April Sun In Cuba (and some May sun as well)

Hola Amigos! We write having just experienced an amazing 8 days in Fidel's Cuba. We spent the bulk of our time in Havana, staying in the old part of the city with a local family in a casa particula (Cuban B&B withouth the second B).

We tackled the city by foot on a daily basis, checking out the amazing architechture, numerous musuems and the even more numerous (no thesaurus on hand sorry) monuments to the leaders and heroes of Cuba's revolutionary history. Havana was a step back in time as the old cars rolled past, the son musicians played and the locals went about there business.

A highlight of our walkabout was the Musuem of the Revolution. Not because of the superb way in which the Cuban story is presented (think of a school project with access to a dot matrix printer and some clearfiles), but for some of the snippets of information found along the way. Little known facts such as the introduction by the CIA of viruses to wipe out sugar and pork production, the immense role of Cuba in space travel (the Russians took a Cuban into space during the cold war) and some incredible social statistics (100% literacy rate and 37 liver transplants completed per month) make for an enjoyable voyage through Cuban history. The tributes to Che Guevara's role in this history are numerous, and are seen on most streetscapes.

While navigating Havana's cobblestone streets is a breeze, understanding the currency is not. Cuba operates a dual curreny, both called the peso, though one 1/24th the value of the other. This can lead to purchases of an ice cream for either US$1.20 or US$0.06. The local (cheaper) peso is only good for street food, but armed with 240 local pesos, we ate our way through the city. Pan con Lechon (pork sandwhiches) garnished with a generous serving of crackling at 5 local pesos lead the consumption list, with 18 in a five day space, closely followed by helado (ice creams) and queso (cheese) pizza. Pan con Lechon also lead the list in likely causes of Caroline's dodgy tummy. Night times were spent at restaurants where the big peso reigned supreme, as did grande cervezas (big beers)....

By coincidence, we happened to be in town for 'Primero de Mayo', the 1st of May celebration of the Cuban worker. In essence this is a communist rally in celebration of the revolution, where Fidel addresses the masses (1.2 million of them) in the 'Plaza de Revolucion'. Given the opportunity to see the socialist movement in all it's glory, these two gringos took to the streets to check it out, and soon enough found ourselves in amongst the masses and marching towards the memorial to Jose Marti (Cuban revolucionary poet) with a million others. Unfortunately, Fidel did not show, further increasing speculation that the nation's leader is no more. Raul did make an appearance however and looked splendid in his military greens while rambling about the threat to food security as a result of US policy on increasing use of bio-fuels (or corn petrol as he called it in the paper).

On our travels of the city we came across the US Embassy. Anti-American feeling remains pretty strong with some fantastic propoganda in the form of bill boards flanking the embassy. Favourite amongst the options was the billboard with images detailing that George Bush + Condoleza Rice = Hitler. Under the Bush administration, the US Embassy has increased it's interest in organising anti-Castro groups in Cuba. To this end they constructed a scrolling LED screen on the side of the embassy late last year to publicise to the Cuban people it's thoughts on the Castro regime. In a fantastic response 2 days later, Cuban authorities erected some 137 flag-poles directly in front of the embassy to block all viewsof the LED. On public holidays the Cuban flag flies, but at all other times of the year, the flags are black with a single white star in the middle.

Mat took the opportunity in Cuba to learn a little more on the revolution and the Castro regime by picking up a copy of 'History Will Absolve Me', Fidel's famous 1953 defense of the first failed attempt to spark the revolution (a good read with a couple of Bucanero's while listening to Son music). Paraphrased, Fidel was a pretty articulate bugger in 53 and had some great ideas for a new Cuba. 50 years on, Fidel's dream is yet to be realised as unemployment runs high, infrastructre is lacking (just the 5 electricty brown outs of more than 5 hours duration while we were there!) and the common Cuban struggles from day to day. The people remain proud of their history though and loyal to the revolution's aims.

We escaped north for a couple of days on the coast, staying with another local family, with our casa only metres back from the beach. A great break from the hussle of Havana, we were able to work on the tan and make some plans for Mexico. Happy to report that Mat has not peeled once since departing Aotearoa over a month ago, has bedded in a semi decent/noticeable tan and evidence of this will be provided in a future blog (stay tuned). The tan is the result of constant exposure to 30 degrees plus, which in Cuba leads to pretty impressive thunder storms every couple of days.

On to Mexico next where scuba diving will be the activity of choice. We hope you are all well wherever you are. Adios, nos mantendremos en contacto. Vamos de Makos. (Bye, we'll be in touch. Go the Makos!)