CUBA CUBA CUBA

All schoolkids throughout the country wear the same cute uniform

…you won’t need to look for long; music will start before even your eyes meet the Caribbean sun: el pan, el pan, panaderoooo. The melodic voice of the bread seller going around the city on his bicycle in the early hours of the day will leave its place to reggaeton music coming from the bici-taxis, to timbres of an harp played by a young woman in the courtyard of a government building, to the cheerful voices of kids leaving a dance school, to guitar sounds coming from casa de la trovas in the afternoon and to the hot rhtyms of salsa in the evenings. And the best thing you can do is always following the music, because the music will never mislead you…

Jose and Maria enjoying their mojitos while listening to Cuban music. Instead of trying to teach others my parents' names, we adopted local names for them. 

A common transportation mode: Bicitaxi

One of the most famous shots of Cuba: Cathedral Square in Havana

In Cuba Jesus is of mixed race as well

…just like its people. Yes, you may feel like a walking ATM time to time; everyone will try to sell you something: restaurant, taxi, cigar, hotel, tour etc. But as simple of a phrase as “no, gracias” is sufficient to keep them at bay. And the rest of the people are always eager to have a sincere, deep conversation with you. Even their complaints they will express with a smile showing their pearl white teeth. Stress hasn’t been invented here yet. You won’t come across any fights or violence on this island, unless you’re hanging out with old men playing dominoes. Dominoes is serious business afterall, one may lose his temper. Relaxed nature of people is not only apparent during conversations, but also reflects on everything from work to daily life. Some of it is due to being island people perhaps, and the rest is the familiar laziness of a communist regime, which comes to life as long queues for everything. You want to buy eggs? Wait in line. Butcher, line, bus, line, ice cream, line, post office line, what’s the hurry anyway…

Neither politics nor the state of economy can excite these man as much as dominoes

Many people visit the grave of a woman and her baby in hopes of finding a solution to their problems

Common people's graves lined up

…if you haven’t rid yourself of the fast pace of life from back home, the best thing you can do is immediately ordering a mojito for yourself, and let this drink, which is made from the sugar canes that carry the essence of these soils, transform you into a calm island person with every sip you take. Or you could go for a piñacolada made from the sweet pineapples of Viñales. Suppose you’re exploring the nature by bike, you stop at roadside and a Cuban climbs a tree, picking a coconut for you. Once he cracks it open with his machete, add some of that rum you have with you in the backpack, and let this drink do justice to its name of “coco loco”. That is unless you want to do as Romans do when in Rome. If so, none of these drinks are for you. You should start with a beer or two around 9 or 10 in the morning, and top it off with some straight rum in the evening. But don’t forget, you’re not in a hurry, this rum patiently waited seven years in a barrel to be enjoyed by you; and the leaves of that cigar the man next to you lights after dipping the tip of it in his coffee were dried for three years. You should light one up as well.  While enjoying a drink at sunset with the beautiful people you met on the journey, you should blow the smoke against that angel statue sitting on top of the church. Or maybe you just finished that delicious meal of seafood, and ordered a coffee; don’t forget to order a cigar from the waiter too. Pick one from the cedar box he brings, but don’t light it right away, don’t forget, we’re not in a hurry. Sit back, let him take that cigar in perfect harmony with his skin color and snip the tip of it. Let him light it slowly, while rotating it, and swinging it in the air to get the tobacco burning. Then the lighter again, and a few more swings. Now your cigar is ready, savor it slowly…

Sunset at Santiago de Cuba

Cigar leaves hung to dry

Skillful hands of the cigar master are at work

Five bottles in three days. They had no idea of what they were getting themselves into when we met.

…but don’t think that every Cuban is able to enjoy such pleasures. These people lived under an ambargo for many years, they neither could export their products, nor import their basic needs. They went through periods where every Cuban lost 10 kg. in weight, in an economy that collapsed when the foreign support vital for its livelyhood was cut off. And this deprivation (rather than poverty) shaped the ideology (or the lack of) of the younger generation. As in other countries, fever of revolution diminished with every generation it seems. Hard to find someone in support of Fidel among the younger people, Che maybe. Rather than Fidel, tourism is regarded as a savior these days, and big renovation projects are undergoing all over the country. Veil of dust covering the buildings that seem to be frozen in time is getting lifted, and the glory that arises creates a sharp contrast with the simple lives of the tenants of adjacent building. Two different worlds are forming slowly, a Cuba with makeup on for tourist, and the simple lives of Cubans ever present thanks to the windows and doors they always leave open…

A nice shot from early days of the revolution: Che, Fidel, Camilo

A graffiti depicting capitalism monster

Che and the Child

…their lives may be without make-up but their women never. You may not be able to find a grocery store every street corner, but a beauty salon for sure. Colors on their nails reflect their colorful personalities. They’re proud to show off their feminity with lace stockings and boldly exposed cleavages. And the Cuban men are not oblivous to this of course, whistles and compliments are all over the place. Flirting is as much part of daily life for Cubans as air and water. Forget about the formal addresses, my love (mi amor) and my life (mi vida) are must have parts of every sentence. Their friendly nature also shows when they’re greeting each other. It’s hard not to envy the numerous loud kisses they give to each other on the cheek (one cheek only). But don’t assume that every single woman walking on the street has the body of a super model. It would be hard to find another nation with such glorious bellies as the Cuban men and women have. Thanks to their habit of satisfying their bodies’ daily liquid need by beer, big nice round bellies are everywhere. And the mustaches of women!! You can easily come across women with mustaches much bushier, darker, and longer than a teenage boy in Cuba. Their relaxed personalities reflect off of their looks as well…

Tres Amigos

Hotchick and Jesus sharing a special moment

Romeo and Juliet coming to a theater near you

A sculpture's workshop

…and this relaxed nature comes to life in the form of a rocking chair. A must have of every household is one of those. You can come across every style and type, from wooden to metal, straw to plastic, old or new, the country as a whole is a museum of rocking chairs. Yet they don’t look for such comforts when they’re traveling. If you would like to travel like a local, you will find yourself seated on a bench mounted on the back of a truck. Don’t worry about the trip taking a little longer than it should, because there’s so much to keep yourself entertained with from the guy carrying a live rooster on his lap having a heated conversation with another man smoking a cigar to the loud music teenagers just getting out of school play, from a man holding a big birthday cake very carefully despite all the bumps on the road to food sellers getting on and off at every stop, and with all the other colorful sights you won’t realize how quickly the ride ended. And all those fun memories will (almost) make you forget the pain on your butt that will stay with you over the next two days from sitting on hard benches through all those bumps. If the truck idea doesn’t appeal to you it’s also possible to rent a car. But don’t you think about isolating yourself from people when you rent a car. There’re all those people waiting alongside the highway for you to give them a ride. And that man in uniform is not pulling you over to write a ticket, but rather to place those hitchhikers in cars passing by. There, you have a great opportunity to have a sincere conversation with the locals. And there’s something called karma in this life. It might so happen that the young girl you picked up from the highway on her way to meet her lover living two hours away will help you to get your flat tire fixed in a town in the middle of nowhere, without expecting anything in return…

Usual passengers on a carriage: a woman and her pig

Cocotaxi

Narrow and winding streets of Camagüey

…that’s not the only act of generosity you will come across in Cuba. One of the nicest surprises are the free concerts taking place at every square in every city across the country. It’s a common thing to come across a concert organized sometimes by public in an amateur way, or played professionally by the government orchestras covering everything from Beatles to classical music. Go ahead and enjoy the music sitting on a sidewalk under the street lights. Don’t be surprised though if you don’t see the whole town showing up for such a spectacle, there’re just as important things on TV as well. You may choose from a competitive baseball game, or a soap opera of the finest! quality. Don’t be surprised if you come across even a Turkish soap opera shown on TV, that show is usually the very first thing people tell me when I tell them I’m from Turkey. But forget about the TV, there’re other surprises waiting on the streets. Right there, take a look at the movie that old man is projecting against the white washed wall of a building. You will find the scenes from a 1977 boxing match. Needless to say, it’s Cuba vs. USA, and even more pointless to mention is the obvious winner of the match! Even more exciting than the match is the pleasure of watching these black and white images reflecting off the wall in the middle of the night in a courtyard along with two, three other people who have stopped by and sat as they were passing just like you…

A must have at street fairs organized every Saturday

 State orchestra giving a free concert on the street

This time amateurs take the stage

…it’s not just the movies that are black and white in Cuba but also its people. Black, white and all the other beautiful colors that come to life from the mixing of the two. You might be from North America or Europe, and may be living among different races. But I’m quite sure that nowhere can you come across people who are as “color blind” as Cubans. They’re not the least bit aware of the skin color of the person they’re looking at. After centuries of living together and mixing in a melting pot, they created a common culture with their food, music, and clothing, regardless of the race. And this common culture might treat you to a once in a lifetime experience when you least expect it…

Baracoa

Our guide for the day

Shacks on the left hand side are parking garages for boats

Don't be fooled by the picture, without the flash of the camera it's pitch black in the cave

All the pigs rush to him when they hear the crackling sound of coconut shells. Their snorts turn into a choir while they're devouring the coconuts they love so much. 

Cacao fruit

…perhaps you’re visiting Holguin which sits on a plane with the hills surrounding it. You climb the hill behind the city after 400 some steps, and as you’re catching your breath and enjoying the view you start hearing the distant sounds of drums playing. You try to pay attention to the direction of the music as you make your way down. But as you get all the way down drum and singing sounds dissappear in the city noise. But you decide to follow your instincts and try to find it. As you keep walking, you get to the outskirts of the city, asphalt roads turn into dirt roads, houses sit unfinished without paint. Just when you’re about to give up you find yourself standing outside the walls of a frontyard of a house where the music you heard was coming from. As you stand out there and watch thirty or more people gathered in the yard, the moment you have been waiting for comes and you get invited in. All the heads turn to you as you step in. First you get presented to an old woman. Looking at you straight in the eye with a piercing stare, she starts mumbling sounds and making hand gestures. A young girl interprets what turns out to be prophecies about you. In one corner of the yard five men are constantly beating drums, a few others are chanting and dancing, and the rest of the crowd are keeping rhtym by clapping. There’s a shack in the back of the yard, with a picture of a saint hanging on the wall and a table underneath filled with offerings from food to rum to cigars. In another corner, food is cooking in a large cauldron set over fire. A bucket sitting on the ground is filled with certain herbs swimming in water and a wooden cross stuck in it. After chatting a bit with the locals you realize that what you’re witnessing is the birthday celebrations of saint Ogun, which transformed into St.Peter under Christian rule on the island. Music, dancing and chanting as part of the ritual continues without interuption, and they pull you into the dancing circle. Bottles of rum brought as an offering to the saint gets poured into a glass and everyone passes it to the person next to them after taking a sip. A few go in a trance and losing their consciousness they turn into different characters; a woman transforms to a chicken, they wrap a cloth around her head, attaching a feather; a young man turns into a hunchbacked old man, they give him a cane. Oracle women come over to bring them out of this trance, washing them with the sacred water from the bucket and jolting their bodies with a strong shake,they finally bring them out of the trance. Rum flows freely, getting passed from hand to hand. Cigars sitting on the offering table get passed around as well, and you light up the tastiest cigar you will smoke in Cuba. Oracle woman comes over with a cigar in her hand, starts censing you from head to toe with the smoke. Later coming over with the bottle of rum in her hand, starts washing you from head to toe, this time with rum. Your body and soul get cleansed through this ritual. It’s been hours since you arrived, but the music and dancing goes nonstop. Once the night falls all the food brought over get cut up in pieces to be shared and oracles feed each piece to the attendants by hand. Then the rice and meat dish that has been cooking over the large fire gets served in bowls, and everyone eats their share by hand. By the time you’re leaving after staying there from two in the afternoon to ten at night you’re feeling drunk not from continuous consumption of rum, but rather from the surreality of the whole experience.  Once you reach your room and get in the shower, the very things you were experiencing just minutes ago already start appearing like a dream. Laying down on the bed, you fall asleep with the contentment of experiencing once in a lifetime experience…

An old couple taking stage at a Casa de la Trova

…in this country of many beautiful things, with the most beautiful being its people, the best thing you can do is always following the music, because the music will never mislead you…