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
