fowl

capitol of the island that shall remain nameless
one day, while walking with c&e, i surreptitiously grabbed a quick (slightly out of focus) photo of this guy:

as we walked away i jokingly said, 'i just took a photo of a guy trimming his rooster and that isn't a euphemism.' what followed was a slightly blue conversation about what 'trimming your rooster' could be a euphemism for...these are the moments that will still make me laugh in 30 years.

faces

capitol of the island that shall remain nameless

here are some shots i took of random people that piqued my interest...

shopping

street musician

bottle seller

hair ties

chess

matching date

pedicab I

pedicab II

reds

black market tomato sauce

deliveries

baseball

capitol of the island that shall remain nameless
america's favorite pastime is shared by the islanders. on saturday and sunday, everywhere you go, there are kids playing the best game ever.

abandoned buildings make great diamonds

machete or baseball bat

balls are prohibitively expensive, as one might expect, so the players make do with whatever they can scrape together. i saw a lot of old balls barely stitched together, tennis balls, a few handballs and several spheres of tape, who knows what was inside. i also saw broomsticks, random bits of wood and broken bats being used. these kids will be great ball players one day!

giants fan?

as a huge fan of the game, seriously, a sunny day at pacbell park (or whatever they are calling it these days) watching my Giants play is simply the best, i thought about loading up a spare suitcase with baseballs to bring and hand out. the problem was i didn't know for certain whether or not i was going to get to the island, and in the end i gave up the idea. fortunately i had mentioned it to c, and she had brought a few. the smiles we got in return for a bit of leather and cotton were wonderful.

new ball, new team captain!

the big leagues

i did manage to go to one professional game, though the two teams were so ill matched, it felt a bit more like a minor league team vs goliath, and in the end, with the score 11-1, Industriales smashing La Isla, the losers didn't even get their last at bat. i felt cheated, but everyone else seemed happy.

my new friend Richard

i got lucky, too, because i sat next to a young fella who had the patience of Job and an interest in conversation with the gringa. he helped me figure out who i was watching and gave me the skinny on the retired superstars who were wandering the stands getting mobbed with autograph requests.
lastly, no matter how old you are or where you are from, if you are a fan, when you catch a game ball, there is nothing more thrilling!

foul ball

bvsc

capitol of the island that shall remain nameless
i don't get out much at night when i travel by myself. a sense of safety, i think. but there is also a desire to be part of the real place, not the stuff set up for tourists and, generally, i'm not in the know of these local haunts, so i forgo the pleasure.
music and dancing are a huge part of the culture on the island, it seems like everyone i met was a cantante or a músico and had a cd available for purchase. because of c and our loose tie to ernesto 'gato', singer extraordinaire, i got to venture out and experience club egram (see fortuna post). gato had invited c & e to see him perform and while there were a couple foreigners in the crowd, it was mostly made up of a crush of enthusiastic locals. the musicians traded spots on the stage regularly and dancers would jump up on stage and shake their tail feathers, much to the entertainment of the crowd.
too much fun, after c left, i went back on my own a couple more times - being an honorary habanera was awesome!

my buena vista social club

crumbs

capitol of the island that shall remain nameless
cubans love cake. it is everywhere. the oddest thing is seeing a large macho-ish man standing on the street with a makeshift cardboard tray holding a miniature cake frosted in white and pink like a wedding cake, offering slices for 1 cuc each (about $1.13), touting how delicious it is...just awesome, unlike the cake, which usually disappointed me, i suppose i have pretty high standards when it comes to baked goods. folks who like supermarket tray cakes would probably be more than happy.

just purchased from the macho guy

ultimo

capitol of the island that shall remain nameless
i believe i mentioned in jamaica that i am a wuss when it comes to cold showers.
i stayed with alba, intending to spend my entire visit with her. i was being eaten alive by mosquitoes but i didn’t care, she was swell, and she had helped me find c. i was grateful and i would show it. c immediately started trying to get me to move to la casa de candida y pedro. i said no, i’d stay with alba in her not so nice neighborhood. the casa was very nice, conveniently located in a slightly better neighborhood, candy and pedro were swell, and they didn’t seem to have mosquitoes, but i was grateful to alba. right up until i went to take a much needed shower. cold water. ugh. i couldn’t bare to step in, so i opted to just wash my hair in the sink. i despise cold water.
i asked c if they had hot water - yes they did.
how soon could i move in?
so much for loyalty to saint alba.

i spent my first full day wandering in old havana with c. she showed me the ropes, from buying peanuts to waiting in line at the best restaurant in town - and this is important to know! they have a very civilized queuing system, you go up to the last person in the line and ask them 'ultimo?' if they say yes, you are now the last person in line, but if they say no, they point to the last person they handed off the ultimo position to and you go up to them and ask 'ultimo?' and again they either say yes, or point to someone else. this way you can wait in line, comfortably lounging against a wall down the way, or sitting on a bench, or in the actual line, up to you, ultimo!

C reflecting on old dodge

we got hot chocolate at the chocolate museum, went to a modern art museum, ate wonderful pesto pasta at los nardos, wandered the streets with me snapping wildly at every amazing car i saw.
c assured me i would grow accustomed to seeing them - i didn't. she pointed out places i should go and warned me away from places they had found disappointing (names quickly forgotten).
c and e walked me back to alba’s that night and i spent the remainder of the evening watching episodes of modern family while i packed my gear and made alba a felted flower pin, wishing i had more that i could give her.

in the morning i told her i was moving and she seemed to understand. 'claro'.

loaded up, i hoofed it over to my new casa.

embargo - a mild political rant

capitol of the island that shall remain nameless
when i went to egypt a couple of years ago, i thought no place would ever give me the same sense of belonging and homecoming that i felt there, but i was wrong.
these island people were incredibly open and kind to me, which was a surprise considering my government is responsible for much of the hardships of their daily life. granted, most folks watched me with a stern eye, but as soon as i gave them a big smile and a hearty ‘hola’ or a wave, their cool demeanor would melt instantly.

folks who befriended me on one of my walks

i don’t speak a lick of spanish and anticipated the isolation that comes from being a monoglot in a foreign land - instead i got people who patiently tried to make conversation with lots of starts and stops as i referred to my dictionary or handed it to them.
i want very much to learn spanish, just so i can go back one day and discuss everything from the price of milk to politics (though those are actually the same thing in havana).
i watched c, who is fluent, have conversations that revealed much about how people really feel and what they are going through. i was jealous that i could only participate through her, but grateful that i got a glimpse at all.

from my limited knowledge of the past, i have developed a big old soft spot for these people. before the trip i believed the embargo should be lifted and felt it was unjust, but now i am completely bewildered by my government - they are behaving like spoiled children, throwing a tantrum because a toy they misused was taken away from them.

i wouldn’t go so far as to say that ‘el senior’ is a good leader, i’ve heard too many stories of things he has done to punish people who have disagreed with or stood up to him, but i do see how we created the situation that caused him to become the man he is today. he WAS an idealist, striving to free the cubans who were suffering under batista’s self serving rule, free them from the greedy stranglehold of a handful of american corporations that were striping the islands natural resources without reasonable compensation. nationalizing the plantations was pure robin hood heroics and eisenhower was the sheriff of nottingham. if he hadn't been taking from us, we'd have been celebrating him rather than demonizing him.
by cutting off trade and strong arming our allies into following our lead, we forced fidel into a relationship with the only folks who would deal with him, our enemies. the soviets paid attention - the enemy of my enemy is my friend.

the people have paid for their independence, in spades, and i think it is time for my government to get over themselves, end the embargo and begin talking to the island that is so damn close you can swim there.
a bar of soap should not cost $5.

typical 'superstore' nothing like costco