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#6 When it’s gone, it’s gone: Santiago de Cuba. Swimming with Dugongs: Adventures in Central America.

30 Monday Oct 2017

Posted by thewritingimp in Cuba, food, holidays, humour, politics, travel, writing

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carnival, festival, food, rum, Santiago de Cuba, Spanish lessons, wages, water

two manatees

I find Santiago de Cuba underwhelming, I will explain. I’ve done my research, Santiago is the cultural capital of Cuba – try telling that to Havanans. It’s closer to Haiti and the Dominican Republic than Havana and is heavily steeped in Afro-Caribbean culture. Entrepreneurial and rebellious are adjectives to displace poor, and as the second city you can only compare it to the capital. We have coincided our travels to be in Santiago, the far end of the island from Havana, for the festival to end all festivals some would have us believe! We have fantastic central roof-top accommodation that looks westerly over the harbour, with only four ships of any size berthed, two of these are Chinese (Americas loss, I sense) below the distant rolling hills, it looks spectacular from afar.

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A couple of people contacted me to question if the $25US/month Cuban wage was in fact true, it’s an average. We are told a story of a high school English teacher that earned $50CUC/month, who gave his job up to conduct culture walking tours, the day I spoke to him he had led ten people at $10CUC each, he had made twice is monthly wage in one day! Tourism is the bag to be in. I speak with another teacher when we are browsing in the large indoor market, also an ex high school teacher, that now has a shoe stall and makes $60CUC from that ­- more when tourists are around, and still does private tutoring, like he said – who can survive on $25CUC/month!

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I have learnt my Spanish from a set of cds on the way to work and back for two months. I have smashed the Luminar beginners course – if ever you are a representative of a food company attending a trade-fair in Madrid – I’m your man, although I felt a little cheated that the sexual chemistry between Mr Hanendez and Miss Roberts never conjugated in the present tense! – maybe it does in the advanced course when they get married, have relationship counselling, and eventual divorce? I moved onto intermediate (bought cheap on eBay – it’s my own fault), which consists of what I imagine to be an exiled Nazi war criminal giving Spanish lessons in South America somewhere (sorry I cannot be more specific than that), at least he sounds Germanic, male and life-weary, he spends most of the time berating his English university students, he does also appear to have a Weinsteinian favouritism to the females, his two catch phrases are ‘no, no, no, no, no one will understand you,’ and ‘you must get the push of the verb correct, to get the correct tense, it’s consssensual, not conselssual. Occasionally he reaps praise on one of the women and you can sense their utter relief that they have eventually appeased him – Stockholm syndrome comes to mind. So, one day we set off on a cultural walking tour as outlined in the Lonely Planet, we walk in the general direction of the farthest point to start and will work back towards Plaza Céspedes, near our casa, but half way to the start, we discover we have left the guidebook, containing the detailed route to navigate, it is 35C in the shade and neither of us is willing to go back for it, the blame game starts and we both agree that it’s the other persons fault! I have a good grasp of the route in parts of a foreign city that I never ventured into ever before and I have intermediate Spanish-Nazi to fall back on. I know Pedro Pico (a street named after PP himself –  is the starting point, and with a few ‘Donde esta Pedro Pico?’ We’ll have no problem finding it, two problems here, no local seems to know where Pedro Pico is, if he is a peak, a person, a priest, a shop, or a mime artist we are meeting or trying to find! Secondly, what Herr Eichmann has failed to tell me is that the people will not only not know what/where/who Pedro Pico is, but they will do so in machine-gun Spanish. After my third enquiry of PP and blank faces and machine-gun Spanish, at least I think it’s Spanish? The Wife is like a little dismissive echo, ‘fucking Pedro Pico!’ We eventually find Pedro Pico, it is a little forgettable side road, but not for us! Even now when the Wife is sleeping, and I whisper, ‘donde esta Pedro Pico?’ she will murmur back, ‘fucking pedro pico!’

A friend once told me that when her parents split up and her mother was going through her photograph albums with her new partner, and she was telling him about events with her ex-husband, it meant nothing to her knew partner – why should it, it was a previous life. I always remember this story when I’m living in my car just to ‘get away’ for a few days and it’s these little almost inconsequential events to the rest of the world that are invisible glue – we will always have Pedro Pico and The elephants at Kuala Lumpur Zoo! (https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/6946206-28-a-woman-in-bloom-travails-through-life-sometimes-avoiding-the-p)

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We visit the Museum de Carnival, an aperitif to the carnival proper, the procession is the same night and we are excited after the museum. We have wandered down to have a pre-cursory look at the floats, thinking more will appear later (they don’t). Temporary spectator stands have been erected along the main wide road down by the docks where the flotilla sets out from.  When we return for the allotted start time it appears that everyone apart from the stall vendors are still getting organised. We wait around for a hour and a half, eventually they set off on Cuban time, then appear to stop for another half an hour, there are several ensembles of dancers, we watch most and a few floats – we are underwhelmed and bored, this is dubbed one of the greatest carnivals in the world, there is obviously no trades descriptions act in Cuba. We both agree, ‘Is that it, let’s go and do the other Cuban festival thang and get pissed on rum!’ And pissed we did get, mightily so. We had befriended a young male salsa teacher, Rico, the night before and half-arranged to meet up again with him. He has informed us he will take us to his ‘ghetto festival’ but is baffled to why we would even want to go when the main events are in the centre. I do the Cuban thing and buy a bottle of run and a two-litre bottle of coke, all of a sudden I have lots of friends, people Rico knows, if they’re a friend of Rico, they’re a friend of mine. We have no objection sharing drink with locals, we are in Delores Plaza, a professional sound system has been set up and dancing is occurring, ranging from professional salsa teacher all the way down to inebriated middle-aged gringo on holiday dancing! It’s great vibe, we still want to visit the ‘ghetto carnival’ but Rico is still baffled, he says this is much, much better, so we stay and buy another bottle of rum and coke and we gain even more friends. It’s a great night and we swim home, once home I casually vomit in the toilet, as I do so I think to myself in mid-reflux, ‘this is quite pleasant!’ – that’s when you know you are beyond pissed on Havana Club – I deserve to feel much worse the next day, but I have ejected most of my hangover into the Santiago sewer system.

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We are hassled by the same eccentric drunk the next day, I think his name is Mr Bidido, we endure him the first time, but he hassles us again, forgetting he has hassled us before and The Wife politely says, ‘We just want some privacy’ to which he replies ‘Well, fuck you then!’ in English.

I foolishly have a three-meat bird dish in a restaurant overlooking Delores Plaza, that consists of two unknown fowl and luncheon meat – this is again one of the better tourist restaurants! It can mean only one thing: Imodium on the trip to Baracoa, via Guantanamo, there’s a lovely bay there with a huge military complex on. This ‘bunged-up’ ride will pale into insignificance compared to the bus ride back and the ‘walk of shame’.

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We go and observe the bullet holes in the wall of the military barracks, where the first bungled event of the revelation occurred, almost terminating the path to the victorious republic before it was even born, if you want to an exemplar of how not to lead a guerrilla attack, read about this one, the then barracks is now a high school, has been from 1963, and you can casually wander in and take photos while school is in progress, no one asks us for a police check, DNA sample and two references, like they would in the UK, they are patriotically proud of the bullet holes next to the books.

We struggled to find bottle water at one point one day, and we had to ration what we had. The food often ran out in the restaurants. For example, in one of the better restaurants, next to the museum of carnival I order two dishes from the menu, the waiter says they’re not available, then we spend a few moments choosing an alternative to be told they’re not available, this feels like a sketch from Monty Python, so I ask him what is, he points to three dishes off the extensive list, there is no rice, chicken, tomatoes, green beans, etc, etc, we decide to get a sandwich, to be told the bread has run out, I’m not making this up, this in the second biggest city in Cuba! The answer to the scourge of food is, ‘it’s festival time!’ I semi-sarcastically ask if more people have turned up this year, it shoots above his head when he replies, ‘no, the same.’

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Santiago is a long, long, way behind Havana. I wanted to like it so much more, the pollution is absolutely horrendous, and although there are not many vehicles on the road the belching ancient lorries can instantly reduce your life-expectancy by six months as they pass. Not since India have I experienced pollution so choking. We did eat at one great Caribbean restaurant, St Pauli. It’s a double-edged sword, with more money and freedom, less embargoes, the food would not only be better quality, but actually available, tourism would be better organised, money would pour in and it would be a fantastic destination, but that is obviously not what everyone wants, I’d just be happy with decent available food and drinking water, then I could forgive the carnival to end all carnivals, which I’ve seen better in Moss Side, Manchester.

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P.S. So adamant was I at the time, without the guidebook to hand that it was Pedro Pico, I later realised it was Padro Pico, which makes much more sense, as this is a prominent unmissable tourist attraction, and not an insignificant side street! The Wife never re-checked the route later as I did, and it will always remain my secret – ‘Fucking Pedro Pico!!’

 

Next time:  THE bus toilet incident (The walk of shame!)

 

@thewritingIMP  www.ianmpindar.com

 

Ian M Pindar writes books, and also about himself in the third person sometimes, so it looks as though he has a large team of dedicated professionals working around him. His latest book is in fact a novella and has the strange title of: ‘Foot-sex of the Mind’. It is not a Mills and Boon, but about finding out what is important in life far too late.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=ian+m+pindar

 

 

#4: So, you think you’re badly paid!  Swimming with Dugongs: Adventures in Central America

19 Tuesday Sep 2017

Posted by thewritingimp in Cuba, holidays, humour, politics, travel

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Brexit, Cienfuegos, doctors, horses, lawyers, money, professions, Trinidad, wages

two manatees

When we arrive in beautiful colonial UNESCO protected Trinidad, Cuba, a place that looks as though the clocks stopped in 1850 there is the usual scrum at a plaza (Carrillo) where the bus pulls in. We have a strategy that works for us, I leave the bags with The Wife in a bar/restaurant/shade etc and I go on the hunt for accommodation. My bicycle rickshaw driver is Daniel and I think I have negotiated a 2CUC ride to the casa that is top of our list. It is full and Daniel takes me to similar places, most are full, eventually we find a great casa run by a young lawyer. We return to The Wife in Plaza that also houses the hospital. Daniel now wants 15CUC. I lie and say we only have 7 until we can get to the bank, we have an emergency 10CUC note. He has told me he only picks tourists up, for obvious reasons. He reluctantly takes the 7CUC, you mean bastard I hear you say, or is that just paranoid tinnitus? Before you judge too harshly, let me explain the average monthly wage in Cuba: 20-25 CUC. Exchange rates can vary obviously, especially if you decide to leave your European brothers and sisters, for God knows what unbelievable reason! 20CUC is £25, or US$20 per month, just stop and think about that for a short moment (think… think… ok, carry on), this is for an entire month!! The world average is £928/ month – so the average Cuban is getting paid roughly 1/40th the average of the entire global monthly pay – no wonder young Cubans want change when they look out at the rest of the world through the internet! I have just paid a rickshaw driver, albeit a pleasant one, the equivalent of well over a week’s wage for less than an hour’s work! No wonder he only picks tourists up!

trinidad

We get to the casa particular and we get chatting to the owner, let’s call him Carlo, the reason I’m changing his name, he tells us a lot about the politics of Cuba which I may refer to later. Carlo is in his mid-thirties, he is an ex-lawyer, when he was qualified he was earning 25CUC/ month, his wife is a doctor in the hospital, she earns 25CUC per month. The average casa in Cuba costs 25CUC per night, or, a month’s wages for a local – this is why Carlo is no longer a lawyer. The government take a set amount of monthly tax, he pays 500CUC as he has two rooms in his house, anything after ten nights full occupation is pure profit.  They are wealthy, as are many other Cubans by local standards for basically doing bed and breakfast, breakfast by the way is usually 5CUC each, but they are massive, tasty and impossible to finish. Carlo is renovating a five-bed casa across the street to rent out, he is about to become even wealthier. Tourism is the game to get into, it is the difference between living on the bread line, like a lot of rural Cubans do, ‘They go to bed hungry many nights’ Carlo tells me, ‘And that’s not right.’ He adds. That is one thing ingrained socialism does, it breeds empathy, we meet it everywhere we go – apart from taxi drivers in Havana! Although Carlo tells me Cuba is not a socialist country, but the people in power want the outside would to perceive it that way! I ask him about corruption, he has had to pay the local administrator 50CUC for permission to renovate his new casa, he tells me it is not too bad. When I suggest that 50CUC is two months average wage he dismisses this as money he can make in a single night. His two bedrooms are full for four months solid and he is wealthy enough to have visited his friend in France. While we are on France, I spent many hours meeting French people last summer and trying to explain why the British decided to leave Europe and eventually when I could not help them any more with their total bafflement, I just shrugged my shoulders and apologised for the slightly higher majority (52% to 48%), most of which will be dead before any possibly ‘significant’ benefits are seen! Deep breath, move on. While still on France.

We meet a French couple who seek out the museum curator in Cienfuegos. Cienfuegos is twinned with the French woman’s home town, so she is interested to meet the curator, he gets paid 15CUC per month! He’s the boss, but she tells us he is not complaining as he has got to visit France twice because of his job! It is better in Cuba to do anything within tourism than any traditional indigenous occupation, this is the general consensus. Carlo said the game changer for him was not getting a degree in law, it was taking the optional module to learn English, by being able to speak English he rents his casa easier and can take pre-bookings, he also speaks French. I could tell you many other similar stories to emphasis the point, the graduate computer programmer that takes groups on wildlife walks as he gets paid fifty times more than programming – Cuba needs as many computer experts as it can recruit, believe me, or the teachers of English and History that no longer teach, but take guided tours exclusively for tourists.

The incredible monthly Cuban wage is the reason why government shops exist and the reason why a tourist is forbidden from buying a breezeblock of cheese for 15CUC! If there is actually any cheese available to buy  – when it’s gone, it’s gone, and it’s often gone!

My Wife is a lawyer, and Carlo literally gasps when she tells him how much the firms she has worked for charge per hour – five times average monthly Cuban wage! He informs us about his wife’s work in the hospital, the basic levels; lack of equipment and drugs. People even have to bring their own paracetamol with them when they come in. His wife loves working in the hospital and with the rent from his casa and him at home to look after their children; she can afford to carry on doing it.

trin car

A two-tier system operates in Cuba, you pay the equivalent UK prices to travel on the buses, which if you have travelled quite extensively in the developing world, is quite surprising, but I suppose you have ticked the box on the visa application that states: ‘Supporting the Cuban People’, and you certainly have plenty of first-hand experience of that while you are there.  You can see why foreign multinationals would want to operate there, a work force with the highest literacy rate in the world and one of the lowest labour costs, and on the doorstep of the United States and Mexico, etc.

The clip-clop of hooves in the morning In Trinidad gently wakes you, it’s real cowboy country. There is a lovely beach close by, Playa Anson, we spend a day there and are picked up in a Lada taxi as a storm blows in and the skies look as though they are about to haemorrhage, the taxi has no glass in driver’s side window and the inadequate plastic sheet does not keep the lashing rain out. The drive back costs us 20CUC, and the fact we are getting wet does not appear to bother the driver, it is all part of the experience, there’s no customer service department, and there’s still a living to make!

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Look at the belligerence in the eyes of El-Loco Bastiddo at the back!

We decide, well, The Wife has decided we have to experience the horse trek, in horse country. I’m not a fan of horses. I had a girlfriend at teacher training college that had ridden all her life and when we went to stay with her parents and I informed her about my unease with a big beast between my legs, she dismissed me and told me to watch her as she took off across a large field for a stirrup to come lose and her to fall heavily to the ground; she has been in a bath-chair ever since and fed through a straw, ok, I made the last bit up, she can feed herself now, she’s fine, she got up dazed but unbelievably uninjured, but I remember thinking you know what you’re doing and you fell off, and quite quickly at the very start!  I don’t like being that high up, as if you fall off you hurt yourself and it feels like you are doing a public hokey-kokey whilst trying to stop smuggled drugs falling out of your back passage – I appreciate this is not everyone’s view on equine activities! We trek up to a waterfall at one point my horse, El-Loco Bastiddo, I forget its real name, bolts off I pull it back and it nearly dislocates my shoulder. I’m also in trouble as I have forgotten to transfer the wallet from one bag to another when I’ve been to the bus station earlier by myself, the bus was booked up for two solid days up to Santa Clara. The taxi driver, a friend of Carlo has reduced his price massively when he thinks we will get the bus! The waterfall is lovely and we bath and chat to several people. An Irish woman tells us the prices in Cuba have gone up five times in the last five years.

When we eventually get off the horses, starving due to lack of funds to buy lunch, my arse is so bruised and battered it looks like I’ve been abused by a drunk medieval knight. It takes nearly a week for the pain of the bruising to fully dissipate – this is another reason why I don’t like horses.

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Me doing my best Putin impression at a waterfall in Cuba. A bear is just about off shot deciding whether to wrestle me!

Trinidad as I have said earlier is a beautiful place to walk around and marvel at. There is a good choice of food (by Cuban standards), the main plaza and surrounding streets offers vibrancy, dancing, great company, and even though it is on the tourist triangle you would be foolish to miss it out. Definitely go, think twice about a horse ride!

casa-de-la-musica

 Hasta la vista, Bucaneros.

 

Next time #5: The revolution starts here.

 

@thewritingIMP  www.ianmpindar.com

monochrome imp swirly letters

Ian M Pindar writes books, and also about himself in the third person sometimes, so it looks as though he has a large team of dedicated professionals working around him. His latest book is in fact a novella and has the strange title of: ‘Foot-sex of the Mind’. It is not a Mills and Boon, but about finding out what is important in life far too late.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=ian+m+pindar

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  • #19  This is the end, my beautiful friends, the end.  Swimming with Dugongs: Adventures in Central America.
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  • #17 Literally swimming with Dugongs: Adventures in Central America.
  • #11  Oh look, there’s a jungle cat and its offspring: Swimming with Dugongs: Adventures in Central America.
  • #11 Celebrating the Rain. Swimming with Dugongs: Adventures in Central America.

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  • #19  This is the end, my beautiful friends, the end.  Swimming with Dugongs: Adventures in Central America.
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  • #17 Literally swimming with Dugongs: Adventures in Central America.
  • #11  Oh look, there’s a jungle cat and its offspring: Swimming with Dugongs: Adventures in Central America.
  • #11 Celebrating the Rain. Swimming with Dugongs: Adventures in Central America.

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