Cuban BLog Day #7 Don't Order a Cuba Libre

This portion of the blog will be a day by day account of my travels in Cuba. It was written during my travels, but posted after I’d returned. This is because internet is incredibly slow and expensive in Cuba.  It is also because I didn’t want to spend my time in internet cafes,rather then experiencing Cuba in the moment.

The first part will be more journal-like, describing the highlights of each day. It may include a few tips about costs and places to see etc.

The bottom of the blog will include a tip or two of the day. These are mostly for travelers from the United States traveling to Cuba the old fashioned way, but could be used by any traveler heading to Cuba.

You can read this blog two ways. 1. Completely through (This is how I hope my mom and friends will read it, so they get a better idea of what I did during the three weeks I spent off the grid,) or 2. If you have dreams of traveling to Cuba, feel free to skip the journal-y part and go right to the tips each day. I assure you they are helpful. I wish I had known them before I left.

Please enjoy my blog and feel free to ask any questions you may have. Thanks, Kari

 

I woke early the next day and had breakfast on the terrace which included hot chocolate made by the chocolate bars that are famously made in Baracoa. So good! We walked to the tour place and met up with the gringos, Kevin and Heidi along with a few other travelers, all European- Austrian, Romanian and German.

We left in an air conditioned van and stopped for a tour outside. Our guide Benny spoke good English and showed us the cocoa fruit and various other plants. We then went to a woman’s house and were shown all the steps of the chocolate making process.

We drove along the coast and stopped at a bar to wait for our boat on the river to be ready.  We bought a bottle of rum and a big Tu cola, their version of Coca Cola which is sweetened with an artificial sweetener and tastes more like a diet Coke.  We made Cuba libres all around and ended up taking them on the boat ride too.  We learned from Benny that whenever you open a new bottle of rum in Cuba you must pour a little out para los santos, for the saints.

The rower of the boat had an easy job that day because three of the men on the tour wanted to row. The ride was very short, and we stopped at a kind of island where we had time to swim and play in the water and drink more Cuba Libres.

We headed back and stopped at another beach along the way for an hour or so.  We sat in the shade and drank more Cuba Libres while lamenting the fact we’d not yet smoked a cigar.  Kevin pulled one from his pack and shared it with us. Benny told us the way to tell if it is a good cigar is by how long the ash gets. The longer the ash the better the cigar. He also showed us how you must continually rotate the cigar so that it burns evenly.  After abou an hour on the beach, we rode back to Baracoa just as it started to rain. 

Back in town we all went to the Cafeteria and bought another bottle of rum and another of Tu cola. The night went on like this.  The Rasta brothers came around and showed us their new tattoos. They had each gotten the tattoo I had translated. I couldn’t believe it.

The brothers were great people to have met, and I enjoyed talking to them about their thoughts on Cuba and the government.  Most Cubans are very reluctant to talk about anything related to the government and Fidel, especially their opinions.  Even the brothers, when I asked to take a picture of their tattoos told me yes, but only if I would not include their faces.  It was clear they were worried about having their opinions known. I think this is why their tattoos are in English, in the hopes that most people in Cuba will not understand it. 

The day before on the beach I tried to get the brothers to open up a bit about Bobby’s tattoo which was a picture of Cuba with the English words ‘we need freedom.’   Clearly they believe this, as it was tattooed on their bodies, but it was very hard to get them to go further.  I wanted to know how they thought freedom might come about, or when they thought it would happen. Their response was that they wanted to go to Ecuador.  Ecuador recently opened up their doors to Cubans without a need for an invitation.  From there, they said, they hoped it would be easier to get to the US.  I’m not sure if this means they don’t really see freedom happening any time soon, but that’s what I took their desire to get out of Cuba to mean.

 

Traveling Tip #8 Don’t order a Cuba Libre-  Instead simply buy a $3 bottle of rum and a $1 big bottle of Tu cola.  Mind you, they don’t have the lime juice, but I am ok with this.  A single Cuba Libre in a bar will cost you $2-$3, nearly the cost of a whole bottle of rum.