• Good Company
• Visits to Trinidad
• Impressions of Cuba
• Operation Lobster
• Dining In Cuba
• First Day in Cuba

Good Company

Part of the reason our holiday was so much fun this year was because of the great people we met at our hotel.

We met up with Lily and John on the morning of our tour to Trinidad, though we really did not get to know them until later, meeting up for drinks in the hotel lobby one evening before dinner. Although a bit older than us they are both very young-thinking people and turned out to be very good company for both of us. One evening we discovered we had made reservations at the seafood restaurant for the same seating and had dinner together. Redman made the welcome discovery that John was a fellow member of an organization he has just joined, and Lily and I discovered some common ground on our personal beliefs as well. John is a Buddhist, a blogger and guy with some very interesting opinions about the world. Lily is a beautiful person in all aspects and a fascinating person to talk to.

Lily had sort of ?adopted? a very lovely girl named Heidi, one of the members of the hotel animation staff. Heidi was very visible in the evening?s entertainment because she is a singer. For this reason she seemed to attract a lot of unwanted attention from some of the male guests, and Lily made it her mission to protect her. I think Lily would have liked to have taken Heidi home with her at the end of her stay! We got to know her a little too as a result of this friendship and she is a very sweet girl, indeed. She called John her cuddly little bear. (He is kind of a cuddly little bear. And he didn?t seem to mind the attention, either!)

Redman and I always seem to attract single guys on these holidays; I think it?s because ?we?re so cool?. At least I don?t mind a risqu? joke and I get along well with most men anyway. (Even if I do roll my eyes at MAXIM magazine most of the time.) Two younger guys we hooked up with this trip were Marino and Rob, who I?ve already mentioned. Marino was into his own thing and travelling around with a rental car a lot of the time, so we didn?t see that much of him. But we did get talking about music: he wanted to know what was on our iPods. I told him: David Byrne, Dead Can Dance, Deep Forest, Govinder?s Atom Heart Madras, Kula Shaker? and various others. He thought that was pretty cool: ?Someone who listens to Dead Can Dance is someone I?d like to hang out with!? He looked through Redman?s playlist and came back gasping a half hour later: ?I have just one word: Outstanding!? Well, Redman does have some great taste in music, and a really eclectic playlist.

Rob is the guy who got us the lobsters. A bit of a lovable dirtbag: not as bad a boy as he?d like to make out he is, but definitely a wheeler dealer who?s not afraid to go after what he wants. He was certainly chatting up the ladies while he was there, but seemed to take a particular liking to a young lady named Addis who was on the hotel Guest Relations staff. Addis joined us for drinks several evenings and had dinner with Rob, John and Lily on their 22nd wedding anniversary dinner.

The last day there he told our party on the beach that he was going for a dive off what was left of the dock. Once with his trunks on, later, without. I don?t know if he actually offended anyone (you couldn?t really see anything at that distance anyhow and the sun was behind him) but we were having such a great time, who cares? Anyway, it was far less offensive than an old fat guy in a Speedo, believe me!

We all pretty much sat together on the flight home (John came home alone, as Lily stayed on for another week, as did Marino.) Once we were off the plane Rob somehow managed to convince some cute young airport staffer to give us all a ride on her golf cart. All except Redman who decided he needed to walk off his airsickness. It was nice not to have to walk all the way to the customs hall! I?d certainly never think of asking someone to do that, but, well, some guys just know how to get things done. And she didn?t seem to mind much either.

While I am a person who is used to - and enjoys - spending a lot of time alone and Redman enjoy each other?s company, meeting some fun people certainly does make the week go by much more pleasantly.

Filed under Cuba 2006, Mar 7, 2006
 

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Visits to Trinidad

On the Thursday, the second full day of our holiday in Cuba, we took an excursion into Trinidad, the first of several. This included a visit to a pottery factory owned and operated by a particular family for two or three generations and a stop at the famous bar La Canchanara for a sample of a typical Cuban drink called, surprisingly enough, canchanchara which is served in a heavy pottery cup and made with water, lemon juice, honey and rum, and tastes something like what you might take for a cold. After this we had a short walking tour of some of the most historic parts of the town. After a talk by our tour guide on the steps of the Museo Romantico, across from Plaza Mayor, we were taken into the Iglesia de Santisima Trinidad, a very old catherdral. (This church is visible in the background of the street scene in an earlier entry, below.)

Upon entering the church several of our fellow tourists crossed themselves at the font but as you can imagine Redman and I did no such thing. But, whatever floats your boat, I guess. I was somewhat interested to look at the various elaborate carved altars and their figures, including this rather macabre Jesus, who looks pretty dead. I?ve got nothing against Jesus, really, as a philosopher. But I can?t help thinking about that thing in the Ten Commandments about worshipping graven images. There are some pretty fancy dressed up dollies standing in for various saints in these altar pieces. The whole visit took far too long and was accompanied by far too long an explanation about the church?s historical role in Cuba, plus the story about the Virgin Del Cobre and Hemmingway?s offering of his Nobel prize to her. Please.

After the visit to the church we were given some free time to look around the market with the understanding we were to meet back at the steps of the museum to go in and have a tour. The group as a whole seemed really tired and negotiated 45 minutes rather than the full hour the guide wanted to give us. That seemed like plenty of time to us to go through the market and get hit up by beggars. Plus, in spite of my great walking shoes, those cobbled streets are really hard to walk on after a while.

I?ve already commented on my impressions of Cuba. Some of the positive attitudes I try to hold towards this country are not helped by the number of beggars and black market cigar sellers one encounters. For the most part, vendors calling out to you are just trying to be friendly and attract you to their wares, But while walking through the market area Redman and I encountered several individuals who were persistent to say the least. These are most often guys trying to sell you counterfeit cigars and people asking for money, soap and pens. Mothers will use small children to get sympathy to request items. I had one mother repeatedly ask me for the bandanna I was wearing ?for her child?, who was shirtless. If you set a precedent you would soon end up with no hat, shirt or shoes as well! So all you can do is smile, say no and walk away ? or try to!

Most working Cubans deplore this sort of activity. Though I can see why people would beg, and compared to most Cubans we are extremely wealthy (even when we?re not) one begins to feel like a money tree waiting to be plucked. I don?t mind giving gifts or money to people I know, or who do something for me. I don?t even mind mailing back requested items once I return home, if the person has made a real impact on me. But when one is constantly being pestered by strangers, it gets to be a nuisance.

At any rate, that got old fast and Redman and I ended up taking a seat on one of the very uncomfortable wrought iron benches in the Plaza Mayor. A troop of feral dogs came through and a couple of them got into a feeble sort of fight. Eventually, one of them came directly over to me, with a very meek look on his face. I reached out tentatively to pet him, and he allowed it with some uncertainty, then lay down next to my feet. I wished I had a scrap of food to give him, as he was so thin. But even so, I realized it was not my irresistible charms as a dog lover he was attracted to, but the patch of shade next to the bench. A while later we passed again and he was still lying there in the shade, though other tourists now occupied the bench.

Once we noticed our tour group gathering on the steps of the Museo, we joined them Apparently some discussion was in progress, and apparently most people wanted to skip the museum and just go back to the hotels. The tour guide was protesting, as she thought the museum was the highlight of the tour (which I have no doubt it would have been.) One young woman remarked that if the Museo was such an important place to visit that should perhaps have been done earlier, say, before the cathedral. (I tend to agree. The museum would have been much more interesting than the cathedral.) A vote was taken -we refrained from voting since the majority was for going ?home? and at that point I didn?t really care which way it went. It was decided to go back to the hotel. So, off we went to find the tour bus.

Once at the bus, we stood around a bit because the driver would not open the door. Something about the air conditioning. Lily (who we didn?t really know at that point) got the tour guide to open the door, but while she was trying to get on, the driver shut the door on her hand! She gave a great yelp of pain and pounded in the door with her free hand, someone else pounded on the front window, but it was several seconds before the driver opened the door. Yikes.

Finally we were all allowed onto the bus, but again it was a long wait. It seemed some members of our party were missing, a young couple with a small child. The father and child finally turned up (he?d been looking for his wife) and much later the tour guide returned with the wife in tow. This was the same young woman who made the remark ?if the museum was so important?? Someone said something later about her getting lost, and she said, ?Oh, I wasn?t lost.? So, I guess she had just decided to hold up the rest of the bus because she wasn?t finished with her tour.

We made three other trips into Trinidad in the coming week. Two were by CoCo taxi, (pictured at left) those little bubble cabs which is basically a scooter with a fibreglass shell over it and seats two plus the driver. They don?t go as fast as a real car but are a blast to ride in because they are open to the air and you can take pictures like mad, which is what we did.

Our third trip in was on our last day and was made by a ?real? cab, and we arranged with the driver to pick us up at an appointed time and place. Rob came in with us on that trip and almost as soon as we were out of the car a cigar guy accosted us. Redman and Rob decided to go for it and we ended up in someone?s house, where some Cuban men performed very important transactions involving (probably) fake cigars and stolen stickers, while the wife kept watch at the door. There were some very interesting paintings hanging in the front room, so I amused myself looking at those while this transaction was going on. Whether these cigars were real or floor sweepings I cannot say.

A swift trip through the market and we were thoroughly lost. Not so many beggars this day, so I actually stopped to buy some seed necklaces: 5 for a peso with a 6th one thrown in for a gift! Fortunately the driver had let us off near a street celebration so by finding our way back to that by the sound we arrived at the appointed place just as the driver appeared. A swift trip back to the hotel and that was the end of our Trinidad adventures.

Filed under Cuba 2006, Mar 2, 2006
 

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Impressions of Cuba

It would be irresponsible of me to describe my experiences in Cuba without putting down my thoughts about conditions there ? outside of the resort! I?m not going to get into a political discussion, that would be a book in itself. In the history of Cuba, the country has been screwed over by nearly every imperialist force on the globe, and regardless of one?s views on the efficiency of Communist governments, Cuba is at least in charge of it?s own destiny under the present regime. Though it still puzzles me why a country that appears to be so rich in natural resources appears to have such poverty.

I had an opportunity to chat at length with a young lady who works in the tourism industry and who acted as our private guide on a day excursion. I asked her some questions about life in Cuba which she seemed quite willing to answer. I got the impression she was a good party member, her opinions on America and capitalism in general were quite strongly opposed. But she spoke quite frankly and, typical of a Cuban, humorously about some of the trials of daily life.

No one is starving in Cuba. Everyone gets a monthly food ration of beans, rice, sugar and a few other necessities, but food rations are skimpy. One might purchase extra supplies through a government store, but if supplies are out, one might have to go through the black or ?grey? market, and pay 5 to 10 times as much. Since the average wage in Cuba is equivalent to about $12 U.S. a month, there?s not a lot of extra money to spend. Folks in the tourism industry are lucky for the opportunity to receive tips.

There is free enterprise in Cuba, to a point. One may rent out accommodations in your home like a B&B ? ?Casa Particular? they are called. One might have a private restaurant in your home. If you are a subsistence farmer you are allowed to sell part of your produce over and above what you need to your family, providing that you give your quota to the government. Artisans and craftsmen are allowed to sell their wares in the public market.

I had an opportunity to visit a Cuban store selling everything from shoes to building supplies, food items, toiletries, liquor, cigarettes, some clothing, furniture. I did not look at the prices but a bottle of Havana Club was the same price as at the hotel and a wooden coffee table was 50 pesos, and I?d have to assume that was in Convertible Pesos. Considering the average wage that?s a hefty investment.

In the recent past there was a large black market involving American Currency, because the tourist trade relied on American Dollars: rather a paradox seeing as Americans make up a very low percentage of visitors to Cuba. A couple of years ago Castro banned purchasing goods in U.S. Dollars in order to discourage the black market, so now visitors must purchase Convertible Pesos. Theses are on a par with the U.S. dollar and are worth 26 regular Cuban pesos. Black market trading continues, but with Convertible Pesos instead of dollars.
 

Housing is another interesting issue. Housing is rented at a very low rate from the government. Electricity and clean water is available in every home ? no matter how isolated ? and paid for through taxes, which are nominal. The more power one uses the higher your rate is. Homes are not privately owned, even if you build it yourself. In larger cities like Santiago the government built many apartment blocks for housing. To our eyes these look like instant slums. They are built from concrete slabs or blocks, often with construction methods similar to those used on highway sound baffles. But these methods are cheap and effective. Remember in Cuba there?s no winter so one does not bother with such niceties as glass windows, insulation and heating. Shutters and curtains are used for privacy. The paint available is not of good quality so painted surfaces wear quickly due to windy weather and rainy seasons. Cooking often still takes place on wood or charcoal stoves, even in these apartment blocks. The government is not building so many of these homes now and therefore many people are building new homes at their own expense, usually as additions to existing structures.

There is a lot of ?new? construction going on in Trinidad, but since it is an historic city with a distinctive architectural style, new homes, like old, are of brick construction with stucco and paint. Paint is in the typical pastel colours of the area: pink, blue, turquoise, green, buff. Trim is usually painted white. Wrought iron or wooden bars protect window openings. Roofs are typically clay tile. Clay is plentiful in the area and there is a large brickworks in Trinidad, as well as a famous pottery maker. In Trinidad the homes (and roads) are generally in better repair that they are in Santiago, which is a larger and poorer city by comparison.

My friend tells me she and her brother ?inherited? the house that her parents had lived in; her parents have split up and have since married other people. Her brother and his family live downstairs and she and her husband live upstairs in a second floor that they built on top of the existing structure. They are struggling to get the money together to add a kitchen to their dwelling as currently the only kitchen is in her brother?s home, and meals are a communal affair, often with relatives arriving from other households to partake. Another fact she confided (laughing) is that the reason she and her husband got married when they did was because he had no place to live when he finished university.

Since no one supposedly owns their own home in Cuba, what happens when one wants to move to another city? Well, one just doesn?t pick up and move. One would have to have a reason for doing so, like a job or marriage, and it probably requires a permit, but in any case, one must advertise a house swap. In order to move you have to exchange homes with another family who wants to move to your city. I gather these swaps could get quite elaborate, sometimes involving more than two houses.

She also told me her in-laws presented them with a live pig a few weeks ago which they are supposed to keep and fatten up and serve as a family dinner on Mother?s Day. She said they have to keep this thing in a small yard, it stinks and it is a nuisance. I asked her, when it comes time to slaughter this thing, what happens? Do they take it to the local butcher? She shook her head and smiles ruefully. ?Every Cuban man is supposed to know how to do these things. My husband has no idea.? I said it sounded like the movie ? A Private Function? with Michael Palin and Maggie Smith, where they struggle in their kitchen with an illegal pig, which has diarrhea. Anyway we had a good laugh over it.

I asked my friend if there is a class system in Cuba, for certainly one sees folks who appear better off than others. She smiled slyly and said, ?You know the man who wrote Animal Farm, what he said? ?All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.?? Well, it was ever thus.

I asked her another tough question. ?What does a typical Cuban think of the tourists? We come here and suck up your resources, eat your food, use your electricity??

?Well,? she sighed, ?It is true a lot of resources go into supporting the tourist industry, but it means jobs to so many people.? Plus I have to imagine a lot of goods like clothing, school supplies ? even medical supplies, get into the country through that channel. The tourist trade has brought problems also: prostitution, particularly. So there?s always a trade-off.

But at since the revolution, least the Mafia and the CIA (AKA United Fruit) aren?t running the country anymore and I guess you could argue that for the most part Fidel runs a (mostly) benevolent dictatorship.

Still I can?t help the feeling that there?s desperate poverty here. I suppose it?s only in comparison to the North American lifestyle. Many of us have too much to eat: obesity is rampant ESPECIALLY among the poor, we have homeless people, Cuba does not, (at least they claim not to) We have illiteracy, Cuba has a 98 percent literacy rate. Cuba has a lower infant mortality rate than even the United States. Higher education is free in Cuba, that is to say a university education can be paid for by two years of government or military service. Here, it?s only for those who can afford it or are prepared to go into debt to pay for it. We have good medical care, in Canada at least. (Don?t get me started on the US healthcare system) In Cuba, they also have good FREE medical care.

Their homes might not be up to our standards, but they are proud of what they have. If you are ever invited into a Cuban home you will see they are for the most part quite happy with what they?ve got. Every home has electricity and clean water. Every home has a television, no matter how isolated. We in North America, for the most part, have too much stuff. We have a bloated consumer driven lifestyle, and were deep in debt on account of it.

So, who?s to say who has the better standard of living?

Filed under Cuba 2006, Feb 28, 2006
 

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Operation Lobster

One afternoon when we were having lunch on the snack bar patio at the Hotel Ancon, (Cuba) I spotted a gentleman having a rather large lobster for lunch. Naturally we asked the waiter how it was possible to get that, since I knew it was not on the menu. He intimated that you could sometimes buy them privately, on the beach or elsewhere, and if you tipped the staff you could get them to prepare it for you. But he wasn?t too specific on where or who you could buy them from.

John and Lily, some people we met at the hotel, were celebrating their 22nd wedding anniversary one evening in the Cuban/International restaurant, and they were served lobster. Now in this case it was because they were guests at the hotel on a previous occasion and just because Lily is Lily, the hotel comped them a suite and the special lobster dinner. I wish I knew what her secret was for being treated like a queen, but she says it?s all in how she treats other people. It?s true she is very gracious, warm and giving, but there?s a certain charisma there as well. I started calling her Princess Lillian after that and said I want to be just like her when I grew up.

But anyway, the two events started a discussion on the snack bar patio Sunday with Rob, another fellow traveller and quite the character, as to how we, as a group, could have a lobster feast of our own. Rob is one of these wheeler-dealer guys (a good person to know) and he said if a lobster feast could be had, he would find out how to make it happen. A few inquiries of the staff later, and he said someone could hook him up: all he had to do was go to some address in Trinidad to get them, and if a few pesos were passed out the staff would fix up a lunch for us. Yes, he assured us, we would be having lobster for lunch on Tuesday, the final day of our stay.

Rob had rented a scooter for the week so transport wasn?t an issue. It was just that by this point in the day he had managed to work his way through half a 40 pounder of Absolut vodka purchased from the Duty Free on the plane, mixed in a large water bottle with orange drink from the bar, so the rest of us thought the trip ill advised on this particular day. We needn?t have worried, as the possibility of getting on the scooter became less and les likely the more vodka he consumed. Besides which, he began to get very distracted by some college cuties down on vacation for Reading Week. However there was much discussion as to how said lobster was going to be stored, especially if it was live. Rob volunteered his bathtub if we would let him shower in our room. John and Lily, having the suite, had a full sized fridge, so this seemed the most likely possibility.

I ran into Rob after dinner and he had just wakened up from a ?long nap? and said he felt great. He was just going to get something to eat, then he was off to Trinidad for the lobsters. But apparently that trip never took place, at least not that night. No word of the success of Operation Lobster all day Monday either, but at some point Tuesday morning Lily informed me that she had 10 gigantic lobsters in her fridge.

Around 12:30 things started to come together on the patio. Rob had also invited Ken and Doreen, a couple from Kitchener, Julie, a woman from Montreal, and Frank, the German hottie Julie met at the hotel, to join us. Marino was also supposed to partake but had gone away for the day. So with John and Lily, Redman and myself, and Rob, that made a party of nine. Tables were arranged, the party was assembled, introductions were made and the lobster arrived. And as you can see from the accompanying photo, the size was not disappointing at all. And? the meal was laid on by the hotel staff with a delicious tossed salad, bread, French fries, and a saut?ed onion garnish. Plus, Rob had bought several bottles of white wine to go with it all. What a feast! There were no takers for the extra lobster as we were all too full. And although some of us were initially a bit put out that Rob invited people who were not part of our ?core group? the additions to our company turned out to be muy sympatico after all.

The party adjourned to the beach for further mayhem but that story will have to be continued another time. But I just want to say, Robert Jones of Pickering Ontario you are Da Man! A great host and a fellow of your word. Operation Lobster was a resounding success.

Filed under Cuba 2006, Feb 27, 2006
 

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Dining In Cuba

Last year I tried to recreate my daily diary of our trip to Cuba and it never got finished. (What there is of can be read under Cuban Chronicles.) I manage to keep a hand-written journal while we are there, so at least I have an account of the trip to read later, but there?s always the desire to put it online. Last year, sadly, there was just not enough time in the day to write once I got home, and so I got to the point where so much time had elapsed between entries I felt I might as well not bother.

This year I have decided to take a different approach which is to write about topics rather than recreate a daily account, and I think this would be more interesting to readers also. So with that in mind, today?s topic is food, which is near and dear to my heart.

As I already mentioned in yesterday?s post the buffet at the resort was less than inspiring. On the two nights we actually had dinner there, the offerings included some very suspect ?composed salad? offerings consisting of tuna, ham, cheese, cooked vegetables and the like, some rather off-putting dressings and a few ?fresh? items such as the usual lettuce, shredded cabbage, sliced tomato etc. For dressings there were several kinds of flavoured vinaigrettes which seemed to be mostly vinegar. On the second outing I found the oil, which had a fly in it. Ugh. Not my idea of a salad topping. For the mains there was the roasted meat of the day, usually beef, and Cubans do not seem to do well with beef. Also pasta with a weird sauce tasting of cumin and choices of chopped ham, processed cheese, onions and peppers as toppings, plus some rather mediocre side dishes. The first night there I tried to pick out a few things and except for a bit of pasta it was all pretty appalling. Actually the pasta was pretty appalling too. After our wonderful experience with the food at Los Corales in Santiago de Cuba the past three years I left that buffet the first evening feeling pretty ripped off, thank you. And we had read so many reviews saying the food at this place was wonderful. Hah.

The next day we made CERTAIN we had reservations to the seafood restaurant that night and the Cuban/International the following night. The Seafood place has a set menu but the main course includes a half lobster tail (very small but delicious) three shrimp with head and legs intact and a good sized portion of white fish with NO BONES. The main course is preceded by a fruit and salad plate, lovely fresh rolls (there?s just something about Cuban bread) and wine flows freely. Dessert on this night was a lovely scoop of homemade chocolate ice cream on a rich cake, but one might get a banana split on another night. As dinner progressed a Cuban couple entertained us accompanied by acoustic guitar. The dining area is open to the air which is welcome but the evening unfortunately brought mosquitoes, who love me a lot. I came home with plenty of bites.

The rest of our dining followed a pattern: breakfast in the buffet as quickly as possible with Redman getting the fresh-squeezed orange juice and me getting the coffee for both of us, lining up for omelettes or fried eggs, eating as fast as possible and getting the hell out. Although the breakfast was tasty enough (except for the morning I managed to spill my juice and part of my coffee all over everything) the atmosphere was not conducive to lingering. Here people are supposed to be on holiday and ENJOYING THEMSELVES but I never saw such a collection of sour-faced old farts outside of a nursing home in all my life. Are Europeans just grim-faced in general? Though I have to confess, I was pretty grim-faced myself being subjected to that bad atmosphere on a daily basis.

Lunch was had outdoors daily at the snack bar and the safe choices were hamburgers, ham & cheese sandwiches, fries, and pizza. Because the patio was a casual lounging area and not generally crowded it usually afforded us an opportunity to linger, have a drink or two, read, write in our journals or meet up with some of the people we generally hung out with at the resort. Plus there was ample shade and a view of the beach. Very relaxed.

Dinner on our third night was eaten in the Cuban/International restaurant was not as successful. After a nice first course of an antipasto plate which included cheese, cured sausage, olives and some sort of shrimp salad, I had a wonderful and plentiful black bean soup in a rich broth. I?m glad I ordered this for it was the high point of the meal. Redman and I had opted for the rabbit stew as our main course, but that turned out to be a gross miscalculation. Instead of nice plump bunnies, these pathetic creatures (or I suppose creature, singular) must have been as emaciated as the poor dogs and cats I?ve seen around the streets of Trinidad. The pieces I had on my plate were all bone, baby. Hardly a morsel of meat on them, and boiled to tastelessness at that. And the rice accompanying it must have come from the buffet steam table for it was tired, not the nice fresh fluffy rice of the seafood dinner. I guess if I wanted typical Cuban food, this was it.

On Saturday we took a privately guided excursion into the mountains (more about this later.) At the end of our two kilometre hike, we were served a wonderful Cuban lunch of grilled chicken at a farm which is also a campground and resting spot for Cuban tourists within their own country. The chickens were free-range as evidenced by our lunch?s ?relatives? cheekily visiting us throughout the meal, and just delicious. Plump, juicy, served with wonderful buttery boiled potatoes and peppers, plentiful salad, fruit, beer, coffee. The two kinds of meat the Cubans do best are chicken and pork. If, while visiting one of these resorts in Cuba, you take an excursion or day trip which includes a meal, you are usually in for a treat. Some of the best meals we have had in Cuba include these sorts of al fresco lunches.

Since we had not gotten back to the hotel in time to reserve at one of the restaurants for dinner that night we had to brave the buffet again. Since we had eaten such a great lunch I was not especially hungry and chose my meal very carefully. For the salad I stuck to the fresh and simple choices, chose a fairly innocuous mayonnaise-type dressing, and had only the pasta. It was OK. Just OK.

Two more dinners were to follow. We had Sunday?s dinner in the seafood restaurant again and this time I think it was even better. But what really made the meal was that we had it with some new friends, John and Lily, who I will tell you about later. Some very stimulating conversation, a meeting of minds, and I think (I hope) a fast friendship. Lovely, lovely people.

On our final evening we were invited to a ?farewell? dinner which although held in the Cuban/International restaurant was actually the seafood platter again, but with a different appetizer and dessert, and a garnish of saut?ed onions. I don?t mind, I could eat seafood every day! The fish at this meal was undoubtedly the best yet. Again we sat with John and Lily and another friend, Rob. This was a very enjoyable meal for more than the food and one I will remember for a long time.

But our final meal in Cuba, lunch on the day we left, was one which was apparently a very long time in the making, involved a lot of wheeling and dealing, and proved to be one of the most memorable meals of my life. I?m going to write about that one later, because it?s a whole story in itself.

Filed under Cuba 2006, Feb 26, 2006
 

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What I'm Reading
Middlemarch
by George Elliott

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