A few gentle observations about Cuba. There is a lot of green. Everywhere. Outside the city of Havana, there are endless fields of vegetation, lush and beautiful. Most of the people are black, which I later found out was a result of generations later from slavery, so it makes sense - I just thought there would be more of a mix of black and white people. The rumours are true and there are beautiful vintage cars everywhere, and they're pretty much all taxis. There are no American chain stores here - no McDonalds, no KFC, no Subway. I saw only an Adidas shop in Havana. In fact, when I met R at the beach, I asked him if there was any McDonalds here and his reply was priceless: "Mac...donalds?? Oh, to live such a blissfully ignorant life.
Another interesting observation - the old cars have old radios, that's no surprise. But what is interesting is the fact that their owners now listen to music by playing their iPhones on speaker. An interesting clash of cultures and ages. I saw one car with an Apple sticker on the back, even though Apple is clearly non-preferred in this country.
I came in last night to see my suspicions confirmed - the husband and wife were sleeping on the fold-out futon in the main area and I was in their room. Awks. In the morning, it was time to check out and head to my fancy-pants hotel for the tour I'd signed up for. Breakfast wasn't as plentiful but I paid anyway, only a few dollars really, gave her a tip with the total bill and headed off. At the hotel, L was waiting outside for our beach date but I wanted to check in before we left, so we headed to the room to drop my things off. L got told she wasn't allowed to be with me in the room, but the porter was "making an exception"... ahh chill out, we're leaving in a second.
We had the choice of a bus or old car taxi, which was the price of a return bus ticket, and way more fun, so we chose the latter. 20 minutes later we were primed and ready for some serious people-watching on the beach, while also not wanting to run into any guys from previous beach outings. That wasn't too hard, in the end, as the beach was just as packed as the day before and no matter how much we walked up and down, looking for somewhere to go, I recognised no one and no one recognised me. All good in the hood.
Eventually, we found a chair and umbrella and sat ourselves in prime position, right in front of the water, mojitos in hand, just watching life. Not a minute later and we were awestruck by 2 beautiful men walking past, shirts off, strutting their hot little sculpted bodies by. Well, this just can't do, one MUST make the most of this situation. Come here, I motioned to them, we want - nay, NEED - a photo with you. Then they wanted a photo with us! So went off and got a camera, and before we knew it, we were cheersing cups of straight Santiago de Cuba rum with our newfound friends.
Then we were in the water. This was truly a moment to remember. As I waded out into the crystal clear blue Carribean sea, I looked behind to see a gorgeous Cuban man trailing me and the sun beating down on me from above... I had no worries in the world, only if I would spill my cup of rum (even then, there was more where that came from), and I was on holidays. In fact, this was my life. Time to shine.
There was a little canoodling in the water but I kept it in check - these Cubans are known for pushing the boundaries as far as you'll let them and I was not about to be the first to let that happen. L, on the other hand, was given her guy a free-for-all and there were several occasions I had to say, "Take control of the situation!" We kept talking with each other in English, the guys begging us to talk in Spanish, but we needed SOME way to be able to talk about how crazy and random this whole situation was.
Out of the water, I just wanted a bit of down-time, and the novelty of these guys was fast wearing off. I gave myself a break by going to look for lunch, but having no luck I was left alone while the other 2 went looking instead. By this stage, the guy I was sitting with had completely taken over my banana lounge and when I finally managed to push him off, slid alongside me and started pinching/rubbing his hands all over me, I guess in a sign of affection but ultimately just annoying me.
When the others came back and we sat there eating the rice and chicken (the other guy feeding L, more controlling behaviour that she didn't stop), oh and his DAD stopped by to meet the foreigner his son had scored, I thought it was time to go. It was really getting too much. Only after we left them high n dry did L tell me that the other guy had pulled out a condom on the banana lounge. We're still trying to figure out the meaning behind it. Honestly, give Cubans an inch... they take out a condom.
As the afternoon drew to a close, we made for the bus again and I headed to my fancy hotel to meet with the rest of the tour. At least I assumed that's what was happening, as I really didn't have any idea of what was going on. I bid L goodbye, exchanged some kind of contact, and headed up. In the hotel room, there was a note saying there was no dinner meeting because everyone was getting in late. A surefire sign I should've picked up that this was not going to be the most organised tour.
I was pretty sure I had some mild sunstroke, since L and I forgot to put on sunscreen until really late (and even then just slapped it on before running straight into the water), so I kept it simple this night. Wandered around to find a nice restaurant and got another meal which came out on fire (prawns this time), then back to the hotel where I saw my roommate had arrived but was not physically in the room. I stayed up late watching some English-speaking films and had been asleep not long when my roommate finally made it back. She apologised for being loud and late and drunk etc, but she was actually pretty together. I was to find out later she was a big apologiser and not usually a big party animal, so that was an interesting first impression.
Another interesting observation - the old cars have old radios, that's no surprise. But what is interesting is the fact that their owners now listen to music by playing their iPhones on speaker. An interesting clash of cultures and ages. I saw one car with an Apple sticker on the back, even though Apple is clearly non-preferred in this country.
I came in last night to see my suspicions confirmed - the husband and wife were sleeping on the fold-out futon in the main area and I was in their room. Awks. In the morning, it was time to check out and head to my fancy-pants hotel for the tour I'd signed up for. Breakfast wasn't as plentiful but I paid anyway, only a few dollars really, gave her a tip with the total bill and headed off. At the hotel, L was waiting outside for our beach date but I wanted to check in before we left, so we headed to the room to drop my things off. L got told she wasn't allowed to be with me in the room, but the porter was "making an exception"... ahh chill out, we're leaving in a second.
We had the choice of a bus or old car taxi, which was the price of a return bus ticket, and way more fun, so we chose the latter. 20 minutes later we were primed and ready for some serious people-watching on the beach, while also not wanting to run into any guys from previous beach outings. That wasn't too hard, in the end, as the beach was just as packed as the day before and no matter how much we walked up and down, looking for somewhere to go, I recognised no one and no one recognised me. All good in the hood.
Eventually, we found a chair and umbrella and sat ourselves in prime position, right in front of the water, mojitos in hand, just watching life. Not a minute later and we were awestruck by 2 beautiful men walking past, shirts off, strutting their hot little sculpted bodies by. Well, this just can't do, one MUST make the most of this situation. Come here, I motioned to them, we want - nay, NEED - a photo with you. Then they wanted a photo with us! So went off and got a camera, and before we knew it, we were cheersing cups of straight Santiago de Cuba rum with our newfound friends.
Then we were in the water. This was truly a moment to remember. As I waded out into the crystal clear blue Carribean sea, I looked behind to see a gorgeous Cuban man trailing me and the sun beating down on me from above... I had no worries in the world, only if I would spill my cup of rum (even then, there was more where that came from), and I was on holidays. In fact, this was my life. Time to shine.
There was a little canoodling in the water but I kept it in check - these Cubans are known for pushing the boundaries as far as you'll let them and I was not about to be the first to let that happen. L, on the other hand, was given her guy a free-for-all and there were several occasions I had to say, "Take control of the situation!" We kept talking with each other in English, the guys begging us to talk in Spanish, but we needed SOME way to be able to talk about how crazy and random this whole situation was.
Out of the water, I just wanted a bit of down-time, and the novelty of these guys was fast wearing off. I gave myself a break by going to look for lunch, but having no luck I was left alone while the other 2 went looking instead. By this stage, the guy I was sitting with had completely taken over my banana lounge and when I finally managed to push him off, slid alongside me and started pinching/rubbing his hands all over me, I guess in a sign of affection but ultimately just annoying me.
When the others came back and we sat there eating the rice and chicken (the other guy feeding L, more controlling behaviour that she didn't stop), oh and his DAD stopped by to meet the foreigner his son had scored, I thought it was time to go. It was really getting too much. Only after we left them high n dry did L tell me that the other guy had pulled out a condom on the banana lounge. We're still trying to figure out the meaning behind it. Honestly, give Cubans an inch... they take out a condom.
As the afternoon drew to a close, we made for the bus again and I headed to my fancy hotel to meet with the rest of the tour. At least I assumed that's what was happening, as I really didn't have any idea of what was going on. I bid L goodbye, exchanged some kind of contact, and headed up. In the hotel room, there was a note saying there was no dinner meeting because everyone was getting in late. A surefire sign I should've picked up that this was not going to be the most organised tour.
I was pretty sure I had some mild sunstroke, since L and I forgot to put on sunscreen until really late (and even then just slapped it on before running straight into the water), so I kept it simple this night. Wandered around to find a nice restaurant and got another meal which came out on fire (prawns this time), then back to the hotel where I saw my roommate had arrived but was not physically in the room. I stayed up late watching some English-speaking films and had been asleep not long when my roommate finally made it back. She apologised for being loud and late and drunk etc, but she was actually pretty together. I was to find out later she was a big apologiser and not usually a big party animal, so that was an interesting first impression.
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