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. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJE74NlZmDc

All of Me- Vivian Perez & Luz D’ Habana singer Ly Rodriguez

What a fabulous day!  bc and gc

April 19, 2016   

After breakfast we had a private lecture by Camilo Garcia from the National Union of Writers and Artists in Cuba (UNEAC).  He discussed the economic, political and social challenges Cuba faces from pre-revolution (1959), to post embargo and Russian departure from Cuba, a time they call the “troubled times.”   Before being with the UNEAC Mr. Garcia was a diplomat from Cuba to the US, Canada and Europe.  He was one of the privileged few who were able to travel outside Cuba.  Cubans are happy that the “blockade” as they call the embargo, will be lifted.  Cubans like Americans and want us to visit.   

After the lecture we traveled a short distance in our bus to Old Habana.  By the way, the bus was made in China.  No really!  It was quite nice.  We walked through old Habana seeing many crumbled buildings and some newly restored buildings.  Both rural and urban homes, where most Cubans live are run down.  The norm is peeling paint, concrete floors, unsafe stairs (what railings?) and walks, crumbling walls, no windows just wooden louvres, and no air conditioning.   In 1959 when Fidel came into power the wealthy Americans lived in Old Habana in lovely, large exquisitely furnished and maintained homes.   These Americans were mostly involved in mob activities and lots of money flowed in Cuba.  Cuba was the American mob bosses playground.   When Fidel came into power all the Americans escaped immediately leaving everything, including their homes, furnishings and cars.  That is why there are so many 1950’s American made cars in Cuba today.  Also the reason there are so many 1950’s American cars in Cuba is because Cuba doesn’t build much, including cars.  (Most people ride bikes.)  The other type of car we saw were very utilitarian small box like cars from Russia.  They come in your choice of color as long as your choice is blue or white.  When Fidel came into power in 1959 all these beautiful mansions in Old Habana and elsewhere in Cuba were assigned to multiple families.  So a home that was meant for one family, was now home to five or six families.  Over the last 57 years no one has kept these homes up.  Toilets break and they stay broken, walls have holes and are not fixed, tile is broken and never repaired, water and electrical lines are not repaired….after 57 years that’s a lot of crumbling buildings. 

The United States Embassy

After lunching at La Imprenta,   we went to the Old Habana restoration school, La Escuela Taller Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos.  There we met the young students who are accepted to this school.  It is difficult to get into this school.  The students spend 2 years at the school learning varied types of restoration and restoration materials.  They work in Old Habana.  This is their “free education.” 

We then walked to the Camera Obscura.  I found this interesting and odd at the same time.  You go up a rickety elevator that holds only ocho (8) people.  We were then ushered into a small dark room with a large white dish like thing.  It reminded me of the old dishes people had in their yards to get TV and internet.  There was a mirror up in the ceiling that reflected onto the white dish (sphere.)  Then a man used a stick to move the mirror around and we could see all of Habana!  We thought it was cool, but so impractical given the thousands of other things that Cuba could spend money on.  After the dizzying display, we got out of the tiny room and walked around the roof of the building to see, you guessed it, all of Habana!  Just be careful when you get near the roof line.  There are no railings and there were partial rebar pieces sticking up. 

A domed building left by the Russians.



Fortress de San Carlos de la Cabana

We were taken to Revolutionary Square.  You might have seen pictures of Mr. Obama speaking to the Cubans at this location.  It is basically a black topped parking lot type area.  One of the buildings has an outline picture of Che Guevera.

While we were duly impressed by this Cuban spot of importance, we were more impressed by the taxis that drove up and parked along the curb.  Oh yeah!!! 

I took these two pictures with my cell phone.  They are some of my most favorite pictures of the trip.  I love the angle, colors and the memory it provides!

Going back to the hotel we met in small groups with “select” individuals to discuss what life, work and family life is like in Cuba.  “Everything is free” is the general mantra.  Education, health care, food, etc. are all free.   But homes and apartments are hard to get.  Many live in their parents’ home, which is most likely an apartment, and take over the home at the parent’s death.  Interestingly we were told that there are 127 people for every 1 doctor.  The doctor lives in the neighborhood of the community he or she serves. 

So “you can see the Dr. anytime for free.”    We later found out that the “local” Doctor is the local Doctor for many local neighborhoods.  The Doctor works 1 day a week for a certain number of hours at each location. 

 

We had a nice dinner at La Casa.

See you tomorrow!  bc and gc

October 9, 2016.  Welcome to our blog about our trip to Cuba in April 2016.  I plan to post a new post every day.  Keep your fingers crossed that this actually works! 

Enjoy! bc and gc 

In the fall of 2015 we decided to take a trip to Cuba.  This trip has been on our bucket list for many years.  Bob has wanted to go to Cuba for many decades.  He was drafted into the Navy in 1968 and worked in photo intelligence in the naval intelligence forces (no puns required).  In the late 60’s and early 70’s his job was to review U-2 reconnaissance photography taken over various parts of Cuba during that time of “peaceful” coexistence.  So to see places for real was going to be intriguing.  

 

Contrary to what the internet has told you (!), Cuba is not open to American travelers.  There are very specific rules and guidelines to follow in order for an American to enter Cuba, legally.  As you know, Mr. Obama opened an American Embassy in Habana.  But American travelers must go on “People to People” trips approved by the US Treasury.  There are no monetary, cultural or economic relationships between Cuba and America. 

 

Bob researched trips to Cuba extensively and found that “Insight Cuba” was the best program to use.  We chose their 13 day trip.  We figured we might as well see it all if we were going to go.  So we made our reservations and down payment in September 2015.  Then in January Mr. Obama announced that he was going to Cuba!  We were lucky that he decided to go when we would not be there.  Several of our travel mates had their earlier Cuba trips canceled due to Mr. Obama’s visit. 

 

We had a conference call with Insight Cuba and our travel mates six weeks before our trip.  This is where we learned more about the processes of traveling to Cuba.  In order to enter Cuba we had to buy specific health insurance, agree to monetary guidelines and other stipulations.  We received permission from the US Treasury and then on April 12, 2016 we began our trip! 

April 13, 2016   We flew to Philadelphia to spend a few days with Mike, Jenn, Samantha and Sydney.  We love going to see them because we love them so much and it’s so much fun to hang out with them!  But also it’s a nice way to get acclimated to the 3 hour time change while having a blast with our kiddos.  We visited with Lisa and Greg also and celebrated Lisa’s birthday.  It was lots of fun. 

April 16, 2016  We said goodbye to our family and flew to Miami.  We settled into a hotel and relaxed.

April 17, 2016  After a little taxi-mall shopping in Miami for items necessary, yet not brought, we were prepared to meet the gang of 23 for an informative talk by our leader Alfredo.  Alfredo lives in Costa Rica after having grown up in Southern California.  He has done several trips to Cuba and turned out to be a wonderful leader. 

April 18, 2016  I was so happy that our flight wasn’t until noon!  Yay!  We caught a shuttle to the Miami airport and proceeded to get checked in.  Looking back, it is not surprising that our actual flight time was 45 minutes and it took close to 3 hours to “check in”.  And of course, the flight was delayed because the incoming flight was delayed.  No doubt it was delayed due to the regular airline check in procedures that we later experienced in Cuba!  In any case, we flew to Jose Marti International Airport in Habana, Cuba.  Yes, Habana is the proper spelling of what we colloquially call Havana.  And the correct pronunciation of the country is not cue-ba but rather coo-ba spelled Cuba.





After a 45 minute, flight with the usual lines to get in and out of the country, we were on Cuban soil.  The Miami TSA agents opened one of our suitcases to give us back the TSA approved lock that they cut off our suitcase.  Hmmm…. Let’s not go there.  While standing by the luggage carousel a Cuban lady came up to me, picked up my Insight Cuba badge that we were instructed to wear and asked me what my name was.  I told her, she asked me why I was in Cuba and evidently my response was acceptable as she said “welcome.”  I’m in!!

 We headed for the Rancho Boyeros restaurant for chicken, pork, salad, taro root, fried plantains, black beans and rice, with mojitos and Cuban cigars.  Now there’s an introduction to Cuban culture!  I was sure I wasn’t going to like Mojitos as I’m not a mint with my booze kinda’ gal.  But let me tell you, Cuban Mojitos are fabulous and cheap!  The food was great, the bathrooms weren’t, but that’s what we found throughout the entire trip.  Our Cuban tour guide Rene gave us a short talk on how Cuban cigars are made and smoked.  We were given a Cohiba to smoke.  That was very nice, however, I’d be hard pressed if I had to smoke that entire cigar in my lifetime.  However, BC kept track of them throughout our trip and we brought them back.  Rene also gave us a short talk on Cuban rum, with tastings, naturally.  I mean we are in Cuba, right?  It was a very nice start to our tour.  We got to know the other travelers in our group and that was nice. 

We then were taken to Hotel Melia Cohiba in Habana.  It’s a very nice hotel.  We were being spoiled but didn’t realize it yet!  Ha!  We had a lovely dinner in Old Habana of beans/rice, chicken/pork. 

 Since there is no monetary exchange allowed between America and Cuba, every transaction for Americans in Cuba is Cuban cash.  No US money, credit cards or travelers cheques are allowed.  We had to physically carry all our cash for the entire trip.  BC changed some of our US money into CUCs.  (Cuban Convertible Currency.  Pronounced “kooks”)  There are two types of currency in Cuba.  CUCs and the Cuban Peso (CUP).  One CUC equals one American dollar.  Oh wait!  There is a 13% surcharge for exchanging US dollars into CUCs.   It became a game as to where we can exchange US money, how much would they let us exchange and will the exchange office have enough CUCs?  We learned that they run out sometimes.  We didn’t want to exchange too much cash as we are not allowed to take CUCs out of the country and there is a 10% fee to change CUCs back into US currency.  Most Cubans are paid in CUPs which naturally, are worth less.  One CUC equals 24 CUPs.  Are you following me?  Don’t worry, you’ll catch on…

 There is internet service and cell phones in Cuba, however, the internet is very sketchy and we decided we didn’t want to chance or pay for a service that may or may not work and would not be safe to use.   Bob rented a Cuban cell phone for us to use for emergencies.  Luckily we didn’t have to use it, though we did text our kids once in a while.  We took our cell phones to use for a camera, timer and to play games and of course tell us what time it was!   We put our phones on airplane mode when we took off from Miami and didn’t change it until we landed back in Miami 13 days later.  It was actually nice to be free from the internet and phones.  

Stay tuned for more fun.  bc and gc
PS.  Please forgive the font issues, spacing and all.  Blogger is very hard to work with!  gc

May 10, 2013

Well, here we are at the end of our trip.  Today is a rainy, blustery day in Zurich, but I’m jumping ahead.

We spent one night in Lucerne after leaving Geneva.  We walked on the very famous bridge which goes over the lake.  

And stopped to quench our thirst.

We found a nice restaurant and decided to eat in the wine cellar.  I had a chicken pot pie.  This was nothing I've ever seen before!  The crust was a huge croissant, very light and flaky and the inside was filled with a tomato type broth, with crisp vegetables, chicken and potatoes.  It was great!  Bc had a nice seafood trio with risotto.  

On Thursday morning we took a lovely 1 hour boat cruise around Lake Lucerne.  It was very relaxing and beautiful.

Then we packed up, bc found our car and drove it to our hotel where I was waiting with the bags.  This is not as easy as it seems.  The getting the car part, not the bags.  It’s quite a feat just trying to maneuver through the streets of Lucerne, or any city in Switzerland for that matter.  I saw him coming up the road and moved the barricades so he could get out of the street and park.  We didn't have too much trouble getting out of town.  We only had to go around the block once!

It was a short drive, half an hour, to Zurich.  We found our hotel “Helmhaus” and parked right in front.  Again, we weren't sure this was a street, but oh well!  A very nice young man greeted us, gave us a glass of water while we waited 10 minutes for our room to be finished.  We have a very nice room.  Very European.  The key room is way too awesome!

It was a lovely sunny day, so we set out to park the car.  We found the car park and left the car and walked back to the hotel.  By this time it was around 2pm and we found a pizza place right around the corner and sat in the shade of the trees and had a nice lunch.  The pizzas here aren't as fattening as the ones in the states.  Here they are a very thin, crisp crust with a light smattering of a delicious tomato/pizza sauce with a little cheese and Parma ham.  Delicious!  We shared a pizza and it was perfect. 

We walked to the Zurich Museum of History.  They are having the last few days of a Marc Chagall exhibition.  We bought our tickets which came with a little metal tag with the letter “A” on it.  We clipped it on our shirts though no one told us why we should wear it.  We got in the queue for the “free headsets” but the line didn’t move.  We finally figured out it was because they had no more audio headsets and people were standing in this line waiting for someone to turn in their headset!  We gave up on that and went to the exhibition.  It was very crowded, which isn’t fun.  But we did get to see all the paintings and read some of the information that was in English.  He was a very prolific artist!  We saw that there was another area of the museum where we could see Monet, Manet, Rodin, Van Gogh and etc.  We asked the lady checking for the metal letter clips where it was and she said around the corner, but first we had to stand in the shorter line to pay “a little bit more.”  So off we go to pay some more.  We waited patiently and finally we showed the lady at the money counter the place we wanted to go on the map.  She said “It’s just around the corner.”  She didn’t ask for any money so around the corner we go, to a peaceful, uncrowded area to see some wonderful art, up close.  Nice!  We finished, “recycled” our “A” pin and started to walk around the city.  Here are some pics of the museum.  There is an amazing bronze outside the museum by Rodin.  It’s called the “Gates of Hell.” 

We came back to the hotel and rested, then set out for dinner.  We found the Savoy Hotel across the river and had a very nice time.  It’s very elegant, with a great pianist.  I had tri-color Gnocchi with baby artichokes all around the outside of the plate.  Bc had Pate Maison and it was equally beautiful and great.  That with a nice bottle of Burgundy from Santenay.  Nice…. We had just been in Santenay on our barge cruise.  It was a quiet walk home through the city to our hotel. 

This morning it has been raining pretty steady.  We walked up the hill to get the car out of the car park ($48.00 francs) so we could take it to get gas.  With Francine’s help we found a gas station and filled up ($92 US!) .  Then another twisty trip back to the car park to leave the car again.

We walked around and went to the Cathedral with Swiss Art, but it was closed.  But here is the sign for something.  We just don’t know what. 

Then across the bridge to the Fraumunster Church.  This church has windows that Marc Chagall designed.  They are incredible.  We couldn’t take pictures inside, but bc took pictures of the bookmarks and magnet we bought. 

We stopped to have a cappuccino and hot chocolate and now are back at the room repacking everything for the trip home.  We are hoping the weather clears a little this afternoon so we can walk about later. 

Tomorrow we will fly from Zurich to Paris.  Overnight in Paris.  Sunday fly from Paris to JFK.  Overnight in JFK.  Monday we fly from JFK to LAX and onto Sacramento where my mom will pick us up.  So please send a good thought for smooth travels for us. 

This has been a wonderful vacation.  So many different experiences.  I would like to say that I am very lucky to have a traveling partner and husband, who plans the entire itinerary for each vacation.  There is a confirmation for every plane, car, hotel, boat, even the Anne Frank Museum! Traveling and seeing new things is such a great education and experience.  However, traveling can be tough sometimes.  Like when plans change because of something beyond your control, you get lost (a lot), a marathon is in the way of finding your hotel, one of you gets the sniffles or something worse, you are in very small quarters for a month straight, or you just get plain old tired.  And there is the whole luggage thing.  Dragging your “life” around can be wearisome.  Bc and I have made it through all this, with a smile for each other and for that I am grateful.

Here’s how awesome he is.  Yesterday we were driving from Lucerne to Zurich when he asked me to reset his watch.  Evidently the stem caught on his pants pocket and changed the time.  Since I don’t wear a watch (and don’t have access to my phone for the time) it is important that his watch be correct.  I played around with it for a bit, trying to get the stem to pull out, finally got it set to 12:45 (after much discussion between us as to what time it was) and gave it back to him.  He looked at it and said very nicely, “No, that’s time we arrive in Zurich.  It’s 12:15 now.”  I took the watch back laughed and said “You need a new wife!”  bc said “No I’ve almost got you broken in!”  Whatta guy….

We will be glad to be home and to see all of you.  We hope you have enjoyed our blog. 

Love you!  Bc and gc

PS.  I have failed to mention this, but at every opportunity we have searched for the Big Ball of Yarn.  But it isn’t in Fullerton, Claremont, Marlton, JFK, Paris, the French Countryside, Amsterdam, the Rhine River, Germany, or Switzerland.  We will keep looking and let you know when we find it!