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!
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