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After Mexico, the checking back into Cuba was suddenly a pleasure, as all the officials visit your boat and the Cubans are so friendly & charming. We settled in to the rather grandly named Marina Hemmingway but typically Cuban all slightly run down, could be marvellous if only…..
Five of us squeezed into a battered red Lada for the first trip into Havana which is everything we expected; beautiful, decaying, vibrant, noisy, music & people everywhere. The locals live their lives out in the streets, sitting on their doorsteps watching the world go by and offering cigars to passing tourists – they have a cigar ration that they appear happy to flog if at all possible.
There is quite a lot of restoration which has been done so the difference is very marked when you wander from street to street between the areas. As ever everyone is friendly and seems just to want to chat, obviously a few touts but all are happy to leave you alone if you just say no thank you. There are loads of bars all with their own band pumping out salsa at full volume and all guaranteeing you the best Mojito in town.
Finances: the Cuban government, being communist, employs everyone and owns everything. Your average bloke is paid 250 Peso a month – a doctor gets 500 and a policeman 1,000 along with a ration issue of rice, sugar, bread, fruit & veg, rum and cigars – 250 peso is about £6 so you can imagine they are quite keen to relieve a tourist of pretty much of everything particularly dosh! Unfortunately, however, not that many people were interested in the bars and bars of soap we had bought in Venezuela to give out!
Despite the obvious hardships they are reluctant to discuss the way things are, politics or Fidel. The mention of Castro’s brother Raul seems to excite some emotion but was chastised only once for ‘mentioning his name’. Asking after Fidel’s health was always answered politely that he was getting better but after 8 weeks in Cuba we don’t really feel we know what makes them tick. It is unfortunate that their predicament is such that any conversation with a foreigner invariably encourages them to curry favour and hopefully a little contribution to their lives.
Although everyone knows that Cubans drive a round in enormous American chrome laden cars from the 50s but they really do warrant a mention. There are some that are beautifully restored and sell rides around town but most, and that means lots, are totally knackered and would be held together with duck tape and cable ties if only they could get them – what holds them together and keeps them going is a mystery but they do make a remarkable sight.
The Museum of the Revolution was duly visited but there are only so many ‘paper clips used by’ or ‘socks worn by’ Che Guevara that you can look at. It is quite handy for Fidel though when things go wrong you simply put it down to a CIA plot – thus every flu outbreak, swine fever incident or just power cut is due solely infiltration by the imperialist in the US!
We decided to go on a trip to Pinar de Rio, in the beautiful tobacco growing region in the west of Cuba. We hired a car, sadly a Skoda not a 57 Chevy, however, the man at the car hire place was so pleased that the car had a CD player; he mentioned it at least 15 times, we didn’t have the heart to tell him we didn’t have a CD to play between us! We set off vaguely in the right direction; there are not that many cars in Cuba so consequently there are hardly any road signs!
By a process of elimination we found the ‘Autopista’, the Cuban motorway, where the rules are slightly different to what we are used to, U turns are perfectly acceptable, in fact crossing the central reservation anywhere is common practice to get to the other side, horses, bicycles, pedestrians all seem to be very much at home on the carriageways as well as the cars parked in the fast lane or hitchhikers standing in the middle of the road. As transport is difficult in Cuba there are masses of people milling around on the roads trying to hitch lifts and it is a common sight to see a open backed lorry packed to bursting point with people, the very few buses spotted are absolutely crammed full as well.
We were flagged down by a man whose ‘54 Chevy had broken down on the other side of the road, well more man runs in front of our car waving hands refusing to move out of the way until we stop. We agree to give him a lift into Pinar de Rio and end up being shown round his co-operatives tobacco farm, drying sheds, and each being given a free cigar – quite different from the usual tourist experience!
Back on the road again we headed towards Vinales, a small village in a beautiful valley, which is dominated by numerous vertically sided, limestone, boulder like hills called ‘Mogotes’, where we were aiming to find a ‘Casa Particular’ (Cuban B&B). We had spotted one in our Rough Guide which seemed to have 3 rooms enough to house us all. So once we found it, Mark & Iain (new crew on Sarah Grace) jump out of the car to do the deal with the family with Chris watching proceedings from behind the steering wheel. There seemed to be some confusion, the B&B man saying that staying was ‘not possible’ unless we, Iain and Mark, could produce their marriage certificates, to each other! Fortunately all became clear once Karen (Iain’s wife) and I are produced, much laughter follows and we are all fixed up with billets in nearby houses, as the law says only 2 people can stay in a Cuban house at a time!
This rule also seems to apply when we asked if they would cook supper for the 5 of us. After lots of chat an illegal restaurant in someone else’s house is suggested, which we all accept, Cuban restaurants are not the greatest! We ended up having probably the best Cuban meal we had at Ray’s farm with the car concealed around the back. Ray used to be an English teacher so communication was no problem – our Spanish shamefully is still limited to beer purchase and not much else – he had given up teaching because he made more money getting his mum to cook illegal meals for tourists. Great evening all the same.
Much to the irritation of those that had bought cigars at a ‘huge discount’, from our friend who we had driven around that morning, Ray who also farmed tobacco was happy to sell the team more Cohibas as a fraction of the what was paid that morning – hey ho. Incidentally and much to everyone’s surprise Mark remains nicotine free and didn’t buy cigars.
After dinner we head back into Vinales for a nightcap or two and spend the rest of the evening sitting in a great bar, listening to live music, smoking our cigars and supping beers chatting with everyone whilst cowboys rode up & down the street on their way home from the fields. |
