La Habana
Friday
25th to Sunday 27th March
Spent
my days looking around La Habana with various people and spent my nights at
Casa de la Musica dancing the night away.
This is where all the big bands play – Los Van Van, Charanga Habanera,
Mamalito etc. Just missed out on Los Van
Van. They played on Friday night and the
first night we went out was Saturday – doh!
un poco triste (a little sad). We
had Mamalito playing on Saturday though, so I can’t complain.
Very
hot here in Havana, definitely needed sunscreen. Discovered they have security guards for everything here. Jen and I were sitting on the bottom steps of one of the main buildings when we heard this whistle over and over again and wondered what it was. It finally dawned on us that it was a security guard blowing their whistle at us to get us to move off the step! Apparently the steps must be precious or something, who would know...
Santa Clara
Monday
28th to Tuesday 29th March
I’m
staying in a beautiful casa run by another elderly gent and with a lovely
garden patio out back complete with a parrot and two budgies. Nice and serene and a world away from the
hustle of Havana. Not sure what to make
of the parrot though. Every time I go
out there he wolf whistles at me and then calls me a prostitute and swears at
me in Spanish – hmm…
Found
out I’m staying in the same room that Che Guevara stayed in 1959. That’s my claim to fame for this trip lol…
Santa
Clara was my spot for R&R on this journey. Didn’t do much here except take a look around
and take some piccies. Two quiet nights –
bliss.
Visited
the Che museum. Not as impressive as
it’s made out to be, but interesting nonetheless as it’s a part of history.
Trinidad
Wednesday
30th March to Friday 1st April
One
word – hot! No, actually two – stinking
hot! I’ve never in my life been in a
place as hot as Trinidad. It’s the
humidity that’s the killer.
Place
I’m staying has a shower worse than a trickling hose but the lady I’m staying
with is lovely and the house has a great rooftop view of the sunset which more
than makes up for it when you see Cuban sunsets – beautiful. Unfortunately my camera couldn’t quite
capture it properly – oh for an SLR right now…
Trinidad
is good for heat, small town-ness, salsa and randomly bumping into people
you’ve met before. Yes, that’s right, I
randomly caught up with Jen who I’d met in La Habana whilst we were dancing the
night away in the same place here in Trinidad.
So the next day her and I took a look around all that is Trinidad (which
doesn’t take long) and visited the beach in the afternoon. The sea here is beautiful enough but really
really warm (almost bathlike) and no waves.
Very different to back home. Is
there a happy median somewhere in the world? – maybe in the North Island…
Visited
a nightclub in a cave – great setting but only techno music so didn’t stay
long. I can listen to techno anywhere
back home.
The
last night in Trinidad was especially hot and sticky. On a gross note, I’ve never sweated so much
in my life. My hair was dripping –
eeewwww! And that was in an open-air
venue. Thankfully I was not the only one
in this predicament. There’s something
to be said about dancing in freezing cold weather down south in lovely old NZ lol…
Viñales
Saturday
2nd to Sunday 3rd April
Didn’t
realise Viñales was so freakin’ far away from Trinidad, 8 hours by bus!, so
spent most of a day just getting there.
Arrival in Viñales was lovely.
It’s a small, quaint wee town where the locals know each other and smile
when they say hi to you in the street and everything’s just around the
corner. Apparently it’s a similar size
to Gore, about 17,000 people or so.
Definitely
not Habana here and definitely not a glimpse of wealth around. These guys do it hard, and yet, unless you
choose to look under the surface you wouldn’t know. They are such fun-loving positive people who
are so willing to open their homes and their hearts to others and who really
know how to have a good time despite their struggles, which is no mean feat
after two significant hurricanes and now a drought.
The
family I’m staying with are lovely. The
lady running the place is Neyda and seems to be friends with everyone lol. She even knows the people I stayed with in La
Habana – small country. First night
there they took me out to the local dance place for a boogie. Was great to go out with the whole fam rather
than just the youngins. So there was
Neyda, her son Jirandy and his girlfriend whose name I can’t remember (woops –
sorry!) We went out about 2130 but
things didn’t really start picking up til around 11/midnight which is typical
here. Met the three german guys from the
bus so spent the first part of the night between their table and ours, and the
dancefloor. There was one old guy there
called Omar who’s a dance teacher and must be in at least his mid 50s/early 60s
but man can he dance!! He’s got moves
I’ve never even seen and when everyone else is tired and needs a rest he’s
still keen to keep going – crazy!
It’s
still really hot here so had my fan with me I bought from Singapore. Unfortunately by the end of the night I no
longer had my fan as someone else had taken a liking to it – sigh…
Despite
lack of sleep I was up early enough for Jirandy and his girlfriend to take me
for a look around the Mogotes (the crazy looking mountains with caves through
them and great places for rockclimbing (which the locals do even though it’s
not endorsed by the government – ie illegal).
On the way we attempted to see a chicken fight but we were too early
(again something not endorsed by the government so has to be done in secret and
at a different place every time). After
taking a look round the mountains and through a cave that went straight through
the mountain, we were fortunate enough to get a ride back to town on a horse
and cart. Had mixed emotions about this
as the animals here are not treated well.
Not sure why but I have a feeling it’s possibly a combination of lack of
feed due to drought/food restrictions etc, no worming program and little
education in how to treat animals properly.
Most horses and cows you find have their ribs and hips showing so it’s
not the sort of place to travel if you’re sensitive to that sort of thing. Saw the fields where the rice usually
grows. Was hard to see knowing that this
is what they live off and there’s so far no feed for the coming year because
the ground’s too dry to plant. Not
good. Can’t really tell the effects of
the last hurricane but can definitely tell these guys could use some help and
some aid.
In
saying that, it bucketed down with rain this afternoon, and when I say bucketed
I mean creating streams in the streets.
Got good video of it. Pity I
don’t know how to upload to here…
Went
visiting in the afternoon after the rain and then it was salsa again at
night. Really not looking forward to
leaving for Havana early tomorrow morning, would love to stay here another
couple of days if possible. Oh well,
there’s only so much fun one can have I guess…
La Habana
Monday
4th April
One
last night in Habana. Went to a lovely
local restaurant at night called Los Nardos and then went looking for
salsa. Unfortunately no salsa but there
was a large reggaeton concert on at Casa de la Musica with some famous
reggaeton dude. So we went there
instead. After all, it is possible to
salsa/bachata to some reggaeton beats.
It was okay and got some dancing in but it took FOREVER for the actual
main concert to begin. We waited in line
for about an hour and then inside for another 2 or 3 hours! Didn’t begin til around 3 in the morning –
crazy! For all concerts here, large or
small, they sell the tickets on the night, not beforehand like back home, so it
takes forever to get everyone through the door.
The
warm-up acts were okay, not amazing but a good distraction anyway to pass the
time.
And
before we knew it the night was over and it was time for the taxi to the
airport…sigh…why so short-lived?…
