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