Matanzas, City of Bridges

April 22, 2017

We awoke to our first full day in Cuba, had breakfast at our hostel, changed over our money, and then got a taxi to Matanzas, our destination for the day.

While there are buses in Cuba, it's also common to hire a taxi to take you from point A to point B, and many times the price is comparable, especially if you share. We hadn't necessarily intended to taxi, but our host helped us and things happened fast in another language, so that's what we ended up with. Our taxi driver was the one person in Cuba that neither of us could understand a single word he said. We took it half on faith that he even knew where he was taking us, but we got there okay in the end.

Right as we arrived, the rain rolled in, and between us running out of the taxi and up the stairs, and arriving at the balcony two stories up, the heavy drops had turned into an absolute deluge.

Cars on the street below were driving through a solid 2-3 inches of standing water on the street and it was hard to see down the street, everything got blurred by the rain.

Since raincoats would do us no good, we took the opportunity to enjoy our comfortable bed and get caught up on our journals. After a bit the rain let up to the point where we could stick a baseball hat on and be happy, so we forayed out. The sun even came back out a couple times.

Matanzas is a city of bridges. It has two good sized rivers running through it to the ocean dividing it into three sections, so there's lots of bridges to connect everything. The rivers are rather pretty too, although the water isn't very clear.

The houses had the same quaint, colorful, slightly run-down look as many other Cuban buildings, and it was fun walking down the streets.

We walked down to the ocean, along the waterfront for a minute, and then up one of the rivers.

We also discovered that after it rains really hard, and then kinda settles, some areas get a lot of slimy black silt in them. And when you walk through that area with flip flops, it's easy to slip. And when you slip, you spatter yourself and your friend walking in front of you with aforementioned slimy black silt. (Thanks Shay...)

Luckily it missed our clothing, and we found a puddle a little farther on to wash our legs off with. An old guy walking by laughed at us.

This guy had a couple traps of some sort hanging off the bridge into the river. I'm not sure if it was crabs or crayfish or some other type of critter he was trying to catch.

Up a couple blocks from our hostel was the main park, and Rosy, our hostess, told us that it was a shame it was raining because there was a theater festival going on, and there would be performances all over town. We found out the truth of that when we came back around.

In the park was a troupe of stilt dancers in colorful costumes and big sleeves.

There was this lady who I got a kick out of. The butt on it was made to especially wag back and forth when they walked, and I would venture a guess that it was a guy inside having all sorts of fun.

youtube link: https://youtu.be/qD8lh-j1VgE

They did lifts and tricks like other dancers do, but were 6 feet up in the air with stilts on it through the whole thing. Very impressive.

 This guy jumped rope.

It was maybe a 20 minute performance that we caught. They had group dances, involved people from the crowd at one point, lots of fun in slight sprinkles.

Those sleeves though

Next up for our viewing pleasure and bewilderment was an interpretive theater performance featuring a wicker cow with two guys in it. Similar to the animals in the Broadway version of Lion King, the actors were incorporated in such a way that you didn't really notice them, there was just a cow. The whole thing was set to dramatic farm music. If you watch the video you'll understand what I mean.

It walked in from the back of the square with the farmer, and took its time, sharpening it's horns on a light post and trying to eat the shrubbery.

The fourth actor was a gal who sometimes interacted with the cow, and sometimes was part of it, like being the tail as it walked in.

youtube link: https://youtu.be/KLWWeKHrtEY

It ate from a bucket. It got the bucket stuck on its nose. (I don't think it was entirely scripted, but they played it off good)

And then, to dramatic farm music, we witnessed the birth of a little baby burlap cow that they pulled out of the big cow's wicker frame. While interesting and artistic, it was a little 'what the heck did I just watch'

But the little baby seemed to be happy and healthy, and walked out with Mama Cow the way they came to end the performance.

Also there was a small Gary the snail from Spongebob on the wall outside our bathroom.

Although due to the weather we didn't get to explore quite as much as we would have liked, it was a nice little town and we had a good time. Next up is 4 days of scuba diving!

First day in Cuba- birthday cake and candles

April 21, 2017

10 months and 12 days after returning home from my last international adventure I packed my passport once again and headed for the airport. Shay and I caught a late flight to LAX, spent the night on the airport floor behind a row of chairs at the gate, and flew out the next morning en route to Havana. An uneventful flight later we landed in Havana and caught a taxi to our pre-booked Airbnb in the middle of the historic center.

Our initial look at Havana was just like all the photos, with old cars everywhere

Our hosts met us on the street and took us up the stairs to our small, clean room in their apartment. We had AC, our own bathroom, and a balcony view of the street below.

We dropped our bags and changed into shorts. There may or may not have also been some excited jumping up and down and squealing. I can neither confirm nor deny this. Then we got a map from Felipe, a couple suggestions, and went to explore Havana a little. Also find dinner, which incidentally was also my birthday dinner.

Three blocks from our room we found the capitol building, a plethora of taxi drivers with beautiful classic cars, and Nardos, where we had a delightful dinner at a fantastic price.

Dinner consisted of garlic shrimp, fish croquettes, steamed yucca, and fried plantains.

Of course we also had some celebratory daiquiris made with the famous Havana Club rum.

Our table was in a corner with mirrors all around it, so photo taking was a bit of a creative effort

Just when we were both stuffed from the meal, Shay went and told our waiter that it was my birthday and a big slice of chocolate cake with a candle appeared. They also dimmed the lights and played a birthday song over the speaker system while all the waiters sang. Go big or go home I guess.

 We finished the cake, though I'm still not quite sure how.

'Felicidades' was written in chocolate and sprinkles on the plate

And as a finishing touch, at Nardos when the check was paid, each lady at the table received a rose to take with them. (We watched other tables get them first, so we knew it wasn't just us)

We took our roses and walked down Calle Obispo (one of the main streets in the old town) to the water and got our first look at the Atlantic. Havana sticks out a bit into the ocean so there's lots of waterfront to enjoy. We circled around and headed for our beds, excited to wake up to a full day of adventures.

6 Realities about Cuba

My Cuba trip has now come and gone, so while I'm working on getting photos sorted and stories written, I can comment on some of the things I had been thinking about in my first post before leaving for the trip.

1. Traveling makes you learn things and it's fantastic.

True story. I was so glad that I had read up on things before going. Small details, like knowing the name of the street you're on came from a war hero, or knowing the significance of the M-26 graffiti all over was really fun. I read just one book but I definitely picked the right one. I got a smattering of everything from colonial revolution times to more modern politics and some random rum facts intertwined with it all. If anyone is interested in reading a really great book on Cuban history, check out Bacardi and the Long Fight For Cuba by Tom Gjelten.

2. I'm really curious to learn the realities of how their currency works.

The money wasn't difficult, and no one ever tried to give us the wrong currency in change. CUC had pictures of buildings on it and the local CUP had people so it was easy to tell apart, plus we never had very much CUP in the first place to keep track of. In the small towns where we were able to pay in CUP, the difference in price was staggering. A nice sandwich was 25 CUP which is equal to $1, and when we got ice cream, based on the ambiguous menu, it was either going to be slightly expensive or stupid cheap. My ice cream plus an empanada was 19 cents. In CUC, you could still find a good cheap meal for $5, but prices were much more equivalent to US prices.

3. Cuban Spanish.

Cuban Spanish is definitely harder to understand. They speak pretty fast and drop sounds and whole syllables from words, especially S at the end of a word. 'Esta buena' becomes 'ta buena' and 'muchas gracias' becomes 'mucha gracia' with the ends just trailing off rather than having a definite ending. That being said, we got pretty decent at understanding their way of talking, and the two of us were usually able to fill in the gaps and words that the other missed. There was however one taxi driver in particular that neither of us could understand a single word he said.

4. All of the classic cars.

Not exaggerated at all. They really are everywhere. That being said, they're not all as shiny as in the pictures. In the States if you see a classic car, it's all painted pretty and restored and made to show off. In Cuba, that's their everyday car and it's bumper may or may not be fully attached. Despite the peeling paint and lack of door handles on some of them, the aesthetic is just as fun as I thought it would be, and the cars are still gorgeous. The lines on old cars are just more sexy than their modern cousins, and I have discovered I like big fins on the back the best.

5. Is the food really as boring as the tour books make it sound?

Nope, the food was absolutely delicious. The typical meals weren't necessarily anything to write home about as culinary marvels, but every meal was flavorful and well cooked. There were a couple of the fancier restaurants that I would write home about. (and I am?) If you ever find yourself in old town Havana go eat at Cafe Nao by the water. I had creamy shrimp on seasoned noodles that I will dream about.


6. It's great not worrying about trip details.

And my non-worry was well founded. We liked our first room in Havana so much that we booked with them for the nights when we returned at the end, and thus already had a key to get in the building when we showed up. Our rooms that were booked together with our dive package were wonderful, and our dive guide helped set us up in a great place in Trinidad through people he knew. For getting around we ended up taking taxis instead of buses everywhere, and all of them were super easy to set up. Trying to do it before would have been a mess and probably not worked anyway. So we took care of the details we needed to, and didn't need to worry about the rest.

So there's you have just a glimpse into what filled our 10 days on the island. There's so much more to come, with stories and pictures and videos both above water and below.

And very fittingly, I found the exact spot of the photo I pulled off of Google for my first post. So you can see the colors and shapes are there, it's just not so shiny as the color-corrected photo makes it look.