the helen update: September 2016

let’s talk simple pleasures now that we are back home and I can fully appreciate the following:

- using the toilet and putting the used toilet paper into the toilet as opposed to the waste basket

- sitting on a comfy sofa - nowhere in any place we stayed (5 different places in 7 nights) was there a comfortable place to sit

- having access to wifi without thinking about how to get access and plotting and planning to make it happen (more about this later, but I promise to not take this for granted. ever.

- ice. not having to think about using ice, how was it made and where it’s from before putting it into a drink

- towels - having more than one available

- a comfy bedd with soft luxurious sheets!!!!! #heaven

- not sweating - the weather was hot hot hot and humid humid humid. the. entire. time.

here's a recap of day 1 for those who have requested to hear about it in detail:

day 1: we arrived at jet blue in jfk to take our first charter flight not knowing what to expect. we had to be there 4 hours prior to departure and we waited on a variety of lines to check luggage, pay fees, etc, but we boarded a comfy plane and made it to havana on schedule. upon landing, the airport folks were less than friendly or welcoming, but when we went through the exit door, it was a scene and for the first time we knew what it might be like to be a celebrity! outside the roped off area were hundreds of cubans just staring at every person who walked out that door. they were clearly each waiting for their special relative. all eyes were on us #literally as we looked for our airport pickup who was no where in sight and we were like honey to bees for the many taxi drivers. tom thought the men must not see blond hair often because they surrounded me speaking spanish at 100mph and even with all my spanish practice prior to the trip, I was like a deer in the headlights! we finally found our ride and he didn’t speak a word of english but he got us safely to our first home of the trip or "casa particular” (which means bed and breakfast). we climbed 72 stairs to be shown to our room, which I will now refer to as our ‘cell’ since it was like a cement box with no windows. oddly, the bathroom was actually pretty nice :) we immediately asked if we could switch to a room with a window and we were given a very long story in broken english about a broken air conditioner and ‘sorry about that, it happens’ and so we tried to settle in, but we both agreed that we would look for another place to stay and we headed out to discover the city.

first impression: streets are so dirty, many smell like garbage that has not been emptied in weeks. leering men who must never have seen many blonde women (tom notes this again and again) but I think the staring is just the cuban way because after awhile we don't even notice it - anyway we barely made it a block before a boisterous transvestite outside a local bar started to dance with me and of course, I embraced this and within minutes had a broken flip flop (LITERALLY) so I was barefoot (note the prior dirty street mention, yikes) and all the cubans (and tom) had their cameras on us which was really funny. when the song ended, we went into the bar for a quick drink and the cuban waitress taped up my flip flop so I could make it through the afternoon without tackling the 72 steps again to get another pair of shoes and at this point I figured this was the start of a pretty unusual trip. we walked to the area where I had booked another casa for the end of the trip and we thought we’d better check that out and see if they could take us sooner. in the meantime we stumbled onto a boutique hotel which seemed pretty nice so we asked if they had a room for the night and YIPPEE they could take us, but not until the following night - we only had one request - una ventana por favor? (a window please?) So we figured we had to suck up the prison cell for one night and then we would move.

we hunted for the "etecsa" store to line up to purchase an internet card which is needed in order to use the “free” wifi - in quotes only because it is not really free as you need to pay for the card ($10 for 5 hours of usage, not bad). doubling back to the cell phone service overview - cubans have cell phones and there is one phone service carrier on the island - cubacel - but cubans do not use this for data at all as it’s way too expensive. they purchase internet cards and then find hot spots to connect. you might think ‘no big deal, hit up an internet cafe and all good’ - nope. there are no hot spots per say for them to sit and the hot spots are really only at hotels, so you always know where there is a hotel because there are crowds of cubans standing outside on their phones!! all day and all night! it’s incredible. the little kids are running around the streets while their parents use the wifi sitting on the curbs or sidewalks. the hotels don’t seem to mind, though a few of higher end places do not allow ‘generic card usage’ in order to keep away the riff raff. (these places sell their own cards which are encoded with a different password system). for me, since I had to be somewhat in touch for work, I have allowed data usage for my email only and it seems to work though I’m sure my bill is going to be through the roof this month. oh and every time you want to connect, it requires typing in a long series of numbers from the back of the card - and each time you buy a new card, the series of numbers is different, so as soon as you think you have memorized the number, forget it because the next card is different. #goodtimes

I got my card and thought I was good to go, but I that point, I didn’t know about the above situation in terms of finding hot spots… so the card is not really that useful because there are not enough hot spots… onward...

we strolled looking for a good dinner spot. we found out later that there are 2 types of restaurants in the country - government or private - private restaurants are called “paladars” and we were told not to go to government restaurants because they are terrible. without knowing this, we happened into a ‘paladar’ and it was amazing - impeccable service equal to a 5-star in nyc, and the food was lovely. in the paladars, the restaurants are usually found on the upper floors since they are converted apartments that were made into restaurants. often times there are people living in the apartment building where the restaurants are, so as you climb stairs you might pass by someone’s home on the way up. many of the paladars have open air dining with tables on the balconies, or sometimes the restaurant has a roof area where the tables are set up outside. “paladar los mercaderes” had a balcony and we sat near it while coveting the table on the balcony that was occupied, however, halfway through the meal, there was a loud continuous noise right outside the window similar to the sound of a huge generator and it went on for a very very long time without stopping!! turns out it was a water truck delivering water to the water tower on the building across the street. at that point, we were pretty thankful we didn’t have the balcony seating because it was loud loud loud for a very long time (easily over 30 minutes….) apparently this was a common occurrence as we found out during the week.

after dinner, we took a stroll around and as we passed what appeared to be an office building, the guard invited us in to see it. though the place was clearly closed, he gave us a full tour of the lobby, then took us up in an elevator to the rooftop in the dark which was only only 3 floors up. since the buildings in the city are not tall, this gave us a nice view of old havana. the guy spoke very little english but managed to tell us everything about the building and the view. when he took us down in the elevator he said plainly “do you have money? 5-dollars?” which we thought was so funny as we were planning to give him money but didn’t think he would so blatantly ask. it’s the cuban way.

we went back to our windowless room, showered off the grime of the city (this is not meant as an exaggeration) and even though the room was air conditioned which was a huge relief after the long hot day, we still had the worst night sleep dreaming of solitary confinement.