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Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Cienfuegos

Saturday, September 19.  Our first stop this morning was an open air produce market in Santa Clara that is usually crazy jammed with local shoppers. Today, for inexplicable reasons, it was almost deserted. Many empty stalls and hardly any customers. The atmosphere may not have been authentic, but we enjoyed seeing a local market under these conditions. The vendors were selling a variety of fruits and vegetables of course, but also several varieties of rice, beans, and cornmeal. Long strings of onions and garlic and tiny peppers I assumed would be VERY hot like Scotch bonnets, but which turned out to be quite mild.
A fancy stall in the main market
The more casual market nearby
Tiny but mild peppers


Beans and rice, a staple of the Cuban diet

Open air meat market. It must all be sold by 4 pm, but the heat and the flies were off-putting even in the morning


My favorite stall



Plantains, not bananas

Strings of onions and garlic

We ate squash nearly every day
After the market we returned to the paladar where we had lunch on Thursday but this time for a midmorning visit with Los Abuelos, a fun-loving group of Cuban retirees who shared an old-time dance called the dançon, gave us a lesson on the romantic language of the fan, and taught us to play a game with a stick that you use to flip a smaller stick into the air and then hit it as far as you can. It sounds kind of dumb, but it was actually a lot of fun and because the equipment is so simple, it's something all Cuban children can grow up playing.
Fans allowed these ladies to "talk" to boys even when their chaperones were watching

The Dançon



Walking back to the bus we wanted to photograph the poster of Pope Francis on this door. We tried and tried to wave this gentleman on until finally he told us this was HIS house and he was waiting for us to finish before opening the door. 

A ration book. Each Cuban family has one of these, enabling them to buy staples for very low prices. Without rations, most Cubans would find it very difficult to afford necessities because Cuban wages are very low.

The ration book lists the number of people in the household and the items they can purchase as they become available. Not everything is available every day, so shopping is tricky. Cuban households are large because they contain many generations, grandparents, mom and dad, aunts and uncles, cousins. These extended families are the primary reason there are no homeless people in Cuba. As long as you have a family, they will care for you. The few people without family fall to the state, but their numbers are very few.
Soon we were back on the bus and on our way to Cienfuegos. Lovely city! It is situated on a large sheltered bay and is a charming old waterfront town with lots of the attractive homes that were built in the 1800s by French settlers who had come to Cuba from New Orleans. Wide continuous porches provide both shade and shelter from rain. There was a time in Cuba when it was mandated by law that there be no barrier between porches just for this purpose. Lunch was in a beautiful paladar on the water. Another excellent meal, served in the gracious Cuban style with a welcome drink followed by course after course of fresh and flavorful food.
Colonial era homes with connecting front porches


Newer porches, still offering continuous shelter



Pretty beachfront

The paladar




Free bananas!

The bar

The dock and the bay

Appetizers

After lunch we had the opportunity to stroll the promenade, see a statue of the famous Cuban musician Benny Moré, and visit two stores. The first was a store where local people shop and the accepted currency is the Cuban peso. These are worth only about a quarter of the value of the other currency used in Cuba, the CUC, which is the official currency and also what visitors like us typically use. This first store was selling all kinds of goods, rather like a thrift store, with very cheap prices. The second store dealt in CUC's, was a more official store, and sold things like appliances, TVs, and electronics for very high prices even by our standards. We asked how Cubans can possibly afford these prices and were told they use “Cuban magic.” Apparently that has to do with working several jobs and/or having relatives in America.
Cienfuegos is really lovely







Phone booth. We've seen lots of these.

The pesos store


Even fabrics are for sale here.

More fabrics

The pricy CUC store

These flat screen TVs were around 1000 CUCs. The exchange rate is 87.3 CUCs to a US dollar, so these seemed very expensive to us
Next we saw a beautiful theater that was built in 1895 with funds donated by a man who was not Cuban but had lived in Cienfuegos for a time, was fond of it, and left funds for the theater to the city in his will. Every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday there is some sort of concert or play in this theater for which Cubans pay very modest prices, never more than 10 CUCs, usually less. We were impressed that the Cuban government supports the arts and makes cultural events available to their citizens in this way.




We wandered around the square for a bit, I on my own because most others were more interested in finding some shade than in seeing what there was to see. The crime rate in Cuba is said to be very low, and none of us ever felt threatened in any way while we were there. Even on my solitary stroll as I approached groups of men, I did so confident that I would be safe, a feeling I don’t usually have in countries where I don’t feel at home—or even in the States on occasion. One man I passed asked where I was from and when I replied USA, he broke into a grin, and said, "Americans are good people but bone shit politicians." I laughed and told him he had nailed it. Considering how we have treated Cuba for the last half century, all of us have been surprised to find that Cubans welcome us so warmly. They are happy that relations between our countries are being restored and hopeful we will all see a new era of cooperation and prosperity for Cubans. They are not at all bitter toward us. This country is a real pleasure to visit in so many ways.
Music is everywhere in Cuba

Tomas Terry, the town benefactor

The Tomas Terry theater

A huge kapok tree





Beautiful old tile floors 




Old cars are everywhere, too.
 After a half hour of free time, we were treated to a wonderful chamber concert where the musicians, all teachers at the Benny Moré Arts high school, played their own arrangements of Cuban classical music rather than the traditional classical music that is in the usual chamber orchestra repertoire. Their first violinist is a Russian woman who married a Cuban. She is the most energetic violinist I have ever seen, bobbing and weaving in her chair throughout the entire performance. A special treat for us, their American visitors, was the most beautiful rendition of Shenandoah I have ever heard. They finished by getting us all up on our feet to dance the cha-cha, a task I am utterly incapable of accomplishing but still a fun finish to a delightful afternoon.

The concert was held in this blue building, formerly a sugar baron's home.
This room has been restored as it was in the old days

The chamber orchestra

On our way home, we passed our first and only rice paddy. Cuba consumes HEAPS of rice, but imports nearly all of it, making it more expensive than it should be. They hope to be able to buy US rice in the near future instead of importing it all the way from Asia.

Horses are everywhere in Cuba. You see them pulling carts, pulling carriages, being ridden by Cuban cowboys herding cattle, and even following their owner around like a puppy.

You also often see them tethered in front yards.

Tonight the hotel has planned the pig roast for us. Will I decline and eat vegan? Not a chance! I have decided not to worry about my vegan diet while I'm in Cuba but instead am enjoying the local cuisine, a choice I am very glad I made because the food has been delicious. The standard Cuban dish of rice and beans is both vegan and very tasty and often among the offerings, but always accompanied by other special Cuban foods, all beautifully seasoned but never hot and spicy. Rice and beans, served in many different varieties, is just as delicious as the rest.

Our maid has apparently been to the same towel critter school that cruise ship staffs attend. We get a new one of these every evening.
We thought the pig roast was the end of today's excitement, but no. After dinner Barbara and I returned to our room and busied ourselves with packing because tomorrow we will leave here and head to Havana. As I headed over to the door to turn out the light, OMG! There on the wall was a tarantula the size of a salad plate! Of course I shrieked. Barbara was still dressed so she went out looking for help and soon returned with a guy who carefully swept our new friend down the wall and out the door. We have now barricaded the one inch crack under the door with a towel and are enjoying the prospect of regaling our travel companions with this story tomorrow. I suspect the size of our visitor will grow in the telling, but really, 6 to 8 inches across is PLENTY big enough to get your attention!

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