the helen update: cuba #day6

day 6:

happy birthday tom!! he seemed ok with the entrance into a new decade and he was very happy we were away enjoying such a unique experience to celebrate it. at our hotel breakfast, they tried to bring a cake for tom because our guide told them it was his birthday, but it was a ‘fail’ since it took too long and we were on our way out of the breakfast area before they could execute. we piled into the enestoche-mobile for our ride back to havana to spend our last 2 nights in our favorite suite havana!! we arrived back in time to check in and walk around to some of the little shops. there is not much to buy except for tourist trinkets, but there are a few jewelry artists and of course I needed to bring something small home for myself to remember the trip. as we decided to check out a few museums finally (tom always loves this, me, not to much) and of course everything had just closed and apparently nothing is open on monday which was the following day when we had all the time for sightseeing. oops. we walked down the road a bit to find a place for lunch and we happened into an unexpected experience. good thing we had the mindset ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’ because the place was the definition of a third world road side stop complete with flies everywhere, cats eating off the floor, and an antique metal rotisserie with chickens roasting which looked like they’d been there for a week. I was skeptical, but we decided to have an authentic cuban experience. the prices on the menu were crazy, 3 “kooks” for a chicken meal! what?? It was a scene, but we went with it. 2 cuban ladies were running the shop, no tourists in sight, locals in and out buying beer, and a chef in the back hard at work on our chicken meals. we of course attempted to chat with the waitress who did not speak a word of english and then tom went to photograph the chef at work in the kitchen. I had that thought that maybe he should not go see where this meal was being cooked because the place was honestly a wreck, but for some reason, it never looks that bad in the photos as you will note below even through I tried to capture the rawness of the experience. we waited so long for the food and we were wondering what the heck he was doing to the chickens!! but when the meal appeared, it was like a work of art on a plate and it tasted great. #onlyincuba

after lunch and a quick stop a the tourist-trap flea market on the water, it looked like it might downpour any moment, so we opted to head back to the suite. the rain never came so we enjoyed some relaxation time on the roof deck and tom enjoyed his birthday cigar and a glass of cuban rum. amazingly and for the first time so far, the humidity dropped for a bit and it was breezy and comfortable outside probably due to the little storm that passed without unloading any rain. by the time we headed back out for the dinner, it was of course hot and humid again – cue the hair frizz! we had the birthday dinner at chef ivan justo - a very unique restaurant located again in an unassuming little colonial apartment with the most unassuming entrance – it’s a theme. though we felt a little rushed due to the speedy nyc-style service, the ambiance was great, the meal was excellent and the overall experience so unique. we strolled back to the suite using the backroads and seeing true havana life: a barber at work at 10 pm in his home shop, people sitting around their living rooms that are pretty much open to the street with no privacy or screens to keep out animals, bugs or people like us looking in on them for that matter. mostly they watch tv or sitting around in groups talking. as mentioned, there is no internet and the tv’s have only 8 channels. yaniet explained that they get movies and music on usb’s that are shared on the black market so if they are lucky enough to have a tv with a usb input, that is great, but most of the tv’s in the homes are the big old clunky heavy ones with the giant back sides.

I thought I would share the answers to a few questions a friend asked about the trip:

“where you able to travel wherever you wanted to go?”

yes - there were no limits as far as we were aware. they seemed to love it when they found out we were American and the word amigo was spoken often in these chats!

“do they speak of the government at all?”

they do not initiate conversations about the government, fidel, etc, however we read ahead of time not to talk politics, so we didn’t particularly initiate it either. after a few days with our guide, we felt comfortable enough to bring it up and she shared with us memories of fidel speaking in the large square addressing the people and how much everyone loved him. they seem to revere him to this day and we never sensed any negativity from them toward him.

“do they realize how far behind they are as a country?”

they are somewhat aware, but the reality is, they know life as they know it, and they accept it. our guide was a very smart young lady who seem to have a good understanding of the fact that things are far behind, and she feels lucky to have a laptop and other luxuries. though she lives simply, she does not feel that she is missing anything and seemed very content and happy in her life, with typical career goals as any young girl might have - hers: to someday be an event planner.

“what do they think about our upcoming election?”

they just shake their heads at the mere mention of trump.