CUBA: DAY 6, LAST DAY IN HAVANA

Every Sunday at noon, the rhumba band starts playing in an artist-mecca alley way in Havana.  People come from everywhere and we heard that the place is jam-packed for the whole afternoon – people dancing their feet off.  It was a delightful mix of people – narrow alley, various paintings on the walls and some avant-garde art installations draped around (one wall had 4 bathtubs embedded in a wall with paintings on the insides), men smoking cigars, women with low-cut tops (although I noticed that Cuban woman have normal-sized breasts, not the enhanced-with-implants breasts you see in the US).  Our tour group got there a bit early to beat the crowd and the musicians were starting to warm up.  And yes, I bought the CD.

It turns out that the place is also the site of several Santeria shrines.  We had a Santeria specialist talk to our group and explain some basics, and learned that it is the religion of the majority of Cubans.  Yes, it is common to assume that most Cubans are Roman Catholics, but even those that call themselves Catholic still follow many Santeria customs.  And yes, they still sacrifice chickens.  We even saw a wooden statue of Babaloo Aiye (Father of the World).  I don’t mean to be too irreverent, but to me, Babaloo has always been either a song sung by Ricky Ricardo in I Love Lucy or a flaming dessert.  As the group was leaving the alley, we passed by a fortune teller who was reading tarot cards and looked rather intimidating.  I had to pay 1 CUC for permission to take her photo.

And then it was over.  On to the airport and home.

Here are a few general comments about Cuba.  Yes, Cuba is a poor country – they don’t have much of anything to export so they don’t have much money to import goods.  This means that most everything they make, use, wear, and eat is produced in Cuba.  Personally, I think that is pretty resourceful.  And they are absolute brilliant in recycling and reusing things.  The people, children, and dogs all looked well nourished.  The people were wonderfully friendly.  The streets, for the most part except some small alleys, were clean.  There was almost no litter on the streets.  There were no homeless people laying around on sidewalks – at least I didn’t see any.  And there were no beggars.  Oh, and I haven’t talked about Che Guevara – his picture is absolutely everywhere:  billboards, t-shirts, key chains, cups, and painted on walls.  He is a very popular hero.  And we also saw many, many billboards and graffiti on walls saying Free the Cuban 5.  If you haven’t heard about the Cuban 5, look it up.  The men are still very much in the forefront of Cuban attention.

In summary – GO TO CUBA.  You’ll have a great time.  As our Santaria guide said to us, “Don’t try to understand Cuba, just enjoy it.”