Tags
art, cuba, havana, paintings, sketching, travel, travel addict, travel art, travel journal, wanderlust, watercolor
12 Tuesday Jan 2016
Tags
art, cuba, havana, paintings, sketching, travel, travel addict, travel art, travel journal, wanderlust, watercolor
11 Monday Jan 2016
Posted Travel, Uncategorized
inTags
classic cars, cuba, cuban, dancing, journey, latin america, salsa, travel, travel addict, trip planning, wanderlust
I can’t post another post about my “vicarious” travels without posting a photo journal of my most amazing actual travel experience to date! Cuba!!! I am hoping to get a watercolor done soon to add to this post.
Wait, wait, wait….before I even begin to talk about my trip I have to post a video of music we heard in Havana. Because it’s in my head as I write this and should be in yours as you read this! I swear the Cuban people Salsa their way out of the birth canal. And I am only half kidding!
Pardon the video quality. It was sitting on the table while I was (trying) to learn how to salsa.
In June of 2014 I was lucky enough to head to Cuba. This was before the relations had started thawing and I had never even thought about Cuba as a travel destination. I had just come back from a trip to France in 2013 when my daughter’s youth group began talking about going down to help with a small church’s maintenance; painting, clean up, etc. And hey, I thought, they would need chaperones, wouldn’t they? Very thankfully, the answer was yes! It’s almost hard to know where to start when describing my trip and this country. I really had no preconceived expectations when going to Cuba, mostly because the information I had on it was filtered and because the embargo left few travelers that talked about it. This blank slate ended up being a blessing.
Havana, Cuba
What I found was that Cuba is a country of abundance; lush green fields, endless turquoise waters, sweet luscious mangoes the size of footballs. I mean seriously luscious. I am fairly certain the word was invented just to describe Cuban mangos. I could have eaten nothing but mangos. Abundance seems like a bit of a contradiction when you think about a people that often goes without necessities like toothpaste
and toilet paper and where the average worker makes about $30 a month, but as I sit to write about this amazing little corner of the world, abundance is a word that fits. Everything is just bigger, lusher, warmer. The music is louder (and constant and everywhere), the dancing more passionate. The people more connected.
Abundant generosity. It is a country full of a generosity and a love that is given so freely and unselfishly that you instantly realize you are somewhere different. Somewhere special. Much of the beautiful architecture of Cuba is literally crumbling around the inhabitants. Within this tarnished beauty is where the Cuban people reside with hope and faith. And joy.
I was constantly reminded by complete strangers that as Americans we were their “amigos” and welcome. (somewhere in the video I posted you can hear a Cuban woman telling me this, if you make it through 7 minutes of song :). This was probably the one area I was nervous about, but any misconceptions we may have had regarding the Cuban feeling towards Americans were removed instantly. Everywhere we turned people were kind and open. We never felt unsafe or unwelcome.
Our final destination for the trip was a little church in Cardenas about 3 hours outside of Havana. After arriving late our first night in Havana, we had all of 1.5 hours in Old Havana in the morning before we had to jump back into our van and head to Cardenas. An aside: Carlo (our driver/tour guide/dinner companion/overall nice guy) claimed that his van had over 1,000,000 miles on it but I was never really able to tell if that was true or an exaggeration due to his knack for Cuban story-telling.
In Old Havana, I hit the pavement and split off with a smaller group, determined to make the most of my short time. Within 15 minutes we ran into a man who asked us if we were Americans, and then welcomed us and told us all about his job (history teacher), cuban life, etc. We walked on and met a man who handed me a sunflower. He was insistent.
I thought he was trying to sell it to me (I already had to pay for the photo op above with the two ladies and a cigar), but no….He wanted me to take it because it was a symbol of protection. It was the flower of Cuba. There was more to his explanation that has gotten slightly garbled in my memory. I know absolutely no Spanish, unless I learned it by over hearing the kids watch Dora the Explorer. Our friend, the history teacher, translated and after many remonstrances for walking on the sunny side of the street (they were very worried about our skin burning) we were on our way. The sunflower is what shows up in the corner of a few of the following pics! After continuing our walk we ran into a couple of other friendly Cubans who were very excited to show us the “palace” (apparently this had actually been a palace at one point, including for the Castros. Not sure of the validity of these statements!) where there was live music every afternoon.
With less than an hour to go til meet time at the van we headed off for the music. Who could resist. The results of that experience are in the video posted above! One thing Cuba taught me. I can’t dance nearly as well as I thought I could. From the smallest child to the oldest man, every Cuban has salsa in their blood. And it’s infectious. So if you go; don’t stress, don’t think about it, just DANCE!
Oh wait! I can’t believe I almost left Havana without showing you the cars. The cars are definitely drool worthy. And they are all over the island. Apparently emissions aren’t a concern because most spew a pretty potent exhaust. Actually the transportation in general is pretty neat with a combination of classic cars (yes there really are as many as you thought.) and horses, pedi-vehicles etc. all combined in a well-coordinated chaos on the road. I actually took a horse drawn carriage back from a club in Cardenas one night! That was a first! Like the cars, most of the horse buggies are antique as well. Someone told me most of them are 100 years old or so.
Cars
Other Modes
Back to Carlo and our unbelievably well traveled van and off to Cardenas! The scenery! Huge valleys, clear blue waters, and green, green, green.
So green.
At the rest area we stopped at for a bathroom break they had a small tropical style bar where they were selling pina coladas in pineapples for $5. Because every pit stop should include a pina colada in tropical fruit!
Along the way many political murals and other signs of the political history in Cuba…
With a full week ahead of us, we arrived at the church and met the most effusive, loving, open people I have ever met. Cardenas is a small town. Everyone seems to know everyone. The parish where we stayed was more like a very large, extended family. The mornings were very quite. I would awake each day to the clip clop of the horse as the bread merchant sang his “bread for sale” song.
Despite the high heat and humidity of June in Cuba, we dove right into work each morning. After a heart breakfast of course. We were fed massive meals three times a day which probably helped with our energy level, and the gratitude and hospitality of Cuban people made work easy. Not to mention they would never let us work past noon, because of the heat they claimed, but I think they just wanted us to have enough time to enjoy their glorious island. That generally involved a stop at Varadero Beach. Carlo brought us to a deserted section of beach and I was fairly certain I had walked straight into heaven.
Our time with the people in Cardenas was too short. Every experience with them was full. That’s how I felt about everything we did in Cuba. It was just so full. We attended a church service with dancing and joyous singing throughout the service. I had been to a dance club the night
before, and joked that the energy was pretty similar. Not to mention club patrons from the night before kept walking up and hugging me when they recognized me! Despite the language barrier their joy and welcome was evident on each and every face. Hand holding, hugging, lot’s of love.
It was really a little astonishing how much food we were fed while we were there. The ladies in the kitchen seemed to work non stop all day. They are beautiful women who always had a smile on their faces. I was so thankful to meet them and help clean up a few nights. With my Dora Spanish we somehow managed to share details of our families while we washed dishes and I cried, cried, cried on the day I had to say goodbye to them. Ok, the food! Fresh fruits (I did mention the mangoes right?), lots of veggies, and of course tons of beans and rice. Not spicy like I had expected, but definitely full of flavor, and abundant! The food was abundant. There is that word again! Oh and pina coladas, and mojitos. Gosh, it was a tough trip!
Even the clouds in Cuba are bigger. Seriously, is there a scientific reason for this or is it my imagination? If anyone knows, please let me know!
Our group went to Cuba to help and also to learn from a country in transition, and we came home with a greater gift than any of us anticipated. Everything was unexpected because we had no expectations. The kind of unexpected that makes travel and exploration such an important part of my life. 🙂 Like Cuban rum and cigars on the roof of the dormitory with the view pictured at left! Hope you enjoyed my photo journey!
09 Saturday Jan 2016
Posted Art, Travel, Uncategorized
inTags
art, bohemian, cuba, dordogne, france, google maps, sarlat, sketching, travel, travel addict, trip planning, wanderlust
Well, actually my travels began about 3 years ago, but my travels with YOU begin today. I am a travel addict and an artist. My first real travel experience was in 2013, and I was bitten. Hard….That stinker bit, and left a permanent mark! I traveled to the Dordogne region in France and fell head over heels in love. With the place and the people. I stayed in Sarlat and Beynac and knew I would return. I was very lucky to visit there again this past September. I was also VERY lucky to travel to Cuba in 2014 with my daughter’s youth group.
As an admitted travel addict with limited funds, and time (3 kids, family,etc) I’ve had to figure out a way to semi relieve my wanderlust. Usually I am able to do that by perusing my hundreds of photos and sketching. But I am beginning to run out of photos and I miss the trip planning part. Isn’t that half the fun?
Soooooo, I decided to “plan” trips. Using this little guy as my travel companion. I mean one could do worse for a travel companion. He’s small, silent, does that cute little wiggle thing when you pick him up, and always knows where he is going! Most of my travel experiences were solo (will post re: the joys of travelling solo at a later date), and I think this is the perfect travel buddy for me! No one to argue with! I will pick a street view each week, sketch it, and pretend I am actually planning the trip there. I will post cool facts, hotels and restaurants, and other sundry tidbits. And each sketch I post will be available for purchase! I really can’t wait to take off! And I hope my readers will contribute suggestions for my future “travels” with the Google Map Guy.
This post is my introduction to you. Next post we are off to Lisbon, Portugal! You coming?
Some photos from past trips….
Sarlat, France
My sketch
(copyright Katie M.)
Havana, Cuba
Oh, and this is me!