Cuba, Che and the People
"I'll Remember You Forever"
Travel to Cuba? It's an adventurous and beautiful travel destination, so why not? Beliefs and biases change slowly. For the good of both Cubans and Americans, I hope the US releases the Cuban embargo in the near future. If you want to travel to Cuba, here is some info from Cubalinda about
how to get to Cuba.
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It took four Guarda police
to row out to the boat and check us in |
If there's one thing Cuba does not lack, it's
bureaucracy and paperwork. As we traveled around the island, we checked in with the Guarda (port police) at each port or anchorage. As we arrived, we dutifully filled out paperwork in triplicate with carbon paper in between each sheet. We filled out the
SAME paperwork in triplicate with the
SAME aging carbon paper when we left the port or anchorage (often the very next morning!). It was a shear test of patience, but it's their country, their rules, and we followed them.
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| Mark and I at Havana's Malecon |
Havana is a UNESCO World Heritage site and its a beautiful example of Old World Spanish architecture. From the Malecon to Plaza des Armas, Catedral San Cristobalto to the National Capital and the Great Theater, we roamed freely all over the city taking in the sites, museums and culture.
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You can have a drink
with the man himself |
Naturally, we hit the places made famous by Ernest Hemingway and, of course, those places were bars:
El Flordita, purported to be the creator of the Daiquiri, and
La Bodeguita del Medio, Hemingway's favorite for mojitos. The Cuban people embraced their famous visitor as evidenced by the numerous photos of him covering the walls and a bronze statue of him at the bar in El Floridita.
There's even a photo of one of Hemingway's cocktail napkin notes:
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My mojito in La Bodeguita
My Daiquiri in El Floridta
Ernest Hemingway
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Lobsters were plentiful
and the fishermen friendly |
Sailing around the island, we had to be very careful to watch for tiny home-crafted rowboats fishing in the deeper waters offshore. They were hard to spot and reminded us of Hemingway's
Old Man and the Sea. Luckily for us, as little boats came home, they would stop (if the Guarda were not around) and sell us their daily catch. Yum!
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Looks like a rocketship
straight from a 1920's
Buck Rogers comic |
One of our favorite places was Cayo Guano del Estes, a tiny spit of land above a reef sporting a lighthouse that looks like a rocket. Two lonely lighthouse keepers manned the 'rocket'.
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State of the art
electronics her |
As we approached and began to anchor just off of the spit, Mark heads to the bow and I take the helm preparing to back down and set the anchor. Suddenly, there's a small wooden boat boat alongside and a very thin, somewhat bedraggled older man clambering over the side shouting,
"La Capitana, La Capitana!". I didn't know whether to laugh or abandon ship, but I had a job to do since Mark had dropped the anchor and was also shouting to me to
"Back down!". I realized our intruder was one of the lighthouse keepers who assumed I was the 'Captain of the Ship' and was duly impressed and enthusiastic to the point of exuberance.
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You wouldn't believe how
good this tasted! |
When we finally unloaded our dinghy and came ashore, the younger lighthouse keeper climbed the
ONLY palm tree on the spit, cut the
ONLY coconut on the tree, and all four of us shared this prize. Although it was illegal, he came aboard the boat and showed us some good spots to dive for fish and lobster. That evening, he cooked a grouper in a charred black pot over an open fire. We shared a wonderful meal, some rum from
Wild Goose, and collected a lifetime of memories of these two generous and kind souls.
If you visit Cuba, try to make the trip to the south side of the island to visit another UNESCO World Heritage site,
Trinidad. This 500 year-old city with Spanish colonial architecture is like walking around an open air museum. Pink stucco churches, red tiled roofs and pastel painted fronts, cobble-stone streets with horse-drawn carriages clop-clopping along, and a constant supply of guajira musicians.
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Looking at the Escambray Mountains
from the cathedral tower |
From Trinidad, we made our way to
Cienfuegos and (would you believe it) another UNESCO World Heritage site. A huge statue of Jose Marti, a writer, political activist and national hero in Cuba who lived in the late 1800's looms over the plaza. It was just across from this statue at an outdoor cafe that I met a very special man I'll never forget. He was an older man, very distinguished looking with a fat Cuban cigar in his mouth and was selling flowers from a nearby table. I desperately wanted to talk to this man, ask him about his life, where he was from and understand his experiences during the Castro-led revolution. I speak a little Spanish. He spoke no English. We both tried, but our language differences made such a complex conversation impossible. Finally, he took a small bouquet of flowers, pressed them into my hands and said in Spanish,
"Take these flowers. Tonight you will remember me."
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Heading back to Wild Goose
with my flowers |
We left and made our way back to
Wild Goose at anchor in the harbor. I put the flowers in a vase with water thinking about our day in Cienfuegos and my frustration at not being able to converse in detail with these courageous yet humble people. As the sun dipped below the horizon, the boat filled with the most unbelievable flowery aroma. Mark said to me, "I'll bet you remember that old man now." I thought about it and told him,
"You know, I'll always be able to close my eyes and see that man. I'll remember him forever."
