Climbing mogotes, the revolution, and help from the saints

The revolution is alive in the countryside. In the country, the people love Fidel. Papo was telling me that Fidel walked on the street right in front of his house. I said we talked to people in the city and they didn't like the revolution and they wanted something else. Papo said that people in the city don't want to work, they want to live but they don't want to work. Considering how hard people in the country work...I'd have to agree with him.

On Wednesday, Papo took us on a walk up a mogote where a water cult called "Los Aguaticos" once lived. Now there are only 5 families left up there. The climb was fun and we saw a lot of vultures. There were a ton of mango trees and Papo pointed out a lot of different plants to us. The view at the top of the mogote was magnificent . Vinales is a beautiful lush valley and is perhaps one of the most beautiful views I've ever seen.

While we were up there, we met another guide and Spanish couple at one of the abandoned houses. Their guide was hilarious and sang all these revolutionary songs about beating the Yankees. Papo was telling me that Fidel brought the government to Vinales and the people. Before only the people on the coast had stuff. Fidel brought education, healthcare and greater development to Vinales. What Fidel brought to the people is also what attracted Chinese to Mao. For much of history the vast majority of the people had nothing and a select elite had access to "luxuries" like education and healthcare. As AL and I were driving out of Havana, we saw all these gigantic and palatial estates in Miramar. I thought to myself, no wonder the Floridians are so angry at Castro. He took their nice shit from them. I read that at one point, US companies owned 2/3rds of Cuba's farmland and most of its mines. And this was a country whose economy was largely based on sugar. I remember when the US freaked out because Arabs wanted to buy a port in the US from a British company. Can you imagine a foreign nation owning 2/3rd of US farmlands and mines???

As we continued on the hike, Papo took us to a family of farmers that lived on the top of the mountains. What a hard life that must be. The view from there house was amazing and the family was really cool. The man was named Antonio, his wife was Sophia and their 9 year old son Noel. We drank good dark coffee, freshly made lime juice, and we sat on their rocking chairs overlooking the beautiful valley. It was incredibly tranquil and serene.

As we were walking down, I asked Papo how Noel went to school. He said that a teacher climbs the mountain twice a week to teach Noel. Incredible. The teacher goes to the student. And having climbed the mountain... it wasn't an easy climb. Plus, I'm figuring that the teacher has other students to teach...so, I guess I'm just a whiny baby when I complain about commuting a half and hour on the bus to my work. Teachers climbing mountains to teach students is yet another reason the people in the country love Fidel. The walk down the mogote was incredibly easy. When I said this to Papo he laughed and told us of a Cuban saying that when you go downhill all the saints are helping you. To which I replied that when you are climbing up you are all alone.

The only drawback of staying with Papo was that his place had no air conditioning. When we got back to our place the town also had a general blackout which meant no fan. Luckily it started raining really hard and that cooled things down. In August, it is easily in the low 90's with 100% humidity. It sucks and all I do is sweat.