Getting propositioned in Cuba, sweating, and the national dog

Sunday was our last day of folklorico dance. We haven't really been doing salsa rueda at all and have just been doing folklorico. Dancing rueda is intimidating. In rueda, moves are called out and then everyone does those moves. If you don't know the moves it is very obvious to all the people doing the correct moves.

So everyone talks about Cuban cigars and I've been wanting to go to a factory for a while. We decided to go to the Partagas factory but the place was closed. The store was open and so we perused. Not that we could have bought because shit was ridiculous. Boxes of cigars for 300 CUCs or more. There was a 1500 humidor as well. Unbelievable.

Then I decided to get a guayabera. I had noticed a nice store in Habana Vieja so we walked our asses over there. The shop was closed and this was actually the third time I'd tried to go to this store. Now as an American my gut instinct was to ask, "How do you make money?", but then again I wasn't in America. Since that wasn't happening we decided to get the touristy carriage ride. Actually, I gotta say it was a pretty cool ride and very informative. It was here that we found the Rum museum. We also saw sections of Habana Vieja we never saw before. Definitely the touristy area, but hey there was a lot of history there. I saw the birthplace of Jose Marti and I really paid attention to the big oil tanker from Venezuela as we passed by the port. So when we were done, we decided to go back to the Rum Museum. hehe...hehe...hehe...

We started walking and came upon the casa de las arabes. It cost 1 CUC to check it out and so Allison and I went in on my insistence. There was a room with Muslim rugs, clothing, and a mannequin in a burqa. The guy was working there was cool and we tried talking in my poor, limited, and broken Spanish. I understood a good bit but missed a lot more I'm sure. he showed me the mosque which I later read was the only working mosque in Havana. He said there were about 40 followers that came on Friday. As a gift I gave him a lapel pin of this hindu god named Jagannath. Jagannath is the hindu god of universal love, brotherhood and no caste distinction. On top of that he's a happy smiley face. I also have been giving out ballpoint pens to everyone that we came in contact with and were cool to us. People really appreciated the pin and the pens a lot. So far, I've seen cathedrals, a mosque, 2 synagogues, and people that practice Santeria, but no hindus. And of course when we got to the Rum Museum it was closed.

At this point, AL was getting tired and still getting over being sick. We went home to drop her off and so I decided to get out and take pictures of El Barrio Chino. We had a charged batteries and 2 GBs of memoy. I could afford to go Japanese tourist crazy. I'm taking pictures of everything that's got Chinese writing on it and anything that looks remotely Asian. It was here I learned about the very different experience of going out by myself. In short, I got propositioned 3 times. Nothing like that ever happened when I was with AL, but as soon as I was alone... women were asking me if I wanted a friend/companion.

When I was walking on the main Chinese restaurant strip I met another Chino Latino. Half Chinese guy named Enrique Chung that owned a restaurant named the Great Wall. Enrique also happens to be a pimp because he asked me if I wanted mojitos, cigars, or a woman. I told him that I was married and he backed off. Then, moments later one of his girls came up to me and he told her to back off. What a trip. Across the street from him was another restaurant with another Chino-Latino and he was of the full blooded variety. I thought he was a tourist at first cause he was full blooded and was eating with chopsticks. Of course, it turned out that he was the boss and the restaurant was the only place with a real Chinese chef. The place was called Tien-Tan and sports a tai-chi symbol on the wall. Though I didn't eat there, my money would be on that place as having good Chinese food. In the Bay Area, I have certain rules about where I'll eat Chinese food. The first most important thing is word of mouth. If I am just checking out a new place I look for how many Chinese people are there. Then I look to see if they have chopsticks on the table or a fork and knife. Since Cuba didn't have any Chinese people and every restaurant had fork and knives, I'd go with the place with a real Chinese chef and the old Chinese owner sitting outside.

When I got back, AL was feeling better and wanted to eat at a paladares. She wanted some rice and beans and there's no shortage of that. Paladares prices are usually set at around 10 CUCs and include some salad, your choice of meat, rice, beans, and a drink. It was at the paladares that I devised another method for saving money as a vegetarian. First, ask the price for the food or a menu. If they don't have a menu, ask what is included in the meal for 10 CUCs, making sure to ask if drinks are included. Then you ask how much things would be without meat and say how expensive meat is. The restaurant will usually quote you a lower price. You can also ask how much meat items cost and then say that you are a vegetarian and that you don't want the meat. I didn't come up with this entire method until after we ordered, but when I had argued that things should be cheaper cause we weren't ordering meat, the girl agreed with me but said that my cold which I was already drinking had cost 3 CUCs. This was a total lie since beer is 1 CUC, but I didn't pursue it any further. She said that we could share a meal because it was a lot. The meal was ok and all in all our meal cost 15 CUCs. 10 for our meal and they charged us 3 CUCs for a guava juice AL ordered and a 2 CUC "service charge" that is essentially like a tax. I've noticed that some places charge that and some don't.

Sidenote: Late July and August is the hottest time in Cuba. It's hot and humid and literally all I did was sweat. Now when many people use the word literally, they actually mean figuratively as in "I literally jumped out of my skin." But when I say "literally all I did was sweat" I mean literally all I did was sweat. Sitting in the living room that doesn't have air conditioning, I sweat. I eat at a paladares and I sweat. I walk around and sweat. There are only 2 times when I'm not sweating and that's when I'm sitting in an air conditioned room and when I'm in the rain. And even the latter I'm not sure of because I think I maybe can't tell that I'm sweating.

The national dog of Cuba is the dachshund. Ok, I don't think Cuba has a national dog, but if they did I think that the dachshund would be it. There are little weiner dogs everywhere. Everyone has got one. You can even see that some of the strays are mixed with dachshund. I wonder what led to everyone getting one? Was it a fashion statement? I know when the Queen of Denmark got a wirehaired dachshund, it became very fashionable for others to get one. Maybe the same thing happened in Cuba. everyone wanted one. Did Fidel have a dachshund?