Hello and welcome my Steemian friends to my trip 🏖️ in Cuba 🇨🇺

Less than five minutes after we walked onto the streets of Havana for the very first time, my friends and I were strolling along the sidewalk when a man clad in a bright yellow t-shirt, carrying two large canvas bags, called out to us. Before I knew it, I was helping this jolly fellow carry one of those heavy bags while engaging in some conversation with him. Suddenly, he stopped walking, we put the bags down and he pulled out a bottle of rum. He poured some into a plastic cup and handed it to me, and then he poured one for himself. We both said “Salud!”, he followed up with a “Bienvenidos a Cuba!” and we each threw back our shots. Then we simply shook hands, smiled and nodded to each other and went our own ways. My trip to Cuba had begun.

Even though our flight landed in Havana at 3:44pm, and my friends and I didn’t get to the guesthouse until 5:35pm, my first day in Cuba was indeed eventful, fascinating and bizarre nonetheless.

We ended up walking 15 kilometers during that first evening and night, all over the Vedado neighborhood, all along the coast, all through Old Havana and who knows where else.!

Sunset

The sunset that we watched from the Malecon was superb in every way. As we sat on the seawall, the sun melted into the horizon, providing a brilliant welcome show. It was one of those sunsets that also melts your heart, transports you to a different place, a so very peaceful place, so very far from your troubles and struggles. You can only stare straight ahead and feel the quiet inside, lean on something or someone, and remain in that far off land for as long as you possibly can.

People

During our 14 kilometer wander, I interacted with vendors, taxi drivers, rickshaw drivers, waiters, shopkeepers, people in the streets. At one point, I accidentally pulled out a large wad of cash from my pocket, in front of a small shop, on a very dark street, at 10pm, with a group of observant young men behind me. They pointed, they laughed, they inched closer, they whispered among themselves and I tensed up…and then…they told us to watch the bottle of rum we were buying because it was about to fall off the counter. And they chatted with my friend. All was fine, we said goodbye and walked away.

A huge muscular man ran by us on the sidewalk, wearing a tight black leotard-like running outfit, with his small dog in tow. A moment later, a prostitute high on something, stumbled by. Drunk men sang out loud in front of the sea, taxi drivers honked their horns at us, teenagers walked by hand in hand.

There weren’t large crowds of people anywhere, yet there were small groups here and there and a scattering of people popping up in the most random places, moving with seemingly no order, yet with a steady rhythm nonetheless. One lady appeared in front of me after she had climbed over a fence, a man crossed the street in a slow jog, a few people danced to some loud music under a tree, a guy sitting on the stoop of a dilapidated building asked if we wanted to learn salsa, a woman stood in her doorway wiping the sweat from her forehead with a white towel.

Old Cars

Old cars zoomed around the corners, 50 and 60 year-old Chevys and Fords and Ladas, the kind I knew existed here in Cuba but that my brain was not able to fully believe until I saw them with my own eyes, right there on the streets before me. On this first day I saw more of these classic cars than I have seen in my entire life, some of which looked like they just came out of the factory yesterday, many looking like they’ve been patched up thousands of times. Was it cool? Indeed. Was it odd to realize that they are stuck with these ancient, beat-up vehicles because people have no other options? Absolutely.

See you soon on Steemit !

Yours Onlymedia 💋