Adios, Havana, We Will Return

Our flight was at 2:30 PM, so we arranged our schedule the previous evening:  8:30 up, 9:30 brekkies, 10:30 in Juan Carlos' taxi, 11:00 at airport.

The Havana airport international terminal is run a lot better than the domestic one.  They can check in more than 1 flight at a time and they are pretty efficient at it.

We checked our backpacks.  Since Bill helped me to adjust the straps properly in China, it was not a problem wearing it at all.  The only toll was that with the added weight, my knees were talking to me big time!

We visited the duty free shop only to find, to my utter horror, that they did not have ANY, NONE, NADA, Santiago de Cuba aged rum.  This was a catastrophe!  All I was dreaming about was scoring several bottles of this to take home with me!  They did have the white rum, but not the aged.  I settled on 2 bottles of a different maker.  (Tasted at home, not the same, this one is more molasses-y, and not very smooth.  The Santiago de Cuba was very special, I now see, more special than I thought.  Should have purchased some while in town!  Live and learn).

The flight was uneventful and not very full, so both Bill and I could score aisle seats.  I got lucky and scored the one behind him, all the better to demonstrate my love with annoyance.  Remember, annoyance equals love!

Landing at JFK, we were led into immigration, where they took my tourist card, asked me why I was in Cuba, I replied tourism, and they handed me back my passport.  We followed the hallway and found ourselves in baggage claim.  We grabbed our packs, and headed to customs only to be waved out.  We filled out the damn cards, but no one wanted them.  This, perhaps, indicates that no one gives a hoot about what you drag back from Cuba with you.  This could be why people had 7-8 bottles of rum and boxes of cigars!  No limits!

We exit into the terminal and head for the airtrain.  As we are walking a man approaches us and asks what we are doing in NYC.  We say we just returned and are heading home.  He tells us that he is in town for book signings and tells us about his stuff.  Asks if we would like to buy a book and we do. Afterwards, the wheels start to turn in Bill's head.  He never exits to get onto the subway.  In fact heads back to the airtrain.  Hmmmmm, could this be some scam to sell poorly written books to stupid people?  Perhaps, haven't yet started to read the one we bought.  Who know, he could be the next Walter Mosely.

We both had mixed feelings about being home.  We loved Cuba.  This is the first place that Bill has talked about returning to this year.  He paid Cuba a great compliment, it rivaled India in it's intensity of street action.  As he described it, there was always something going on to look at:  color, music, talking, arguing, selling, buying, laughing, smoking, just living life.

We loved just walking around Vieja, taking in the decay and beauty.  The music, it is everywhere and it gets into your blood.  We have 3 CD's that we bought and they are playing constantly.  The Cuban people were open, caring, willing to share, and so warm.  We will stay in touch with the hosts of our casas because of their hospitality, their warmth, and their generosity.  It was a beautiful experience.

Our final full day in Havana

April 4 -

We awoke late, what else is new.  Erik wondered if we take sleeping pills.

It was our last day and we needed to pick up cigars, gifts, and other things.  We had breakfast at the Habana Cafe and then went to the post office to mail the post cards....the woman remembered us and when Bill gave her 2 more bill notes, she gave him his stamps for free.  It was so sweet.  She was genuinely touched.  

We were heading toward the tobacco museum, which was 2 miles away and the air was quite heavy and it was very hot.  I bailed on the museum and decided to go to the Parque Central hotel where they had a cigar shop. 

We poured over the cigars again and I settled on a box of 10 Montecristos.  We also picked up 6 tubes for Giancarlo.

We then went around the corner to the Sevilla Hotel, which was  just down the street.  Inside another band was playing, a flute, a violin, and a vocalist.  There was a guitar player that was male.  They were ok, not great, but they did have a CD to sell.  We declined.  

Then came another band of all men who were better, in fact, Bill really liked the group and bought a CD as well as had his picture taken with them!

I went searching for the ladies room, and found a guy making cigars.  So I bought one from him to smoke later that night.

We had accomplished all of our touristic purchases so we were just killing time visiting all of these grand dame hotel lobbies to hang out and get out of the heat.  The temperature had soared over the last 2 days to be in the 80’s.

We went over to Edificio Bacardi, a wonderful deco building that used to be the Bacardi headquarters, ahem, before 1959.  

We headed back to Chef Ivan Justo’s restaurant for our final dinner in Havana.  And, darn, if we didn’t order the same thing!  House smoked assortment and the pig.  

The evening was capped off with a snort of aged rum and the earlier purchased cigar.  Neither entranced like they had previously done….already jaded????

bring me my rum and cigar, please

The Eastern Beach like a tourist

April 3 -   

On the left, the National Theatre, and on the right, Hotel Inglaterra.

We took the other tourist bus T3 around Havana.  

It was a glorious day, sunny and hot.  We got   good and burned.  This route went to the eastern beaches.  We got off at the Atlantico Hotel stop, which was the furthest eastern stop.  We walked along the beach for about 45 minutes, then stopped into a roadside cafe.  We have had excellent luck with food. 

 

At this place I had the  roasted lobster and Bill had the pork.  Both were excellent along with the little salad and ubiquitous rice and beans, it was a fine late lunch.

Our second stop was at the  castle Morro.  We wandered  around and found a a cafe with a smoke shop at the front.  It was very hot outside and I had forgotten my cooling tie.  

I checked out the cigars and didn't want to purchase them there.  I wasn't sure what I wanted, but Bill said, if there is another Caracol shop, the prices are set  by the government, so they would be the same.  I was convinced.

We had a reservation back at Dona Eutima, at what we thought was 7, but it turned out it was 6....ooops.  At first I was pissed, but we had a very nice meal at Dominica which was on O'Reilly and Mercadores.  The food was Italian, or I should say Cubanize Italian.    I opted for chicken Milanese and Bill got Saltimbucca.  There were a plethora of cats that were hanging out.  Another tourist was throwing scraps from her plate to them.  There had to be at least 6 of them surrounding her.  

When her plate was empty, two of the cats paid a visit to Bill and I.  The first one was cross-eyed.  I have never seen a cross eyed cat, it was sort of weird.  Feeling like I shouldn't stare, but couldn't help myself.  What did the cat see?  Did it get dizzy?  He/She wandered away and another orange tabby wandered over.  This one only had 1 eye.  That was really freaking me out.  We tried to give it a funny name, Blinky, Pir-cat, One-Eyed Jack, etc, we exhausted our feeble minds at that point. 

The band playing at the restaurant was quite good.  We bought another CD of Cuban songs.  The vocalist had a superb voice.  Most of the members of the band were women, with 2 men, one on bass, the other guitar.  The rest, percussion, and sax were women.  At one point a young boy walks us and starts to dance to the music.  He really gets into it, and is pumping his fists in the air and bumping his hips around.  It was hysterical.

It became apparent to me that American tourists are really not liked around the world.  They like our spending on vacation, but our boorish behaviors have not earned us much.  A Spanish couple sat next to us and then a table of loud drunken 20 somethings sat down and made it difficult to hear the band.  The Spanish couple, commented about "Los Americans" to each other, I don't think that they knew we were.  Eventually the young group quieted down and began to applaud the band after each number.  Better behavior. 

Off to Ambos Mundo for our nightcap.  The Final 4 game was on later so we wanted a seat at the bar.  Bill and I talked to the bartender about getting a flight of aged rums to try.  He suggested that since I had the Santiago de Cuba the other night, I should try the Havana Club 7 yr and the Maestro's Blend.   The Havana club was very hot.  Really alcoholic in flavor which masked the sweetness of the rum.

I finished the night with a Santiago and slept pretty good.

Touring Havana like a Tourist

April 2 - 

We ate brekkies at Cafe O'Reilly across the street, they have such good coffee.... it's only for sale in the mornings in bags of beans or ground.  None left, so I have to wake up early tomorrow to get some to bring home.

A young couple was seated next to us and they asked Bill if he knew how to get to the beach, as he looked so well prepared.  Bill, in his wonderful self way, gave the guy our guide books to look at and leaf through to find out what he wanted to know.

We headed to the hop on/hop off bus stop at Parque Central and found that Tour 1 (T1) was the bus that was pulled up.  On we got!  10 CUC each and off we went sitting on the top of the double decker.  The commentary was not too good, mostly Spanish, with a little bit of English thrown in for good measure.  We could never tell where the stops were, because they didn't stop if there was no one to pick up unless you were very quick to get down stairs and yell, abierto, and then maybe the doors would open.

We took the loop about 3/4 of the way around and got out at the Necropolis and wandered around there.  We've seen a couple of cemeteries that are quite impressive, City of the Dead in Buenos Aires and the Cemetery in Savannah.  This one was huge, it had streets and calles and a chapel as well as open areas .  It was crowded, really crowded with graves, with people, just a handful.  We saw a memorial to bomberos who lost their lives fighting fires, the grave of Dr. Finlay who discovered that yellow fever came from mosquitoes or developed a cure, not sure which one it is right now.  It covered an enormous amount of acreage within the city limits.  There were families buried in small "double wide" plots, as well as shrines that housed generations of the family.  If it wasn't so hot and breeze-less, I could have spent longer there, it was very calming and quiet.  As it should be.  We went to the chapel, but found that there was a service going on, and then we saw all these hearses coming into the cemetery.  I guess Sunday is burial day. 

We went across the street to the 125 cafeteria.  Cafeteria's in Cuba are for locals and the prices are often given in moneda nacional not in CUC, this one gave both.  We got a strong beer and a sandwich, 2 of each, and the total came to 7,80 CUC.....less than one dish in a restaurant.  Food is not ridiculously cheap in Cuba in restaurants and paladars, but in cafeterias it is.  The issue for tourists, is that you may or may not be served, it isn't a racial thing, it's a tourist thing.  

We hop back on the bus and hit the Plaza de Revoluccion where there are iron images of both Che and Camilo hanging on the walls of 2 governmental buildings with Marti's monument at the back of what looked like an asphalt parking lot which was the Plaza.   

Che Guevara 

Camilo Cienfuegos

At the next bus stop we meet a young Polish guy who is on crutches and visiting Cuba.  Turns out he tore his Achilles' tendon playing football and will heal in about 2 months.  Yikes!  He did make a very funny joke, "I came to Cuba and found out my name was Taxi!".  

This is funny because whenever you walk on the street and a car drives by, the driver yells "Taxi" out the window at you.....

We got off the bus at Parque Central and went into the self-same Hotel on the Parque to cool off and get a drink.  We both were quite sun burnt and sweaty and looked worse for the wear.  

Jose Mari

Dinner was an interesting experiment, we went to Chef Ivan Justo's place again, and were given the sniff test, and failed it!  I made a reservation for Tuesday just to spite them.  We wandered down some of the streets in this part of town and came to a restaurant glut.  We picked Cafe del Angel Fumero Jacqueline.  There was a statue of an angle in the square, and lots of stray dogs and cats.  We sat down and behind Bill there was a table of 2 women and 1 man.  The man was very sweaty and decided to take his shirt off.  And he sat shirtless at the table.  If I were the owner, I would have run right out there and told him to leave or put a shirt on.  He eventually put a shirt on and went into the air conditioning.  All very strange....but not as weird as the kids playing in the square while we had our gazpacho and I had grilled salmon, and Bill had a fillet mignon.  These were clearly kids from the neighborhood who all knew each other.  At first, Bill commented "so this is what children used to do before the Internet and X-Boxes" .  

golden hour

However, after a while, there was a lot of cruelty.  One boy was clearly the butt of every one's ire, he was constantly hit, things thrown at him, generally treated terribly.  While there was another boy, who in a break in the beatings, decided to pee on the wall of the church across the street.  He wasn't discreet, he just climbed up and braced himself on 2 pillars and took a wee.  The entire group eating were slack jawed.  

The Cathedral in the Plaza Cathedral

Another nightcap at Ambos Mundo and then to shower and bed.  

  

Back to Havana

April 1 -

We are up at 9, brekkies at 10, and our ride is supposed to come at 11.  Ahem, key word, supposed to.  At 11:45, a call to the casa comes in, the car broke down on the highway, she can arrange for another if we like.  What were you going to pay for your ride she asks, 80 CUC we tell her.  She comes back and says that she found someone who will take us to Havana for the 80 CUC.  But they will be 40 minutes.  12:30 comes and goes, no ride yet.  Bill goes inside to say, lookie here, we need to get back to Havana, we can go down town and get the bus if this ride doesn't show up soon.  Just at 1 PM, up rolls a VW 2-door of dubious quality, and tahdah there is Frankie, our driver.

We take a detour to Pinar del Rio because he had to stop at his house, only to have what looked like a "disagreement" with the wife.  She's yelling out the door, and he's saying "no" and pulling away...sounds like they were on different pages about how he was to spend his Saturday!

3 hours later as we roll into Havana, it has started to rain off and on and I found myself thinking of my dad, and his admonition about driving at the beginning of a rain shower, it's really dangerous then, the road is really slippery because the motor oil is just wet enough to cause problems...that and his always yelling not to drive near the shoulders as that was where all the crap that can blow out your tire lives.  Dad, full of practical info, he was.

We wanted to have dinner at Dona Eutima's paladar which is just around the corner, and I had  read about it in one of the guide books.  Unfortunately, we didn't have reservations and ate at a place across the alleyway.  We did get a reservation for Monday.  Bill had a seafood plate and I had the grilled lobster.  It was ok, not fantastic, but identifiable as lobster.  

The black umbrella belongs to Dona Eutima's "little patio piece", we could see it, but no room at the inn!

After dinner, it was too early to crash, so we went to Ambos Mundo Hotel for a night cap and it turned out that the first of the 2 semi finals for the Final Four was on the tube.  So we stayed to see Gonzaga get into the finals.

I was drinking 7 year old Santiago de Cuba rum, and let me say, that shit was dope!  I want a hundred bottles of that!

Vinales, day 2

March 31 -

At 11:00 our guide arrives, well, it's not Alfredo, but his brother Willem, who is on a motor scooter and is going to guide us to where we will find our guide for the day.  We are assuming that it will be Alfredo, but it is Ishmael.  

He looks the part, tall, dark, looks good in a cowboy hat and best of all is wearing rubber boots with spurs on them!  How cool is that....as the day progressed, we realized that spurs were an accessory, not a necessity, since these horses were "automatico" in that they knew the route and exactly where

and when the stops were.  Our horses were named, Lucio (Bills), Mojito (mine) and a big beautiful horse for the guide, don't know his name.   You can see Bill on Lucio at left, and the head of my horse, Mojito, who had a strange habit of putting his head right up against Lucio’s butt….

We ambled along a dusty path for quite some time....Alfredo sold us the tour with 15 minutes of horse riding, which I was ok with, more not what I was looking for....but that is not what was happening, we were on the horses for about 40 minutes or so before we hit the first rest stop.  The Mirador,  coconut hut, swimming hole, etc.  We had about a 30 minute break at this place before saddling up again.  After the first 15 minutes, I was ok with the horse, Mojito was calm and easy going until later....

Saddle up muchachos, we ride again.  Getting on the horse was hysterical even for me.  The distance up onto the horse was tremendous, much higher than I expected so I needed a booster push which Ishmael provided much to Bill's chagrin, as he needed a booster push as well.

On to the Cueva de los Silencios.  At first, we thought, WTF, it's just a hole in the ground, but then the guide showed up and led us into the cave, handed out flashlights and off we went.  It was a very rocky floor and some very narrow passageways.  There were some very neat rock formations and stalagmites and stalactites as well as gorgeous bursts of sunlight through some hole in the cave roof.  We came out into the air and walked up a dusty steep path to where the horses were tied.

Boosted up again onto Mojito, who wanted to be in the lead, but Bill's horse, Lucio was not going to give it up.  In fact, the one or two times Mojito took the lead, Lucio would come up and sort of push us to the edge of the path (think thin strip of grassy stuff and then barbedwire fences.  Not my kind of a fun way to end up in a Vinales hospital.

my new friend

We headed to a coffee "plantation", which is a broad stretch of that word.  Here is where Mojito was renamed "Bastard", I pulled him off to the left toward a tree that looked ok to tie him up, and Ishmael said, "Mojito" and the horse started moving through the branches which if I hadn't put my hand up would have whipped me in the face,  Hence the new name...

It was a sales station for liquor made from local fruit, the guava, and some sugar cane juice.  There were 2 kinds, sec and sweet, we tried the sec, and it was pretty sweet, can't imagine how sweet the sweet version is.  The juice was about 38% alcohol, which is not too strong, proof-wise, 76 proof.

Then the hilarity starts when our "coffee" salesman tries to boost me up on the horse, I am laughing so hard that I fall across the back of the horse.  I slide down and Ishmael helps me up.  Still laughing, off we go to the tobacco "plantation".  At this point, we realize that these are all going to be sales stops.

The tobacco farm was different.  The young man who was our guide spoke excellent English so that our questions were understood and we could visualize the process of drying the leaves and the picking theory much better.  We went up to the cabin and his cousin came out with his dad and they rolled a cigar that we shared....much to my surprise, I really enjoyed it.  The cigars made with tobacco from Vinales are organic and fermented with a local process that doesn't use chemicals.  They also strip out the vein in the leaf after it's fermented because that is where 85% of the nicotine is located, therefore less nicotine is in the cigar itself.  

I smoked that bad boy all the way to where we dumped off the horses and all the way walking back into town.  It went out and I held onto that stub until we settled into a drinking establishment where I lit up again.  

Two days in a row we were unable to take the tourist bus that went around town.  It stopped running at 3, and damn, if we weren't there just before 3.  We went into the tobacco/liquor store and I purchased 2 pyramide cigars and then down the street a wooden holder.  Happy as a clam.

We got a taxi to take us up to the Cuevo Indios. 

He said that he would do it for 10 CUC return and he was happy to wait for us!  Deal.

This cave was much larger than the one we saw earlier.  The path was paved so it was easier to navigate and no guide necessary. 

The path led you deeper and deeper into the cave and you could hear water.  For the last 100 yrs of the cave, you needed to take a boat to get out.  It was very dramatic exiting from the dark and artificially lit cave into the sunlight while gliding on a motor boat.  

Our taxi driver offered to take us to see the Palenque do Cimerones  which was a huge natural opening in one of the limestone karsts that was set up as a dance and music club.  It was full of chairs waiting for the customers that evening.

 

We had dinner at El Olivo, because on our riding we rode past their organic farms.  The gazpacho was really tasty as were the croquettes, but the carbonara was pretty bad, as was Bill's lasagna.  I just wanted to march back to the kitchen and say,"look, here is how you make carbonara, no cream, salty hard cheese grated, pancetta, black pepper, and a whisked egg.  In a frying pan big enough to hold the cooked spaghetti, render the fat from the pancetta.  If it's pretty lean, add some olive oil.  Turn off the flame, add black pepper and wait for the spaghetti to be cooked.  After you have added the pasta, mix and mix, add cheese and whisked egg.  Mix some more, you want the heat of the spaghetti to cook the egg and finish with more black pepper and/or cheese.  Done!"

Back to the abode and sleep because we trek to Havana tomorrow.  

Vinales

March 30 -   Havana - Vinales

We had breakfast with Erik and Elvis.  Our cab arrived and we find that there are 3 in front seat and 3 in back seat...we decided not to make a big deal out of it.  What we found out was the guy sitting next to me in the back seat was a co driver and ended up driving the last 1.5 hrs of the trip.

The ride was fine, it was interesting to see the country side and how rural and urban living compared to each other.  Country life felt, at least to me, to be slower and more laid back.  

Which in Cuba is really funny.  Cuba runs on Island time, which means that if things get done, great, but if they don't, there is always manana.  I have adopted this, and feel that it would be much more helpful for urban dwellers to get into that mind set. 

Vinales is a quaint place, code word for small and dusty.  There are probably more casas here than in Vieja.  Every house has one or two apartments to rent out to visitors.  The casa that Bill and I are staying is somehow connected to Erik and Elvis, I don't recall the connection, perhaps brother in law, sister in law, third cousin's wife's nephew from their first marriage....I think you get the idea.  It is a small place with private bath, ac, fan, and reading lights.  

Immediately after arriving we were hit up for a tour.  Horseback riding, hiking, tobacco farm, coffee plantation, and a cave.  We bit and wondered if it was the right thing we did.  We will know tomorrow.  It was sold as only 15 minutes of horseback riding, which was fine by me, some hiking, some education, a cave, and cigars. Sounded good to us! 

We wandered around the town and had a  sandwich and beer at Cuba, a cafe on the main drag.  Exploring further around we decided to take the hop on hop off bus, however, it seems that today it stops at 3, which is what time it was.  Sigh.  

We took a cab up to Los Jazmines, a hotel with a great view over the valley.  There was a good band playing on the patio by the bar.   We had a couple of pina coladas and read our books,  took photos and waited for the your buses to pull out.    

                     

Got a cab back into town and dined at a big surprise, Paladar la Cubana. It was just down the dusty street from us.  What a gem of a place.  Friendly wait staff, huge quantities of food.  It just kept coming, at 10 CUC each plus beers it was a bargain and a half!  There were 3 types of rice, plain white, with black beans, and with pineapple. We split the entrees of smoky pork and fried chicken, both excellent, and were so full never touched the salad or fruit plates, which were both beautifully arranged.  We took an evening constitutional to walk off diner and settled down for the night...up early for our touring!

fruit place of papaya, pineapple and guava

pineapple rice

salad plate

black beans

So much food, we couldn’t possibly eat it all.

beans and rice

smoky pork