last of cuba

1 november 2012

i'm back in havana for one nite before i catch my plane to nicaragua.  i'm staying at clara's casa and i'm sort of regretting it.  i knew this was a busy place with lots of people in and out but i didn't expect that several people would be watching tv in different rooms, all with the volume turned up enough to drown out the others.  and i have to share a bathroom with a very loud couple who seem to think i can't understand a word of spanish, even though that's the only language i've spoken in since i've been here.  just one nite, i can handle most anything by now.  the multiple mojitos i drank to celebrate my last day in cuba should help.

trinidad is an amazing little city.  its not very big but there's a lot going on.  i was pretty worn out on the last day with julianna so i declined the invitation to the waterfall and read and napped in the sun.  i sat on the terrace and watched men brick up roofs, women hang clothes to dry, listened to the sounds of the city and just absorbed things.  a fine way to spend a day, i think.  

we had a little trouble turning in our rental car, though, we were told that it was a 45cuc drop off fee if we didn't return to havana but the man in trinidad demanded 90cuc.  that's enough to make us drive the car back, even though julianna wanted to continue east.  i called havana and explained the situation and javier, the man who didn't much like us at the havana agency, assured me that all he has to do is make a 'report' and all will be fine.  we went back to the agency and the man demanded 90cuc and i had to get a little bossy with him.  i told him that we were going to return the car key and 45cuc and there wasn't going to be any further discussion.  we argued for a while, he was very much against calling havana to speak with our agent, but he finally did and they yelled at each other for a while.  at one point i was handed the phone and the havana guy repeated over and over that the other guy wasn't a liar, i was a bit confused.  think he was trying to reassure me but it was just comical.  

it all got worked out but no one was really happy all around, least of all the trinidad agent.  he had to send a couple of emails to people informing them of why we weren't paying 90cuc, and had to be backed up by the agent in havana.  i'm guessing that if his money and reports come out wrong he'd have to come up with the extra 45cuc and that's probably at least 3 months salary for him.  

paperwork is a huge deal here.  in each casa the women keep very detailed ledgers with the borders and amounts paid.  every store and restaurant has a notebook of every item sold and the amount charged.  in the hotels the women fill out multiple forms for every transaction.  and there are people watching everything that's going everywhere.

so i can understand why the trinidad agent was upset but i'm certainly not paying double for a service when i was already quoted a price.

we got the car turned in all right (i was a little worried about all the tar covering the sides, seems that road workers here don't put up signs that say 'wet' or 'do not drive on') but apparently that's common enough and not a word was said.  i still have tar on my legs from leaning against the car and will probably have it until i molt.

after a beer to celebrate successful negotiation julianna noticed that her camera was missing.  poor girl had to go back to the rental agency and speak with our angry friend again to see if she left it in the car.  they had taken the car to the mechanic's house so i'm not sure yet how that turned out.  its either there or it was stolen by the hitchhikers she picked up, all her pictures from her trip, guatemala, panama and cuba, are on it.  cross fingers.

later last nite we went to the steps in the square, there's an outdoor stage and bands and a couple bars and everyone in town (only the 'respectable' cubans allowed) goes to drink and lounge on the stairs and dance.  julianna and i get a bit bored and start to walk around when a woman runs up, its the uk woman from new zeland that we met in maria la gorda.  and five minutes later we see the couple that was there with us too, so we're all back together again.  music, drinks, good nite.  

i opted for a van to havana rather than a bus this morning and it was a mistake.  i got stuck in the awful seat in the middle that feels like you're sitting on a rock, and had to sit next to a very smelly australian man who would not stop talking to me the entire 5 hours.  i had stayed out later last nite thinking i could sleep the whole way and that plan was a total fail.  

all in all though, cuba was an amazing adventure.  i am so grateful that i had someone to travel with, and that we could rent a car rather than take a bus everywhere.  julianna was perhaps a bit more overenthusiastic about seeing everything than i was, i like my lazy days, but we did manage to see almost half of the country.  i only hope that my contraband doesn't get confiscated when i come home.

now i need to prepare for nicaragua.  not having internet whenever i want was really hard in terms of planning my next few weeks but i have the name of a hostel, a basic map, a rudimentary understanding of the bus system, and a plane ticket.  that should be enough for a couple days.