Wandering wankers

After 5 brilliant days in Havana me and some friends went onto Cienfuegos (where we did a an amazing wreck dive) and got visited by spirits in the night from the lady next door who was a Santeria. We then drove through the beautiful stormy countryside to Trinidad, a cool laid back town with lots of salsa.

We managed to get stuck there for a few days partially because of the rum and salsa and partially cus we were waiting to hire a car (which admitedly we may have got quicker were it not for the rum)

There are some stupid rules here, millions of securidads and policia. They seem to spend all their time enforcing riduclous rules like no more than 2 persons to a bedroom, 2 people cannot sit on the same chair etc etc but when you actually need them they stare at you blankly and laugh or walk away. for example, when we were being harrassed by a drunken cuban guy, insulting us, stamping on my feet...nada (apart from joining in the delightful romantic expressions too). Last night Ellen and I were walking home from the Casa de la Musica and followed down the street by a well dressed Cuban who was openly wanking and walking (I know hear thats quite a difficult thing to do!). People passed, nothing, the wanker didn´t bat an eyelid as he passed us putting himself back together...seems like a acceptable thing here, the policia just asked us if it was us or him doing the deed.

We went to see the house of the santeria where they were holding an amazing ceremony ging on for hours with african drums and singing in honour of a shrine with bizzare plastic dolls, chains, flowers and other bits of plastic.one cuban guy seemed to think it was a free salsa class, hilarious.

Despite the wandering wankers here this is a wicked town with cobbled streets, colourful houses, people standing in doorways flashing cigars like they are flashing. Though there are shops they display random things for sale ie 1 pair of sandals, some water, a shirt. seems that lots of people rely on the psssst network here.


tomorrow we go onto santa clara to che´s memorial

xxx

Rum rum rum

The most interesting thing about planning for Cuba was all the stories we were hearing from travelers who´d been there, we were building up a very strange picture of the country. People would take a deep breath and hesitate before answering yeah..Itss very special.You´ll understand when you get there!¨take all the food you need with you¨ ¨there are no medicines¨ ¨there arent any shops¨ ¨there are no road signs¨ ¨watch out for the guys wanking in the bushes¨. We tried to imagine this country where there is no soap, no shops, no street signs but plenty of rum.

The morning of departure arrived with a hangover courtesy of mexican tequila and I filed onto the decidedly ancient looking plane with the Cubans. The floor of the plane was smoking, like the kind of smoke that they use as special effects in horror movies. I sat down with smoke up to my waist, the whole cabin was filled and you couldn´t see your feet. ¨Don´t worry ladies and gentlemen the smoke is a perfectly normal procedure¨ well ive never been on a plane that smokes like Bet Lynch!

We were on our way. I couldnt believe I was finally going after so much talking about it with or without being terrorised by the book ´dirty havana´. After wobbling to the ground we wobbled into immigration where we were met by a huge hall jam packed with people and 22 queues. It took 2.5 hrs to be able to show my passport and lie about booking my first nights accomodation. 4 hours later..I was on Cuban soil.

We spent the first few days walking the streets of Havana. Ive never been so instantly attracted to a city with its slightly dark and grungy feel, the Malecon (with rum drinkers sprawled across it day and night..not just me), people shouting up and down the streets, food being passed from top floors by ropes, reggaton being playing from every corner even pumping from the cycle rickshaws,whispers of various things for sale, communist slogans graffitied on walls, no McDonalds, No Coca Cola, woman scantily dressed (big change from India), grand old colonial buildings, from beautiful plazas to hatches where you can buy pizzas for 10 peso cubanos (you can buy 7-8 of these for 1 pizza in the tourist currency). There are ration shops, peso convertible shops and peso cubanos shops making working in 2 currencies kinda difficult.

The transports system is wicked here with horse and carriages, taxis shaped like coconuts, police in silly ladas and a plethora of old american cars in every colour and design (dont know what you call them but they are cool).

Think I´m gonna like this place where a bottle of shampoo is the appropriate gift to bring for dinner.

This is me!!