Visiting the outskirts of Camaguey

March 23 -  Camaguey

We wanted to see other parts of the city and Roberto pointed out the electric plant from their rooftop garden/terrace/clothes line.  Out there he said, was also the Plaza de Revolucion. 

Off we went.  We did frequently see people walking away from a shop holding cardboard cartons of eggs, lots of eggs.  No one carried just a single carton, which probably held at least 64 or so eggs each (8 x 8 little cups).  This was universal all over Cuba.  People carrying multiple cartons of eggs.  Later in the trip, I saw a newspaper article which I was able to figure out that the hens of Cuba were meeting and exceeding their quotas by leaps and bounds… so much so that they were dubbed “Oro”.

The electric plant was belching out smoke, not as much as we saw in China, but some. 

As we left the historic center behind, we saw more and more horse-drawn carts used as buses!  There were groups of people, up to about 8, sitting on benches behind the driver.  It was kind of sweet to see.  Which reinforced the idea that in Cuba, nothing is wasted.

We came to the Plaza de Revolucion and I was struck by  the size of the monument.  It was not a Soviet style monument, but more of a modern sculpture.  Several columns rising into the air and coming together to imply a cut out star at their  apex.

The monument also felt unfinished as their were bas-relief figures from Cuban history that were important to the revolution, but then there were other places where there was nothing except smooth cement.  I could not figure out if there was a pattern or if the absence was as significant as the presence of the figures…..

We tried to go to the lower level museum, but were turned away by a guard…. oh well!

We ended up close to where we were the day before on our bus station tour.  We took a different road and walked passed a sad little zoo where pigeons were “displayed” as a caged species.  

Roberto had told us that there was a mercado up a bit further on, so we headed for it.  When we got there, it turned out to be mostly a hardware type shopping experience.  Each stall had similar merchandise of valves, hoses, clamps, timers, screws, etc.  

We stopped for an ice cream cone and were confronted by a beggar woman who seemed to just hang out at this stand.  At first, I thought that she hit us because she focused on tourists, but then I realized that this was not a tourist destination!  She hit up the locals and anyone who came in.  She got enough to get a cone for herself, which was nice, because the ice cream was very tasty.

I was getting hot, so we moved on and found a market. This was significant because it was the first sighting of TP in a store.  Every shop, mercado, or stall that we had stopped in for the last week never had any TP available.  For something so necessary, this was quite strange….TP as a commodity!  This little shop was the first place we saw it, and in packaging of multiple rolls!

Bill also found a pill form of artificial sweetener.  He purchased a bottle to give to our hosts, as they didn’t have any and Bill thought it would be a nice touch for future north americanos to see and be able to use.  Until that store, we had never seen artificial sweeter on any tables in any restaurants.  Bill did bring his own with him in a little plastic bag!