Update!

Hola Asere,

How is everyone? I’m a dork again and haven’t written in forever. I apologize…I lose. Good news is that its because I’ve actually found a social life here and its keeping me hopping! So anyway…on with the show.

Let’s start with our group trip to the central provinces of the island. It was fantastic!

We set out Wednesday the 12^th for the four hour bus ride to Santa Clara and the Escambray Mountains. Our first stop was the Ernesto Che Guevara Museum and Memorial in downtown Santa Clara, which documents Che’s life, his role in the revolution and in others in Africa and Latin America, and is also where he was laid to rest after his body was returned by the Bolivian government. Santa Clara was chosen for this site because it was there that Che launched his attack on an armored train that was carrying supplies to Batista’s troops, which guaranteed victory for the rebels and resulted in Batista fleeing the country the next night. It was really interesting museum, but I found more value in exploring the surrounding streets, located behind propaganda billboards and tourist bus stop. The houses were made of wooden planks, tin and cement and are in a state of serious disrepair with their residents on the front steps watching kids play baseball with broom handles or coming back from work on their horses. As I passed between the museum and a park, a mother came up to me and said “I know you’re a tourist here and that you’re carrying soap and shampoo for your travels, will you go back to the bus and give me some?” It was heart breaking and made me wonder how these residents live such a hard life with strong pro-revolutionary slogans in their face everyday. The revolution definitely has its good points, but there was a striking disparity between propaganda and reality in this case. After we wrapped up the museum, we headed into the Escambray Mountain Range at sunset to our hotel on a beautiful reservoir, with a pool, rooftop lounge, and best of all…hot water and French fries!! It was pretty much heaven. After getting settled, we went to the Escambray Theater, an institute that creates and performs plays based on controversial issues of the revolution, hopefully provoking participation and reactions that will help to perfect the situation for the population. We watched a movie about the history of the theater, me the actors and had an amazing 5-course dinner. Around 11, we headed back to the hotel, hung out for a bit, then tucked in for the night.

On Thursday, we met in the morning for breakfast and a boat tour of the reservoir. We rode for an hour and saw a good portion of the lake, then were taken to a site owned by the tour company, which had a restaurant, live band and hiking trails. I set out with a few others up the trail, which was unexpectedly straight up, to the top of the hill and a great panoramic view of the lake and mountains. After heading down, we got French fries-amazing-and listened to the salsa band play the typical Chan Chan and Guantanamera set, then went down to the water. We collected some shells, then were given the ok from the boat captain to dive in the lake off of the boat…so clearly we did! Don’t worry…we were safe! We had a great time in the water until our time was up and we had to head back to the hotel. We hung around the pool for a while, got a nice tan, then went for another hike with Abby. We found a trail up one of the higher mountains near the hotel and timed it perfectly for sunset! It was amazing. We had such an good 360 degree view of the lake, mountain range and valley as the sun went down and changed the colors of the area. It was one of those once in a lifetime experiences. One element that we forgot-sunset means no more light….oops. So we trekked down following our tracks in the dark and made it home without a hitch…yay us! After showing and getting all of the prickers off of my shoes, we went back to the Escambray Theater to watch a play about the prohibition on Beatles music being lifted. It was really interesting to see how different frustrations were paralleled with the songs, and how despite these existing issues, some have been alleviated. It was pretty fun to watch. After that we had another great dinner, but an awful dessert…boiled candied orange rinds=no good and had a dance party with the actors until 1am.

Friday, I woke up for sunrise across the reservoir, which was a beautiful way to start the day. We had breakfast, packed up and headed out for our second leg of the trip to Trinidad. What should have been a 1 hour ride turned into 3 hours of sheer torture as we took a “short cut” through the twisting, crumbling, narrow mountain roads and our air conditioning broke in the 98 degree heat. Needless to say, there were 35 grumpy tourists in Trinidad. We got some free time to walk around the town and explore the art galleries, cathedrals, and UNESCO supported colorful colonial homes. After a few hours, we headed to our hotel, which ended up being an all-inclusive beach resort with not only hot water and French fries, but also a hot tub, real pizzas and catamarans! Life is good, epecially when its all on AU’s tab. Some days I love my school. So we ate several pizzas and plates of fries with pineapple slushies before heading to the pool and life-size chess board. We had a buffet dinner, which had good marinara sauce for the pasta, a garden salad and pies…things which are hard to find around Havana! After that, we saw sunset on the beach, watched an awful attempt at a dance show, then joined a conga line to the bar led by one of our academic advisors here…shes such a crazy, awesome 65 year old.

Saturday, we had breakfast, then headed into Trinidad for our guided tour of the Museums of Architecture and Romantic Arts, then had some free time to make purchases in the galleries and artisan fair and visit other parts of the city. From there, we went back to the hotel for beach time and lunch, where I had a vegetable pizza and went for a kayak ride. After that, we headed into Valle de los Ingenios, where the sugar mills were based in the 1920s and 30s. It was a gorgeous, long valley with a tower in the middle, which we were able to climb, that was used to keep watch over the slaves. Susan, Cate, Matt and I went back into Trinidad after that to watch the sunset from the top of one of the Cathedrals, but ended up on a hill above the town, with a great view of the ocean, city and mountains below us and a beautifully crumbled early 19^th century church behind us. We had some great conversations with local artisans on our way back to the city and found out some non-guide book listed things about Trinidad. We had a great rest of the night, with dinner, swimming and watching ESPN…I was in my glory.

Sunday morning we left Trinidad to head back to Havana, with a pit stop in Cienfuegos along the way. It was an easy drive and we arrived with enough time to take a quick tour of the historic plaza in the city. There was a quaint, yet extravagant theater in the middle of the town, with an unassuming façade and gorgeous balcony seating and a mural on the ceiling. Back on the bus, we drove 4 hours back to Havana and arrived just in time for the always wonderful ANAP dinner and our house family waiting for us with hugs as we came up the stairs.

Next up: Juegos Caribes! Matanzas! And plans for future travels due to some unexpected changes! Coming on Wednesday…I promise!

Part 2

After Viñales, we started in on another routine week, but actually not really. Monday we went to class as per usual, and had an interesting history class about Cuba from the 1933 revolution against President Machado through the first years of the 1950s, as Fidel was rising in the ranks of political society. However, our afternoon International Relations class was cancelled and we had the chance to go to the University talent show at a theater downtown. I didn’t know what to expect, but the acts were amazing! There is some serious talent in the student body here. There were dance groups, soloists, bands, comedians and poets that performed for two hours and were great. I took down a few names of the poems and songs that were included and I’m hoping to find them online. I also got my first package from home! Yay! It was soo nice seeing things from the US again and getting some snacks from home! Tuesday, I had off from classes and used the day to visit the Olympic Committee, but unfortunately tell them that I wasn’t permitted to work for them (a long story…). It actually went better than expected, they invited me back anytime for interviews and gave me a magazine that is sent out to the National OCs from the International Olympic Committee and the opportunity to subscribe to it, as well as three pins-one of a project that they’re involved in, the Cuban flag, and the official Cuban OC pin…sweet! After that, I set off for tallest building in Havana to take some pictures with Susan and Cate, but we got distracted by the fact that there was no line at Coppelia. We took the opportunity and went into the Moneda Nacional section and ordered an ensalada each, 5 small, delicious scoops of vanilla (today’s flavor) with caramel sauce and nilla wafers…yuuum…grand total 5 pesos each ($0.20) I <3 pesos. After that was a seminar on Cuban race relations, dinner and dance lessons. We’ve finally started pairs dancing, so it is actually starting to look like we can salsa! Wednesday, we were supposed to go on a field trip to Guanabacoa’s Santeria Museum, but instead we had a lecture on three sects of Santeria from a 65 year old academic. In addition to studying world religions, she fought in the ’59 revolution in the streets of Havana, survived an airplane loosing 2 of its 4 engines en route to Spain, and was denied a visiting professorship at Harvard because she has been put on the US terror watch list...I’m curious about the reasons behind all of those stories. It was an interesting class and I’d love to learn more about that religion and its popularity here. After class, I actually made it to the tallest building in Havana, the Focsa tower, with Susan and Mary, and got an amazing view of the city as well as some good panoramic pictures. Our group split up and I went for a stroll around Centro Habana, away from all of the Embassies and wealthy organizations of Vedado, through the residential areas of Havana’s working class. It was an eye opener and one that I liked experiencing because I was able to get a sense of the real conditions of living in Cuba, all of its hardships, community and routines. I’m hoping to do this more often. I ended up talking to an older man on the side of the street who was fixing the engine of his 50s Chrysler and having one of the best conversations yet. We talked about his dream to travel abroad and see the world outside of Cuba, but inability to do so because he has barely enough to live a comfortable daily life here, and his hopes that certain restrictions and constraints on the population will be lifted under Raúl’s proposed reforms. After we finished talking, I went to the University and met with the president of the student federation for my school (Facultad de Filosofia e Historia) about the possibility of joining a sports team. I signed up for track, with swimming as a back up, and found out that baseball/softball isn’t offered to girls at this level and the few others that are offered were filling quickly, even though it was only the third day of classes for Cuban students. It showed me that the interest is there, but as a society, sports are still considered the man’s realm and female participation isn’t well accepted. He had dance lessons again Wednesday night, and continued to progress…you guys better get ready to learn when I get back! Thursday, we had our history class at the Museum of the Revolution and explored the exhibits from the Spanish colonization through the 1959 revolution, which is where we are in class. After we finished, Susan and I stuck around and saw the artifacts from the ’59 revolution, including Fidel’s boat, the Granma, a few of the vehicles used on the battle lines, two 1950s airplanes, an armored tank, a missile representing the Missile Crisis, the engine from a destroyed U-2 spy plane and a pirate rowboat…yea, which one there just doesn’t belong? Anyway, after we finished that section up, we went through the 1959-present section of the museum and explored the areas that used to be the presidential palace up until 1965, which were beautiful. That afternoon, we walked up the street to the Capitolio building, a replica of the US Capitol that housed the Cuban representative body from the 1930s to the 60s. Now it houses the Academy of Math and Science and retains all of the grandeur of its past. The architecture was incredible, including a library straight out of Beauty and the Beast, grand meeting rooms and a decorative rotunda, with ceilings that were detailed in gold. We were let into the old legislature by a security guard that liked us and got to stand at the president’s podium, as well as pretend to be representatives speaking on the floor, definitely a fun experience. Friday we went to the beach and soaked up the sun and ocean, then hit an outdoor reggaeton/salsa concert by the Malecón that night.

OK….IMPORTANT-STORY OF THE WEEK! So…Saturday, I woke up early with Kyra to run a “marathon” race at the University in honor of International Women’s Day. Marathon apparently means 3.5k here…not sure how that word got lost in translation, but we thought it would be fun to run a race while we were here and just have fun at a short distance. Registration was classroom desks and lined paper with our names written on it along with the scrap of paper with our number on it. We also ran with five UNCers who were running in memory of their student body president who was killed this week and was on this program two years ago and also ran this race while she was here. I made my way to the front of the staging area in time for the Cuban National Anthem, then the gun fired and we were off. It was the most aggressive start I have ever seen, pushing, shoving, elbowing all over the place with people full out sprinting down the starting hill. The pack died as they couldn’t maintain the sprint and I caught the girl that I had had my eye on since the start (hot pink spandex…it was easy to keep track of her). There were tons of people on the street cheering us on from their balconies, the busses that were stopped on the side of the road and families who had come to see people run. Anyway, I maintained my pace, having a good time, taking pictures while running and listening to my iPod, when all of a sudden the road forked and the guides looked startled and quickly directed me to the right as all of the people in front of me went to the left. I was handed a slip of paper with the number 1 on it. Huh? Then I heard “Pare, pare, este es el fin!” aka…stop crazy, this is the finish! Then other girls started coming down the same road and getting their slips. I WON! I placed first for the female category at the University Women’s day race! How sweet is that? A bunch of Cubans were coming up and kissing me on the cheeks, saying congratulations, and happy women’s day, it was surreal! I’m still not really believing that it happened. There was a ceremony on the steps of the Museum of the Revolution where I received a gold medal and a bag of prizes, including some pretty cool shirts. I was approached by several groups to run with them throughout the provinces of Cuba, so I might try a few of them out and was also told by the president of my faculty to count on running track here! SWEET! So I was on top of the world. Then the day only got better, as our group had lunch with Phil Brenner from AU and got US updates, then went to the US Interests Section mansion for a cook out and party. This house was incredible-coral and limestone exterior with a royally decorated interior with a total of 63 rooms throughout the property, giant grounds, swimming pool, tennis court, playground, formal gardens…you name it, it was there. We had a great time, having actual beef hamburgers, potato fries, pickles, Coca Cola, chocolate ice cream and chocolate chip cookies. I was in heaven. After lunch, we talked to the Interests Section director and his officials about the foreign service, which was very intriguing, and played a few games of tennis. We then had coffee on cups with gold eagle emblems and looked at the artwork in the house. Overall, it was an absolutely incredible day that I was so perfect I’m not sure if it was a dream or not. Seriously a day I will always remember.
Today, its chilly and I’m in a long sleeve shirt and back to reality. Going to a flamenco show this evening at 5, then getting ready for classes tomorrow. This week, we head off on our mid-semester 5 day trip to the middle part of the country. We head off on Wednesday to visit Trinidad, Santa Clara and Cienfuegos and will return at some point on Sunday! I’ll talk to you then! P.s.- I’m giving you homework!
For more info on life in Cuba look up these things:
Santeria
Cecilia Valdez
Industriales
Camello
Malanga
El Morro/La Cabaña/El Punto
José Martí
Malecón
Boniato
Hotel Nacional
Los Van Van
Polo Montañez
Universidad de la Habana
Los Muñequitos
Charanga Habañera
Coppelia

xoxo,
Jen

Viñales

Hello World,
Sorry for the long delay in updating this, Cuba has been keeping me busy! There is so much to see and do that I’m thinking that four months might not be enough!
Let’s start from last weekend. Get settled, this one is going to be long.
Katie, Kyra, Susan and I set out early Friday morning for Viñales, a UNESCO protected system of mountains and caves about three and a half hours west of Havana in the Pinar del Rio province. We took a tour bus from outer Havana through the beautiful, rural countryside along the highway. There were many tobacco and banana farms (called fincas), oxen drawn plows, and humble thatched homes with colorful clothing hanging to dry outside. About half way, we turned into the mountains for a short stop at Las Terrazas, a terraced eco-friendly farming community in a paradise of palm trees, mountains and teal watered lakes. It was absolutely gorgeous! They have a fully self-sustainable community with schools, housing, shops, and a medical clinic, as well as tourist attractions like a zip line, paddle boats and camping spots. Definitely a place that is on my list of placed to return. We headed back down the mountain toward Viñales, alongside more mountains and farms for about an hour, then through the city of Pinar del Rio, and finally into our destination.
When we stepped off of the bus, we were swarmed by village women with business cards offering us rooms in their homes to say in for the weekend. We found an offer that we liked and followed her through the small, one main road town, to her family’s home. Unfortunately, we had some troubles with identification and they wouldn’t accept that we were temporary Cuban residents and we had to find another place to stay. We found a lovely family down the street that accepted our ID and rented us two rooms for the weekend at 15 CUC (same in dollars) per night, plus the option of dinner for 7 CUC and breakfast for 3 CUC. The family was made up of the owner-Margarita, her husband-Estevan, Margarita’s mother, father, sister, and 1-year old nephew, as well as Estevan’s son from a previous marriage that comes home on weekends. They welcomed us with freshly pureed banana juice, oriented us to the neighborhood, and set us up with guides to explore the mountains and tips for where to visit. We headed out into town after that, with an imposing chain of round-topped, tree covered mountains in front of us. The four of us ended up wandering down a dirt path into a tobacco farm, where farmers were harvesting their leaves and tending to a calf that had been born a few days before. Then we headed down to the other end of town to find the botanical gardens, which came highly recommended, but no one in the town knew about. After getting directions from two school children, an oxen cart driver and a lady at a bus stop (also being the klutz that I am and running straight into a bench and bruising my leg pretty badly), we found the gardens behind a gate covered in halved grapefruit and oranges and bananas on a string. Oh…and there was also the doll head fence toppers and baby doll scarecrows, both would have scared off any bird or intruder…it was crazy. The gardens ended up being very nice, some beautiful flowers and views of the Mongote mountains, and a plate of fresh fruit at the end of the path. We headed back to the house for sunset, where we sat on the flat roof and got to see “el puesto del sol” with a full view of the mountain range and the oranges and bright yellows of the sunset. That was definitely a memorable experience and made for some great pictures. We headed down to the best Cuban dinner so far, of fried fish, tomato and bean soup, rice, plantain chips, tomatoes, cabbage, pineapple, grapefruit, papaya, bread, and mojitos. It was sooo good and the four of us polished it off. After that, we planned out the rest of the weekend, tried to motivate ourselves to go out, but with a lack of an idea of where to go and being exhausted, we crashed.
The next day, we were greeted by freshly harvested and ground coffee, eggs, bread and guava jelly, pineapple juice, pineapple and grapefruit for breakfast. We then had the chance to learned how to make the coffee from Margarita’s mom, Clara, who was about 75 and had an electric personality that became made us excited about whatever she was doing or talking about. So she showed us how to roast the beans, how to know when they’re done, then the proper way to let them cool, how to grind them by hand and the way to brew the coffee in a cast iron pot. All of it was interesting and I bought a pound of the final product to let you all sample! After that, we grabbed some peso snacks and were picked up by our guide, who led us to his house and saddled each of us on a horse. Of course, I got the little one, named Luciero. We headed into the valley between the line of mountains that are visible from the village and the strip parallel to them, where the caves are located. We road through tobacco, sugar cane, corn, coffee and banana fincas, each one a bit different from the next and got to see some amazing views of the mountain range. After riding for a bit, and occasionally racing each other, we visited a campesino, or combination farmer/rancher/cowboy, who invited us into his home and showed us his land. We began by processing raw sugar cane through a machine called a trapiche, similar to a rotating press, which extracted sugar juice from the cane. The guides and four of us each got a cup, then were given a splash of rum and grapefruit juice to make the drink one of the best I have ever had. After that, we got to try a hand harvested and made cigar, of tobacco and guava leaves, honey, rum and sugar. The combination was really good and I picked some up for you guys at home. After trying out the trapiche and machete to process the sugar cane and hearing about the crops, we headed into the mountains toward the caves. We road through a tobacco field and saw the drying process, over a wooden bridge, and arrived at the cave. We left the horses outside and headed into the pitch dark with lanterns, wandering through stalactites and stalagmites and hearing the ecological history of the cave system. We reached the end of the cave and were guided to a swimmable lake! We had our bathing suits on, so we jumped in and explored the cave that way! It was chilly, but refreshing since it was about 90 out on the horses. The water was over my head for most of the way, but toward the end, it became shallower and the lake ended in a mud pit! Supposedly the mud has healing powers, which may or may not be true, but it made for a great mud fight regardless. We swam back and headed out of the cave for our ride back with the horses. The way back was more a chance to see the incredible views of the mountains and ride fast on the horses than visit the sites, so it was a different way to see the same path that we had taken into the valley. The tour ended and we headed back to our casa particular for showers (hot water!!!! The first since I’ve been here!) and the food that we had brought to make our own dinner. We headed out to a salsa and reggaeton party on the town central square, but that ended pretty quickly when one of my friends started feeling sick and it didn’t seem to be a quick fix. We headed back to the casa with her and Margarita’s family was great in helping us take care of her, calling a doctor and everything to make sure that she would be ok. She started feeling a bit better around midnight and fell asleep, so we all got some rest and waited it out until the morning.
I had breakfast early in the am, of bread and honey, coffee, pineapple juice and eggs, then we all packed up before our bus and headed out for one last walk around the town to get everyone some fresh air and recoup from the night before. We ended up walking down a random dirt path again, on the opposite end of town than before, and found a campesino and his family walking just a head of us. I asked him where a coffee finca was and he guided us there, showed us around each crop, explained their growing season and profit (**side note**-1 seasonal harvest of tobacco for about an acre of land is only paid 10.50 CUC by the state, so that is either all the family can live on for a year, or they have to expand their property or diversify crops, yet each cigar made from that tobacco costs 10 CUC and only requires ½ of the leaves from one plant) After our tour of the crops, he showed us a day old baby goat, which was adorable, showed us his drying house for tobacco leaves and rolled us each a cigar from his plants. It was such an unexpected morning, but turned out to be my favorite part of the trip. We paid him 60 pesos for his help and the look on his face was unforgettable, just absolutely ecstatic and thankful. It was all we had, the equivalent of $3, but he was so happy…it was an incredible moment. We headed back to our house and said our goodbyes, exchanging contact info to keep in touch, then went to the bus station for our 2 o’clock bus back to Havana. I passed for 11 for the kids fare (yea yea yea, but hey! It was ½ price!) and we wound our way back through the Cuban countryside back to Havana just in time for dinner!
The end of my Viñales story. Look up at the next blog for more stories from the week. New pictures are being posted!