Our two weeks in Cuba brought us through a great variety of impressions. From the nice encounters of humans and nature, through spontanious and surprising events to the dark side of this somewhat mysterious island. Despite the unpleasant experiences described in previous post, there were several memorable experiences in Cuba.

I find myself travel for human experiences more than doing the normal sights everywhere I go. I always end up doing some of the touristy excursions to random sights, but I mostly do this to enjoy the company of others, rather than being interested in the sights itself. Some sights or events are done as a part of a personal challenge, e.g. paragliding, hunting for anaconda, rafting or similar exiting things, but I do not get a big kick out of walking into one museum after another. The things that gives me pleasure in traveling is meeting different people and have conversations with them about things they think about, rather than the facts of where they have been and what they have seen. Conversations that will let me know who they are, instead of what they have done. Conversations that will reveal the reflections of what they have seen, done and wants to do, rather than just filling my head with boring facts. I can find the facts on the internet or in a boring book if I want to and I really do not have a lot of interest in spending hours and hours talking to people about everything they have seen or done. I will end up talking to people about it eventually, but most people I meet will not get the regular traveling questions from me. I hardly ask what people do at home in their own country, cause I really do not care if they are a medical doctor with a Nobel prize in their bag or a homeless Vietnam veteran with a massive drug abuse. I know I can learn from everyone and I am fascinated by the variety of human kind. I meet stupid people and I meet smart people. I meet unpleasant people and I meet nothing but friendliness. The variety of individuals I meet on the road, far exceeds the number of similar encounters back home in Denmark. This is what traveling is for me - meeting people at a random point in time, at a random location in the world, which is completely detached from the world we normally walk around in. Meeting the locals is the pleasant and necessary difference - meeting the locals on their turf, in their house, on their premises, gives a whole new meaning to most things.

One of the things I learn from these encounters, is that I need to trust and act on my first impression. Too many times have I had a somewhat negative first impression, but told myself to just relax and wait to see if the negativeness will change. In Cuba it is hard, to trust your own judgement, though, because money is involved in everything you do. Everyone is really nice to you, almost too nice, and I have on several occasions trusted their friendliness, just to realize that the only thing that makes them friendly, is my money. Some people are truly friendly, but after some of my encounters in Cuba, I am the first to admit, that I am not absolutely certain if they would have kept on being friendly after a week, if they still didn’t get anything but my friendship.

One of the most friendly gestures we encountered, was an invite to a wedding 2 minutes after we arrived in Viñales. Viñales is supposed to be the most friendly place in Cuba, but after spending 4 days there, I now know, that the local people act on the knowledge of the tourists. In several tourist travel books or articles, it reads that the city is the friendliest place in Cuba and for some reason it seemed to me, that several people felt like they had to live up to this reputation and defend it. Nevertheless - the first impression we got from the city, was extremely good, as we basically just stepped out of our cab and into an invitation to a wedding 2 hours later. We couldn’t turn this offer down, so we checked our bags into our rooms, got dressed and went to the wedding. We were told that there would be no food and only drink at the wedding and that they had a big patio at the back, to make room for the approximately 80 guests. The house, as we saw it, was very small and I couldn’t imagine how they could fit that many people into the 2 small rooms I saw. We had high hopes and wanted to see a proper Cuban wedding.

Arriving at the wedding, we were the only one there, apart from some grandparents. We were told that it didn’t start for 1 more hour and we were off course a bit confused. Somewhere along the invitation, they forgot to tell us, that the wedding at the house, only was the reception and that the real wedding took place another place. We were really hungry after 7 hours on the road without food, so we decided to walk down the street to find some quick food. Finding anything quick in Cuba, is difficult, as I have earlier mentioned, but we managed to find a gas station which served some microwave pizza. Knowing that we would not get food at the wedding and that it was another 2,5 hours to the dinner at our house, I bought two mini pizzas - at the size of a coffee cup plate, and ate some of Trond’s somewhat larger pizza. I was already full after this meal, but thought I would be fine for dinner. Getting back at the wedding, we were now the last people there as all the guest had arrived together with the happy couple. Everyone was standing inside the livingroom and took pictures of the couple, who had to pose together with god knows who. It all looked very stressful as it was very hot, very noisy, many people shouting at the same time, no structure - just a lot of randomness in any shape. We were invited to take some photos and right now, to be 100% honest - I suspect the people who invited us to have a hidden agenda. They were so eager on our behalf to take some photos, that it wouldn’t surprise me if they invited us just so they could get some more picture taken and hoped that we would be nice enough to send some pictures. I will never know.

After the picture ceremony, we received the drinks we were promised. A fruity rum punch that tasted OK. Following the rum punch, came the surprise of the evening - a plate with a really strange mix of food: macaroni with ham and mayonnaise, a bread roll with some chicken stuffing and a rather large peace of cake. Everything very heavy and not knowing if it was rude or not to leave our plate full of food, I made an effort in clearing the whole plate. I somehow managed it, but my problem now, was that I was very, very full and we had dinner at our house in less than 30 minutes. We met a seemingly nice guy at the wedding, who agreed to party with us later that night. The wedding was nothing but a noisy gathering of a lot of people and I am not sure how to actually think about it. Everything is loud in south and central America, so why should a wedding reception be any different?

The dinner at our house was a major flop. The amount of food on the table was share madness and already when I sat down, I knew I wouldn’t be able to eat anything. I felt bad for ordering this meal, cause it seemed that they had been cooking forever and we were unable to finish it. We just had some of it and tried to let them know that we "had to" eat some food at the weeding, so we were already full and promised that we would be hungry for the dinner tomorrow. The thing is, that a lot of these houses where tourists live, gets rather offended if you don’t eat there. The houses are basically a regular house with some rooms and a bathroom that they let out to tourists. The house cooks breakfast and dinner for you and depending on where you are, they actually expects that you eat there as well. In Viñales there are basically no restaurants, so most people will eat at their respective house. I would normally live off food sold on the street, but I don’t think I saw much of that. It was convenient to eat at the house in Viñales.

After dinner, we sat down having a few beers, some mojitos, a cigar and a good cup of coffee. It was all good and our mood got better. We got ready for meeting the guy from the wedding, whom we met shortly after. In a very sneaky way, he managed to makes us buy two bottles of rum, some coke and some cigarettes so we all could share. This is very Cuban way of drinking, and it is definitely a lot cheaper than buying drinks at the bar all night. For one bottle of rum, 2 cans of coke and 20 cigarettes, I paid $8. Considering the price of $2,50 for a Cuba Libre or Mojito, the deal makes sense real quick. We didn’t mind paying the bottles anyway and we all had a good time. Trond managed to set up a game of football in the streets the day after - we should play 3 against 3, Norway against Cuba, and the price would be two bottles of rum. The game should start at 17:30 and when walking home that same night, we couldn’t think anything else than "wow - not even 12 hours in this town and we have been to both a wedding, partying with locals AND have a game of football in the morning". Everything was good and we felt the friendliness of the city follow us to the door, as everybody wished us good night on the streets.

After a long hike the next day, and after some rain, we started the game 2 hours later than planned because of - hmm … I don’t know, really. The Cubans just didn’t show up on time. The game was fun, though. We were three teams in total, two Cubans, one Norwegian team and we should play some sort of cup where one goal would win the match and that the losing team would swap with the team sitting out. Two of the guys playing didn’t even have shoes and played on asphalt with their bare feet. We thought that this probably is normal, as I have seen this on TV many times. Judging by their equipment, or lack of it, made me think that these people does not have much at all. The guy we met at the wedding was actually playing in the same shoes as he wore in the wedding, and after ruining them in the game, creating a huge whole in the leather, he wore them at the bar later that same night. Playing was fun and we managed to beat the Cubans off the street. We won five matches and lost only two. Even the most desperate attempts from the Cubans didn’t get them the two bottles of rum and when the Cuban from the wedding tried to make us believe that he actually was the one who would get the rum, I got a bit confused. He lost and wanted the prize?

Later that night, at the bar, when we should collect the prize - did we get it? No. After just two days in this town, promises had been broken several times and I realized that promises are not for Cubans to keep. It was two fun days though.

The only true friendliness I encountered in Cuba, was from the house I stayed at in Havana, from the house I stayed at in Trinidad and from a very funny little gay guy in Viñales. He seemed well educated, spoke very well English, understood Scandinavian humor and was interesting all together. We spent some nights drinking with him and his gay friends and I must say, that we had some gay times. Gay people are strange down here. They are absolutely everywhere during the night and I have on several occasions been very surprised over how many gay people there are in Cuba. There are more here than I have ever seen in my whole life, including Thailand, and they are definitely not afraid to display their gayness. I have seen the most fabulous gays here and I have seen the most creepy gays here. The Cuban gay scene seem to have it all. But I think they are very much like Draculas - they never show up during the daytime. Even after making plans with them during the daytime, they do not show up. They break promises as well.

After two weeks in Cuba, many promises have been broken and as I sit here and remember the trip, it is sad to say that the memories I have from the trip are mainly bad ones. The nature of Cuba was very surprising, the diving in Cuba was excellent, the architecture was fantastic, the possibilities for digging into history seemed endless and I know for sure, that Cuba has a lot more to offer than I got to receive. It seems that every bit of Cuba has a story to tell and I would really like to both hear it and see it. Spending only two weeks in Cuba is by all means not enough time and I would really like to have another chance to see, feel, hear, touch and taste the country that always seem to surprise you around the next corner. I have seen so many things and talked with so many different people, but talking about the swim in a pitch black cave, my first dive, getting food and cigars from a farmer out in a valley, the cigar homeparty, a very weird trip to some waterfalls (were a 17 year old girl was brought along for "safety reasons" - leaving Trond, Espen and me jammed into to backseat of a nicely pimped Lada from the early 80’s), being drowned in bad rum by a barman and talking to former European top athlete from the 80’s seems a bit distant right now. Cuba does have a lot of stories to tell - I am just not the one to tell them right now.