Back from Cuba, got that strange feeling you get right directly after something youīve been looking forward to for a long time ends. Cuba was a strange little island, so different from anywhere Iīve ever been. Things were different right off the plane with all the propaganda billboards, all the jineteros (street hustlers), food, housing, poverty and political ideology. Dan and I stayed in guest houses every night, it was a great way to talk to Cubans and get different viewpoints about the pluses and minuses of their country.
I landed around 3:30 or so, but those bastards in customs searched everything in my bag and I didnīt actually step out of the airport till well after 4. Danīs flight landed all of 15 minutes before mine, he had the same problems with customs as me. We met up at the guest house in La Habana Vieja, it was good to see him. He thinks Iīm taller than him now, maybe, weīll have to bust out the measuring tape next time around. We kicked it around Havana for a couple days, being offered innumerable cigars, lots of pot, and lots of women. Besides this annoyance, the city was incredible looking, especially in the part of town where we were staying. All the castles and old government buildings were well maintained around the waterfront, huge churches and cool little overpriced bars and diners doing all they could to cash in on the fact that Ernest Hemingway went there a few times back in the 30īs. Yesterday I walked along the malecon (road along the sea) all the way to the other side of Havana to see the Riviera, that hotel built by Meyer Lansky the old gangster from many years ago, it was cool looking. We left Havana the third day for Trinidad, this old Spanish colonial town on the southern coast. it was okay, the street hustlers were still out in full force and food started to become a problem. There were some neat museums and churches, this one museum even had a chunk of this US spy plane the Cubans shot down back in 67 I think.
We left Trinidad for Cienfuegos after a few days, Cienfuegos is another waterfront town about an hour and a half west of Trinidad but is very industry oriented. Thereīs a 3/4 completed nuclear power plant there that god willing wonīt ever get finished, apparently the thingīs got the capacity to be the Chernoble of the western hemisphere. We saw this awesome cemetery full of the corpses of 19th century aristocrats who were all buried in italian marble, some of which was pre shaped in italy. These were the same people who had their own portraits on the labels of the cigars they smoked. It was cool walking around, but I had a hard time looking at all that marble and not thinking about how cool of a skatepark I could build with all of it. Thatīs probably just me.
Dan and Iīs inability to find beans and rice in Cienfuegos came to a head the only afternoon we spent there, when we sat in our room at the guest house pouring tomato sauce onto rolls of bread and thinking about how much we were gonna stuff ourselves in the peso vegetarian restaurant back in Havana. Yes, thereīs a peso vegetarian restaurant in Havana, we stumbled across it our second day there as it sat on the street corner like a beacon in the broad daylight beckoning us to come in and eat their rice and surprisingly good veggie burgers. We did, of course, and it was good. Anyway, not being able to find lunch really made us not want to stay another day in Cienfuegos, so we bailed the next morning for Havana and made it all the way to the best part of the trip, the town of Viņales, by mid afternoon. Viņales was so amazingly rad, it was so green and fresh and beautiful and the people were so nice and didnīt want to sell us any hookers that we almost forgot that we were still in Cuba. We spent three nights there, walking around the countryside every day to caves and a huge ugly mural of snails, dinosaurs, and dogs that we laughed about a lot and met good people. When Hemingway tired of Havana and didnīt want to go all the way to Spain for a break, I bet he went to Viņales. It was a good place, and since I canīt seem to be more specific than that, Iīll stop right there.
We rode back to Havana with two other travelers in a taxi driven by a man with the unfortunate name of Fidel, I imagine itīs like being from the US and having a name like Madonna, anyway his cab reeked of gasoline and threatened to break down the closer we got to Havana, luckily we made it and paid him before he drove another mile that probably caused his car to finally break down. The poor machine was in revolt, stinking up the back seat and stalling whenever it damn well felt like it. Fix your cab, Fidel.
I walked a shitload our last full day in Havana, saw the Riviera, and discovered these dirt cheap deep fried vegetable protein balls that I ate way too many of and are now still probably lodged somewhere in my colon like the proud soldiers who refused to evacuate from John Wayneīs guts before he kicked the bucket. I picked up some gifts for people, Dan and I called it a night pretty early. This morning I said goodbye to my brother Dan again, weīve done this a few times now, and we probably wonīt see each other again till burning man next August. It was really good seeing him, hey it turns out we even travel pretty well together. Heīs on a bus right now, Iīm wishing him the best of travels and weīre both gonna have fun till we see each other again. Hopefully Iīll make it to Nicaragua soon, then Corcovado national park here in CR, then hopefully enough time for one more beach before I floss and fly this mofo all the way to Santiago, Chile. Letīs roll.