An Outdoor Day in Varadero

July 17, 2017

I am so beyond sad but I can't seem to find the notes I wrote about our excursion to the waterfall and beach on July 17th. Almost a year later, I am trying to jog my memory with the photos I have from that day. I know that we were picked up at our casa by a really nice man in a jeep. He dropped us off at a nature preserve where we hiked to find a waterfall. The water was really, really cold but felt refreshing so Tash and I hopped in. There was a cute, very old cuban man that was stationed atop the rocks at the waterfall trying to ensure that no one was jumping off of the rocks or swimming underneath the waterfall. Needless to say he was blowing his whistle quite a bit at the tourists. After swimming, we hiked back down and stopped to rest at an outdoor cafe. Soon we saw the little blue jeep and knew that it was time to go.

We were headed to the beaches. Our driver was really nice and stopped along the way for some fruit. He let us try the fruit because we had never seen it before. It was really delicious, but took a lot of work to eat because you had to peel the outer skin, eat the inner skin and then spit out the pit. He dropped us at the beach and we wandered along stretches and stretches of resorts. We opted to use the restrooms here because we hoped that they would have toilet seats. We stopped by an outdoor shack for drinks and sandwiches. My drink was obnoxiously strong so after a few sips I left it for the birds. Tash and I then decided to get some sun down by the water. I read my book and tanned while Tash enjoyed some water time.

When we returned home, we found that there was another family who was staying at the casa with us. They were from the UK and they had a 19 year old son. We all sat down to dinner together on the patio. Our house father made a delicious bbq spread. While we ate we shared stories of our travels. That evening, the family accompanied Tash and I out in the town. We went to an outdoor theatre. It had tons of rows of steps in which people were sitting on to watch the dancers below. I really enjoyed seeing the locals dance, a past time they clearly love in Cuba. After the show finished up, Tash and I went with the 19 year old to a club in a cave. I remember being dropped off quite far away and wondering if we had been duped. However, upon arrival, we saw that there was actually a club in a cave. The music was bumping and the smoke was flowing.

Vinales We Loved You, But Varadero We're Ready for You!

July 16, 2017

Tash and I were up for breakfast at 7am after not having much sleep. However, we knew that today we would be able to sleep because we were heading to Varadero by taxi. The first hour and a half leg of our trip was driven by a CRAZY driver. He stopped in a parking lot and passed us off to another driver whose car was much smaller and had no A/C. Wait what? You took my money at the beginning of the trip only to pass me off into a shittier car part way through? Not only was there no A/C in this car, but we were packed with three in the back and one in front. When I leaned back to close my eyes I realized that there were no tops to the backseats. That's right, it's like someone just sliced off the top half of the entire back row. I figured if this guy drove like the last guy, at least we would get a good breeze coming in through the windows. To my disappointment, only the front windows rolled down. It started pouring rain so not only did the front windows have to go up, but the driver passed around papers that he motioned for us to shove in the cracks of the doors and windows so that we would stay dry. The car became so hot that the windows started to fog. My tired, hungover self was not happy. After all of our travels I'm not sure why Tash and I fooled ourselves into thinking this would be an easy excursion day. Once the rain finally let up, our driver rolled down his window. We noticed that anytime he passed a car the same as his (I use the term "same as his" loosely because I can't imagine cubans seek out cars with no tops to their backseats, but who knows?!) he would "whoop" loudly and wave his arms. After four hours I was definitely ready to be passed along to yet another driver. The car this time was much, much bigger but there was still no A/C. I was able to lay down in the backseat and was able to get a bit of rest once the hills became too much for me. Upon arrival at our casa we were STARVING. Our host however, was beyond excited to have us and was talking a mile a minute about everything under the sun there was to do in Varadero. He had multiple maps, pamphlets and personal anecdotes to share with us. Because we were worried that if he kept talking we might eat his face, we nicely excused ourselves claiming that we were in need of lunch. He recommended a great place, but made us promise that we would continue our discussion with him when we returned. Yeah buddy. Absolutely. Whatever you say. Tash and I wandered down the street, crossed over the door in the middle of the road and into the building with the tree growing out of it-- I tell you, these cubans are very creative with their cityscapes. Not only did the city have charm, but so did the restaurant. A small old man with no shirt greeted us and took our order. We got spaghetti with camarones. I truly believe the little old man had to go down the street to gather his family because he returned a little while later with a few more adults and some ingredients from the store. One of the women pulled the little old man into the backroom to have a chat with him. Upon his re-entry to the restaurant he was wearing a shirt. Tash and I were incredibly amused by the whole ordeal. Our food came and the portions were MONSTROUS. We could have easily split a dish. We felt so badly leaving food on our plates that we asked if we could have to-go containers. The poor little old man had to consult with his back of house staff before emerging with a paper plate. He put our spaghetti on the plate and then tied it up in a plastic bag. Tash and I headed back to our casa to rest. We then showered and tried to sneak our leftovers out of the refrigerator but the man running the house saw us. Our story gave him a hearty laugh. He then shared it with his wife who also had a laugh at our expense. She heated up our pasta in the microwave and we sat on the back patio to eat it. Tash and I then headed out to explore the cobbled streets. It was much, much cooler than during the day. We got gelato for dessert. While wandering we noticed there was a ton of live music, so we stopped at an outdoor patio to listen. We met a solo traveler from Norway and an old cuban man who spent the rest of his evening with us.

Cuban Cigars? Yes, Please!

July 15, 2017

We got up and had breakfast at our casa. It was delicious. There were fruits, bread, eggs, cheese and tea- way more than we could have ever eaten! After breakfast we were picked up by Osnear for our tobacco farm tour. He was incredibly friendly and spoke very good english. He walked us through town to where the horses were corralled. He then saddled Tash and I up and we headed off into the countryside. The horses rode really easily. My horse was named Tito and he loved to eat. He stuck his head into the pasture as we walked and ate an entire ear of corn- stalk and all! We stopped our horses at the tobacco drying house. The tobacco farmer, Lionel, invited us inside to learn about the farming process. Soon after it started POURING so Lionel also had to invite our horses inside as well. The cuban government has worked out an "agreement" with the farmers that they will take 90% of the tobacco grown and the farmers will get to keep 10%. There are four parts of the tobacco plant- the cohiba, monte cristo, romeo and juliet, and the fourth which I can't remember. They use the different parts to make the different types of cigars. First, the farmers plant the seeds and when the plants grow big, the farmers have to transfer them to a larger area. Next the tobacco is dried in house for 4-5 months. There are two stages of fermentation. First the tobacco is wrapped in a palm leaf. Then the farmers remove the center stem of the tobacco leaf for the 10% that they will keep. They do this because 85% of the nicotine is found in the center stem. Farmers leave the center stem intact on the 90% of plants that they will give to the government because the nicotine, along with other chemicals, helps to preserve the cigar. Also, the nicotine is the addictive property which will keep consumers coming back for more. Because the farmers remove the center stem, they use a natural remedy to preserve their cigars which allows them to last up to 3 years as opposed to the 10 years that the government claims they will last. Consumers MUST insist on papers of authenticity when purchasing cigars otherwise the status of cuban cigars decreases and the farmers are left hurting. It's good business to buy straight from the farmer, so that's what I did. Because of the rain, Lionel offered to light one up for us inside. He dipped the end in honey and then poked a hole in the middle. He said this was the farmers' favorite way to smoke them. He didn't have to cut the end of the cigar, because he rolls and finishes them naturally, unlike the government who uses a woodpress to finish the cigars. If you don't cut those, you risk getting chips of wood in your mouth. Because we were stuck inside, Osnear offered to put on music and teach us to salsa. The four of us spent time practicing while puffing. It was a really enjoyable afternoon and I was so glad to have learned so much from Lionel. 

Once the rain finally let up, we took our horses outside and rode to the coffee fields to see how cuban coffee is made. The beans go through three colors, green, then yellow and finally red. The beans are ripe when they are red. The farmers pick them and ground them in a mortar bowl to lose the skins. They are baked for 20-25 minutes in an oven. The farmers then perform a smell test on the beans. This is apparently a very highly regarded trait and not all farmers have the "nose" for it. Once complete they are either ground or used as beans. Cubans make their coffee by putting the beans in boiling water for 4-5 minutes and then drinking that "water" which is now coffee. 

After sampling some coffee the farmer showed us how to make the cuban dark rum. They use guavita fruit. The guavita is INCREDIBLY small and only grows in that particular region of Cuba, so it is called Guavita del Pinar. The farmer gave us a small teacup of the rum which I threw back as a shot but apparently I was just supposed to sip it. Ooops! It was quite strong. 

We rode our horses back to the corralling area. Because Tash and I were on large, long stretches of open land we asked Osnear if we could run our horses. He allowed us to do so and damn was it fun! After returning to a normal speed, Osnear pulled mangoes from the trees and showed us how to poke holes in them in order to drink the juice. It was incredibly refreshing! Tash and I had such an amazing morning with Osnear and are so thankful to have learned so much about the cuban people and their way of life in the countryside. 

Tash and I were starving so we headed to a small cafe in town. I ordered Ropa Vieja (beef) because it is one of my most favorite cuban dishes. This ropa vieja however came with beans which didn't agree with my stomach. I had to get up in the middle of lunch and scoot quickly back to our casa to use the restroom. I then had to quickly head back so we could pay and do some more exploring. We started toward the center of town but low and behold the beans were coming back to bite me once again and I had to quickly return to our casa. I felt bad that I kept leaving Tash so I hurried back as quickly as I could. Unfortunately however, it started to rain so Tash and I had to turn back. I was paces ahead of her the entire way because you guessed it, I had to use the bathroom AGAIN. People on the porches were beginning to notice and were pointing at me as I went by them for a 5th time that afternoon. I was thankful that the rain kept us in the casa for a little while. 

Once the rain ended we got on a bus that circled the outskirts of the town. We visited a prehistoric mural and the highest viewpoint in the city. We thought we were also going to the infamous caves however they had closed hours earlier so we just got to drive by them. Unfortunately this kept us on the bus for an extra 30 minutes. 

That night we went to Trepacas for dinner and a drink. It was a super cute hipster bar. While dining on the patio, we watched construction workers across the street putting up a building. It was so odd to see the way they were working. It seemed as though there were WAY too many men on the job site and that they were all looking for something to do. Mena, our server, informed us that the government puts Cuban people to work on these projects and then promises them jobs at the building once it's complete. Rarely do the workers receive the jobs. I noticed one man standing on a long board running between the tops of two pillars. On the ground, directly under the man, was another worker who was using a rubber mallet to repeatedly hit the pillar the man was being held up by. Mena enjoyed our company and at the end of our meal, he got us up to salsa dance with him on the porch. 

Tash and I were determined to see the caves, so for our evening entertainment we decided to attend a disco being held in them. We found two boys from Switzerland to accompany us in a taxi to the caves. When we first arrived there was a show with cuban dancers and singers. Then, there was music for us to dance to. Mena showed up to dance with us but he became much too handsy so we found a nice man, Fredericko who let us sit with him. There was an incredibly long line for taxis home but we found some boys heading the same directions as us so we hopped in with them. They invited us back to their hostel because it had a beautiful rooftop area where we continued our party much too late into the evening. 

Goodbye Havana, Hello Vinales

July 14, 2017

We were up early for breakfast and instead of having her mother make it Damaris came to make it herself. She felt so badly that we were "vegetarians" and had been served meat the day before. Today she made us guacamole, eggs, bread, yogurt, fruit and juice- it was delicious and completely unquestionable :) 
Before leaving town Tash and I went to the museum that we weren't able to make it into yesterday. I found the museum very, very interesting because I didn't know a lot about the Cuban revolution, or the roles that Che Guevara and Fidel Castro played. Although the exhibits in the museum kept jumping around so the timeline was hard to follow, I definitely got the sense that Che was a hero to the cuban people (and a hottie too!) He was executed young while fighting for independence in Bolivia. Fidel and Che started off working together and were great friends, however things went south for a number of reasons, and resulted in Che being imprisoned and then formally "kicked off" the communist party committee. Che left the country to revolutionize people in the Congo and Bolivia which is where he was killed. Because of this, he's viewed as a heroic revolutionary. In order to commemorate Che, Cubans put pictures of him EVERYWHERE. His face is in museums, on the fronts of buildings, on restaurant signs and in peoples homes. Tash and I wondered about this because the image of Fidel (their current leader at the time) didn't seem to be used nearly as frequently. Tash was talking with a woman about this and she shared with us that Fidel gave strict orders that his photo was not to be used for personal or commercial use and that only he had rights to use his photo where he saw fit. There weren't any photos of Fidel as an older man because he didn't like how they clashed with the young image of Che. This woman however had a photo of Fidel that was special to her that she kept hidden in her house. 

After the museum we said our goodbyes and got ready to head to Vinales in a shared taxi. Up until this point I hadn't felt unsafe or unsure of my travels in Cuba. However, our taxi driver changed that. Our driver stopped to pee along the side of the road. After hopping back in the car, he started driving really, really slowly behind another car. Up until this point, we had been flying, and even passing other cars along the way. After what felt like forever, he moved to pass the car. As he was passing, he rolled down the window and exchanged words with the driver. He then kept doing double takes in his rearview. He turned off the air conditioning and rolled down all of the windows. We could sense that he was tense, but we weren't sure what was going on. Further up the road, we were stopped at a police check point. Sitting, watching our driver give over his documents and speak to the officers was very unnerving. Could this have been what he had been tense about earlier in our trip? Could this have been the reason why he had exchanged words with the other driver? After having to wait for quite a while, our driver was permitted to get back in the car and continue on. However, when he tried to start the car, the engine wouldn't turn over. He tried four of five times and finally, the car roared to a start. To this day I'm not sure what happened on our ride. I don't know if my taxi driver was just paranoid, became too cold with the AC and wanted some fresh air, or if there really was something he needed to look out for. Either way, the thing that struck me the most, was that seeing the local police didn't take away the uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach. I feel very lucky that in America our local law enforcement isn't bribed or paid off and that they do, for the most part, try to uphold all facets of the law. In Cuba, and in many other countries I've traveled to, this isn't always the case. 
We reached Vinales without any more cause for alarm except for the fact that at our casa, Villa Louis, they spoke very little english. It started pouring almost immediately upon our arrival, so we sat with the windows open, playing cards and enjoying a few beers. Once the rain finally eased up, we headed into the small town of Vinales to explore. As we walked along the dirt road, we passed a huge soccer field with kids playing, and tons of tiny houses that were painted very brightly. We encountered a barber cutting hair on his porch. He waved us over and joked with us for several minutes. We continued on and found a spot for dinner. Our dinner didn't sit particularly well with me but our dining experience was much cheaper than any of our dinners in Havana. After dinner, we continued exploring and wandered through a small outdoor market. The cubanos were incredibly friendly here, so much so that I got a kiss on the cheek! We decided that we'd had enough excitement for one day and headed back to Villa Louis to read and relax in the rocking chairs on the porch.

Travel Restrictions in Cuba? Psh! We Found Americans There!

July 13, 2017

The next morning we woke to breakfast from Demaris' mother. Tash and I sat down to find cold hotdogs, cut in half lengthwise, staring up at us. Hot dogs from the US are questionable, but hot dogs from Cuba? Who knows what's in those! However, tourists eat like kings in Cuba while locals barely have enough food to eat so Tash and I felt terrible leaving food on our plate. We made up a white lie and told the woman that we were vegetarians. That's right. Non meat eaters. That was believable, right? As long as she didn't see our leftover "meat" tacos in the fridge or put together that Tash is a Texan. 
After breakfast Ariel came to show us the "local" Havana. We wandered through shops and into a mini market with sodas and food. Making a few spanglish comments here and there in a club over the music is one thing, but wandering down the streets during the day is quite another. Our brains were fried from multiple attempts to decode Ariel's english and then craft appropriate responses in spanish. Needless to say, when we got back we were ready for a little nap. However, the government was in our apartment when we returned. They were taking pictures for the website and needed us to remove all of our things. 
After a much needed cold shower (they still had water- yay!) we were ready to hit the town. We went to an outdoor bar with what looked like a mariachi band, for shrimp and rice. 

We tried heading to the National Museum but struggled with finding it. An older man offered to help us so we followed his lead. Little did we know that this man would walk us around for 30 minutes, not bring us anywhere near the museum, and then demand money from us. Tash and I walked away feeling pretty upset that we fell for his trick. We finally made it to the museum and as we walked up the steps we ran into Julianne. Julianne. A US citizen. A friend we had met while traveling abroad in Thailand. Could she really be here, in Cuba, right before our very eyes? She could, and she was! It was one of the wildest encounters. There were hugs all around. Unfortunately, because it had taken Tash and I so long to finally find the museum, it was closing. On the flipside however, we were able to head to a HUGE vendor market near the river with the girls. It took us about 45 minutes to walk there and as we explored Cuba we encountered some really amazing local life. 

Many of the homes are open with stone floors and concrete walls. There was a really lively group of musicians who welcomed us in. We entered cautiously and watched while the locals danced, sang and then participated in a water ritual. There was a puddle of water on the floor in front of the band. The locals walked up, touched the water with their hand and then put the water on their forehead and the back of their neck for good luck. The musicians were motioning for us to do this, so we participated as well. 

Once we made it to the market, we ran into Marilyn, our house mother from our first homestay. She was selling beautiful paintings made by her son. Luckily for us right next to the market was a HUGE brewery. It was open air, right on the water and had live music. We ordered a tower of sweet black beer, and talked and danced as the sun melted away over the water. 

For dinner, we walked to the other side of town to a restaurant called El Dandy. The girls recommended it and boy was it delicious! No mystery meat or cold hot dogs here. No siree! Instead there were sweet potato fries with garlic aioli and cuban sandwiches that were to die for. Tash and I really, really enjoyed our evening out with the girls!