism , but the answers always felt honest and forthcoming.  

Time to get this out, import a few more photographs and share with you just how marvelous this experience was.

SPRING 2014 CUBA PART 1

Time for a new installment of the Ashland Avatar.  It’s not like we haven’t been traveling, a very unlikely  occurence for the Church family, it’s just that there haven’t been any grand adventures.   By all rights this begins to look like an adventure and we haven’t even left Ashland.  

Let’s begin, it’s Sunday evening.  We are packed and ready to take off first thing in the morning on a two month odyssey to Cuba, Miami and the U.K.  Remembering, at the last minute, that we can check in online, Mick powers up his laptop and brings up the Alaska Airlines website.  It only takes a moment before he gets an error message, something akin to the blue screen of death, asking he contact the airline directly.  The 800 number gets him to customer service agent who informs him there is a discrepancy between our itinerary and the ticket that was issued.  Not only is there a discrepancy but we cannot check in with Alaska Airlines despite the fact that we will be flying with them out of Medford first thing in the morning.  The ticket was issued by American Airlines and to please call them.  The recording, on reaching American Airlines, informs us there will be 35 to 55 minute wait for the next available customer service representative and would we like a call back? The answer, an unequivocal “YES PLEASE!”  By the time Call the Midwife has finished the phone is ringing, and the next available customer service representative inquires “can I help you”?  The answer to that, it would seem, is no.   And so, a transfer to yet another department and thus begins another 55 minute wait for the next available customer service representative.  That puts us at roughly the two hour mark on something that should have taken 3 minutes.  Not entirely certain what has happened.  In the end American Airline re-issues our tickets which match the itinerary we already possess.  With re-issued tickets, a confirming email, and we are good to go!

Marti Memorial

It’s five a.m. and the alarm is sounding.  Time for a cup of coffee, a bowl of fruit, a tooth brush and a face wash before our chauffeur service, aka Jim Tabor or Neighbor Tabor, arrives.  We are whisked off in the predawn twilight to the delights of the Medford Airport and TSA baggage restrictions.  It is all beyond me, I get a TSA dispensation, I don’t have to remove my shoes but Mick does.  Mind you, you’re not going to hear me complain, already did that trying to downsize shampoo, toothpaste and deodorant in an attempt to comply with the latest carry on restrictions.  It’s almost enough to make you want to pay the extra $25 just for the privilege of checking your baggage.  You might ask why carry on . . . the truth, I didn't fancy ending up in Cuba with no underwear or toothpaste.
      

A 5 a.m. wake up call has us in the lobby by 5:45 and ready for the transfer to the Miami airport and our charter flight to Cuba.  Typically an airport at this hour of the morning is an empty and spooky place.  Not here.  There are Cuban families everywhere toting massive heaps of luggage and shrink wrapped parcels.  Consumer goods are expensive and in short supply but the import market, thank you, is alive and well.  If you have the dollars and a visa, a shopping trip to the United States can be a lucrative proposition.  It is cheaper to purchase items like television sets and refrigerators in the US, bring them in through customs and pay the duty, than to buy them in the government stores.  

Che Guevara

It has been a series of early mornings and late nights but we are now situated In The Hotel Nacional in the city of Havana, Cuba.  As I sit here at the window I can see the the Atlantic, or is it the Caribbean, crashing against the seawall of the Malecon.   Our trip is authorized by the US as an educational, people to people activity, and as such will leave very little time for conventional sightseeing but should leave us with a better understanding of Cuba, its’ people, politics and economics.   Just to give you a for instance on how jam packed our days will be, I already mentioned about the 5 a.m. wakeup call.  Off to the airport, cheking luggage, weighing everything including carry-ons, security and we are on the ground in Cuba, through Cuban immigration and customs and on the bus by 10.  Here we met our guide, Hector and bus driver, Julio, both of whom are Cuban natives and residents.   Off first to Plaza de la Revolucion; this square is where many political rallies take place and the venue for Fidel Castro’s multi hour speeches.  I was somewhat underwhelmed, it doesn’t begin to hold a candle to Plaza Major in Mexico City and more than that there is a road through the middle of it.  Fortunately there simply aren’t that many automobiles on the road in Cuba, so it wasn’t terribly disruptive. There was the requisite memorial to José Marti, an early revolutionary and philosopher, Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuego who was instrumental in removing Bautista from power.

Camilo Cienfuego

From there it was on to a tour of the cemetery, lunch, a performance by a modern dance company, a chance to view a holocaust memorial in the ex-synagogue which was home to the dance company, a tour of our hotel, roughly an hour and a half to unpack and put our feet up before dinner in the hotel garden.  I’m exhausted just writing about it!

Where to begin and how can I possibly  explain or describe the Cuba I am experiencing.  What did I expect?  For whatever reason Castro is/was a bogeyman.  He is a socialist, perhaps a communist, he definitely consorted with the Soviet Union.  There was a Cuban Missile crisis but what do I know of Cuba today, nothing really.  The Soviets have been gone for more than 20 years and I am here to tell you there is no evidence they were ever here.  I don’t know what I expected.  Yes the old cars and the peeling paint on buildings, cigars and rum.  The books we read before leaving painted a grim picture of Cuba during what is referred to as the “Special Period.”  A land deserted by the Soviet Union, experiencing shortages, blockaded by the US, a country where the black market was a way of life.  A place where many people could not obtain what we would consider to be the necessities of life.  Simple toiletries, soap, toothpaste, even toilet paper were difficult if not impossible to find.  

I don’t pretend to understand the US position on Cuba.   Perhaps it is true to say the most people and possibly even most of the government do not understand or care to understand our current policy.  There are those who say the US stand on Cuba derives almost exclusively from the Cuban refugees who have left Cuba over the past 53 years.  The majority are in Florida, most specifically Miami, and if you believe the books we read, hate Castro with a passion.  If I understand correctly the original refugees were the well to do businessmen, owners of sugar plantations, employees of Bacardi, manufacturers of cigars, corrupt politicians, bank owners and the American mafia.  They fled the revolution with suitcases filled with cash and no clothes, expecting things to return to normal within a year to 18 months.  

 

Mal Paso (Bad Step) Dance Troupe

Street Scene

I think it must be time to quit before this becomes a political dissertation.  So will share this for now, with more to come soon