Notes from Havana

On the day we traveled, Allison set the alarm clock for 3.45pm. Our flight was for 6am. I went to bed at around 2am because of my excitement. We had a taxi that was going to pick us up at 4am. In my sleep I heard her cell phone go off and I woke up shortly thereafter. I remember thinking in my sleep that Allison would have set the alarm clock correctly, but I better get up just in case. It was a good thing that I did, because it was 4.11. I ran to wake up Allison who had her eye mask and ear plugs on. She was totally disoriented and we had to hurry and get our shit together. Luckily, the taxi was still there. What a way to start the trip! But it was all good cause we got to the airport in time. From Oakland, we went to the land of Yao Ming. Then from there we traveled to Cancun. We had a 4 hour layover there. At one point we were sitting down and we had to move because some college kids we being really loud. I didn't want to be associated with them at all. Sometimes, Americans can be really loud, obnoxious, and oblivious. Hence, the term ugly Americans. I've noticed that when people are on vacation, there can be a sense of entitlement and a desire to be served. Also, I think that since people feel they won't ever see those people again that they can be anyway they want. I'm a firm believer that if you want to see how a person is, then put them under stress or in a situation where they feel they won't really have any consequences or people won't know what they did. As my friend Jeremy's dad says, "Integrity is what you do when no one is looking." No doubt, I've acted like an ugly American before, but I try to be more aware and make sure that I don't. We moved when I noticed people turning their heads to look at the group.

From Cancun, we flew into Havana. When we got off the plane, the 1st thing that I noticed were the women airport workers all had very short skirts. I thought to myself, "If this is how it's going to be, I'm going to like this place." After we got our luggage, we got stopped by airport security and questioned extensively. The lady questioning me was thorough, while the guy questioning Allison looked to just be chatting her up. Afterwards, she said to me that he didn't even know what questions to ask and how to deal with followup questions. He had to keep referring to his plain shirted boss. When we were done, the lady was all apologetic and said it was her job. We left the airport and exchanged some Euros into pesos convertibles (CUC), which is the money used by tourists. We were expecting to be met, but after a few minutes of searching we just took a cab to our Hotel.

For the 1st 2 nights, we stayed at the hotel Lincoln for 46 pesos a night. The hotel was... sparse. Of the 2 nights we spent there, we had hot water once. Only 1 elevator was working and infrequently. On the night we arrived we got totally ripped off because it was late and we went to a market to get water and were charged 6 CUCs for 2 large waters. Of course, we come to find out water is 70 centavos everywhere else.

On the 1st day we walked the Malecon, which is the sea wall surrounding Havana, and we also walked in Centro Havana and Havana Vieja, or old Havana. The area we are staying in is a bit rundown and reminded me of areas of China in its deterioration. Colonialism is ever present in the architecture but poorly cared for in our area of Havana Central. Havana Vieja is the more touristy area and it shows because of how well everything is cared for. Havana is interesting because the tourist area and the city is also where people live. So we are strolling down avenues and we can peak into people's homes and they are just doing their thing. Our 1st full day was definitely a learning experience because the hustle was on strong. Basically, if people were being overly friendly and speaking English they were trying to hustle us. I knew one set of hustlers were working as a team because I told one guy we were staying at Hotel Deauville and minutes later a guy said he worked at Deauville and saw me there. He knew it was me because I am Chinese. Another thing, everywhere I go, people like to say "Chino, Chino" Now my answer to them is "Todos mi vida" or all my life.

On the 1st full day, we visited the Museo de la Revolucion. It has all kinds of interesting things. They've got a turbine of the famous U-2 spy plane that was shot down and lots of history about the revolution and a small section on the Spanish American War. There's a lot of propaganda there, but you get that in any museum that has the history of a country. Lots of Anti-imperialist stuff too. After walking around Allison got museum feet and we were tired and hungry.

As I've come to understand, Cubans are carnivores. They love their meat. As a vegetarian, I have to look and work a bit harder. No problem cause I don't trust the meat as I've seen meat just sitting around in this hot and humid weather. People just got slabs of meat sitting around uncooked waiting to be sold. This was the same in Brasil and China and other places I've been to. With this weather, it's just a bacterial love fest. I hope and knock on wood I'm less likely to get food poisoning because I'm not eating meat. Anyways, we looked through our Rough Guide to Cuba and decided to eat at the Cafe Santo Domingo. It was nearby and we wanted to walk through Habana Vieja anyways.

As we were walking we happened upon an artist studio/home run by an artist named Jorge. While I enjoy practicing my Spanish from high school, I was happy to find that Jorge spoke some damn good English. We got to talking and of course with me we started to get into politics. I was really quite surprised to hear Jorge bad-mouthing the system and saying that after the revolution people were fucked. He said that he was scraping by and that he wanted out of the country. Sadly, I was to find this sentiment echoed by many others. One of my criticisms of the system has also been that something must be going on where people are trying to get out in overglorified innertubes. Surprisingly, Jorge didn't try to sell me a painting. He told me that when I was done with my trip if I still wanted a painting I should come back to see him. I tried to invite him to have lunch with me and Allison but he said that he had an appointment with a friend of his. This made me trust him and also think more about what he said. After all, he wasn't trying to hustle me which so many others had been trying to do already.

At the Cafe Santo Domingo, we both got olive pizzas and were less than impressed. Hey we're from the Bay Area with the best food in the world and one of the easiest places to be a vegetarian. At the Cafe, I was introduced to one of the National beers called Bucanero which I assume means Bucaneer because of the pirate on the can. This one was called Bucanero Fuerte and has 5.4% alcohol. ARRRGGGHHH me matey! My Chinese self doesn't need much to get me going.

After the Cafe, we walked around and took in the sights of Habana Vieja. It truly is a beautiful area and it is unfortunate that more of Cuba be in the condition that it is in. But this was where the tourist dollars go and this was just the beginning of the increasing disparity I am seeing in this country.

After walking around for a while, Allison and I finally had dinner at a Middle Eastern Restaurant called "Al Medina". The food was...nothing to blog much about. The pita bread tasted like the dough our pizza was on and the falafel didn't taste like any falafel I ever had. But hey it's not easy being a vegetarian. My options are limited and restaurants aren't catering to me. But the whole time I'm eating there I'm thinking that I'm eating better than the vast majority of Cubans. I later found out how true this was.

As we were walking home we got our first true Cuban hustle. We were unprepared for this because it came from a couple. Up until this point, we'd only had single guys hustling us. This couple befriended us and told us they would take us to a lcoal bar. I should have known better because a number of obvious tourists were brought in and there were girls that moved in immediately on them and starting rubbing themselves on them. In the end our crappy ass Cuba Libres cost more than our dinner. Then we got hit up for milk for their kid. Stupidly, I actually bought milk for them. The whole time though, I was the one getting milked. After that, they wanted to go to another place, but I was like fuck that. It's been a while since I've traveled overseas so I totally didn't have my "don't be afraid to be rude" attitude on. You live and you learn and I said I would make sure that never happened again. Depressed, Allison and I returned home, vowed we would never let that happen to us again, and passed out.

Now usually Allison is the one that is always on time, but here our roles are reversed. The next morning, I had to wake us up so that we didn't miss our less than memorable breakfast. But it was free so...you know how it is. Hard boiled eggs, bad pizza slices, bad coffee, and toasted white bread. But once again, undoubtedly better than most have it. After that, our jetlagged asses went back to our rooms and took a nap. Later on that day, we switched to a casa particulares run by a nice lady named Mary Cruz. In Cuba, people rent out rooms in their places as an extra way to make money, but considering I always see Mary and her husband Roberto at home it seems to be their sole source of cash. Her place was only 30 CUCs compared to 46 at the Lincoln. The beds were bigger, the pillows less lumpy, and we had more room all around. It was also cooler to stay at a person's place instead of at a crappy hotel. It works out for the both parties involved. For the most part, whenever I travel it is a good reminder of how good I have it in the states. Sometimes, in my everyday I forget that and just get caught up in my own shit and complaining about that.

So on that day after we got settled I contacted our California salsa rueda teacher's friend Beto. Beto brought another guy named Leo who was going to be our teacher for dance. Leo spoke a little English so it was good because we both got to practice. He spoke to me in English as much as possible and I spoke to him in Spanish as much as possible and when we didn't get each other we switched back. Leo is one of the dancers of the group 7 potencias while Beto is the manager. We talked about setting up classes for the next day and agreed on the price of 10 CUCs an hour. Holy shit. You can't beat that. 10 CUCs for essentially private dance classes. They would easily be 40-60 dollars in the US at the bare minimum. After that, Allison and I invited them to lunch. They decided to take us to a placed called "Los Tres Chinitos" in El Barrio Chino. El Barrio Chino is Havana's Chinatown, when Chinese came to Cuba to find work and get a better life. Most of the Chinese in El Barrio Chino are from southern China, Guangzhou in particular. I was excited to see the Chinatown and was bummed to see only 2 Chinese people there that were obviously tourists. I knew they were tourists because the woman had the visor on. If you've seen it you know what I mean. If you haven't, you'll probably see it one day on a Chinese person. It's a darkened visor like LaDainian Tomlinson has on his football helmet but it's on a normal visor. You can pull it down to cover your entire face or wear it above you head. It's hella Chinese style. I've never seen anyone but a Chinese Chinese wearing it.

At lunch, we had another interesting conversation. Beto talked about the problems of the government and the 2 currency system. In Cuba there is the moneda national (MN) and the peso convertibles or CUCs. Cubans get paid in MN, but nowadays more and more stores only accept CUCs. Beto said that 200 MN only yielded 10 CUCs. Since our money was in Euros. I got 1 Euro for 1 dollar 45 cent. My 1 Euro got me 1.22 CUCs. You do the frickin math. Leo said that he had 2 kids and when they need shoes he can only buy them in CUCS, but he doesn't have enough of them. He also talked about the increasing disparity in Cuba. Those that have family outside and get money sent to them have an infinitely better material life, while those that don't...dont'. I countered with the beauty of the health care system and he said there are two hospitals systems. One for the tourists and one for the Cubans. You can guess which is better. Also he said that since Castro has been sending so many doctors overseas it is really hard for them to see doctors and they have to wait a long time. But hey at least they get to see doctors. but then comes the other problem. Getting medicine. It's in short supply. The food at 3 Chinitos didn't taste like Chinese food and there were no chopsticks on the table. In the states that's my first sign not to eat at a place. But hey maybe the meat dishes were better. AL said her fish dish was just too salty though. Leo said that sometimes he sits in bed and just thinks... What am I going to do. A sentiment mirrored by many is that their parents say things were better before the revolution. I don't know about that but that's what people are saying. If I were to say maybe for the lighter skinned people well Leo is a black black man.

I'm running out of time on my pay by the half hour computer so I'll blog more later.