| Tuesday, April 5, 2005, 6:00 pm, Hotel Havana Libre | | | | gracious in taking me around and explaining things to |
| Thanks to a severe case of the Revenge of | | | | me. |
| Montezuma (or Ricky Ricardo?..,) I am sitting here in | | | | After I dropped off my suitcase and refreshed |
| the Hotel Havana Libre and I finally get around to | | | | myself a little, we hopped into a private individual's |
| create updates from my first 4.5 days here in Cuba. | | | | car (a practice extremely common in Cuba), he paid a |
| The Internet connection is definitely the slowest I | | | | few local pesos and we were whisked downtown in |
| have ever seen in my entire life, (15 minutes to | | | | a very old beat-up Lada which ended up picking up |
| access my messages at Yahoo..), but I am giving it a | | | | various other locals along the way. |
| shot anyways. | | | | Habana Vieja is a fascinating colonial city and the age |
| Friday morning I arrived at the airport in Toronto at | | | | and beauty of the building is astounding. Of course I |
| 5:30 am since my husband gave me a ride before | | | | saw the Capitolio (very similar to the Capital in |
| work. The plane was scheduled to leave at 10:30 and | | | | Washington), several of the big museums, the Hotel |
| several transfers with public transport would have | | | | Inglaterra and some of the bars that Hemingway |
| taken me 2.5 hours anyway, so I decided to head | | | | frequented. |
| there early and read a book. | | | | I also saw the big spider exhibit of 2 metallic spiders |
| Air Canada was delayed after all (due to a problem | | | | that are located right in the heart of downtown, an |
| with the water supply on the plane) and we had to | | | | exhibit by a French sculptress that will stay in Havana |
| wait for a substitute plane from Winnipeg and finally | | | | until April 28 and then apparently move on to New |
| got off the ground at about noon. 3.5 hours later we | | | | York. |
| arrived at the airport Jose Marti in Havana - a | | | | We walked around and chatted about life in Cuba |
| reasonably modern airport. However, it took me and | | | | and I started to learn a few things, about some of |
| the other travellers almost 2 hours to collect our | | | | the practical consequences of the revolution (e.g. |
| luggage and finally hop into a taxi. | | | | blacks have it much better today than before, and |
| On the way in from the airport I noticed that there | | | | there is relatively little racism according to Pedro), and |
| was a mixture of industrial developments and | | | | the double economy, where locals receive their salary |
| agricultural areas, right up until the centre of the city, | | | | in Pesos Cubanos, (around US$8 to $30 a month), |
| which is strange compared to Toronto, where there | | | | which is not even close to enough for living, so |
| is no significant agriculture until way outside the city. | | | | everybody participates in the underground economy |
| The older gentleman driving the taxi was very | | | | in some way. |
| friendly and explained a few basic things to me, e.g. | | | | We had a reasonably expensive meal in a downtown |
| that most of the area is industrial and agricultural. He | | | | "Paladar", a private restaurant in a private home with |
| also showed the National Sports Centre to me. Of | | | | a maximum of 12 seats, one of the few official |
| course you see old cars from the 50s and earlier as | | | | private enterprises allowed. When asked about the |
| well as beat-up Russian Ladas everywhere. Old | | | | future of Cuba after Fidel, both my new-found friend |
| sidecar motorcycles are also a popular way to get | | | | and the old man running the Paladar indicated that |
| around. | | | | they thought not much would change after a future |
| I finally arrived at my hotel at about 6 pm where my | | | | passing of Fidel. (Actually the mention of Fidel´s |
| brand-new friend Pedro (a connection through a | | | | passing often makes people pull up their hands in |
| friend in Canada) was waiting for me. I had told my | | | | front of their mouths and start to speak very |
| friend that I wanted to really spend some time with | | | | quietly...). |
| locals to learn about Cuba, its customs, its way of life | | | | After the meal, Pedro again flagged down a private |
| etc. | | | | vehicle, we hopped in and I got dropped off at the |
| Pedro is a brown-skinned black man in his late thirties | | | | hotel, dropping into bed like a tired sack of potatoes. |
| with a common-law wife and a young daughter. An | | | | But I definitely had a great introduction to life in Cuba |
| extremely nice person and he´s been very | | | | on my first evening.... |