finally back to cuba

yaay, i have time to write in my blog! but just a little. so things will have to be short. and since pictures speak a thousand words, THEORETICALLy you have already heard about 30,000 words about cuba. and that really isn't bad. i'm only going to add another 200 or so here.


cuba was fantastic. the first things you see when you arrive in havana are bush-is-a-terrorist placards, and old cars. i took a taxi from the airport and was welcomed by alex and charles in a casa particular (a private home which rents out rooms to tourists) and the owners cheered as i came in, proclaiming that i'd been terribly missed by the guys :). we wandered havana and i was in awe at the beautiful paint-peeling decrepit old old buildings, the old old cars that everyone drives, the electrical wires hanging everywhere, the omnipresent smell of cigars.

the next day we picked up anf and neesa and continued our trip as a group of five. during our trip we roamed from havana to cienfuegos, to trinidad and then to santa clara. every city was different according to the wealth of the city and the number of tourists (though it didn't even seem that one influenced the other much, trinidad for example had the most tourists and the best beaches and the most colourful houses, while santa clara had the first super markets we saw in the whole of cuba and decidedly less tourists).

we spent our days at beaches, wandering cities, taking lots and lots of photos, eating street pizza, getting stuck in monsoon-like rains, admiring/being bored by (depending who's point of view i'm speaking of) revolutionary museums and statues, drinking rum in mojitos or santa claras or cuba libres, sleeping on the terraces of castles (ok, one castle only, but it was cool), playing cards, and chatting up strangers to find out more about the political and social situation (this was done mostly by charles and alex, since they were the ones who could most easily communicate with the cubans... the rest of us stuttered sentences but were indulged rather than involved in the discussions). one of the most interesting discussions that wasn't about politics, was discussing how many continents there are in the world. opinions, anyone?

and we ate a lot of ham and cheese. sadly the markets are bare, but almost all the casas we stayed in worked wonders with the little selection and procured delicious meals (lobster, chicken, pumpkin, salad, mmm). and in contrast the fancy looking restaurants, run by the government i presume, managed to serve only ham and cheese. for example:

MENU
pork with ham and cheese
pork with cheese
cordon bleu
beef with ham and cheese
beef with cheese
beef with ham and cheese sauce
uruguayan beef (after further questioning this turned out to be beef with ham and cheese).

desert: cheese with jam.

alex and i ordered two different dishes... he got a piece of beef with ham and cheese in the middle and another piece of beef on top. in my case the ham was on the middle and the cheese on top.

in total the trip was great. the people were welcoming and amazing, while the political system has its pros and cons (free health care, housing and education and a set daily wage... but on the other hand the daily wage is so low everyone has to have a second illegal job, no one is motivated to take study because the wages don't go up much, the best paid jobs are those of waiters as they get tips from tourists).

my time back in toronto has been great as well, doing lots with friends (like wonderland! and persian festival, and pictures of the sunrise from the beach) and trying to show lena around while being overwhelmed with work at the internship. today is my last day and i'm not looking forward to leaving toronto. but on the other hand i AM looking forward to what comes next. camping, NYC, halifax etc. yay :)

(wow, more than 200 there!)