Ola, buenos dias!
In the last few days the topic of conversation has moved away from excretion towards money and the general resentment of being ripped off. Some things are considerably cheaper when moving around as a group, and others are not. For example, it is very hard to remain conspicuous when there are 6 of your semi-pasty European faces meandering down side streets. Luckily I am tanning quickly and when alone can slip into the background quite comfortably. For anyone who has read Phillip Pullmans ‘Dark Materials’, maybe about to be murdered on the big screen, one of my aims in life is to do what the character Will does. He is a normal boy with the tremendous ability to appear so normal and unassuming as to almost disappear. People just do not notice him, and he uses this much to his advantage. This is a superpower I would gladly purchase (assuming all-out invisibility is already taken). I think we are all looking forward to the routine of work, knowing we don’t have to worry about finding food and can then let our follicles relax on the weekend.
Food, mm damn good deal. For £9 a night we get breakfast and dinner included. Sheila, the lady of the house has a maid who comes in every day and cleans our rooms and cooks our food and we are quite the spoilt little kids. Sheila and her sister acquired this house when their parents fled to Miami some years ago. I think this is correct. We have paid for a month upfront and it was a painful handover. The government taxes families who rent rooms an extortionate amount of dollars for renting – which is the only way I can hand over this cash with a smile. Suspiciously the day after payment a washing machine arrives and a carpenter to fix our (balcony) door. Breakfast is a happy combo of bread/butter/jam, coffee and freshly squeezed guava/orange juice. Dinner is altogether more exciting and like a fine female flirting with a flabby security guard, it butters us up and makes the rent pill easier to swallow. Last night we had a treat. Hefty hunks of fleshy mackerel, rice, and tasty salad. Some of the best fish my mouth has had the pleasure of greeting. Fish is one of the foodstuffs that comes under the ration label so a good piece, like a politician with integrity, doesn’t come along often. We gave our thanks to Maid Marion (as she will henceforth be named) accordingly.
During a morning stroll into town, me y Ruth, although distantly aware, were surprised to find ourselves walking through China town. 1% of Cubans are Chinese and have set up a modest little quarter here in Habana. It was shit and quite depressing but I will no doubt get cravings for MSG ‘meat’ at some point. Around the corner is the Capitolio, ohhhhh what a monster, albeit a welcome monster to anyone lost, as its white dome can be seen from afar. Constructed in 1929 under order of US-backed dictator Gerado Mechado, it was the seat of the Cuban Congress till the key year of 59. Because the audacious base is mostly obscured by surrounding buildings it is not nearly as monolithic and offensive as Washington DC’s Capitol Hill. Despite being so out of place and externally insulting, it is a reference point, a popular meeting area and home to speedy internet access. It was here, lounging on the enormous flight of steps that we met a guy called Luiz. Luiz is from Chile and just popped along to indicate how small the world is. Luiz is in Habana studying music at the university, specialising in Saxophone. Upon hearing this and his country of origin, Larissa’s Belgian ears twitched. (Larissa has spent over 6 months in Chile and apparently studied the art of Saxamophoning there) Would you believe it, you know whats coming? They only had the same bloody Saxophone teacher in Santiago! Mental oriental. Ice broken with a veritable sledgehammer of disbelief we all went for a beer. Luiz is also a keen skateboarder and can play guitar. (This one’s for Rachel – He looks like happy marriage of Patrick, Vishell and Jake. With tats and clothes to match). He borrowed a guitar from a slightly displeased man and played Cranberries, Greenday, Tracy Chapman, Bob Marley, but almost burst the bubble with a terrible Jeff Buckley attempt and a swiftly cut-short Wonderwall. He invited us all to a musical event in the evening which sounded much fun. However he did not thank us for the beers we unconsciously bought him and we were increasingly puzzled by his willingness to walk all the way back to our Casa with us and wait out on the sea wall whilst we ate dinner and got ready.
This is secondary. We all squeezed into a taxi and paid a small fortune for the privilege of arriving at the club night too late to even contemplate joining the one-in, one-out queue. So we grabbed a bottle of rum and 2 Tukola’s and made our own shindig opposite the entrance to the cemetery Relaxed we made our way through polite introductions. His only friend of reading interest was a Mexican dude with nice dreads and a groovy tie die shirt. He came 6th in last years Latin X-games. Which at the time was near sporting celebrity for our rum-soaked ears, but now writing this the effect has somewhat dwindled. We once again paid for all the drinks and down the road for beers. We walked quite a distance back to the sea front and bought more rum and coke from a petrol station. These guys were cool and were good people but its was taking the piss a bit because the only pennies they spent were over the side into the sea. James drunkenly confronted them with a line similar too “ Hey, you’ve had mucho rum, si? Want more, uno peso por favour”. This didn’t go down well. Luiz said he didn’t comprehend, pah! As if. Swaying with blood at 40% alcohol ratio we resentfully said our hostile goodbyes whilst trying to remain amigos. I was saddened because it felt like these guys, who were also foreign students took advantage of us like we were temporary means of funds. 3 days on, I don’t really care anymore.
PHOTOS
1. Sunset
2. Freaky bin man´s bin attatchment
