The Revolution will not be televised – The Cuba Experience part 2

If Che Guevara could see the state of Chris and I as we rolled up to his city he would be ashamed, here I am not able to lift my bag due to my hand throbbing uncontrollably and Chris who looked like death warmed up as he was coming down with a bad cold. Luckily the revolution is over and Che doesn’t need our help to fight in his guerilla army as I’m sure if we were in his army then they would have lost the battle for Santa Clara. Our Casa was right in the centre of town and our host couldn’t be more lovely, a old lady we called Mama Cuba as she treat us like part of the family and cooked us mountains upon mountains of food. Food just seem to come out of nowhere, who on earth said that you can’t eat well in Cuba….. Ok if you are a veggie you might have a dull time as the vegetables are a little basic to say the least, rice, beans, bit of cabbage and tomatoes that taste of chicken! But saying that when you put it all together with huge mouth watering pork chops you are in for a home cooked treat. Oh and the best things I’ve found are the fried bananas and hot chocolate. Double yum, another thing is i’m not really a fruit man (fact) but the fruit in Cuba is so juicy and I can’t stop eating the bananas (Fried or not) and pineapples. Ok enough about food, lets get back to the story.

The next morning after big breakfast with eggs and ……. moving on, we went out to find the Che memorial on the south of town. The town its self is rather small and compacted so its easy to get around, horse and carts ferrying people back and forth and around town, its sad to see these animals in such bad shape, they all looked over worked and staved. I wonder what the Mongolians would think of they saw how bad these horses are treated? The town itself is rather pleasant and has a more of a Mexican feel to the place, even the locals look spanish here. Reaching Che’s memorial you see how much this man means to the Cuban people. A huge Russian looking communist square with a statue at one end of Che with his rife. Under the statue his remains lay along with 16 other soldiers who were executed with him in Bolivia after trying to start an uprising there. There is a small museum with some of Che’s personal items next to it which was rather interesting to look around. After looking around we went to chill out in the square when along comes a very humorous drunk who talked all matter of shit to us and was rather amusing. He couldn’t get in to his head that my Lonely Planet book was worth $26, for a Cuban that is a months salary.

I’m thinking of starting my own revolution in Essex and turning it in to a Marxist/Leninist state , Its about time we stand up to the Chavs, 14 year old mothers and Squddies giving Essex such a bad name (yeah, like it had a good one to start off with). Stu and I will organize and train our guerrilla army from Ray Island, once we take the small village of Peldon (Minus The Branin’s house) we can move on and take Colchester. Once we have taken Colchester we can set up a communist state headquaters there. We already have a large communist square (Culver Square) and communist residential area in place (Greenstead). So the stage is set, who wants to join the fight for freedom with Fidel Cudmore and Random Guevara? God, i really do speak some crap.

And that was about it for our day in Santa Clara, I went out during the night to watch a few salsa bands do there thing in the main square as Chris was feeling rough. Weekends in Cuba are so much fun, its all about music so they drag old battered sound systems out every and everyone and I mean everyone (except me) Salsa’s the night away to local bands. It would be so cool and a great idea to learn how to Salsa so I could fit in, even the 90 year olds are busting moves and have more rhythm than me. I called it a night at about 11pm as I was getting annoyed and chased around the town by so many female hustlers “Buy me a drink, buy me a drink, this is my sister” anyway I had to be up early the next day as we were heading south to our next town called Campacey.

Bus station

It takes so long to get anywhere on these roads, no highways just small country lanes that every 10 minutes or so we have to slow down as we catch up an old American car with a Lada engine in it . I feel like i’m in some wacky computer game like frogger, having to dodge all manner of random items on the road from horse and a cart, 1950 cars even kids running across the road to school. I’m not sure that there are any rules to driving in Cuba seeing how some of these crazy bastards drive. All over the world i’ve maintained that the Russians are the scariest drivers but I’m now thinking they are a bit tame compared to these wannabe stock car drives.
We make it to Camaguey in just under 8 hours, met by a friend of the Casa owner who was our taxi driver….. yes he had a rusty 1951 red (it may have been another colour when it was first made) Chevrolet, no interior , no dash but it still moved and had the original engine in it (Plus a few bits borrowed from a Lada). It was so cool sitting in the back of this death trap cruising around the streets of Camaguey, talk about arriving in style. I wish i had some photos of me in it but my camera was in the trunk….. see, i even call it a trunk now…. I’m so American, High 5!!!!
Taking a walk around the city its feels very different to the last three towns we have visited, not in a grid system but roads that snake here there and everywhere. Camaguey is like this because it was said that it was to confused the pirates that attack it…. Hmmm i’m not sure about that, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out the place. Chris was feeling rough still so the two days was spent wondering around, taking in the sites and plenty of street photography. I also found a rather disturbing find on my 35mm lens, there seems to be 1000s of small bubbles or scratchers inside the lens. I really hope it doesn’t effect the image. I have no way of knowing until i get to America and now have the dilemma of do i keep using the lens or just stick to the 50mm? I’m not sure if this has always been like this since I got it repaired, anyway I guess time will tell. I never have much luck with things do i? I look after my gear so well and bad things always seem to happen to me, maybe someone has cursed me or trying to tell me to stop taking photos.

On the road again, 8 hours later we are in our third city for the week, Cuba’s second largest city Santiago de Cuba. No way as big as Havana, it has a small town feel to the place. Again you can really see the place in a day or two. This is where the first Rum factory was and owned by family know as Bacardi. The produced Bacardi there until the revolution when they left and moved to the USA. The family house is rather impressive, rum is still made here but now its good old Havana Club instead. The main square is pretty cool and there is a great cafe under the hotel Granda which serves the best Mojito and Daiquiri I have tasted, and all for $2 a drink. But word of warning, if you do drink here make sure you have enough time on your hands as it takes about a three years to get served.

Next stop, the gorgeous town windswept coastal town of Baracoa.