Santiago de Cuba,
Weds Feb 26, 2003
Avi here. You'll have to pardon the spelling
errors - its 3USD per 30 minutes and I'm a lousy typist.
Wonderfully hot here. We drove out of town yesterday in our
rented Citroen and found one of those little Caribbean coves that once upon a
time had some funding thrown at it to appear as a destination, but which now
was in typical Cuban disrepair. No
matter, the locals on the beach were friendly (too friendly! as is our usual
experience "no thanks, we
don’t need a place to stay.
no thanks, we don't want a lobster meal. no thanks, we don't need you to take a picture of all of us.
no thanks, we....") the sun was hot, the fishes among the coral reefs were
beautiful, and I lay on my back in the water saying "let's see, Tuesday at
11 o’clock PST I should be teaching fractions right around now."
We left Montreal in a
snowstorm. Our flight to Cuba was
cheap because it left from Mirabelle, which cost us a $65 cab ride to get
to! The airport is huge, modern
and totally underused. Haven't
needed to add a thing since spending billions to build it. Which make the $15/person "Airport
Improvement Fee" all the more infuriating. There was a new wrinkle at Security on departure. No bottles of insect repellant. Let me see if I've got this right - it
corrodes the metal of airplanes.
So we add our DEET to the growing pile of bottles of insect repellant at
the security gate. Afterwards we
wander the Duty Free shop (Duty free Scotch I understand, but Duty Free maple
syrup???)and the traveler’s boutique. And there, among the magazines and chocolate we see (all
together now for the punchline...) bottles of insect repellant!
Santiago is a much smaller
city than Havana, and the infrastructure seems to be holding up better (Meaning you don't have to watch
constantly for potholes in the sidewalks - though some vigilance is advisable)
There are fewer of those fine old "58 Chevvies than in Havana, and the men
sitting in the streets around a table are playing checkers, not dominos. We drank copious quantities of freshly
pressed sugar cane juice (you should see that pressing machinery!) in Holguin
(our arrival town - another great money saver!) yet have not seen any cane for
sale here in Santiago only two hours away.
Spent several nights going
to local clubs to hear the music.
In each one the local young ladies quickly spotted Noam and Elie who
despite their limited linguistic proficiency still managed to have their followers. Both have been heard to complain
"why does this happen when I'm with my parents and why can't it happen at
home?" They aren't alone. Ruth has also attracted her fair share
of young Cuban males wanting to chat her up and show her how to dance
Salsa. The fact that this old guy
from Canada is sitting beside her doesn't seem to deter their enthusiasm. I feel like chopped liver! But I certainly don't need to - all
around us on the streets, in the clubs, at the beach we see older
Canadian/Italian/German men with attractive nubile young Cuban women. Isn't love wonderful!? Or maybe, isn't money wonderful!? But Cuba is an egalitarian society, so
things go both ways. Lots of
single older foreign women here being squired about by young Cuban men.
For variety of perspective,
we went today to the Oncological clinic to deliver some donated stuff we'd
brought from home. Sad looking
building, with free service to all but the chalkboard above the reception desk
said the Mammography was broken, the Gamma therapy was broken, and some other
radiotherapy under repair.
Gotta go. I'm ringing up a bill and I have to
meet the others. Tonight instead
of seeking out local restaurants and telling the incredulous servers that we're
vegetarians (a rarely-used word in the local language) we’re buying pizza
on the street like the locals do and then heading for the stadium for a
baseball game.
Please send a reply just
this once to let me know this went through. I'll check again when we get back to Montreal.
Avi
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