Wanderings onward: Cuba

Cuba day 1

Got off the plane and searched high and low for a taxi driver holding a card with my name. No taxi driver. Oh dear. Went to look for an ATM and found one upstairs (broken escalator) and it worked! Went back downstairs and the taxi driver was there

Taxista was an older guy driving a Datsun-like car about the same vintage as the driver. I thought there was little traffic and it seemed pretty sedate after CDMX but he began to rant about it right away. He also went on about 'that devil" Castro and the terrible condition the country was in. I was surprised to hear that from the first Cuban I encountered.

Most cars are those old American beaters but lots of new ones too.

Car makers I didn't recognize, Geelys from China. Personally, I don't find anything romantic or attractive about the old American cars. They spew out huge clouds of noxious fumes. Getting stuck behind one on a bike is horrible. They'd do a lot better on bicycles.

I didn't expect lavish accommodations but was disappointed at how minimal it was. A windowless box. The hostess,

Juana, was out but Lionel, I guess the manager, greeted me and answered my questions. There seemed to be an extended family living there and I really don't know who was who.

The Casa Arco Naranja

The internet thing here is very strange. One company, Etecsa, state owned, has total control. You purchase a card which has a code that you use to access the Internet at specific wifi hot spots: parks, plazas and some hotels.

It's not obvious where to buy cards and when I asked Lionel how to get a card, he said to just go down to the little plaza down the street and someone would be selling them. I found the plaza and it was filled with tough looking Cubans and bewildered looking foreigners. An obviously local woman muttered “wifi?” out of the corner of her mouth. I said, yes, and she led me over to a furtive looking guy who surreptitiously brought out a card and handed it to me for the cost of $3.50 convertible pesos, equivalent to about the same in US, for one hour. Lonely Planet said the card would cost $4.50 CUP so I thought I was getting a deal. Finally, today, a week into my Cuba trip, I learned that the Etecsa stores sell them for $1.50. And the internet connection is very poor. Many times I couldn't get on all day. “Vive la revolution” I'll say for the first of many times. I noticed immediately the stores had very little for sale and there were lines for everything.

Everything looked dilapidated. Tough looking, scowling guys and beautiful sexy women. Hard looks. Wish I had some photos of them but felt uneasy about that.

My neighbourhood, Havana Centro, a gritty, high population density area:

I thought my Spanish was getting better but they speak a dialect that I've heard that other Latinos can't understand either. And the speed at which they can talk is astonishing. It sounds like those disclaimers on TV drug ads.

Lots of beautiful old colonial architecture. Havana must have been really something in it's heyday.