hi!

¿Como andas?

So ya ya ya, I’m a slacker on the blog once again. Sorry dudes. I’m going to skip ahead to what I’ve been doing lately and hopefully fill in the gaps later on in life when things calm down a bit. Explanation for the rush-Throughout our program we were told that we would have our carnets (Cuban Temporary Resident card) until the end of our trip. However, at the end of March, Immigration let us know that they would be revoking them at the end of April to begin processing our exit visas. So…subtitles, this means that we are only able to pay for travel in Cuban pesos and rent rooms in casas particulares as students until the end of April. Due to that, we bumped up our planned travel schedule (us being my travel partners in crime Katie, Susan and Mary) up to fit in all of the places that we’ve wanted to visit. Our professors have been awesome and taken a week from our April class schedule and moving it into May so that we could have an extended time to travel to the farther ends of the country.

Three weeks ago, Katie and I ventured to Camaguey for a weekend. It’s a small city mid way down the island (similar distance as between Albany and Buffalo) that was built as a labyrinth to prevent piracy in the 1800s. The bus ride was excruciating…we went Cuban style. First, the bus was very small and the space between the seats made even me feel cramped, so you can only imagine how tight it was. Also, driver insisted on stopping at least once an hour, sometimes more, playing western films between blaring Cuban pop and cooling the bus to a not-so-sleep-conducive-when-in-shorts 50 degrees. We finally arrived after 11 hours at 2 am. After that, we had a great time though, our casa was amazing, with 18^th century tiling throughout and a very helpful host family that made killer breakfasts (but still not as good as a diner!) We took a tour of the city on Saturday with a friend of the family who owns a bici-taxi, a bench seat with a canopy attached to the back of a tricycle…it was sweet. To make it better, our guide’s name was Tai-Chi…and he’s the local Tai-Chi instructor, pretty flipping sweet if I do say so myself! We got to see the many churches that dot the city, many of which were visited by Pope John Paul (Juan Pablo) II when he visited the city in 1998. There was this amazing square that was constructed by one of the cathedrals in 1998 that has sculptures of local residents and because it is still fairly new, you can still catch the inspirations hanging out near their replicas waiting for curious tourists. After that, we went to the bus terminal to get our return tickets for Sunday evening, but in typical Cuban “lets really annoy them’ style, the Cuban peso ticket office closes on weekends, making purchasing a return impossible. To calm down, we treated ourselves to a steak dinner, French fries and drinks, a big splurge at 5 CUC (woot!) We got ice cream at Coppelia after that and resigned ourselves to the fact that we would have to cut our trip short and not go to Cayo Coco to make sure that we got back to Havana by Monday. So we packed in early and got up early to try and get on the bus waiting list. Oh yea…there were 95 people on the list when there are only 2 buses that go to Havana, each with 40 seats, so that wasn’t going to happen. So, being the resourceful Cubans that we’ve become, we went outside, did some bargaining and pitting taxi drivers against one another and hired one to drive us the 11 hours back to Havana for $20 each (how far would that take you in NYC?) He made it in 7 and just in time for us to eat dinner back at home at ANAP.

Week=same ol’ same, classes, research for paper writing, the boys playing their guitars on the porch, eating peso pizza, watching half-century old restrictions being lifted. Ok, maybe that last one isn’t so bland. One of the cooler prohibitions that was removed was the inability for Cubans to enter or book hotel rooms in tourist hotels. A few of us ventured out just before midnight and headed to the Hotel Nacional to celebrate the change-over and picked up a Cuban friend along the way. The hotel was just as quiet as it would be on any other night, are friend being the only non-hotel employed Cuban there. We had a great time celebrating, but it was a definite sign that although there are changes here, Cubans won’t be immediately affected if they still don’t have the money to take advantage of the opportunities. Anyway, as we were leaving, our friend stood in the middle of the lobby and yells, “I’m legal in here now!” and all of the employees started cheering. It was quite the fun time.

Oh yes. A fun detail on Friday. I was bitten by a dog. Yup…chalk that one on to my “I do my own stunts” list. I was walking with Katie in Habana Vieja looking at paintings when I went to look closer at a piece on an easel and caught the tail of a dog that was sleeping underneath. He jumped up and bit the left side of my left foot, then when I tried to shake him off, he went for the right side of the same foot. Not a pretty site, but three Canadian tourists with a car came to my rescue, pouring purified water on my foot and took me to the hospital. Apparently “Cuba is a rabies free zone.” Uh huh…so they refused me a rabies shot, instead cleaning the cuts, giving me a “muscle relaxant” injection and sent me on my way. Turns out that the muscle relaxant was a tetanus shot that I neither needed nor was told about, so that was a bit frustrating. Its all good now, just was very swollen and sore for a week or so.

After that ordeal, we packed up once again and headed toward Santiago de Cuba on the opposite end of the island. We knew it was going to be long, the ride is about the distance from NYC to DC, but predicted to take 17 hours including all of the stops along the way. So we settled into our cramped little seats and passed the time between napping, watching awful western films, listening to iPods and reading. Intermixed in that was a mariachi soap opera that was on repeat on full blast that must have cycled about 8 times throughout the trip, once playing as our wake up alarm at 6 am (you can bet how that one went over). Including a 3 hour stopover in Camaguey to find a new bus driver, the trip took 21 hours and we finally arrived at our casa particular at 8 am.

After a nice nap, we toured the area around our casa, which was right in the heart of the historic district with a famous church 3 blocks down, a few museums scattered around and the site where Fidel proclaimed the Revolution’s triumph on December 31^st, 1959. We attempted to buy bus tickets the next morning, but as Cuba goes, it wasn’t easy. We had to stand in line for 3 hours before getting up to the window and being told that every bus to the destinations that we wanted to go to, 2 in Santiago and our return trip back to Havana, were sold out. Panic set in for a few, but we put our names on the much more expensive tourist bus lists for one of the excursions, Baracoa, as well as back to Havana, but no such luck to the Sierra Maestras. As we were about to walk away in dejection, two guys came up and offered to “use their contacts” in the bus station to get us onto the Cuban peso bus to Havana. So, going with the flow, we explored our black market options. Lo and behold, an hour later, we ended up with tickets to Havana in Cuban peso, bought “a la izquierda” with a small bribe fee-oh well, eso es Cuba. We were very proud of ourselves for finding a way to get home, a little amazed by how we did it. In our wait, we bargained a day tour on a bici-taxi to the harder to get-to sites on the outskirts of the city. First up was the cemetery where we saw the changing of the guard at José Martí’s tomb, as well as the graves of Tomas Estrada Palma, the Bacardi family, and many soldiers from the 26^th of July movement. After that, we toured the Santiago Rum factory, which is one of the most famous in Cuba and happened to have free samples. Then we headed to the Loma de San Juan (San Juan Hill) where Teddy Roosevelt and his Rough Riders fought in the Spanish-Cuban-American War. That was a long day, so we treated ourselves to dinner at the Melia Santiago, the local 5-star hotel, where we got garlic bread and hamburgers with Coca-Cola and Sprite for 7 CUC, it was AMAZING!

The next day, Susan and I headed five hours northeast to Baracoa, the first settlement in Cuba, founded in 1512. The ride was gorgeous, but was a literal zig-zag through the mountains the whole way, which made for some fun games of rollercoaster. We got there and found the most beautiful place on Earth-it’s like tropical jungle mountains blend into a crystal clear Caribbean beach with a quaint village in the middle and some early Spanish colonial forts thrown in for good measure. It was incredible, we just sat on the Malecón for a few minutes and stared in disbelief. All of that until we realized that we were given bad information and had no way of getting home. Have to love Cuba. So luckily, while staring out to sea to try and relax for a minute, one of those pesky hustlers came up to the two of us and asked it we wanted a taxi or boyfriend. Susan, being the feisty one she can be, says “Nope, out of luck with those two, but you can help us out by finding us a way back to Santiago.” As luck would have it, he actually did have a way and arranged for his brother to drive us back that night…PHEW! Finally able to enjoy the town, we walked along the ocean to the main square, where we found a peso chocolate café (Baracoa is Cuba’s chocolate capital), a few art galleries, live musicians, and a church with Latin America’s oldest cross. We then headed the other way through town, to the harbor, when we got trapped in a rain storm and wound up talking to a family for about an hour and a half. After that, we went up a giant hill to an old Spanish fort, explored there, then had dinner and drinks overlooking the town. We met our ride at 8 and hoped in for another great journey through the mountains, I got to see the Guantanamo Naval Base from a distance and was otherwise fun except that I got sick, but it passed and all was well.

The next day, we took it slow. Saw the Moncada Barracks, where Fidel and his army first began their rebel activities in 1953. They failed miserably the first time around by the way, got sent to jail for a bit. Later that afternoon, we met up with some friends that we had met in a park and went to the first game of the Cuban Baseball World Series between Santiago and Pinar del Rio. It was an amazing game, everyone was on edge and into the game, it was a ton of fun. No peanuts or beer, but lollipops and coffee did the trick from the same type of vender. After an amazing 7^th inning where Santiago scored 7 runs, they won the first game 9-2! (They eventually went on to win the title)

We took a ’55 Chevy out to the Bay of Santiago the next day to see the marine sights of the city. First up was El Morro, a fort that protected the entrance to the Bay during the Spanish colonial period. After exploring that for a while and finding Coke in a tourist shop, we headed down to a ferry (more like a covered motorized row boat) to Cayo Granma, a secluded fishing island in the middle of the Bay. We walked around that for a bit, amazed at the disrepair of the houses and the cheeriness of the town people, we stumbled upon a roof top restaurant owned by one of the island’s fishermen. For a whopping 40 CUC, the four of us got 2 orders of lobster, 1 order of both shrimp and fish, a large tomato and cabbage salad, soft drinks, and individual plates of rice and corn. Such a good lunch! After that, we headed back to the casa where the others took a nap and I headed out on an adventure. I had wanted to go to this church way out of town in the middle of the mountains that the locals rave about its beauty, but no one else would go. So, I took local transportation-a covered livestock truck with benches inside, hey, it was 40 cents of a Cuban peso (less than 1 US cent) instead of 30 CUC-up through the mountains for 45 minutes to El Cobre. It lived up to its hype. This huge cathedral was nestled in a valley between two mountain ranges and when I arrived, sunrays cut through the clouds and shown just to the right of the main steeple. It was absolutely beautiful. I got to talk to some of the older ladies that lived around the boundaries of the church and heard the history of the buildings and their experiences living so close by, so that was a fun additional touch. After getting some advice from the gas station attendants on how to get home (some things never change around the world), I caught another truck back into the city. Fun sub-adventure, I caught a motorcycle taxi back to our casa! Up side-it was my first motorcycle ride, down side-I burned my leg on the exhaust pipe…oh well!

Friday was set aside to go into the Sierra Maesta mountain range to hike the trails that the Castros had followed as they started their Revolutionary regrouping and planning in ’58. Long story short, the driver never showed and we ended up going to Santiago’s 5-star hotel to drown the disappointment in pasta arribiata, garlic bread and their swimming pool! It ended up being a great end to the week and just the relaxation that we needed before the bus ride home (which ended up being much easier and getting in an hour early-unheard of in Cuba!)

Ok…more to come: Isla de Jovenetud and more daily life!

Part 2!

Ok…part two, as promised. I know that it’s not Wednesday, but not my fault this time! Cuba had no internet…ok excuse?
Next up, are the Juegos Caribes. These are the 2 week games between the departments (Facultads) of the University of Havana. This year was their 86th year, which also coincides with the 280th anniversary of the University and the 85th year of FEU (University Student Federation-Federación Estudiantil Universitario), so there were lots of anniversary celebrations.
Tuesday, the 18th, were the opening ceremonies in the University stadium. As per usual, the event started late…about 2 hours late tonight, but all was well since I got to meet and hang out with Cuban students from my Factultad-Filosofia e Historia. We exchanged phone numbers and hopefully will be able to hang out soon. When the event started, the crowd went wild and so began the craziest week of my trip so far. First up was Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Jr. or so I like to call it. It was this amazing group of 7-10 year old martial arts students that performed a routine of flips, kicks and balancing like you’ve never seen before, it was incredible…no worries, I taped it! After that, we were welcomed by members of the University and FEU administration and the parade of Facultads began. Each Facultad had planned their own skit, so I didn’t get to participate, but it was just as fun being in the crowd for it. Each came past the stadium seating and their respective fans went wild, but none compared to ours, which snagged a telephone pole repair truck, the ones with the extendable basket, for the night and decorated it for different time periods, with our athletes dressed up accordingly. It was awesome…we pretty much crushed everyone in the creativity aspect. After the parade was done, the games were officially opened by an official from INDER, the governmental sports authority (Instituto Natcional de Deportes y Educacion Recreacional). Woooot. After that, members of FEU and past Juegos stand-outs ran the torch around the track, up a hill and lit a torch at the far end of the stadium! Then the party broke out, a group of young gymnasts performed and the stadium was suddenly transformed into a club. The performance ended and the track was opened for all of us to dance, as a DJ began to play the current Cuban pop songs. It was sooo much fun, we stayed for about an hour, but the music got worse as the night went on, so we headed out.
Two days later, Thursday, I had my first day of competition. Track (atletismo) began at 9 and I was scheduled to run the 3k and the 1.5k. I was pulled from the 1.5k because apparently athletes are unable to run 2 distance races in the same day, so the Facultad had more runners for that one than needed, so only ran the 3k…the last race. I spent the day chatting with my team mates and had a great time hanging out and exploring the campus of the Havana Sports University, the site of our races. Background-the only races that day were the 1.5k, 400, 100 and 3k, pretty short schedule, right…wrong. This is Cuba. The 3k didn’t go off until noon, right in the middle of the blazing sun in 103 degree heat. Yikes! It was so hot, but off we went. Two girls went out from the start and continued to widen their lead through out the race, but I ran in 4th place until the last 3 laps of the 7.5 lap race. After that, I went into 3rd, tried unsuccessfully to catch 2nd place and finished with the bronze…yay!! The Facultad was very proud and I walked away from the day with one of Filosofia e Historia’s two medals from the day. After that, I came home to ANAP, chilled out for a bit, ate dinner, then went to see a baseball game-Industriales versus Sancti Spiritus! We played clueless tourists, bit knowing where to sit and went down to the front row, since tickets are only general admission, except for the front rows behind home plate. So we were asked to move to up to the general admission section, but were then told…nevermind, just sit in the third row. Third row seats behind home plate…woot! That was fun. Industriales (the Cuban version of the Yankees) were up 2-0 when the rain came pouring down in the 3rd inning. Some how, we managed to meet one of the Industriales sponsors who was at the game that night. Yea, that was lucky. So when the game was officially cancelled, he took us to the team buses and had each of “his boys” come over to talk and take pictures with Katie, Cate and I. It was pretty fabulous. After that, we walked with his friends and him to the Plaza de la Revolución, where we talked about different things about our program and his work, which we each found very interesting. After that, we caught a cab home and called it a night.
Friday was another day of races, up bright and early with the sun to run my heart out. Oh...I forgot to mention one of the best parts of all of this. The Juegos are a pretty big deal around the campus, so if any professor tries to give you a hard time about missing a class for a game/race, the dean of your Facultad will write you an excuse no questions asked….pretty good deal, eh? Luckily I only missed 1 class and the professor told me to go and represent the Facultad well, I would learn more there than in her classroom that day. So…I headed to the University and picked up Kristen and Kelly from UNC along the way to catch our guagua (public bus) to the track. First race was the one that all three of us were registered for…the 5k. Woot. We warmed up for that, checked in almost immediately and got ready to get the hardest race of the week over with. I was assigned to the same lap counter as yesterday’s 3k, who was also the Sports University professor that invited me to her running club after the marathon, so we became good friends. The 25 racers went to the line, the blocks were clapped and we were off. The pack went out slow and I decided to stay in 3rd, on the shoulders of the 1st and 2nd placers for a bit. On the 3rd lap, I made my way up to 2nd and stayed there for another 3 laps. After that, I had a burst of energy and went for it into first. Who knows what came over me, but I forgot about any pain and just loved running in this race in Cuba, with my Facultad cheering from the sidelines for the three of us crazy Americans. It was fun and fueled me through the next 6 laps. On the final lap, I went full throttle and kicked hard to the finish line, finishing in first by 300 m! Kelly and Kristen did amazing, finishing close behind in 4th and 7th place, giving it there all after not feeling too well that morning. I was so excited…brining home the gold! It was an amazing feeling and the Facultad came up to celebrate with me. Until the 200m, my next race, was called to check in before the last of the 5k racers had crossed the line. Quick awards ceremony, ran across the track to the 200 starting line, switched to my make shift racing flats, the flipped the switch to the sprints, or velocidad here in the 537 (Havana…almost 518 for home, but not quite). I was in the outside lane and went out hard, but the 5k kick caught up with me and I hit the wall after the first 100. I still ran hard and didn’t lose any ground, but couldn’t produce that finish to place me higher than 3rd in my heat to qualify for tomorrow’s finals. Oh well. I was done for the day. Wait…nope, they told me at the finish that they needed a sub for the 4x400 relay. It was still 2 hours away, so I agreed, rested up, took my vitamins (yes Mom!), and practiced hand-off with my teammates-Tatiana, Yodi and Lili. When race time came, I was told to be the anchor and we went out to the start. The first three legs went out hard, but couldn’t seem to finish quite as strong, which put us back to 5th place out of 6th. I got the baton and ran strong, but not my max until the last 200, then hit the booster to try and catch the 4th place girl, I got within 10m of her before she saw my shadow and out kicked me to the finish. 5th place, not too shabby and we were done for the day. We headed across the infield to pack up, but then across the megaphone they announced the qualifiers for tomorrow’s finals…4x400m-last qualifier-Filosofia e Historia!! Somehow we managed to make it to finals, I learned some new Cuban swears pretty quickly after that was announced! How did that happen!? Who knows, but it did! Although it didn’t make any difference because we had no more substitutes and 2 of the girls couldn’t make it tomorrow. Oh well, we had a great time anyway! I headed home at 5, showered and rested my tired legs, and had an amazing ANAPpetite (what we call our ANAP dinners…clever, no? ok…maybe just dorky, do you have ANAPinion? Got that one?) I got all dressed up after that and went to see the National Ballet, directed by Alicia Alonso, perform Giselle. That was wonderful! I wish that the US had as many cultural events open to their citizens as Cuba…where else could I see world-class ballet for USD $0.20?
Day 3 of the Juegos competitions. This time swimming. Yup…you read right, I some how got rooked into swimming. Up with the sun again, but luckily had time for coffee…phew. I met Sara and Alex at UNC on the way to the University and after waiting for an hour, we went to the swimming stadium on our own. It was pretty sweet, we took the guagua outside of Havana to the PanAmerican complex built for the 1991 games that Cuba hosted. We had time to warm up, I saw a guy wearing an AU shirt (although he had no idea what AU was) and the races began. First race was the 50m butterfly (mariposa), which Sara got a bronze…yea Fresa! The next race was the 50m backstroke (espalda), which both Sara and I both competed in. The whistle blew and all I remember was my flailing arms, frantic legs and water rushing up my nose, but when all was said and done, Sara got first in our heat and I got third! Neither of us ended up medaling, but we had a good time. Alex was in the guys heat and also had a great race, but didn’t medal. Third was the 50m breaststroke (pecho), which Sara and I also raced in together. Whistle blew, goggles filled with water, kept swimming the breaststroke, and somewhere along the way switched to the butterfly…oops! So I got disqualified, I don’t profess to be a swimmer nor ever will, and Sara got second in our heat, but no medal. Unfortunately, my legs got mad at me after that and went shaky for a bit, so I went for a walk and withdrew from the next race, the 50m freestyle (libre). I was all better when the race began and watched Sara swim to a third place finish in the heat, but no medal, and Alex get fourth in his heat. Next up…relays! Our Facultad only brought 4 girls, so we all sucked up our fatigue and went for it. First up was the medley relay-I swam backstroke, Dania swam breaststroke, Sara swam butterfly and Dahlia was anchor with freestyle. At the end of my leg, we were in 3rd and each successive leg closed the gap between us and 2nd place, but we fell just short and got 3rd. Bronze! Yay! Our Facultad was very proud and came down to the pool to congratulate us. Not much time to spare though, the guys were soon in the pool and we were there to cheer them on as well, they swam a tough race against stiff competition and just missed the podium by a few seconds. After that was the 4x50m freestyle relay. Three days of intense competition was taking its toll on my body, but by getting in the pool, it gave my three competitive teammates the chance for another medal. I was lead-off, the whistle blew and I was ok for the first 25m, but after the turn, I was done. My legs just didn’t want to move, they did to the finish and were enough to keep us in 4th, but it was time to call it quits after that race. Sara was in next and pulled us right back in the race, then Dania pulled close enough to swim in the bubbles of the 3rd place swimmer. Dahlia dove in and took charge, brining us comfortably into 3rd! Another bronze! Wooot! After that was the guys and they were well on their way to a silver, when the third leg suddenly got the biggest cramp I’ve ever seen-baseball sized and visible outside of the leg-and had to be pulled out of the water before he could finish his leg. They were disappointed, but glad he could get help quickly. Alex was our final racer, in the 200m free, where swam hard, but not quite enough for a medal. We waited for a bit for the totals to be calculated, then had the medal ceremony. Winners from our Facultad-Sara with an individual bronze and our relay with 2 bronzes! Team-wise, the guy’s Facultad members placed 7th and the girls got 3rd! Daikel, our Facultad president was impressed that we placed so high with the minimum number of girls needed to compete…go us! After a long day, we went back on the bus and got some ice cream before the rain clouds got the better of us and let it pour. I went back to ANAP, had dinner, they got ready for another night out on the town. This time, I went with Susan to the Hannover Boys Choir at the theater down the road from the residence. They have always been too far away or too expensive for her to see in Germany, so this was a perfect chance. They sang a beautiful mix of classical compositions and contemporary music from both Germany and Cuba. From there, we headed to our friend Ray’s house and had coffee with his mom, grandmother and sister and talked about his upcoming move to Germany, which they’re all very excited about. The rain came again and Susan and I headed back to ANAP and called it a weekend.
Lets stop there…are your eyes tired yet? Part 3 will be separated from this for your sake-coming up is Easter (3 ½ hr. Christian rock in Spanish) and Matanzas (Santeria goat sacrifice). This weekend I will be traveling to Camaguey, so I suppose I should include that too. April is pretty crazy with travel, as the government is taking our ID away at the end of the month to process our exit visa, so I’ll be away every weekend until then. Fist-Camaguey, then two weekends in Oriente-Santiago de Cuba, Baracoa and the Sierra Maestras, then last weekend off to Isla de Jovenetud. Just a little itinerary there! Talk to you all soon! xoxo