We started the day with a stop at the Sancti Spiritus farmers market amid piles of animal parts including pig heads and tails. Actually, most of the meat looked good but it was arranged on tables with no refrigeration. Maybe that's ok. I don't know. There weren't many vegetables. One old fellow bought a huge pile of fat--must have been a foot high.
We started our 4 hour drive to Havana but got stuck behind a bike race or tour or something which slowed us to a crawl for quite a while. Thea was furious! I was sure she was going to get off the bus and chew them all out! There is so little traffic on the roads that they are not used to any delays. There are a lot of vintage cars in Havana used as taxis, but in the countryside almost all you see are tour buses, trucks and local buses which are small trucks with open backs for passengers to sit in two benches along the sides. Gas is just too expensive for Cubans to afford. They either ride a bus, bike or horse.
We saw quite a few oxen used to pull plows in the fields. There were a few very decrepit tractors. Cuba is having a severe drought in the central part of the state so most of the land was barren. There was a bit of irrigation in places. Crops I recognized: corn, rice, sugar cane, tomatoes. Lots of skinny cattle.
I can't begin to tell you how sad the homes looked all through this rural area. They were more like hovels than homes--just one small flat-roofed room with a porch on the front with space for two chairs. It is truly a third world country.
We stopped to visit the Che Guevarra museum and mausoleum. No, Paul, he is not on view like Lenin. But it's an impressive memorial. An imposing statue of Che on a huge pedestal rises above the building -- like a god. Which seems to be how the Cubans view him. You see his picture all over, more than Fidel and Raoul. Our Cuban guide had only good things to say about him--nothing about beingFidel's chief executioner or the slave labor camps he ran -- or the hatred he felt for the US. They seem to be critical of Fidel now, but Che is a hero.
We had a great buffet lunch in Santa Clara at the Los Caneyes Hotel. There were vegetables galore!
G and I skipped supper when we got back to Havana. We've been eating too much. We walked along the Malecon (road alongside the ocean) instead. It's a popular place for people to sit, talk, fish, listen to small bands wanting to make a few CUC's, sleep, whatever. We talked to a young man who said he's a sports teacher in junior high. He said life is hard for teachers, doctors, carpenters, and engineers. Their salaries are fixed-- and low. To make money in Cuba you have to work in the tourist resorts or in music or art. I might have added restroom ladies. We were sympathizing with him and then he asked us to help him out --about 20 CUCs worth. So now we aren't sure he's a teacher--maybe just a beggar. Sad
Being here is like being in an unfolding drama.
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