transportation Cuban style

transportation Cuban style, originally uploaded by jill y.

sticky & sweet

click on image to enlarge

Joyero...

Joyero..., originally uploaded by jill y.

every day I put more and more up

6- The view from the Bacardi Building, towards Florida, originally uploaded by jill y.

You can watch for more photos and look at what's up here.

if only I know now what I knew then

stalker

Oh my..

2 of my favorite bloggers are coming to town.

Mightygirl and Dooce will be in Vancouver.

Their blogging names make them sound like superheroes. I can imagine the floodlights. The film noir setting and finger wave curls and handbags. And Heather and Maggie in wonderwoman outfits with gold wristbands and red caps flapping in the wind.

I'll be the stranger in the fedora and trench coat asking if they want to buy a vowel. And you can just call me "More Kisses Please".

No, but seriously. What do you say to 2 people that you read about their lives via the Internet. So nice to meet you finally?

Oh whatever. I'm a goof. I'll take them some of my favorite soap and call it a freaky day.

on the move again..

02- 04 June- Scottsdale, Arizona
17- 20 June- Chicago, Illinois- CANCELLED and too bad for the Art Deco. The date with my camera will have to be postponed.

shortness of trip would suggest these are NOT leisure tours- but I do hope to catch some Art Deco in Chicago.

cross these off my list

I can cross off a few things from my list of 100 things to do before I die.

#16- pay someone's rent for 1 month- I have another candidate for this- but while a Cuban doesn't technically pay rent, I gave a Cuban couple 40 Convertible Pesos which is the equivalent of almost 1000 Cuban Peso.

#45- Inspire someone- Sonia says she is inspired to go to Cuba after hearing of my trip

#54- Visit Cuba before it's too late- it's never too late, but I'm glad I went.

keeping it alive

keeping it alive, originally uploaded by jill y.

it's a lonely planet

it is a lonely planet, originally uploaded by jill y.

I saw him sitting in the heavily tourist area of Havana Veija. He was a street beggar and maybe an alcoholic. His pants were soiled and I'm not even too sure if he grasped the fact that he was on hundreds of Lonely Planet Guide Books all around the world.

I wonder if they got a signed release or if he was paid?

I'm back. I'm working on my photos in bunches of 40 or so. It will take a while to get 800 photos up but you can keep an eye on them here.

modes of transportation

For all the different ways to get around in Cuba, I think I have tried it save for one or 2 (horse cart and shared taxi). I have done the freaky and life threatening Hersey Electric Train. I have taking a trip in the equally freaky and life threatening old belching 1940 Ford car's that clearly outnumber any other type of vehicle on the road. I took the horse drawn carriage ride, which was very lovely and advantagous to taking photos along the Malecon.

And today, I needed to go to Vedado and looked for a taxi. I saw a motorcyle with a sidecar and a little sign that said "taxi". Oh great fun!! So- off we went. I asked for a little tour and near the Plaza de la Revolution, we got a flat tire which I helped to change.

All part of the adventure.

Grateful for the help, the driver waited for me to get my posters and drove me back to where I started, the Hotel Floridita, all for 10 pesos.

Today, is my last day in Havana, save for tomorrow morning before I go. I am tanned, relaxed, tired of the humidity and pollution, grateful and looking forward to being home. I bought 3 year old rum and plan on having mohito's in the park on Sunday!

xox
Jill

the water is warm

I have left Havana on a overnight tour. What a wonderful way to travel. Really, it is just too hot to not go comfortable in an air conditioned coach while you jump off and see the best parts with a local telling you all that is signifigant.

Quite note to say I am on the beach on the south coast of Cuba outside Trinidad. I have dipped my toes in the Caribeean Sea. In case you want to look, I´m at Hotel Ancon.

More later..

Havana - Obispo Street

Havana - Obispo Street, originally uploaded by Macnabbs.

I walk down Obispo everyday. My Casa is on this street.

day tripper

I ususally find the idea of organized tours hideous and cheesy and remind me of school trips where I was scolded for breaking away from the pack- like that time we went to a ghost town and I was facinated with the inside of the building and the contents. What did those scraps of paper on the floor SAY?? I was reprimanded and sent back to the bus to wait for all the others. It was dangerous to go inside the building and shame on me. I still do it. I wander down the side street for the unexpected and of course, I still want to go inside the abandoned building and see what's what.

But I relented and took 2 day trips. Look, I'll just be straight up. Cuba's transportation system is a bit..ahem..troubling. They have been running Ford's from the 1930's and 40's on tractor motors. I saw a rigged up radiator from a 1 litre bottle and a tube duct taped to the outside of the fender!! So, it's not surprising that the electric train from 1910 was about to bounce off the tracks or stop working in the middle of nowhere.

I have made attempts to find my own way. The train station was a sea of madness with no oasis in sight. It was about 80 degrees humidity inside and I quickly became discourgaed to only sit on the curb with my water bottle and wonder if I should bother. But I did and I have to say the 2 days I spent travelling in airconditioned luxury as we wizzed past people trying to sell bricks of homemade cheese and bbq'd chicken in the middle of nowhere was, alternately guilt ridden and confortable.

I spent one day visiting Pinar Del Rio and and cigar factory- where I wandered down the street and took a rather captivating photo of an old farmer. Vinales valley and horse back riding on a ranch, hiking in old caves with a boat trip in the underground stream and walking through Vinbales itself- where I was left behind by the tour bus for lagging behind- shame on me!! (They came back and got me.)

The next day I went to Las Terrasas- which is an eco village and a national park. We had lunch of roast pork, rice, beans, cucumber, tomatoes, taro chips, coffee and custard in a beautiful old hotel with trees growing through the middle of it. We visited the ruins of a coffee plantation and I picked limes and mangoes growing on trees. I took a "canopy tour" where you get in a harness and get attached to a cable and zip down a line through a valley. It was nothing short of amazing!!

Tommorrow, I am taking an overnight trip to Santa Clara, Trinidad, Cienfugos and Santi Cristi. I leave at 6am Tuesday and will get back late Wednesday- which leaves me with Thursday as my last day in Havana and I fly home on Friday.

I have also found the mother of all Cuban souveniers. No it is not cheap cigars or rum. I found a place that sells hand screened Cuabn independant movie posters for about 12 apeice. The art is amazing and startling and freaking wonderful. Some of them are very 60's looking and one was in an Art Nouveau styling. I bought 5 but I will go back and buy more and keep my fingers crossed that they are not confinscated at the airport.

So Mom, if you are reading this.. that is what I did with my birthday money.. bought day trips outside of Havana and bought beautiful old movie posters.

By far- I have to say that this trip to Cuba has been the most relaxing and enjoyable holiday I have ever had. Better than Prague. Better than Paris. Better than 6 months in Europe. I have never felt so relaxed or at ease in so long. Maybe it is because no matter where I go, what I see or who I meet- there is no North America- McDonald's, Starbucks, Levis, or Coca Cola and oddly no Americans or Canadians either. Most people I meet are from South America, Mexico or Italy. Lovely bunch.

Love,

Jill

I have just discovered the tourist office a few feet from my Casa!!

Tomorrow I am on a full day tour of the valley of Vinales, that includes caves, mountains and a tobacco farm.

Sunday I will be off on another tour of the Cuban wilderness and countryside.

Mom- Happy Mother's Day if I don't have a chance to contact you.


xoxox

checked off

-visited the Revolution Square
-knocked on the grave of La Milagrossa
-taken a ride in a 1950 Buick (likely with a tractor engine)
-drank a Mijoto
-got lost in Vedado
-rode the only electric train in Cuba
-haggled and had a trip on a bici-taxi
-walked Calle 23
-did not drink in one of Hemigway's many drinking spots
-had a coffee with a local in a peso bar
-washed my clothes by hand
-cut the legs off my pants
-cut the sleeves off my top
-got a sunburn
-got shortchanged
-ate the local cuisine of grilled fish, rice and beans, cabbage and papaya juice
and
-bought a souveneir that was not Che related

bird song

Someone, every day, opens the window and steps out onto a ledge that overhangs the street of the green building across the street from my Casa. They hang a little rusty bird cage on a nail. A pretty little songbird flutters inside, but outside. Fresh air and a cool breeze is readily available. Someone gives the little bird a bit of food and water everyday. No need to fight, for this little bird. It can sit on it's perch and sing, happily, as long as the day is bright.

I see this birdcage every day and see an ornate antique cage. It's rusted bars contrasting against the tranquile tourqoise green. The little bird inside must be teased relentlessly with the freedom just on the other side. The other birds that swoop, flutter and perch at will, wherever they please.

Today I met a couple in their 60's. They asked me if I was Norweigan or Dutch. We had a friendly conversation and I asked them where they were from and they laughed and told me they were from Havana. With shared English skills we chatted and strolled and they told me their story over lunch. They told me of life in Cuba. Of their careers as an accountant and a secretary. He told me of how he lost his job for making a remark in the street against the goverment and how it was overheard. The told me of the ration card and the average salary. I was startled to learn that I had without a thought, spent a months salary in a day wandering around Havana.

I bought them lunch and slipped 40 Peso Convertables into his pocket. I told them I was very lucky to have such a good job and with opportunity. I told them I was lucky to be so free to travel and see this beautiful city that reminded me so much of places like Paris, Barcelona, New Orleans and a bit of Marrakesh thrown in. I told him I was grateful that no one cared whether or not I liked the goverment or voted. I told them the day of conversation, of sharing and their company was a great gift.

They walked me back to my casa and I pointed out the little birdcage hanging from a nail high up on a wall and I saw that they too have the cool breeze and fresh air available to them, that they are provided with food and shelter, but they too are caged and not free as they should be to sing their heart's song. Alberto and Teresita, still, manage to be heard.

I am privledged and happy, I hope, to count myself among their friends.

Hershey Train

HersheyTrain, originally uploaded by BikeTrip.

adventure to Hersey

The train rolls into Casablanca late and to cheers of dusty and sweaty travellers. The man with a wrench cuts rusty wire and climbs onto the top. The trolley is broken- again. We wait. He hammers the trolley and attaches more wire. I take photos while we wait. A young man in a white shirt, old Frank Sinatra hat tipped to the front, watches me from behind his newspaper. He later gets off in a small ramshakle town and shuffles he black dress shoes in the dust.

Aboard to dusty and worn green velvet seats and broken windows, the same from 1917, I'm sure. We roll off into unknown places, slowly at first then picking up speed. This train is a death trap on rails and I wonder what I have goten myself into. It bounces and swerves. Resigned to my 3 peso fate, my head whips from side to side, my shoulder slams into the window at the train's velocity. It courses down on it's predetermined destiny of Mantanzas.

As I watch out the window at the Cuban countryside of wind wipped palms, dried grasses and tinshack farm houses, I notice something dark, large and unusual. It's a cow. It's falling down the ditch. Fallen when I focus my eyes against the distance. It's legs straight up, head twisted- one eye looking. We pass, but only to stop a short distance and then back up. Passengers crane their necks out the windows and doors swish open. The train hit the cow and we backed up to make sure of something. Not sure what as no one got out and helped the cow up.

When we arrived in Hershey- the site, I presume of a chocolate factory, I figured that maybe this train adventure was a bit too much. It would be another 2 hrs to Mantanzas and I had no water or food. I got off and sat down and pondered my fate in Hershey. As the train rumbled away, I wondered still what sort of adventure I had gotten myself into. The return train to Havana wouldn't be for 2 hrs.

He sat down with his translation book and spoke a little english. I waved to the other with the tattoo and motioned to mine. The 3 of us became an unoffical pack for the day. One who spoke a little, one who spoke none and a book. I wondered what the day had in store. We walked across the street and bought fresca limonada served in cut off beer bottles. We walked through Hershey and they pointed out the broken factory, the old hotel from 1920 that was near demolished, the police station. We went to a market and bought a pineapple and with a pocket knife cut peices for one another and washed our hands with bottled water. I said Ola! to everyone who passed and they laughed. We laughed.

I took photos of the beautiful and decrepet stately houses, left over from the chocolate boom. Photos of the horse cart taxi's and chickens in the street. I tried to bribe 3 girls with a peso for a photo but they went running away laughing. We bought breadsticks from a vendor and sweets from another. Laughing, I said the nonesense phrases in the Language book, "Does Hershey have a bullring?" "Does Hershey have a recycling program?" and I helped them learn the months of the year in English.

These 2 waited until the train arrived. It had to wait as another train on the track was broken. I made origami birds from ripped out pages from Lonely Planet Cuba and gave them to the little girls on the train. I folded origami boxes and made everyone laugh when I blew them up. They waited and entertained me for a long time and then both gave me a kiss when the train was leaving and we exchanged adios.

Now dark, the Hershey Electric Train rumbled, bounced, careened and crackled into the night. Large electric flashes from the working trolley flashed bright green and illumanated the scenery for a moment almost as brightly as my 2 compadras during the day.

taking the Hersey electric train

Today Iamleaving Havana Veija and crossing an inlet to Casablanca. There, is the only electric train in Cuba. In 1917 the Hershey Chocolate Company built this line to Matanzas. Apparently it stops at every pit stop along the way. I'm hoping it will create a breeze. And I'm hoping I won't get lost.

Like last night. I started walking and walkingand the next thing I knew I was in sketchy sketcheramaand it was dark and everywhere I looked it got darker and darker, weirder and weirder. I put my camera away. There are these bicyle taxis everywhere. I found one and 5 pesos later I was back at Hotel Florida (of which I can't help but pronounce it Flo-RI-da. Look it up. It was a Hemingway favorite.

Other observations:

The elevator in my building goesout of commision for certain hours of the day. It is a rickety thing and there is a crumbling cement gap between the floor and the elevator on the first floor. It jerks to a start and slammsto a stop on your desired floor. Yesterday it didn't want to stop and sort of jerked between floors. I was slightly drunk from Mohitos and didn'tseemto mind but fretted that I might sweat to death in it's chamnber. Maybe I should walk up the steap narrow stairwell instead??

Off in the distance someone is playing The Beatles "Yesterday" on oboe. The big hotel are cool oasis with internet and cheezy music.

Off for the Hersey Train!

xoxo
Jill

veija

DSC03938, originally uploaded by Simon 2000.

At the end of the day I see these cars belching caustic fumes, rolling down the slick ashphalt streets packed with Cubans like salty sardines in a blue tin can. Transportation is dismal. If there are buses, there are no route maps. They are inevitably packed if you see one, or the bus stop has 50 people waving bits of paper in their faces in effort to create a breeze.

It's hot.

And the women wear the tighest clothes. Only tourists are in gauzy coton skirts. I packed foolishly. I will not wear the jeans and sweater I packed for Toronto. You sweat geting dressed. I will likely wash out and wear everyday my cotton cargo shorts and my 2 coton tops.

The food is meat and bread focused. Anyone who says you will find times of no food is mistaken. You can get food everywhere and all hours. There are even ber vending machines on the street. It's hard to find vegetables. Salad is cabbage and carrot. Probably because they last the longest in the heat. I did have a cheese platter in hopes of Cuban cheese, but it was cheddar, edam, and parmesan. The bread was slightly toasted and stale. The lemondade was real.

No one sems to have a decent coffee.

All the music is slight cuban versions of bad lounge music. Barry Manilow type stuff. No Gypsy Kings yet, thank god. Buena Vista Social Club is closed.

BTW- this is not my photo, but I have sen this frame- old car, many cubans investigating. Another day and it's impossible to take a bad photo.

Habana

Habana - Cuba 17, originally uploaded by Helio Rocha.

Umm. she sits here and sells Cuba to the tourists. Today she is all in red. Mmn. I will watch and see what she is wearing tomorrow.

I look forward to showing my own photos. I have found it is difficult to take a bad one.

Having lots of fun on my 1st day in Havana. It's very beautiful, lovely and hot.

Habana

All is well in Havana.

Strange and wonderful, old, hot, busy, crumbling and lively.

Last night I got on my flight and I wish it hadn't have been in the middle of the night or the view from the window would have been more spectacular.

Observations of last night:

-was photographed coming into the country
-pass through security and xray of luggage coming in to Cuba
-woman standing next to me at the luggage carousel was smoking
-everyone wanted to be my cab driver
-the cab ride from the airport was fast
-lots of car stopped on the side of the road
-people standing around along side the road
-this was at 2:30 am??
-saw buses full of people going places
-lost 20 pesos somewhere between money exchange and counting money on casa bed

My Casa Particulare or room in a private home is very nice. Only a top sheet and another sheet on the bed and 2 pillow. You don't need anything else. It's hot. Very hot.

My host was very pleased when I gave her a giant slab of soap. I was asked for soap when talking to someone. Apparently it is hard to get?

My Casa is on Calle Obispo. A very busy and lively street in Old Havana.

More observations:

-lots of selling Cuba to the tourists
-someone dressed up as Che, another woman in traditional costume smoking cigars.
-small bottle of water 5 pesos, a few blocks a way- 1 litre is 1.50
-lots of small stray dogs. Some of them look dead just laying on the ground. I feel sorry for them.
-it's impossible to take a bad photo.
-lots of old fords just like you hear.
-the big hotels are havans of coolness and luxury.
-found one with this Internet access and the whole lobby and entrance is beautifully tiled.

Everything is well. It's lovely and I'm having a great time. I feel safe, but sweaty.

xoxo
Jill

bliss

bliss, originally uploaded by jill y.