A Week in Cuba - Part 8

There was supposed to be no day 8 of Cuba.  We woke up at 2:30am for our 6 am flight out of Havana for Mexico City.  

We got on the plane it started moving then we turned around on the runway and they told everyone to disembark because of technical difficulties.  There were no groans from the Cubans, they all knew the score and that this happens all the time to them.  We all thought maybe it would just be a short while before we're good to go but for the next 4 hours they were banging on the plane engine.  I had Maceo's revenge this whole time so being alive wasn't the greatest, we also had almost no sleep and didn't know what was going to happen with the flight but knew we were going to miss our connecting flight from mexico city to tijuana.  

Jen turns around one time and everyone that was on our flight is gone.  There are a few dumb foreigners like us talking to a Cubana air guy near the gate so we rush over there and it turns out the flight was cancelled.  We would have never known.  So he was saying something about waiting for a bus to take us to a hotel and we would all get the same flight at the same time the next day.  With no internet or knowledge or Cubana air reps around we didn't know what to do.  People were saying there are no other flights and it was pretty believable after seeing how cuba operates.  Heck, they didn't even have another plane to replace ours

so we opted to not stress out and that going to fight with Cubana air in who knows where their office is would be fruitless because it's cuba and there probably isn't any flights to put us on to somewhere else.  After a long bus ride we end up at the Copacabana, a hotel for Cuban tourists.  They didn't have enough rooms so everyone had to share a room with someone.  before we got hooked up with some random Cuban roommates this American girl Sarah said we should get a room together.  Sarah lives in Cuba and married a Cuban guy.  She is studying for her medical degree.  Her husband and 9 month old son came over to swim in the pool later on.  There are many many stages in this whole awesome story that Americans would flip out about but at this point we just chalked it up to Cuba.

The group of people that had connecting flights and had the most to lose were the foreigners and they went to talk to someone at Cubana air but later we saw them all come back to the hotel, and I knew that there was just nothing that could be done.  There was a family of Aussies who were going to miss their connecting flight to LA and then to Australia.  There was a Japanese guy solo traveller who was a trooper through it all until one of the many times we had to reclaim our luggage from some nappy luggage belt that existed somewhere else in the airport that didn't make sense that he quietly uttered "sugoi" and slumped over and walked like Charlie Brown down some long hall.  fears started spreading around after people found out there was a priority list and that the flight the next day was already full just like our flight was.  Then in true Cuban fashion a lady from the airport came and said we have a flight for you all now so at 6pm (2 hrs from that time) we're all gonna go back to the airport for a flight to mexico city.  This meant no free dinner, no more pool and no nights sleep in a hotel.  It meant flight at like 10pm and arrive at midnight in mexico city where you'll be dumped like the foreign garbage you are and we don't have to pay for a hotel room for you.  So that's what happened and it was super awesome.  Sarah and Jen and I just got a room at the Hilton in the terminal because we all had flights the next day to elsewhere.  I also had a fever and chills and Maceo's revenge and had to drive from Tijuana to Guadalupe the next day so a nights sleep was needed.  I said F this maceo's revenge, I am gonna enjoy this pool at least once before we go, and below is what you get.

effortless and elegant

made it to Tijuana, got the rental car (a nissan something that sucked real bad, it didn't even have power locks let alone power windows.  They take mexican pesos or US $ in the Baja area

we came to mexico for Jen and Chris's wedding.  They live on the Baja pennisula and work for a tour agency

the Valle de Guadalupe is Mexican wine country.

they befriended the lead singer from that group Big Mountain that sings the chart topping remake from the 90s of Peter Framton's song "Baby I love your ways".  He has a naturally smoky voice and is a talented guy.  They made some pretty sweet music.

Troika provided the food.  Good stuff

at this point my Maceo's revenge has died down but fever and chills are left in its place.  It got pretty cold out there in the desert so I went to the car and curled up in a ball and had fever and chills and shook like a leaf for the next hour and a half until everyone was going home, thankfully they partied til the wee hrs of the morning the night before (we were supposed to be there!) and wanted to call it an early night.  Not pictured is the ride home in the dark, up and down sloping hills with no real gps or direction.  We ended up getting lost and climbing this hill that looked washed out and had increasingly larger and larger rocks on it.  I stopped climbing it halfway up after Jen was like I don't think we should go up here anymore and common sense set it.  The chassis of the car chunked down on a few big rocks and I was sure that the next day Thrifty car rental would know that we had violated the terms of the contract by driving on unpaved roads......and getting huge dents in the body (car was miraculously ok!).  On the way back home, still lost we found a black horse and a white horse blocking the road.  Everyone was freaked out cuz this was in the dark and Jen was scared they were going to rear up and come through the windshield and it was a freakin' black and white horse combo on a dusty Mexican road in the dark like it was a David Lynch film or something.  We finally got back to the house area (which creepily has an old factory and loading docks you have to go through before you get back to the nice ranch area in the back) and the huge gate was locked.  Luckily it only looked scary and formidable and it wasn't locked and we got home.  So many adventures on this trip.

A Week in Cuba - Part 7

A moment in history happened this morning, Obama announced the opening of an Embassy in Havana and DC and the reconnection of full relations with Cuba.  Our casa particular ladies were cheering when this came on the news.

we took the ferry from Old Havana across the bay to Casablanca.  The ride is like 5 minutes. 

I read about the Hershey train and how slow and crappy it is and it sounded awesome to me and a great way to see another part of Cuba.  The Hershey train was built by the Hershey chocolate company and when the sugar and chocolate industry went bust and Fidel kicked them out the state took over the electric Hershey train and now it slowly takes Cubans back and forth between the Matanzas and Havana.  Some days it doesn't work, and they say it always arrives late.  It leaves on time though.  Casablanca is the side with the fortress and walls.

art from the Havana Biannual.  I'm getting so much more air than Jen and I don't know what my pinky is doing.

polarizer lens filter, don't know what is better.

big Jesus Cristo statue at the top of a long sweaty hill while we waited the hour + for the train departure time.

a pretty good visual of how things are knackered in Cuba.

lots of the track just covered in dirt, don't know how this works but I guess it does.  Also if we derailed we are going so slow that we would come to a full stop in 3 seconds.

when we got on the guy on the left motioned for us to sit there.  Jen doesn't look so comfortable with that.  He is missing fingers and dude on the right is missing an arm.  They started talking to us and asking us where we were from and even defended us later to another dude telling him he's dumb and that we are Korean in origin but are Americans.  he took me up to the front to take photos and made people move and I knew these guys were ok.

Carlos estimated we were going 20 km/h at our fastest.

depending on who you talk to this was the best experience of the trip.  I talked to Carlos (bottom) and his brother for the whole 45 min trip to Guanabo.  My crappy spanish and body language was enough to converse a little.  They love Fidel and Che.  They think the new relations with america are just talk and nothing's gonna happen.  They were just good hearted guys.  I really recommend the Hershey train for experiences like this.  Because of this there is a warmer spot in my heart for Cuba.  

before the train pulled out Carlos stuck his and out the window and we shook hands and he said a heart felt "amigo" and the train started on.  Like the tourist a-holes we are, our faces were too busy being stuck to our camera screens to see that they were waving goodbye to us.

so we are technically in Guanabo, the eastern most beach of the Playas del Este of Havana.

knowing the basic direction we needed to go we started walking, Jen was not feeling very confident about this but I made her look like she was having fun.  After 10 minutes a taxi came along and after 5 min of driving we were at the beach.

Guanabo is a cuban beach, meaning you don't see any foreigners here.

wanting to do as the Cubans do I bought this bottle of Havana Club 3 year rum for $1.80.  Only the Cubans would have a bought a full 750 ml bottle and not this halfie

after walking for 45 min through all the playas del este we were super hungry and needed to eat and the only thing around was street meat and Jen did not want to experience the wrath of Maceo again so we taxi'd it in a 1955 something or other back to Havana

Oh and did I mention that this is my soon to be Mrs.?  I asked her to marry me, and she said yes.

church

this picadillo on the left is the prime suspect for what gave me Maceo's revenge.  Picadillo is delicious though so I ate a lot of it.  Maceo's revenge would be harsher and longer for me :(

as we lay on the bed watching the twilight drift away we felt at ease knowing that tomorrow we would be in Mexico at a wedding party overlooking the ocean.  Nothing is easy in Cuba though so stay tuned for an unexpected adventure.