DAY 2 EKLECTRIC CUBA

 Dec 2011
DAY 2 ECLECTIC CUBA

 8:00 am Were up before sunrise and at our guide books fleshing out our itinerary for the next   few days. One week in Havana is barely enough to scratch the surface. Today some museums and the Hotel Nationale, tonight a Son show at the Havana Taberna 

(Buena Vista Social Club music A malecon walk will take us to the Hotel and then a taxi to the Museum of the Revolution  

  THINGS I LIKE ABOUT CUBA

- Consistent pricing set by government on most staples   

( including cigars )

- No signs or advertising billboards on street  (Commercialism knob turned way down )

- No garbage or dead puppies on side of road (like in Mexico )

- No Walmart people

Our first venture outside our hotel last evening was a stroll down some side streets

LOVED THE RUINED BUILDINGS AND UNEVEN SIDEWALKS

An eclectic blend of classical and 50’s architecture peppered but not crowded with Cubans dressed in colorful stylish clothes proudly walking down the streets ignoring the 2 tourists.

The building that looks abandoned has a dim light inside, some ones living there.

A giant tree root sticking out of the sidewalk, so what, step over it trees have rights too. A small curbside gathering of people singing and drinking rum,  You don’t need permission to party here. The blatant lack of commercialism here bestows an aura of purity and serenity which I have never encountered before. Humanity before materialism.

We found a few small shops located on the side of our hotel ( just small signs above the doors for identification )  30 pesos  about 35 dollars  got us a 7 year old bottle of rum, 4 beers,       2 decent bottles of wine and some water and fruit juices. The hotel mini-bar in our room was the greediest entity that we had encountered yet in Cuba and we would not be shopping there any more. Outrageously inexpensive premium cigars are becoming part of our kit and cigars shops easy to find. The throat lozenges we brought along on this trip would be life savers.

A sense of bittersweet melancholy has already descended on me as I realize that just by doing the tourist gig you start to spoil the magic of this paradise. I can see the proud Cuban people already showing signs of jaded lust for the materialism that tourists flaunt against a culture where egalitarian values still trumps greed. Unfortunately I can see this place becoming more like Mexico as the onslaught of foreign visitor erode the fragile social structure of this country.Ironically it is a totalitarian government that has protected the people from the cancer of unchecked materialism while withholding many basic human rights we take for granted. I told the waiter at a restaurant “ We love your country “ After looking over his shoulder to make sure no one was listening he replied “ Try living here “