Hi! On the morning of our flight to Cuba, we woke up at 4:30 in the morning and left for the airport. This was on March seventh. When we passed through security, my fifth(?) math compass for school was seized. Honestly, do they think I’m going to poke someone to death?! This compass had a sharp tip about a centimeter long and was probably only as sharp as a toothpick, but it still got confiscated! Anyway, when we got to the gate we prepared to eat the sandwiches our hotel in Bogata had made us, but they sadly had ham in them. Therefore, we got snacks at the airport restaurants. The reason I mention this is because I bought my food at a place called The Market, a side-store of a chain called Wolfgang Puck. Wolfgang Puck is at our airport in Denver so it brought back memories of home, as we traditionally eat there. We arrived at our hotel at around 1:30 in the afternoon on Havana, Cuba and met or very nice host, Isaac. He is a local man renting rooms of his sectioned house to tourists, and we also met his son, wife, and nephew. The proceeds of this family-owned business go to them instead of the large hotels that pay money directly to the military government of Cuba. We wandered the streets and ate lunch, showered, and rested, and at dinner we fed a beautiful pregnant orange cat some of my fish. While we walked around, we also saw an old woman with her dog and a litter of puppies. They were so cute! We gave her some money because she was providing for them and because she was old and we wanted to support her. We also ate ice cream from a local joint for dessert. My first impressing of Cuba was very nice. I had seen many handsome old cars, left over from when the U.S. and Cuba had had trade relations, and all the people seemed very kind and friendly. The next day, March eighth, we got up at nine o’clock and ate breakfast. Then, Troy ordered us a wonderful old 1955 Chevrolet Bellair Convertible! It was a vibrant turquoise color with white upholstery and an eagle hood ornament, and I absolutely fell in love with it. Ordinarily, I am obsessed with Volkswagen Buses, but that day I was all about the Chevys. We drove around Havana, our heads feeling the breeze through the open roof, and noticed the other car types. There were old Cadillacs, Fords, Buicks, Thunderbirds, and more! Though some of them, like ours, were used for tourists, many of the cars simply belonged to local people! When, after the Cuban Missile Crisis, the United States and other countries stopped trading with Cuba, the citizens were only left with the beautiful cars from the 1940s and 50s! This is one aspect in which I envy them, for I would love to have a dashing old car. Today’s cars are hideous! Speaking of the Cuban Missile Crisis, we briefly passed by a museum dedicated to it and saw some shot-down US spy-planes as well as bombs. We looked at a statue of Christ, though of course it was nothing compared to Christ the Redeemer in Rio, a telecommunications building that looked like an inversed, tall, Mayan, pyramidal, temple, and saw some more fabulous architecture.
Among the buildings modeled from the US, the capital and another building that I can’t remember the name of but is in New York, we saw tons of intricately detailed and decorated houses, but many of them were in disrepair. We learned about the Italian American prohibition at the Riviera Hotel, an old casino. We also stopped at a Jewish Synagogue. There, we met a man called Moshe, or Moses in English (though before we told him we were Israeli he introduced himself as Maurice), and looked around the place. There were shapely windows and large walls, as well as many pictures of the festivities held there. When we were finished, Moshe, a local Cuban (who happens to have played in the Jewish ‘Olympics’ or Maccabiah) invited us to a community Shabbat dinner at the synagogue.
We continued driving around and Asher tried his first (virgin) mojito until our three hours in the glorious car were up.
Before I move on, I forgot to mention that our driver, Javier, another local, showed us a video of Will Smith sitting with him in this very car! I would be quite excited, but his upcoming appearance as the Genie in Aladdin has caused me to become very disappointed in him. We also stopped at a park named the John Lennon park and took a picture with his statue. Banned from listening to English music, a group of young people were arrested , for one to five years for listening to the Beatles.
Speaking of music, we listened to an array of old songs in the car including Elvis, Mandy Moore, and Johnny Cash. After our ride, we went back to the house, or casa, and I read. That night, we went to the Shabbat service at the synagogue. A boy and girl with horrible horrible horrible voices sang the service for 85% of the evening, a girl with a good voice but who wasn’t loud enough and an old lady who drowned her out sang for 10% of the service, and the last 5% of the evening was of a speech or lecture made almost entirely in Spanish. However, when the worship was over, we ate Shabbat dinner with Moshe and many of the Cuban Jews. Our plates were piled with warm tuna, rice and black beans, and vegetables, all very good. Along with water, we were served a flat orange beverage that tasted like liquid bubblegum, and for dessert we were served an orange bubblegum-flavored jello! We actually had a lot of fun and I thought it was a great experience.
After dinner, we went out for ice cream and went back to the casa. On March ninth, the next day, Asher had a Spanish class with Isaac’s son, Andy, and Aba and Troy and I wandered the streets of town and the boardwalk, where we saw another cruise ship. We also changed money, a slow, scamming process. After lunch and dinner, Aba and Troy went to see the Tropicana Cabaret (ages 16+), leaving me and Asher at the hotel to watch Cuba and the Cameraman, a movie about life in Cuba before and after the Revolution.
We followed the lives of three old brothers, my favorite characters, as well as other locals including Fidel Castro. We learned that the Revolution impacted everyone, farmers in the suburbs as well as people in the city (such as others slaughtering their animals for meat so they cannot work). It was a very enlightening movie and I highly highly recommended it. You can watch it on Netflix. March tenth, the next day, followed a similar pattern. Asher went out with Andy and the adults and I walked. The most interesting part of the afternoon was seeing another Jewish synagogue, this one Orthodox rather than Conservative. It was in a very poor neighborhood and the only person there was Cuba’s only Kosher butcher. On our way out, we met the Mohel, the man who conducts the Bris for Jewish children. He was an old man and very sweet, but Aba said he would never let him near his baby with those shaking hands.
We went to the casa and I read again, but I dropped my Kindle. Aba had dropped it previously in Colombia, it fell of the table so it was already very cracked, but now the cracks are deeper and more jagged. That is why this post may seem bad, I am typing with one finger to lower the risk of glass getting into my skin. That’s how much I love you! Anyway, that night, we went to the ballet version of Cinderella. When Aba had bought the tickets, all he knew was that they were for a ballet, so Asher was not happy. The performance wasn’t excellent, but it was good. As we left, a little girl was twirling in the lobby the way I used to when I was younger. It was sweet.
I also learned that Fidel Castro wanted the country to be socialist. At some point, he also attempted to learn English. There were also shortages because of the collapse of the Soviet UnionOn the morning of the 11th (a month before Trixie’s birthday!), We woke up early and drove for the hours to a cave. The cave was kind of lame compared to the ones we saw in Vietnam, for example, or the Interspace Caverns we grew up next to in Texas, so it was the least memorable part of the day.
We then drove to a tobacco plantation and cigar making factory(?). The Cuban cigars at this organic and chemical-free natural farm are hand-rolled and cost four dollars each. The methods are so traditional, I’m talking oxen and plows here, that is it protected by UNESCO. I learned that there are Cohibas, the strongest and darkest cigars; Romeo and Juliets, medium power cigars; and Monte Cristos, the mildest and lightest-colored cigars. The leaves highest up on the tobacco plant are used for stronger cigars and the ones farther down are used for the milder ones. However, leaves for cigars are only taken from the main plant, not the offshoots. Leaves from the offshoots are used for cigarettes, but they are not harvested in this particular farm because they don’t make cigarettes there, only cigars. The leaves of the plants are picked and the leaves sorted into groups by where they grew on the plant. Then, they hang in racks until they dry and are sprayed with a fermenting spray, all natural. They are soaked in this for months until they are rolled. During this process, the nicotine transfers into the main vein of tobacco leaf which is consequently ripped out. Then, they last for five years. Chemically made cigars last longer, but I still thought this was cool.
The flowers of tobacco plants are small but are filled with seeds. These are planted for the next year, as tobacco can only be harvested once a year. I vaguely knew about the previous information, but I was very surprised to learn that cigars are made up of 100 percent leaves! I always assumed that tobacco was powdered up and rolled in some kind of special paper, so this was a really eye-opening learning experience for me. Aba and Troy each tried a cigar, the Monte Cristos, though they didn’t finish them and got to keep them. Even I took a couple of puffs off one! I’ve always heard that whenever someone tries a cigar or cigarette for the first time they will hate it because it makes your throat sore, and I’m not sure if this is because it was the mildest brand, but I didn’t think they were half bad! Of course I wouldn’t have them often even if I was allowed to, but I liked how subtle their taste was. Asher refused to even smell the cigars.
Yes, I actually am smoking. It’s not a trick!
After the wonderful exposure of the plantation, my favorite part so far out of our entire experience in Cuba, we stopped at a small town. At that point, Aba and Troy decided that they wanted to buy some cigars for themselves and as presents for family, so we turned around and drove back to the farm. They bought a mixed pack of the three types of cigars with 25 in the pack. They also got for five for free (for a total of $100)! We Then drove to a surprisingly vibrant wall mural and a viewpoint. Before lunch, we stopped and I bought a Casata! These are ice-cream sandwiches that I used to eat in Israel, but now I can’t find them anywhere! It was delicious. After a scrumptious lunch of beans, beans and rice, rice, vegetables, and chicken, we drove back to our casa. I read and showered, and Aba brought us pizza while we watched another movie about Cuba. I liked the Cuba Libre Story less and thought it was less engaging that Cuba and the Cameraman, but I still learned a lot. It told about the Cuban Revolution and famous historical Cuban figures and how the United States tricked Cuba by promising freedom from the Spanish and basically occupying them instead. After that, Asher and I enjoyed ourselves watching Kick-Ass 2, the sequel to Kick-Ass. The next morning, the 12th, we woke up at a decent time and had a pretty uneventful day. We strolled along Havana’s ocean-side boardwalk and went from our casa to the Hotel National by foot, quite a distance in the broiling heat. However, we enjoyed ourselves and Troy had a lot of fun taking pictures. At the Hotel National, we had a great view of the ocean and saw peacocks! Later that day, we learned that during a period of Cuban tension before the reign of a man called Batista, all of his enemies hid in the hotel with the U.S. ambassador and eventually ran out of ammunition to shoot back with. They were defeated. We hired a car to take us back to our neighborhood, and with our luck, it was an old Chevy Impala! It was great, and even the same price as a normal cab! Once at our neighborhood, we walked next to the Central Park Hotel and ate at Sloppy Joe’s. Before we returned to the casa, we browsed through two antique stores. I read, and Asher persuaded me to watch Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 with him. We ate dinner at a nearby restaurant with very good food, and returned to watch another episode of the film we’d watched the day before. We learned a lot about Fidel Castro. For example, he grew up as an illegitimate child and was raised by his poor mother and his father’s sugar cane workers. We also learned about other prominent Cuban figures, such as Fulgencio Batista, who basically ruled Cuba, and the United States’ role in Cuban affairs, especially when it came to the sugar trade in World War I. At that time, the price of a pound of sugar went up from three cents to 22 cents because of the shortage of beet sugar from the Soviets, and Cuba became a sugar monoculture. Anyway, After I read a bit more, we watched Mamma Mia. Yeah…. I don’t recommend it. Before watching Mamma Mia, I accidentally shut off my Kindle, thereby deleting that day’s blog post, and had to rewrite it again in the morning. The 13th was occupied by a lot of screen-time. In the morning, we watched two episodes of the show about Cuba and then walked. We went to the Ernest Hemingway bar and took a picture with his statue. A couple of months before, we had had to read The Old Man and the Sea by Hemingway for school, and as the book was written in and set in Cuba, it was wonderful to see all of Hemingway’s inspiration from the Cuban people.
We returned to the casa and Aba made us watch another Cuban episode. In the three episodes, we learned about Castro’s rise to power. When in university, Castro was a figure in many small rebellions. Finally, he orchestrated a not-so-well-planned attack on the country’s second-largest military base and failed to conquer it. This would have landed him in prison for fifteen years, but he was pardoned after a year and a half. He and his men regrouped and eventually took over Cuba! After dinner, Asher wanted to watch Central Intelligence. However, I washed to watch Tim Burton’s Big Eyes, and since he’d picked the other movies we watched Big Eyes first. It was about an artist who was explored by her husband, I won’t say any more for fear of spoiling it, but 1) I really liked the movie and 2) I loved her art! Then, we watched Central Intelligence. In the morning, we left the casa and said goodbye to Isaac and the rest of our friends. On our flight to Bogota, a man next to us was being deported for staying in Cuba for too long! Here is my summary of Cuba: It is a beautiful country and I enjoyed my experience. However, it was a lot more touristy than I expected, evidenced by the astronomical prices and many people’s fluency in English. I did learn a lot though and am glad I went. It also surprised me how dedicated Cubans seem to be to the United States considering their treatment by them. Cabs have air fresheners with the U.S’s flag on them, people wear U.S-flag print shoes, shirts, and other articles of clothing and accessories. I think the U.S. needs to step up and stop shunning Cuba, especially since from what I’ve learned on the trip the United States was the constant instigator. 5-21-7-4
Ella
