Notes on Cuba

These are the notes I made last month on our trip to Cuba, September 2014. I was very impressed, and will be posting more about this trip. At Pearson, 04:35, trying to get breakfast at a Tim Horton’s. Breakfast menu doesn’t start until 05:00 so no bagel belt. Ordered a bagel and black coffee. Staff asked how I would like my black coffee! Impossible to find good help! Saturday, arrived, got to our room, got our bearings, kind of. Sunday, explored the resort and the beach, got to know the place a little better. Monday, took the double decker bus in to Varadero, explored the tourist area a bit. Very hot. Stopped at a small tavern in the flea market for a beer. Very good, cold beer. Tuesday, took the tour to Cuba. Long day. On the bus at 07:45, back at the hotel at 20:00! Excellent tour. Wednesday we decided to take it easy, hanging out at the pool and the beach. Drank a little more than normal, stayed up late, causing us to wake late on Thursday. Thursday, got up late, had a sandwich at the bistro because we missed the breakfast buffet. Hung out at the pool for a while, then lunch, and now Anne is at the spa. Note: haven’t been online since we left Pesrson, and haven’t felt the need to be. Very nice to be here with Anne, no distractions, experiencing things together and getting away from all the crap we let into our lives back home. That has to change.

People:

Yadiel, our butler

Joel, the guide after getting picked up at the airport

Osmay, waiter in seafood rest.

Raul Javier, Porter.

Yuni, waitress in lobby bar who treated everyone so sweetly.

Vincent, doorman in buffet.

Jo-ell (?) our guide on the Habana Colonial Day Tour

Places: Varadero, kind of a beach town. Geared towards tourists, not real Cuba Habana. Get the feeling that the tour shows what they want you to see, but glimpses a block or two back of what they show seem like things are a little more run down. The law says they are not allowed to change building facades, and maybe that extends to what they allow tourists to see. Rest stops during the tour, washrooms a little sketchy. At the first one there was a woman sitting outside each of the men’s and ladies’ washrooms, after I used the facility, which had no urinals, just commodes with no seats, no running water and no towels I started to walk away and got called back to pay my peso! Anne got me a pair of headphones for my birthday, which is still almost a week away. Bose, top of the line noise cancelling buds. Absolutely fantastic! Right now sitting in the lobby bar, Anne at the spa. Got my headphones in and music on, because there are Canadians behind me talking, from the oil fields, it sounds like. Makes me embarrassed to be a Canadian because every second world is “fuck”. The hotel, a little tired, a little worn, but under renovation everywhere. Looking at the plans this place will be even more fantastic when they finish. All the staff are great here. In fact Cubans in general seem very thoughtful, intelligent people. Our guide was incredibly contemplative and genuinely a nice person. There are other people embarrassed at these hicks and their swearing. One couple has actually moved to another table. The guy on the bus which brought us to the hotel said there are no sharks or snakes in Cuba. He might have said “poisonous” snakes. Anyway, yesterday we went for a walk and I found a dead snake. So what does that say about sharks? Anyway, the ocean makes me nervous this time around. I wasn’t bad in Mexico last May but this time around is different for some reason. Piña colladas are good, but very heavy. Ernest Hemingway hung out at a bar in Habana called La Floridita. Pretty cool place. Still has an old iron frame elevator in the lobby. Apparently he had a rule…daiquiris had to have double rum and double ice, and he would drink no more than twelve in one day. Russians are insane. There’s a young group here, four or five guys and a couple of girls. The girls are bossy and not averse to doing shots. The guys are nuts, drinking and chain smoking. The first morning one of them had a broken leg, using an umbrella as a crutch. Saw him in the pool later, with Saran Wrap around his cast. Apparently he had jumped in the pool and hit bottom. By the way, Saran Wrap doesn’t for a waterproof seal. He was enjoying himself though, and doesn’t seem any worse for wear. Cubans all seem to have some performing talent, such as singing or playin an instrument. And the ones I’ve seen are amazing dancers. There was a band here the first night just jamming Cuban jazz, switching instruments, riffing on familiar songs in a new way. Really inspirational. I have to replace the high e string on my guitar, which I broke two Christmases ago. Mojitos are good, but over-hyped, I think. I had one, and I don’t need to have another necessarily. We went to the fort in Habana, and on the top terrace there’s a rum and cigar store. Very strange to walk into a store and seeing one of the employees smoking a cigarette. Civilization! Wonder how the quitting smoking will go when we get home. Impossible to do here; everyone smokes and you can do it practically anywhere. And smokes are cheap, a couple of bucks a pack in town, but slightly more at the hotel.