April 28, 2016
When I woke up this morning I stepped on the tile and
tried to remember “does the tile have designs in it?” Nah, that funny little thing is a small red
legged crab on the floor next to the bathroom.
About 3 inches around it was “ushered’ outside.
We visited a local Bed
and Breakfast on the beach. For 25 CUC a
night you get a room with bath and breakfast.
Remember that’s about $28 a night.
One British gentleman had been in the unit he rented for months.
Probably cheaper than living in his actual home in Europe. But remember you must live local to survive
here, translation, rustic. This B&B
was quite nice by normal Cuban standards.
I was impressed with the kitchen.
The owner showed us her bookkeeping duties for the state. This is when an “aha!” moment happened for
us. In every hotel, B&B, short term
rental or whatever, the owner must report to the state every day, who has
checked in and who has checked out. That’s
why we had to turn over our passports at every hotel! The listening people are also tracking us and
anyone else who comes to Cuba. And of
course keeping track of how much money the owner is making in order to tax
them.
"
"Long live Fidel, Raul and their family"
The Bed and Breakfast with a fabulous view
A well equipped kitchen
People transporters, old and new.
A souvenir for Parker
After the B&B we went to visit an indigenous group
running a coconut farm/ranch, or whatever they call it. Their name was Gruppo Nengo’n Kiriba’. They have a traditional dance and music
ensemble. We danced and appreciated the
fact that the 300 people of this group and their ancestors have lived here
since the 1800’s. But their dances and
music were very, uh, boring. Not at all
like the lively Caribbean influenced dance and music we were used to seeing.
The dancing was derived from using the sole of your foot to move the drying
cocoa seeds around. They were very
gracious people. Their homes were nicely
painted, well-kept with beautiful flower gardens. Not at all like the shanties
were we used to seeing. They fed us a
local lunch that was mostly good. The
soup was great as was the chocolate drink for desert. In between was the very typical rice, beans
etc. All the food was all the same color, kind of a orange brown.
Cocoa Farmer
and they danced... in the foreground are the soup bowls. Hollowed out coconut shells.
Gift shop
Chow line
Aren't they sweet!?
Heading out for the drive back to Santiago de Cuba; 5 hours,
bumpy, twisty, rough, slippery in the mountains, but we were fine. We stopped at the Cuban lookout to see the US
Naval base Guantanamo Bay. The base is
fairly far away. You can’t get near it
because the Cuban land around it is closed to all except residents. The base is its own entity. The Cubans (Fidel) turned off the water and
electricity to the base so the base runs totally unconnected to the
Island. They generate their own
electricity, desalinate all the needed water and everything they need is boated
or flown in daily. The compound, at best
count, is home to between 6-7,000 people; families, service personnel,
contractors and criminals. There are
public schools there. Hmmm…. “So, where
did you go to high school?” “Guantanamo
Bay High.”
The bus stop bathrooms were exactly like most bathrooms in
other countries. (Except for China. They are in a league of their own! Ugh!) Actually, I believe Americans are the
only people who really care about bathroom cleanliness. I don’t mean in people’s homes, but rest
stops, coffee shops, etc. We generally
expect that the toilets flush, water runs from the sink faucet and hopefully,
maybe there would be some soap? I mean,
what is the lady sitting in front of the bathroom that you must pay, doing
besides opening the door for you? (Ah,
that’s right. Making extra money.) In any case, the tour group ladies and I had
a system. A few of us would carry the
little soaps from the nicer hotels we had stayed at and also toilet paper from
home or a hotel. At each stop the supplier
would hand the first lady the soap. The
lady would take it in and use it and leave it there for the rest of us. It feels so good to wash your hands after
using some of those bathrooms! Here’s a
great story: Before we left Bob took a
couple rolls of toilet paper and unwound them into about a quarter of each
roll. Then he used our meal saver thingy
and sucked all the air out of the toilet paper and sealed it. We carried little packets of toilet paper and
shared them. Once at a stop, standing in
a long line I was passing out toilet paper to the tour ladies and joking around
saying “It’s so soft”. The lady in front
of me was not with our group but I gave her some anyway. She was German and typically in Cuba the
Germans didn’t like Americans. But this
lady was so happy and pleased. When we
saw each other later at the coffee bar she came over and said “thank you.” That’s me, doncha know? Improving German American relations with
toilet paper!
We got to the Melia Santiago De Cuba hotel about 6 pm. Just enough time to change, have cigars and
rum and then at 7:30 pile into a legend of 1950’s and go cruisin’ the streets of Santiago de Cuba. It was a perfect ending to a wonderful trip.
We were sorry our trip was ending, but also glad. We were weary, but filled with a wonderful sense of what Cuba really is like.
