More piccies of cuba...

Fidel

Granma had been totally decorated in honour of Fidels Speech with slogans littering the houses and the streets thanking Fidel for his work and vive-ing the revolution. Apparently he hasnt given a speech in Granma for 20 years so people were pretty excited about seeing him. our luck had come in yet again after a mess up with the casa particulars but we managed to stay in a not so legal casa particular with yet another lovely kind Cuban (who could get into a lot of trouble). The anniversary was another great reason for the Cubans to hold a fiesta.

We got up at 5am and went with a Cuban woman and her daughter to the Plaza de la Revolution. The daughter was wearing the socialist red like everyone else but I couldnt help notice the Adidas trainers and Nike socialist top. We were all given flags to wave. It was pretty dam exciting that we were getting the chance to see Fidel, even if it meant that the speech may go on for several hours ( I heard Fidel has the world record for a speech at something like 8+ hours), anyway we had a picnic no problem. My history is a little shady but Granma is an important place in Cuba as its where Fidel and his comrades landed a ship and set up a base leading to the fall of the Batista regime and the beginning of socialism in Cuba.

I was really interested to see peoples´ reactions to Fidel as over he last few weeks so many people had told us about the difficulties and poverty in Cuba but there was enthusiasm to see the man. Cubans are pretty flamboyant, at the ceremony that was lots of on-que flag waving and giggles about the length of the speech.

Fidel spoke for nearly 3 hours, those of us with spanglish tried to keep up with the endles figures being listed and the promises to lower the price of fridges but if there was something more substantial im afraid I didnt understand it... and me and Moniek fell asleep...and so did some of the Cubans..well it was hot! When fidel cracked a joke and promised only 20mins more we all woke and began flag waving again.

Despite having a sore thorat he seemed to be going pretty strong, but a week later it was announced he had been taken into hospital for an operation and it was serious, Fidel was handing over power temporarily to his brother Raul. There was endless announcements on the TV and radio and people were even made to pledge their allegiance to the continuation of the revolution before getting on a ferry I took back to the mainland. In Havana some people were crying as they were scared of what would happen with the promised invasion by the U.S once Fidel was out of the way and Raul deosnt seem to be too popular either. The lastest news i´ve heard that Fidel is recovering from his operation.

Guapo the car

So, in our newly acquired flashpacking item ´guapo´the green car we began driving through the country. Its great having the freedom to up n go whenever you want and its actually cheaper than the bus here. I lost my virginity in driving on the right hand side and began learning how to career around craters, cowboys, horse and carriages, people selling fruit whilst in an electrical storm, with bald tires...oh and how to bat my eyelashes at the police when they pulled me over for speeding..and going the wrong way down streets during carnival ´perdon senior, please no speaking espanol´, unfornately Bruce hadn´t waxed recently so we got a fine. I decided not to impose my driving upon the many hitchers in cuba aswell as my mates. Anyway it was great fun and the scenery was so beautiful, passing through the countryside and little wild west towns, running over the suicidal crabs escaping from the sea (who also inhabit bedrooms, bags, bathrooms, curtains, seen walking to the bar)

After a slightly dodgy drunken night blagging it gratis in an all inclusive hotel in Santa Lucia...by breaking and entering, we made it to Santiago de Cuba for Cubas hottest carnival, reggaton central and we just so happened to be staying down the road from it. We were blessed (or totally humiliated, delete as appropriate) enough to be given a salsa fiesta on our rooftop by the Cubanos whilst the neighbourhood got fumagated for dengue fever. The carnival was brilliant, quite a memory, Cubans sure know how to party thats for sure. Driving around Santiago was a complete nightmare with some shouting roads were closed, others that we had a puncture, and the rest just shouting ´eh linda´,´guapa´ ´psssssst´´mira´whist checking their crotches were still there. Still, i cant believe how friendly the Cubans have been since we´ve been here (not the crotch boys, everyone else), we cant stop saying how lucky we are and met such genuine and interesting people who are all so ready to share their stories, and a small bit of their lives with us.

The day after one of the carnival nights we left one of our friends behind who had no hope in hell of trying to catch her bus back to Havana while still pissed (lovin ya work hon ;) )while we tried to get out of the way for a wedding reception that was taking place at our casa. The girl had married a italian and had already had her wedding day ruined by the police who´d arrested her and said she was a prostitute, another fine example of police work here...so we carried onto Granma for the big 26th July in hope of seeing Fidel speak.