Fidel - gone but not forgotten

this quote from a NYT column brought me back to my travels in Cuba- first in early 2012 and then again in December of 2015 almost four years later-

We’ve all been waiting, waiting for this to happen. All of us tethered to Fidel: staying with Fidel or leaving Fidel. Loving Fidel or hating Fidel. In a cab in Istanbul, the driver asked: “Oh, you’re Cuban, what do you think of Fidel?” At a laundry-mat in Chicago: “You’re Cuban? So what’s Fidel really like?” In a classroom in Honolulu: “All I know about Cuba is Fidel.”

My travel buddy Jennifer and I had talked for several years about going to Cuba and when the first OFAC licenses were issued to visit on "people to people" cultural exchanges we immediately signed up for a trip.  The very first ones left in December 2011 and were booked so quickly that the first we could arranged was early April 2012.  They didn't go that frequently because they were still in process with the details and ironing out kinks - American travelers in these kinds of numbers were a new thing to Cuba.

The pull quote I took from the Achy Obejas column went right to the heart of our decision to go as soon as we could- it was Fidel... we wanted to visit when Fidel was still "around."  Of course, even then he had "retired" from the presidency and Raul Castro was "running" things but of course we all wondered how true the "retirement" really was an whether Raul was just Fidel's puppet.

By my second trip to Cuba, things had changed a bit for the travelers- better restaurants (the paladars had multiplied by the dozens - so we no longer ate in only government run restaurants with a special meal at a paladar) we no longer ate in government restaurants. And there seemed to be more upscale hotel choices. But for the people, it wasn't clear how much headway they had made in the four intervening years unless they happened to have opened a paladar or were selling souvenirs on the street or in a shop.  There were virtually no souvenirs except at the "handicraft" market in Habana Viejo when I first went but there were plenty of enterprising folks by the second visit- how fast this growth had come over the four years I had been away I couldn't say.

But to get back to my point- and the columnist's as well, it was Fidel and the spectre of Fidel, and the history of Fidel and his revolution that had drawn us there in the first place.

In preparation for my first trip I had taken an eight week class on Cuba at USF (University of South Florida) and I had quite a bit of context for the things we were told on the trip.  The class was taught by about ten instructors (each with their own field of expertise: politics, art, geography, history, medicine, feminism etc...) and I learned a lot - much of it seemed quite well balanced despite many of the instructors being Cuban-Americans from Florida.

On Fidel's death a friend of mine posted this on Face Book-
"Yeah Castro did some evil shit, but what people don't remember is that his revolution overthrew the corrupt & more heinous Batista dictatorship which was started by a military coup which unseated an elected government. Batista was a pawn of the mafia & USA and worse in every way than Fidel. Now maybe we will lift our immature sanctions and Cuba can move into a democratic renaissance."

And while I may not have been so black & white in my assessment - I found my interactions with everyday Cubans quite enlightening- and I wrote about them extensively in prior blog posts-

these from the 2015 trip-
http://blog.semifreelife.com/2016/01/farewell-cuba.html
http://blog.semifreelife.com/2016/01/before-we-leave.html
http://blog.semifreelife.com/2016/01/i-finally-get-to-mountains.html
http://blog.semifreelife.com/2016/01/trinidad.html
http://blog.semifreelife.com/2016/01/stops-along-way.html
http://blog.semifreelife.com/2016/01/angels-sing-in-cienfuegos.html
http://blog.semifreelife.com/2016/01/dinner-in-town.html
http://blog.semifreelife.com/2016/01/rushing-around-havana.html
http://blog.semifreelife.com/2016/01/market-to-daycare-on-bicitaxis.html
http://blog.semifreelife.com/2016/01/creativity-is-our-middle-name.html
http://blog.semifreelife.com/2016/01/a-walk-on-prado.html
http://blog.semifreelife.com/2016/01/fun-with-seniors-cuban-style.html
http://blog.semifreelife.com/2016/01/day-one-cuba-continues.html
http://blog.semifreelife.com/2015/12/we-arrive-in-cuba.html

and these from the 2012 trip-
http://blog.semifreelife.com/2012/04/we-arrive-in-havana.html
http://blog.semifreelife.com/2012/04/amazingly-full-day.html
http://blog.semifreelife.com/2012/04/defining-moment.html
http://blog.semifreelife.com/2012/04/back-to-day.html
http://blog.semifreelife.com/2012/04/cienfuegos.html
http://blog.semifreelife.com/2012/04/on-we-go.html
http://blog.semifreelife.com/2012/04/all-too-quickly.html
http://blog.semifreelife.com/2012/05/final-day-of-people-to-people-trip.html

and these links have a lot of photos about those journeys-

2015-
https://victoriasterlingspics.shutterfly.com/southamerica/2331
https://victoriasterlingspics.shutterfly.com/southamerica/2721
https://victoriasterlingspics.shutterfly.com/southamerica/2860
https://victoriasterlingspics.shutterfly.com/southamerica/3053

2012-
https://victoriasterlingspics.shutterfly.com/southamerica/1173

but in the end I think the Achy Obejas' column's penultimate paragraph puts it as well as anyone could- because Fidel is a part of our history- Cubans and Americans both...

Fidel didn’t merely contain multitudes: He took all of our destinies and redesigned them. Who would I be if Fidel’s revolution hadn’t happened and my parents hadn’t left? Who would those who remained on the island be if those of us who left had stayed by their side? Who would any of us be if Fidel hadn’t caused this rupture in our lives?

and  that is saying something....

and the iconic image of Cuba from the American tourist perspective- a collage of photos of cars I saw on the first trip-

so - new adventures coming up - off to Colombia in less than a week- stay tuned...

we return to Havana

A very long day of travel, we left Trinidad early and traveled back to Havana via Cienfuegos- and via a lunch stop outside of town near the Hemingway house -

we have a terrific lunch with the fishermen and luckily other members of the group have many questions- LOL since I don't fish or have a clue - but others do, so we do well- the lobster lunch was fab!

The hour is late and so off we go directly to the hotel - but since we already in town (so to speak) I will do the Hemingway house in this post as well- - - this time there are many more souvenirs to buy- I think last time there was a small counter for coffee and a couple of racks of postcards...Alas, this will only get worse I am sure...

the house is open and airy and sits on top of a hill -

injuries from the Spanish Civil War caused "Papa" back problems so he typed standing up...

From here it is Havana for one more day and then home to Miami- pick up the car at Larry's and home to our kitties... so we are closing in on the end here....

I finally get to the mountains

So if you have gone back and read any of the 2012 trip posts you may know that the last time I was in Cuba there was a planned trip to the mountains that was canceled... you could if you had a strong desire read about the very relaxed day we had instead here-

http://blog.semifreelife.com/2012/05/we-dont-go-to-mountains.html

or you could skip it and just come to the mountains with us today! It has been hot, really hot, here in Trinidad and of course going up into the mountains to learn about coffee growing in Cuba would give us a respite from the heat.  So come on let's go!

don't be fooled by the blue skies on this side of the mountain- we got up and over and down through a valley and then up again - and things get much more dicey- oh and did I mention we did this in Soviet area military transport vehicles -  so the views below are taken from a giant moving truck fitted with school bus seats...

up top there is an old sanitarium which was then a spa for Russian military in Cuba... by all accounts they mostly kept to themselves during the time of their deployment to the island-

our naturalist guide to the growing of coffee and its allegedly EXCELLENT properties - it can cure cancer according to this guy- along with curing all sorts of other things including arthritis - but every recipe he gave for cures had both coffee and alcohol----- LOL so no doubt when you were wasted you THOUGHT the coffee was doing you some good - LOL

of course we tasted a sample- and I am sure it was because the only coffee I ever drink is frappucino LOL- this was vile- it basically tasted like dirt to me- luckily it was a small cup and the ground was adsorbent LOL

parakeets in the trees were making a HUGE racket! no hiding out for these guys!

Then we went to the farmers' homes to visit and learn about how it was they ended up with a privately owned farm (they had already subdivided it into plots before the revolution and they were allowed to keep their forty acres because it was within the maximum allowable of forty acres) Their homes were lovely and open to the mountain breezes - with wide porches to protect the interiors - the grandparents lived more simply but still the home was immaculate- below the kitchen

photos from the big house - occupied by the son and his family-

son and his father (the grandfather)

ripe coffee beans-

the lunch stop was at this lovely mountain top restaurant-

our waiter looked familiar- LOL

the view from the terrace-

one son ran the coffee plantation - another worked at another plantation and a third one ran a little store that sold (big surprise) coffee and other produce from the farm-

here it looks like a toy house but moving in on the photo you can see the goods for sale - including the peanut bars they were selling to the tourists along with the coffee- there were samples and it was pretty darn good.  Phil ate the ones he bought while we still in Cuba - as late night snacks...when he could get decent wi-fi he was back to his usual routines with late night surfing on politics in the U.S.

the second from the left in the bar section were the peanut ones- and they sold completely out up at the farmhouse- but no one knew they were available down below at the road side store (I only found them on my picture when we returned to town - boo hoo for those who missed out)

our ride back down the hairpin turns from the mountains was quite hair raising especially since by then we had rain in earnest....

When we did get back to the hotel, we found towel sculptures in all our rooms, and many in the group went room to room to see what the housekeepers had constructed. Ours even had Phil's beard! These gals were not only talented in towel and bed clothes folding but they were observant as well!

We had our final dinner that evening in the hotel - a rather lackluster buffet.  The meals at the paladars have been much better than the ones we have had to eat at the hotels- not surprising that they make more effort but it is a bit of a change since last time I was here when the state owned restaurants had better food and much more choice...  but we didn't come for the food - we came for the people and that was a huge success..... tomorrow we head back to Havana with a stop along the way for lunch in the town near where Hemingway lived  but that is more for the next post- this is it for our time in Trinidad...