Search for the Big Ball of Yarn

April 20, 2016

We enjoyed another very interesting lecture by Carlos Alzugaray, a former ambassador and faculty member. His topic was “political and economic change”. Starting to see a theme here, but still very interesting.

Cuba is generally a happy country and people are looking forward to the USA lifting the embargo/blockade. Carlos explained that most of Cuba’s problems are because of the American Embargo or as they like to refer to it the “Blockade”. Carlos gave a very good history of Cuba which I found very interesting. However, he skipped right over the Bay of Pigs situation as if it never occurred. It was if the US woke up one day and decided to embargo Cuba for no reason at all. There was a notable lack of discussion regarding the Soviet Union missiles. But he provided an excellent explanation of the history of Cuba.

After the presentation we went to a local market. We really enjoyed this excursion. As Alfredo our tour leader said “We could take your through this local market and you wouldn’t understand it at all.” Alfredo gave each couple 1 CUC = 24 Pesos about $1.13 (depending on the day) to buy dinner for 2 adults. We were to only spend the 1 CUC and our bus driver would pick the best bag of food. Before we started off into the open air market, Rene took us to the building where Cubans get their “free” food. Each family has a ration book which looks similar to the ration books that were used in the US during WWII. The booklet stated who could pick up the food, how many people were to be fed with this particular book and when and how much rice and beans each family received every month. That’s right, the “free” food is black beans and white rice. This way everyone has some food. Bob and I headed back out to the open air market to see what was available and for how much. Pretty quick we realized that we couldn’t afford any meat, chicken, pork etc. We bought 1 carrot, I green pepper, 1 tomato and 2 sorry looking cobs of corn. We had a bit of trouble communicating how much rice and beans we wanted and we got a little more than we needed. We couldn’t afford the garlic, onions, lettuce and such. We found a young man holding a flat of eggs and found out they were 2 CUPs each. That was a lot of money. But we were careful and bought 2 eggs! When we got back on the bus our bus, the driver picked out the best bag of food. We won!! It was the corn and eggs that put us over the top. It was a great experience. Trying to figure out the money, communicate with the Cubans without a Spanish speaking person to make it easy for us and trying to buy something that we would eat. Our bus driver loved getting all the food, by the way! p.s. The driver told us the eggs were protein and the corn could be used in soup.

Here's where you buy your rice and beans. They dump it into a plastic grocery bag for you.

These items were too expensive for our budget.

Meat was way beyond our budget!

Our next stop was the Culinary Association. Before the chef would teach us how to make pork, the bartender taught us how to make mojitos. The bartender needed 2 “assistants” and our travel mates picked us because we won the market game. Cool! We had a blast making mojitos. True Mojitos are made with Yerba Buena Mint, not regular mint. Yerba Buena mint isn’t so “minty.” Also, the Yerba Buena mint stems are muddled not the leaves. We now grow Yerba Buena mint in our backyard.

With Mojitos in hand, we watched as the Chef taught us how to make a pork dinner. We then moved to the restaurant where the students make, serve and clean up the meals.

That is Rene our Cuban tour guide on the left, the bartender and his assistant.

Our fearless and very wonderful guides and bus driver! Alfredo, Rene and our bus driver.

These are some of our travel mates at the lunch put on by the Culinary Association students.

And we sure enjoyed making and drinking mojitos!

Now it was off to a film institute to see how students are trained in filmmaking, including animated shorts. We saw a short film that is relatively famous and very good.

All the students we had seen so far and for the rest of the trip are receiving their free two year education. They are then expected to work for two years after graduation in their field in whichever location the “state” decides they should work. This could be near their home or not, or even in another country. Cuba exports workers, especially medical staff, to South America, Russia and Africa. After the two year service is completed then Cubans are free to find a job within Cuba. However, that isn’t very easy. One night after dinner out, we stopped in to a lovely little bar in the hotel and started talking with the bartender, Henry. He was in his mid 20’s and an excellent bartender. We asked him questions about life in Cuba. When I asked Henry about his free 2 year education he said “Yes, I am a civil engineer.” I asked why he wasn’t working as a civil engineer and he replied with a smile “It’s complicated. I make a lot more money as a bartender than as a civil engineer.”

By the way the tour bus driver makes more than a doctor in Cuba. Actually, bartenders, bicitaxi drivers, bus drivers and others in service jobs make more than state-paid doctors. But for their extra income opportunity they pay about 80% tax. Education, health care and as you have learned food is free….sort of.

Before dinner we rented a 1952 pink Cadillac convertible and took our Cooper wine to the (empty) Revolutionary Square for photos. It was a lovely evening. As we literally roared around Habana I had a thought. “Who would even have thought that this little girl from So Cal would be riding through the streets of Habana in a pink Cadillac?” Life is good!

We had a night on our own to eat dinner wherever we wanted. As usual, BC had researched and found a lovely paladar within walking distance of our hotel. We sat on the roof top and enjoyed a wonderful meal. It was very special.

After dinner and back at the hotel we went to the jazz bar at the Melia hotel. The music was amazing. The jazz group, which cannot play or travel outside the country, was as good as any group you can hear in the US. We listened, danced, and closed the joint. We bought their CD for 10 CUCs and play it often here at home. Below is a link to one of their songs.