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.
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