cuba marimba!

ok. so perhaps i am a year older and about 5 shades darker as i'm writing this. but damn, i'm so farking happy! i just spent a week by the beach, letting my shrivelled pasty white body absorb as much sun, breathing as much carribean air and enjoying life in peaceful bliss in Cuba.

Contrary to what people think, Cuba is hardly the decrepit and dangerous place that the word "Communism" connotes. Yes, yes, you do get the abandoned factory buildings and remnants of "Revolucion!" painted in red in outdated style on walls, but the country has managed to sustain itself pretty well. I would know, because i myself stayed in one of those resorts by the beach run by the government for tourists, mostly catering to americans and canadians looking to escape the cold winter. Needless to say, i was a little disappointed to find that i had cable TV with CNN and Coca Cola and that it was not going to be the gungho holiday i had hoped for, filled with last minute revolutions and the Red Guards in my face.

Cuba was surprisingly idyllic. i was living on Santa Lucia beach next to Nuevitas Bay, 22km of beautiul white sands and turqoise blue crystal waters. it was the home of the 2nd largest coral reef after the Australian Great Barrier Reef and also home to the largest colony of pink Flamingos in Latin America. The closest thing i got to revolution was the mass of people gathered next to my resort for their daily fiesta. Booming reggaeton, reggaeton mixes of David Guetta's "Love dont let me go" and Cuban salsa was heard day and night, peaking at it's loudest at 4am. Apparently there had been a week long Carnaval there, and i attempted to go down a few times but found myself unable to keep up to the Cuban stamina.

Mojitos, Cuba Libres and many days later, i somehow found the motivation to move my ass away from the beach to explore the vicinty. I took a boat ride out on to Nuevitas Bay, and snokeled seeing some of the most beautiful corals and fishes ever. The reef was well and alive, looking very healthy indeed. i had wanted to go diving but unfortunately, due to some screw ups in the recent global weather system, it was too cloudy (and even cold at one point) to do that (the truth was hat last time i went diving i remembered taking half an hour to get into the damn wet suit which kept sticking to my skin) I also managed to catch sight of some of those pink flamingos, they were really cute walking in single file all the time.

One of the days, i went down to the city of Camaguey, supposedly well known for being a labyrinth town because it was built to defile pirates who rampaged the city in the 18th century. Now before you get any ideas about this being some Pirates of the Caribbean getaway, it's really not. The whole place was rather decrepit and oozes the general charm of a 1940s-50s village town. while i was there i got to see the typical cuban postcard scenarios of old men wearing fedora hats, chatting on the side walks and smoking their pipes, beautiful tan cuban women selling fruit by her door step and children running around everywhere. it's like people never go to work here (heck, they dont have to) and perhaps that is what makes them some of the smiliest people in the world.

late in the afternoon, i stopped for coffee at a place called Music square and had some fried bananas while listening to musicians jam to "quizas, quizas, quizas". at some point this old guy stood up and went there and started singing along and he had an awesome voice (he was funny too)!! damn it must be in their blood to be able to sing. i was soooo happy. i live for cuban music.

i wanted to go down to Havana, but unfortunately the east-west (i was in the west) route was not safe for a girl and the only way was to fly there for US 600. that was way out of my budget, so looks like i'm set to return!