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!