YUCATAN TO HAVANA TO GIRON (NOV. 17-20)

Independent travel in Cuba is rough going on rough roads, like China pre-1990’s or maybe North Korea now. Blog posting was not possible in Cuba as internet connection is difficult and monitored...)

The hop from Cancun to Havana takes only 60 minutes but it’s like a time machine going back to faded glory. Our dark but foo-foo’d room (35 CUC’s, pronounced “kooks” and pegged at US$!) was only a half-block from the famous malecon seaside walk. Up 60 steep narrow stairs to stay and eat with Manilieu and Norma. He was a champion free diver and lifeguard but now loves to cook and turn food into fine art sculpture. 

We’ve been to Havana before so skipped the forts, cathedrals and other must-see’s. Instead it’s intriguing to wander the street life. Music and dancing break out on every block. Women in white follow the mixed religion Santeria. Oh, and you’ve heard of Cuba’s thousands of 1950’s American cars?? My head is still spinning from seeing every car I saw as a kid, now used as daily drivers instead of Detroit museum pieces.

Despite the poverty and decrepit conditions, Cubans seem happy. Kids laugh and run as everywhere despite having little to hope or dream of. You can get a haircut on the sidewalk, next to guys repairing a homemade wagon with welding sparking like the doomed US-backed invasion in 1959 that froze everything into a time capsule.

You have to experience these old beauties passing by continuously, like a car guy’s dream cruise. They’re not all pristine restorations, they range from dull diesel conversions to chrome-plated visions. And rare?! --- Studebaker station wagon! Edsel ragtop! Starfires, DeSoto’s Regals, BelAirs, and of course red T-Birds! Castro knows how valuable these are to Cuba’s appeal so they have been declared national treasures and cannot be exported.

But the air in Havana is filthy and the walk distances long, so we were lucky to find a morning bus south to Giron on the Bay of Pigs, site of the ’59 invasion. This was where we first stayed in Cuba in 1998. There’s a museum and displays commemorating the Heroes of the Revolution, including captured tanks and aircraft.

But otherwise the place has a spilt personality. There’s still the 100’s of holiday bungalows in falling-down Soviet condition. Yet just up the road are hundreds of newish residential bungalows tidy with ornate and baroque décor. Dozens of homes welcome travellers like us. We stayed with Pepillo (Peppy) and his family, 20 CUC’s. Much more comfie than in Havana with no stairs, great seafood meals and close Cuban contact.