I´m alive:-) News from Cuba!

Finally I got to a computer with internet! We are now in Lima, Peru, sitting and sweating in an Internet place with hot temperatures outside.

After travelling for 32 hours, I arrived to Havana airport on Monday the 26. at 21 o clock, where my travellingbuddy Lasse picked me up. The first thing I noticed was that I was definitely outside european smoking-rules! As soon as we got off the plane, people started smoking their cigarettes and cigars still inside the airport... on top of the hot weather, and the fact that the luggagesystem was not quite easy to understand for firsttime visitors -which left me worrying that I might have lost my bags - I was very happy when I saw Lasse. With all my bags, we got into a Lada-taxi and after a 25 min. ride, we arrived at the Casa where we were staying. We went for a quick strole to the Malecon to see the waves clashing against the wall separating the sea from the road and city. I don´t quite know what I expected from Havana, but I was definitely surprised that the streets and buildings are so miskept. The streets are a labyrinth of holes, and the buildings in the neighbourhood where we stayed (as well as in almost the rest of Havana) haven´t been restored since the 50´s you´d think! Basically, stroling down the streets of Havana, looking in the shops, watching the old (often well kept) american cars, you´d think you have been sent back50 years in time! There are a lot of small cornershops, and I realized that you really need to know where to go to buy e.g. groceries. You don´t see any shops or supermarkets that you might know from elsewhere - basically everything is Producto de Cuba. Even the Pringles look the same, but have another name! One thing you also find out is that there are two currencies in Cuba - Pesos Nacionales and Pesos Convertibles (from Danish Kroner to Convertibles, the rate is almost like DKK into US Dollars, that is 1 convertible is 6 DKK). When I exchanged my Euro to Pesos in the airport, I got Convertibles. For every Convertible, you have 24 Nacionales. So, often there are two prices - one in nacionales and one in convertibles, the one in convertibles obviously being the most expensive. People like us - tourists - almost always pay in convertibles, and if you don´t pay attention, you might pay a price that´s in nacionales but they say convertibles to you(say e.g. 2 nacionales for an entrance, and they ask 2 convertibles from you) - then you´ll pay 24 times the price!! But most of the time it´s just a fixed price - the cubans pay in nacionales and the foreigners pay in convertibles.

Well, on my first day i Havana, we basically just walked around the streets of Old Havana (the most wellkept part of the center of Havana, I´d say) and went for a tourist-busride around the city. The night before, when we went to the Malecon, I had been rather scared of the almost ghost-like streets, the stray dogs wandering the streets, the kid coming up asking me for money and people staring at us (well, we do kind of stand out in the crowd being both very tall, very blonde, very lightskinned and blue-eyed...). But we got to think, and actually, you don´t have to be afraid of getting robbed or being a victim of violence in Havana - you just need to know that you´ll be asked to buy something or give someone money every 2 minutes, and of course look out so thery won´t grab your purse.


We also went to the Jose Marti Memorial, a 40 stories high tower and museum. In front of it you have the big Plaza de la Revolucion, and they say that Fidel gives (or gave..) his speeches there. We went to a small market, and everywhere in Havana, you see different kinds of paintings, small wooden-animals and -people, leather shoes and bags, and little cars or cameras made from beercans (of course Cristal or Bucanero - kind of like Tuborg and Carlsberg in Denmark, I suppose).

The next day - the 28th - we went to a smaller city (the size of Aalboreg) called Cienfuegos app. 250 km. from Havana on the southern coast of Cuba. Of course, there are also different buscompanies - one for cubans and one for all the others, it seems. We went on the 4 hour busride with Viazul, and when we arrived, a very nice man, Rolando, picked us up and we went to his Casa. The owners of the Casa we stayed in in Havana of course knew some people in Cienfuegos, and they had called them to find us a place to stay i Cinefuegos. In that way, we could go straight pass all the people asking us if we needed a taxi or a place to stay. Lasse and I have actually made up some new words - taxi-pusher, restautant-pusher, cigar-pusher, you name it! They will come up to you in the streets at any time or when you´re just passing by and ask you if you need a taxi - EXCUSE ME, do I not have any legs, or why do you think that I ALWAYS need a taxi!??! Anyway, on our first night in Cienfuegos (one of the richest cities in Cuba, by the way), we went out to eat, and in the end found a restautant that seemed to be OK. There were not a lot of people eating out, so we had some trouble finding out where to go.. But we found it and got some, well, small pizzas, but it was okay. We got very bad service (customer service seems to be, well, a word that is non-existing in the cuban vocabulary.. At least it is not to be expected, unless you are cuban or get lucky that the waiter is nice), and felt like two mokeys in a cage as we were the only non-cubans in the restaurant, BUT the best part was that we payed in nacionales - it was 13 nacionales, that is around 3 DKK, and the water bottles in convertibles, but all in all we didn´t pay more than 15 DKK for a whole meal for 2 persons! Afterwards we went to a bar on top of a hotel and enjoyed a couple of mojitos with a great view over the city.


The next day, thursday, we went to the beach near Cienfuegos, a 20 min. taxi drive away at Rancho Luna. We wanted to snorkle, so we asked a waiter at the hotel, and he knew a guy who could take us snorkling. It was, however, kind of schh, since it was actually illegal for him to take us on a non-authorized trip - you know, everything is run by the state, so he couldn´t be seen when we payed him (only 10 convertibles!). We swam out, and saw the beautyful corals in purple shades, and we were out for about 1 1/2 hours. Afterwards we enjoyed the afternoon sun on the beach - and I realized that this was my first time on the beach for a long time. Which also resulted in a very bad sunburn on my back...!! I´m telling you, I was RED down my back and legs!! Obviously I didn´t put on enough sun lotion..! I can still see it on my back, actually, 4 days later.. Anyway, then at 5 pm we had booked a boatrip around the Bahia of Cienfuegos, and we went out in a small boat - with an open all-you-can-drink bar!! So we had a couple of mojitos- and saw the beautyful sunset. We tried to take pictures, but of course, it can´t be captured in a foto. We had dinner at our Casa, where Rolando had made us a 3 course meal (soup with rice, chicken with potatoes, fresh fruit and the spanish flan for dessert + coffee) and afterwards we went out to find a salsa-bar. We didn´t find quite what we were looking for, but found a disco - El Bennys - which had a kind of jazz-ballet-latin-shake-your-bootie-show and afterwards all of the teenagers (AND the +50s!!) were dancing reggaeton, reggaeton, reggaeton!!!

The next morning we had booked a hiking-trip to El Nicho in the Escambray Mountains. We left Cienfuegis around 8.30 am in a big taxi (it was Lasse, I and 3 people from Barcelona), and when we got to the village of Cumanayagua (don´t quite know how to pronouce that....), we changed into another form of transport that is very common in Cuba - a truck! So we got on to the back of the truck (kind of like the socalled studenter-koersel when we graduate from high school in Denmark!!) and went up the mountain on a very bumpy ride,passing by small villages and houses, loose goats and piglets and horses standing on the side of the road, and cuban cowboys, bicycle-taxis that I thought only existed in Asia, other trucks transporting people - you name it. There was also the beautyful view that just got better as we got up the mountains - there are lot of palms in Cuba, and one type is actually the national plant, that can be used to building houses, food for pigs - anything. We arrived at the El Nicho and a guide took ud for a walk up the mountain and told ud about the plants as we went on. We also saw a very weird animal - I was like a small dog-size rat (!), he explained to us! At first we couldn´t see it, as it hid on the rock-wall and blended in with the colours, but when it moved, you could see it. It has very good vision, so I think it stopped moving when it saw us:) We passed by several small waterfalls, and around 11:30 am we had some free time to go swimming in the natural pools by the waterfalls. It was fantastic! So clear and freash, and there was also a small cave to swin into. Afterwards we had lunch with the others, and then we passed the road to go to a waterfall on the other side nearer to the small village El Nicho. We got back to Cienfuegos around 5 pm to enjoy a beer on our terrace at the Casa as the sun set.

The next day, saturday, we took the 9am-bus back to Havana, and when we arrived, we had to move to another casa for the last night in Havana. At 2pm we ran down to the Real Fabrica de Tabaco, since I thought that it was open for visits and I would like to see a cigar-factory. It was unfortunately closed, so we just went into the cigar-shop next door. And they had so many cigars!!! Cohiba seemed to be the most expensive one, but I bought some more payable cigars. In the doorway sat a very nice elderly gentleman - he seemed like a host to bid you welcome. He asked us where we were from, and when we answered Denmark, he sang ¨Yo no voy a Dinamarca que me cambio de marca¨ (I´m not going to Denmark because then I´m going to change brand). As he saw that we didn´t know what the h*** he was talking about, he explained to us that back in the end of the 50s, in Denmark, we had the first sex-change operation ever. And then a singer in Cuba made that song, which was, if you think of it, actually very funny:)! For dinner we went looking for a restaurant with liveband, and unfortunately the band at the reatsurant we ended up in, turned out to be very boring. They didn´t look like they wanted to be there at all.. But the food was delicious! Afterwards, we went to a local, popular ¨dulceria¨to buy some VERY good cakes/pastry! And then we went to a bar called Bar Monserrate (if you ever go to Havana, go to that bar!) which had a live band playing very lively, sing-along-latin-songs, and the mood was very high! We sat basically next to the band, and had our mojitos, while people sang along and danced spontaneously! They were called Santiago Habana, and we ended up buying their CD (every small gruop of musicians in Cuba have a recorded CD). Suddenly, a VERY old man sat down next to me, and wanted to have our picture taken. He was dressed in a hat and an old suit, and smiled a lot. Then, I looked up on the wall where I saw a picture of a guy singing at the Bar - and the old guy looked exactly like him! I asked him if it was him in the picture, and from what I understood from his very mumbling spanish, it WAS him, and some other Danes sitting at a table next to us said that he could look like one of the legends of the Buena Vista Social Club. In the break, the old guy (called Denny, I think) sat down and played the small congas and jammed with the base-player - cool!:) Also, we saw the biggest black man ever at the bar!!!! I mean, really the biggest man ever!! I think he was the ¨door-man¨ of the bar. He must have been around 2,10m. at least! And his shoes - size 55 I think!! His hands could carry a basketball like it was a tennis ball! One of the Danes told us that his friend thought that he had met that guy once in the 80s, and back then he was a very famous boxing-champion (junior) - I´d think so! Getting in the ring with THAT guy would be terrifying!! But as big as he looked, he seemed ecually nice and down-to-earth. We got to talking to a Swedish guy that came up, and a nice German couple. When the bar closed at midnight, we went across the street for the last Bucanero, but then we ran out of money and had to go home..





Yesterday, sunday, was our last day in Cuba, and we went for a ride in one of the old convertible cars (a 1956 Buick) - it was great!! I gotta get me one of those!!:-)


At 3pm we arrived at the airport, and waited in line for the check-in for more than 1 hour! Just for the check-in!! Luckily it went rather fast from then on, so we left Havana at 5pm. We had a quick stopover in Panama, and arrived at Lima airport at midnight, where a driver from our prebooked hostel picked us up.


Cuba is a very funny place.. To quote the author of the Lonely Planet-book, it is a place where you need to enter with an open mind, and you´ll leave with a lot of unanswered questions. You´ll need a lifetime to understand the country, the culture and the Cubans. I kept comparing it to Spain because I lived there, but the Cubans are nothing like the Spanish - they might both speak Spanish, but the mentalities and culture is completely different.


It seems like there have been 3 eras in Cuba: 1) before the revolution, 2) during the Sovjet, and 3) after Sovjet.. Before the revolution, Cuba seems to have been a place like any other near the States; a country with historical influences from the Spanish and European, and import from the States (especially the cars). Then came the revolution, and Cuba was excluded from any Western influences, but got a lot of Ladas from the Sovjet (you wouldn´t imagine how many old Lada´s there are in Cuba!) and money to develop the society. Then, suddenly when the Wall came down and the Sovjet fell, there were no more money... just like that.. You´ll see bridges that haven´t been completed, the only highway (and what a highway! There are no white lines, and people stand on the side of the road trying to get picked up or selling onions etc.) that was supposed to go from Havana to the eastern side of Cuba suddenly stops somewhere outside of Havana. Buildings from many years ago that need a loving hand are just left to ¨decay¨.. You see VERY few new buildings from after the beginning of the 90s. They do have some new Asian cars, though, e.g. Kia - maybe from their Asian friends... ?


What you also see is propaganda. On many walls you´ll see pictures of especially Jose Marti (their national hero) and of course Fidel Castro. And then quotes from Jose Marti or things like ¨Patria o Muerte¨. This year (or last year..) it´s the 50th anniversary for the revolution, so therefore there are even more statements painted on the walls.

A lot of thigns obviously don´t work the way they do in the rest of the world, basically. You don´t buy a new house, e.g. You swich with the former owner (bytte-bytte-koebmand) or inherate it from your parents. The houses are the state´s property, as well as some of the cars, especially the old ones. But you can buy a car, I just don´t know how - one thing is for sure; you can´t bring it outside of Cuba.


The last funny thing I can think of now is the queueing... The cubans spend SO much time standing in line, it seems.. Even before the shops open, people will be standing in line, and you don´t just stand in line like you´d normally do.. When you get up to the line, you say ¨Quien es ultimo?¨ (Who is last in line?)¨, and then you remember the person who´s last.. People might be standing a bit out of line, but this system of always remembering the one in front of you makes sure that people go by turns.


Unfortunately, in Cuba you can make more money renting out rooms like the ones we stayed in, than you can working as e.g. a doctor. Our host-lady in Cienfuegos was some kind of ear-neck-doctor, and well, she rented out rooms. How are you supposed to develop a society with that kind of payments, Fidel...?



So now, we´re in Lima. Compared to Cuba, Lima is like returning to the 21st century and to civilization! You suddenly see brands that you know (in Cuba, you don´t get Coca Cola, you get Tu Kola), commercials (in Cuba you don´t really see commercials, since the state basically set the prices for almost anything) and there are new cars, nice buildings, supermarkets where the shelves are full of lovely things and food, technology (cell phones, computers, INTERNET...) which has only just gotten to Cuba recently...

Tomorrow, tuesday, we´ll be beginning our 12-days trip, starting with an info-meeting at a hotel, and then leaving by plane the day after tomorrow. I have brought SOOO much luggage - I´m prepared for basically any situation and any kind of weather , so I hope that I will need some of those things as we travel through different types of weather:) I´m looking very much forward to it, and the next time I´ll write something here, will probably be when we have come back to Lima on the 15th of february.

I´m sorry for the VERY long story, but when you only get an acceptable internet acces once a week, it gets long:)

I just tried uploading pictures from my camera to the computer, so I could put some in this blog as well, but it couldn´t handle it, and the computer froze. So I´m doing that another time.

If you want to read almost the same, but with slight differences, check out Lasse´s blog at www.findlasse.blogspot.com :-)

I´m looking forward to being able to call you guys in Denmark, but so far, I don't think that will be possible until I get to La Serena.. We´ll see.

Miss you all! Even though it´s great fun to be travelling with Lasse, and I´m enjoying it very much, I sometimes miss the people from back home (especially my skattebase who is on the other side of the World.....).

Do write me, I would very much like to get emails or comments on my blog! The second I get an adress in La Serena, I´ll let you know!

Knus og kram, hugs and kisses, besitos

Lisbeth