I woke up this morning having dreamt about being stabbed in the mouth by a women with a maze tattooed on her face; suffice to say it took the fruit, bread and coffee breakfast before I was firmly back in normality and sure I wasn't dead. My designs for a device that shot flies with lasers was refined with Matt and I constantly barraged by the annoying insects. The shower in the casa was little more than a pipe extending from the wall in a wet-room, however it trumped all the other showers I had experienced in Cuba by actually spewing hot water rather than the tepid or at best, lukewarm the others had managed.
Read the rest of this entry
A busy morning benefited from an early start wherein Matt and I knocked back a spartan breakfast, organised details of the casa with Madeline and settled the very reasonable bill for the casa which included five nights stay and breakfast and evening meals. We were then picked up by Matt's preferred taxi driver, the one who ferried him to and from Cassilda the past few nights who had the added benefit of being remarkably punctual. During the journey to the beach I continued to wrestle with the decision on whether to dive or not: whether to push and give it one last try or to simply resign it to the list of activities I had tried and disliked. I wished for divine intervention to relieve me of having to make the decision but it was to no avail and we arrived at the beach and the dive hut in plenty of time.
Read the rest of this entry
In May 2007 I visited Cuba with a friend for almost three weeks; this is the record of what I experienced there. I thought it best to start off with a preamble explaining my approach to this (what I can only imagine is going to be a lengthy) undertaking.
What I read on the tinterweb before going to Cuba fell into three categories:
- The political - Usually quoting a human rights report or something by Amnesty International, these sites track the ongoing political climate in Cuba and its dealings with the rest of the world. Opinion pieces were abound on how the author thought the country was faring.
- The evangelical - It seemed that Cuba made a large quotient of people fall in love with it, as such, the blogs and articles came off as gushing monologues about the terminally friendly people or the unspoiled countryside or the lack of road vehicles.
- The minimal - I only read a few accounts before spotting the tell tale signs of there being little to no actual useful information contained within. These sites divulge minimal information about Cuba either on the whole or in part and boil down to how many t-shirts their husband packed.
This series of posts is going to attempt to be none of those things; I only aim for an interesting, frank and unyielding account; sexual and opinionated content (sometimes inextricably conjoined) will be present. I'm not going to explain every term, only the ones which I couldn't find or found inadequately described elsewhere.
And until I can come up with a snappy category name, "Cuba 2K7" will remain.
Read the rest of this entry