January 29 – February 04 2025; 17528 nm and 2147 days after departure from La Rochelle

As promised we got picked up in time at the marina by our taxi colectivo to take us to La Habana. Luckily we only needed to share the car with one more passenger. Enough space for the three hours drive. All in all it was not the most exciting trip as there was not much to see. On the other hand it was again amazing how comparatively good the condition of the streets were. Our chauffeur didn’t need to ride many wiggly lines to avoid potholes. After about an hour, about a third of the trip, our driver made a wee-wee and breakfast stop. A pity that we already had a small breakfast as the pulled-pork-kind-of-sandwich, which the driver and the other passenger had eaten looked pretty nice. Me, being a woman was extremely happy that my bladder didn’t force me to release myself. The stop was just a small hut next to the street where some pork was roasted. Of course they didn’t provide any toilet facilities. Not that I had expected that, but every time in those situations I wish I could transform into a man or at least pee like a man. I bet all the female readers do get what I mean? I do always feel a bit humiliated when I need to uncover my sweet rear end. Not forgetting the fact that it can be a challenge not to wet oneself when peeing in that intense squat position. Don’t you agree? Oops, I did get a little off topic, didn’t I? Yet sometimes things need to be said😂! Anyway the men went for a wee-wee – I didn’t.

Two hours later we arrived at our accommodation at the north end of Old Havana. My parents had given us as a present a cuban cooking lesson which started in the late afternoon. That gave us about five hours to already explore the district of Old Havana. Strolling through this touristic and historic quarter gave us an impression how Cuba must have been in its flourishing times. Its beautiful colonial architecture combined with perfectly polished vintage cars and the variety of art sculptures felt again like being transported back in time. Being the showcase district of Havana most of the buildings were in pretty good shape and the streets looked very tidy. Yet, just a street further the reality showed its poor face. Buildings in danger of collapsing looked at us sadly. Often it seemed people were living in half ruined houses. Wrecked down and only parts of the houses were possible to live in. The big difference of Old Havana to e.g. Cienfuegos was, that it had this well looked after touristic area. Buildings were pretty, museums open, restaurants were chasing tourists. The closer we came to the main spots the more we were approached by sellers, “jineteros”.  That was really pesky, the “highlight” was at Obispo street. Habana Vieja’s main interconnecting artery. Packed with art galleries, shops, music venues and people. Every 30 seconds somebody asked us whether we liked to change money, cigars, cigarettes, join a guided tour, have a ride in a vintage car, if we wanted lunch/dinner or just a drink …and more. Not our favourite place to be. Those jineteros were a bit intense as they were way more pushing than anywhere else in Cuba. Yet most of them still funny and friendly. Fortunately a little further south, still Habana Vieja, life seemed a bit more Cuban normal. Here we enjoyed a nice coffee in a cafe and met the guy from the cooking class.

I have forgotten his name (shame on me! I will call him Ted) After a short introduction about “Beyond roots”(they describe themselves as “a group of friends that have joined efforts in order to provide an Immersion in Afro Cuban Culture”), which organised the cooking lesson we headed out to Guanabacoa, a colonial township in eastern Havana. The class was held in a private house and Surama was the fun woman in charge for the cooking class. As we were the only guests we had the opportunity to ask a lot about Cuba and Cuban life and vice versa. Surama and Ted were very curious about us living on a boat. While chatting, laughing and drinking Canchánchara,(a cocktail known to be the oldest one in Cuba) we chopped the veggies for our dish. We learned finally how to properly prepare “chicharita” (platanos chips). That was the best part for us as we had tried to cook them before but were never happy with the result. I know they are super easy to make but you still need to know how. Right? The main dish was a veggie stew accompanied by yucca fritters and of course rice. What can I say, Cuban food is not an extraordinary fine cuisine, yet always nice. Though regarding especially the lack of spices and limited variety of veggies they usually have available they do have a knack for cooking. Anyway we had a super fun evening with lots of insights about Cuban life situations and interesting political views from their side. It was an all-round educational cooking class with a nice dinner.
I almost forgot. Surama was dressed in white and didn’t eat with us because of “Santería”, a year-long religious ritual to become a priest. Santeria is a fusion of Catholic practices and African folk beliefs. It emerged in Cuba during the 17th century, and has been embedded in Cuban society ever since. I also found: “In this Afro-Cuban Lukumi religious tradition entrants into the priesthood undergo an extraordinary fifty-three-week initiation period. During this time, these novices called iyawo endure a host of prohibitions, including most notably wearing exclusively white clothing.”

The next days we were walking like crazy through Havana. Zig zacking the districts with its changing appearing. Inhaling the old beauty on one side and being confronted with the mostly poor living conditions of the present. A beautifully restored building here and a ruin there. Havana presented itself with a morbid kind of charm. The people though were (apart from some jineteros in touristy Old Havana) always friendly and helpful. Sometimes, people just started talking to us when we were strolling through residential area streets. E.g. a professor of Havana University started talking to us and told us about his university program Erasmus. He proudly explained that many Europeans including Germans were joining this program. He was happy that we told him that we really liked Cuba and that we had spent already quite some time in his country. He told us about nice places in his neighbourhood and where a good live music bar was to find. Just a pity that we were so far away from our accommodation. Maybe we would have checked that bar out. I was always amazed about the Cuban people interest in us and their pure kindness. They are amazing people!
Havana had the reputation to be the dirtiest City in Cuba. At least regarding what our guide in Trinidad had told us and what some friends who had already visited the town had told us. Somehow we didn’t agree with that. Of course Havana is a big city with a lot of garbage. But we had the impression that the garbage was not just thrown anywhere but in certain places where the garbage was collected the next day. We did not see super dirty areas, quite the opposite, people were always trying to keep their areas tidy. A lot of areas looked grey and sad but that, I think, was caused through lack of reconstruction possibilities and just lack of paint.

On Friday we went to a farm called Vista Hermosa somewhere east of Havana in Bacuranao. That was another present we got gifted. This time from the kids. That was a nice escape from city life and the walking we had done. The finca offered a ” farm to table” experience which meant, what they produced there, both, crops and cattle raised for meat and dairy, was exclusively served at the farm’s onsite restaurant. My guess, we were a bit unfortunate in picking the day. They promoted next to all the nice crops, having cheese, salami and prosciutto. Of course just by thinking of those goodies especially the prosciutto part our mouths were starting to water again. Saliva was already running. Well the reality was different as they didn’t have any meat process going on at the moment what so ever. No chance of any salami or prosciutto. We were sooo disappointed. But fortunately they had dairy products and I finally could buy super fresh queso blanco, which I didn’t find in Cienfuegos so far. So our frustration didn’t take place for too long. A lady showed us around at the farm and explained a few things. Nothing extraordinary but it was good to hear that Finca Vista Hermosa’s approach to farming was all about sustainability. Which was great both for the end consumers but most importantly for the benefit of the environment and the health and wellbeing of animals. No chemicals or artificial fertilisers were ever used there, she explained. And it was heartwarming to see how freely the animals were raised. My favourite were the pigs happily wallowing in comfortably looking mud. Compared to how animals are treated in our world it was more than living in pig heaven for them.

When it was lunch time we were spoiled with an excellent cuban dish. It was indeed the best food we had so far in Cuba but it was way too much. First they offered a pretty good cheese platter. They even had goat cheese, which was really tasty accompanied by as well very nicely done homemade bread. (Bread was usually rather horrible. We tried it once and it tasted – well weird. It was just not eatable for us.) For the main dish we chose pork. Very nicely prepared and spiced. It came with a big delicious salad and the typical cuban sides, rice beans and yucca roots. We were so stuffed I can’t even remember what they offered for desert, only that we wanted only one. So round and full we rolled out of the restaurant and fell into the car which took us back to Havana. There, walking was back on our to do list. That afternoon we were trying to find a small cooking pot which we wanted for frying chicharita. Surama had told us were we would maybe able find it and so we tried. We went to the street she had mentioned and we asked everyone. The people kept saying maybe there or there or they didn’t have an idea. I mean we were talking here about a super simple cuban cooking pot. Welcome to cuban life. Nothing was easy to get. Not at all important to us but it showed the obstacles even with those local items the people have to cope with every single day. When we had already given up that project we suddenly found us next to a small entrance and there they were simple cooking pots.
More walking on our last day. I had the feeling we did it all on one day again. Nice breakfast on Malecon, visiting Hotel Nacional, finding the hopefully open famous ice cream parlour Coppelia, passing the university, more walking in other neighbourhoods and back to our accommodation for a rest. In the evening more of Old Havana and we fell into a tourist trap. There was supposed to be the follow-up band of Buena Vista Social Club, presenting a concert that evening. As we liked their music very much, we had even seen them back in Essen years ago, we thought that would be a nice ending of our visit in Havana. It turned out to be a slightly disappointing event. The location was great (see feature pic) but the music was bad. It was a set up only for tourists and it had nothing to do with a concert. The last remaining band member was singing only once. That was also the only song we recognized. It didn’t sound like the original band at all and on top of all that a cuban dance couple were trying to convince the audience to get up from their tables and dance. We felt like being on a cruise ship or club xy holiday. It was bit like a slap stick. We stayed until we got our four drinks which were strangely included and left. Sometimes you win and sometimes you loose.
Well, however Havana, with its vibrant Cuban culture, its live music events and the charm of the 50ies it was an amazing city to visit. But after four days of the hustle and bustle of the city we were very much looking forward to calmer more relaxing days in beautiful nature of Viñales.

What a change of places. Viñales was nature pure. A heavenly green valley, with pretty colourful flowers, with rich, red earth tones and majestic palm trees. All that surrounded by hills with vertical sides and rounded tops, called mogotes (pin-cushion hills) everywhere. I just loved it immediately. We arrived early afternoon at our casa particular and were welcomed by the family of Luisa. A sweet family with a nice little house surrounded by a lovingly designed garden. I couldn’t have asked for more. After a little chit chat with Luisa we happily walked into the valley and just enjoyed the nature. We didn’t walk far when a caballero persuaded us to go for a horse ride the next day. I was keen on doing that anyway but my dear El Capitano surprised me with his spontaneous willingness to join. The only concern I had was that the horses might not be the strongest. We agreed to a time and then we walked off again. It was nice just to stroll through nature after the big city. Just before sunset we had found a restaurant and enjoyed the calm little town of Viñales. Well, due to constant power outrages it was calm but not quiet as the people of course had to switch on generators when they wanted power. When we were back Luisa also had a generator running for a few of hours. We slept like babies anyway and were just happy in the morning that our phones were fully charged and the fridge was cold enough to keep our queso blanco cool. In Viñales we realised for the first time that power was pure luxury. No-one never knew when power was provided and for how long. The people just had to cope with that. And as gasoline was as well a luxury good, running a generator was expensive. Therefore not possible for the locals to just let it run. How lucky we are living like we do.

Luisa provided a wonderful simple breakfast on their pretty decorated roof. I also loved the way she presented the food. All was deliciously prepared and lovingly presented. My favourite was a tiny butter dish made of glass. So cute! She even added a butter knife. I felt home in her place just because of all those little special things. Just my taste. After the breakfast we went off to meet with the caballero. He asked where we wanted to go. We could have gone to several places which I can’t remember but we just wanted a short tour, knowing that after a short time our butts would already hurt. So he took us to an obligatory tobacco farm which was about an hour away. The landscape going there was just stunning. And being on a slightly higher position we always had a pretty good view. Our and especially Norbert’s butt was very thankful for the break at the farm. The owner of the farmer, a nice knowledgable senior, who spoke pretty good English, explained all about the making of tobacco and of course how to roll it. Pretty amazing that they still just used oxen for preparing the land. Here as well we felt slingshotted back in time. He also told us about their struggle to live. Fortunately they have enough food as they live in the country side but they struggle to get clothes, shoes, just basic stuff. That said the Cubans are kind of desperate to get some foreign currency to be able to buy things like that. Of course we did our share and bought honey and coffee, but no cigars as we don’t smoke. Then we got back on our skinny horses and asked our caballero to take us back to Viñales. El Capitano was very pleased realising that the way back was much shorter. Everyone was happy, our butts because not sitting in a saddle anymore, the rest of our bodies happy to have had such a nice morning, the horses happy to get back to grazing and the caballero happy having earned some extra dollars. The rest of the day we felt like doing nothing. Enjoying the garden and terrace of Louisas place.

And then our time was already over in Viñales. The next morning we said goodbye to Louisa and her family and we were off back to Altimate to Cienfuegos.