havecarryonwilltravel

Ship ahoy. We are on the boat. Most guests came from Havana and a 7-hour bus ride. It is worthwhile doing some research and finding out there is an international airport in Santa Clara. We had a 2.5-hour taxi ride to ourselves.

6am and we are awake. 7am like clockwork a bit of traffic starts to role by the window of our hostal in Santa Clara. At 8am there is music down the street so loud the people near it have to scream at each other to be heard. 8 o’clock is at least civil. On other Caribbean islands the wake-up time is sunrise. The roosters start crowing. It’s early but not too bad if the dogs that bark all night have let you sleep at all. Cuba, at least Santa Clar,a does not seem to suffer from either of those dirges.

I have heard so many times ‘oh those poor Cuban people’. They don’t look poor to me. There are cars, scooters, three wheeled motor and pedal transports and motor bikes enough to make the streets busy. There are some horse and buggy outfits around which is a little behind the times but really it is quite quaint and the world may soon be back to them anyway which would make Cuba ahead of the times.

Although they are ubiquitous throughout the world, everyone has a cell phone. There seems to be a limited selection of things in the stores but that selection also rotates and what ever is in stock is in abundance. That is similar to the grocery stores in Denmark. What they had they had lots of, they just didn’t always have everything. Where I did notice a big difference is when we hit the highway. There are so few cars on the rural roads, our taxi could just about drive on whatever side of the road he wanted to. For him the speed limit seemed a mere suggestion. They were also a bit redundant as maybe only ½ the vehicles could travel that speed. The horse and cart seemed to be the transport of choice outside the city.

All those old cars Cuba is famous for is a bit of a fallacy as well. Yes, there are cars from the 1950’s and 60’s and most are in immaculate condition but there are far more new cars. Not North American cars but new none the less.

Another point that should be taken into account when traveling here is the car has the right of way. Most places in the world this is true, in fact, even if the law says otherwise but people still wander out into the street with their cell phones in their face and survive. I don’t think they would survive here. Pedestrians are very conscious when crossing the street and for good reason.

Back to the boat. We have set sail and head to the mooring spot from which we will use dive skiffs to reach the diving sites. Again, Debbie and I find ourselves on a boat with less than half of the potential passengers. 16 of a possible 40 are on board and only ½ of those are divers, 1/2 are fisherpeople. (Is fisherpeople a real word?) Should be a fairly exclusive experience. Tomorrow we dive.

We have a stressful morning in Santa Clara. Our 11:00 am bus pickup at the Santa Clara Libre Hotel wasn’t happening at 11:00, or 11:10 or 11:15. Murray takes the phone numbers we have for the Avalon and trots back to the hostal we stayed in to ask Omelio to phone for him. I man the luggage outside the hotel and watch for a bus. Unfortunately, it seems we are the only folks waiting for the bus to the boat.

At 11:30, a yellow taxi drives up, the driver gets out and walks right up to me. He says something in Spanish, which I have no idea what and automatically say No. He walks over to the fellow manning the hotel front door and is talking to him and they are pointing at me, so I get up and go to them. Bus. Avalon. Garden of the Queen all get communicated. The taxi driver realizes we aren’t able to communicate well, so gets on his phone and calls someone and hands the phone to me. The lady on the other end asks if we are Murray and Debbie (only in a Spanish pronunciation) and we confirm that yes, it is us and yes the taxi will take us to the Avalon boat and yes we do not have to pay anything. Fortunately, as we are walking towards the bags, Murray walks up from his expedition, we load the car and off we go. So, not a bus but a car ride! And what a ride!

The main highway, the National Road, has three lanes, one for each direction and the middle lane for passing in either direction. Sometimes there are white lines on the road, most times not. The patching of the road is horrendous and our driver doesn’t want to drive over the mounds, so sometimes he is in the right lane, sometimes in the middle one and sometimes in the oncoming traffic lane. No worries though as the traffic is very light. It is like rally car driving with on coming traffic!

The roads get narrower closer to our destination and the passing gets trickier. A close call or three keeps us from nodding off. The traffic on the roads includes cars, trucks, tour buses, motorcycles, bicycles and horse drawn wagons. There are almost as many horse powered vehicles as cars out there.

In between watching crazy car maneuvers, I stare out the window at the cultivated fields. Sugar cane, corn, onions and many crops I am not familiar with. Many houses along the road have strings of onions and other vegetables for sale at their gates. It is definitely a farming environment.

We arrive at the boat dock and say goodbye to our crazy driver and thank him for delivering us safely!

One of the first things I notice as we walk through Santa Clara is that everyone is wearing a mask. A COVID mask that is. Everyone. And we are outside headed towards the central plaza. No one seems to be complaining. There are a few, very few, with the mask not covering their nose. Maybe this is why Cuba hasn’t had as bad a time as the rest of the world. Communism, one for all and all for one? As recommended by Omelio, we are also wearing our masks.

As we head away from the center toward the Che memorial the next thing that strikes me is the noise. The streets are narrow and almost all of the buildings are concrete and the ambient noise reverberates and we can hardly hear what each other is saying.

I don’t know if there is a crew that picks up the trash on the street, if people don’t throw trash on the street or if there is not enough trash generated to cause a mess but the streets are very clean. Even the empty lots and waterways are garbage free.

Communism again. We are out an around on a Friday. There seem to be a lot more people on the street that we see working. That said there are 5 people per station at the Che museum, where in Canada there would be one. Mostly they looked pretty bored but they did jump to when we approach.

The entire city could use a coat of paint. Don’t know whether this is because there is little paint to be had or because people have other priorities to spend their money on, but peeling paint seems to be the preferred aesthetic. Debbie came up with the idea that each person should get an allotment of paint each year to beautify their surroundings.

I don’t know what it is with Spanish people and the volume of the TV but whenever a TV is on the entire block know what show is playing and what action is taking place.

This is not a complaint. In fact, I wish it were true for more places in the world. We would be force to learn the language of the host country and maybe expand our brains a little but very few people speak English. The people involved with tourists speak enough to communicate but still struggle with some words. Even the kids, a usual source of English in a foreign country only speak a few words. I did run into one young fellow today that spoke impeccable English but his is definitely the exception.

Things are very cheap in Cuba. We have travelled in countries that are supposed to be inexpensive, especially when you live somewhat like the locals but we spent less than $30US for the entire day, room, food, entertainment (as it was). I don’t ever remember spending that little and I have traveled extensively for 35 years.

The ‘irregular’ (black) market is the way the financial dealings work here. If you go by the legal system and exchange your foreign currency at the bank you will find things 4 times more expensive. If you trade it on the street you can live like a king. All the locals do that anyway. And by the by, contrary to every internet article I read the US dollar is not only accepted here but preferred. Euros are supposedly good as well but I cannot speak to that because I did not bring any. Canadian dollars are OK but that is all.  

When preparing for this trip I read so much conflicting and confusing information I was quite apprehensive to set foot in this country but after one day here it is pretty much like most places we go and all my angst disappeared. A few more days of this and we should know most of the ropes.

Note from Debbie – In 2016, while in Bolivia, we spent a few days following the path Che Guevera took in his failed revolution attempt. We saw where he was shot, held, died and where his body lay. It seemed appropriate that we visit the final resting place of Che. In Santa Clara, there is a huge statue, memorial and museum dedicated to him. So our story of Che is complete now.