Steven’s Cuba Blog

Cuba Chronicles, Chapter Four

November 28, 2005 at 2:40 pm | In Trip Report |

RECLAMATION

Carretera Central from Matanzas to Colòn, Monday September 5th, 2005, 6:45am
Despite 3 straight nights of partying at Las Palmas outdoor nightclub - usually followed by more partying at a nameless after-hours “young communists” underground club paid in Cuban Pesos - I woke up energized at 6am Monday morning, having packed and secured my bicycle the night before. The flat, straight 82km to the small town of Colòn turned out to be surprisingly easy - I made it there by 11:45, with few stops.

I guess I was “in the zone” that day, feeling good, the jungle mist playing games with the light as it slowly rose above the palm trees. A bunch of little things helped too - there were hordes of butterflies out, some of them following bike or leading in front of me, criss-crossing and waving through the air. There are hundreds of species of butterflies endemic to Cuba, and some of them are really incredible to behold.

Colòn is a very small, quaint town, with lots of horse-drawn carriages. I easily found my casa through the unmarked streets - they all branch off the main street, which is just the carretera central, really - and went to my spartan but comfortable room. I was only staying here for one night, as a pit stop between Matanzas and Santa Clara, my next “real” destination.

The good news is that as a small town Colòn was very inexpensive. Everything - including the fancy restaurant in the hotel I ate at - was paid for in Cuban pesos. I had a huge, delicious pork filet with potatoes, beans, salad and rice, for something like 50 cuban pesos, or about $2.50 CDN. For reference, a similar meal here in Montreal would cost me at least $15. I spent the rest of the day running some errands, making phone calls and posting a couple of blog entries from the local ETECSA (phone and internet state company), and taking photographs.

Then, I returned to my casa and found the owner chatting with her daughter who had just arrived - an absolutely stunning 21 year old bombshell, and a single mom. This would be a recurring theme throughout my stays at casas (especially unofficial ones), and I would have to try quite hard indeed not to get myself into any trouble staring at them too long.

What is it, exactly, that makes Cuban women so incredible? To be fair, there are beautiful women all over the world - again, I love Montreal - but there just seem to be more of them in Cuba - especially tucked away in the villages and small towns. It’s just the little details that jump out and grab your attention - the way they walk, the way they coyly look at you as they walk by, the way they shift their eyes and bat their eyelashes semi-consciously when talking to you, the way their hips meet their waist at the most perfectly curved angle. Why, why, why? There are several reasons that come to mind:

• The climate? Sure, people sweat more and dress less than elsewhere, and get nicely tanned but there are other hot countries too.
• The genetic diversity? Yeah, this is a big part of it. Cuba was really a total melting pot of cultures - Spaniards, Africans, Natives, Asians, and even Arabs have lived here - and intermixed - for 500 years. Today, most people of mixed-descent have inherited the best features of their ancestors; it’s not uncommon to meet a stunning, dark-skinned mulata with curly long blond hair, and slightly slanted green eyes.
• The diet? Well, beans, pork, salad and rice are a staple here - along with rum and beer. But most everything is fresh - frozen and canned foods seem to be rare, and as far as I’ve discovered, everything is organically grown. In fact, most of the farms / hydroponics I visited also had their own lab for research into new organic growing techniques.
• The economic situation? Not having many cars means that a lot of people are walking, standing around for a bus, or biking all day. People just seem healthier than literally anywhere else I’ve been.
• The culture? Well, there’s the dancing…

Sorry, I got sidetracked there a bit. Where was I? Right. Colòn. I conversed with the daughter and absolutely adorable granddaughter for a while before retiring to bed; I wanted to get an early morning start for the long 120km to Santa Clara.

My spartan room had suddenly become not-so-spartan; a few small green lizards had found their way into my room. They were pretty cute, so I let them stay, turned off the light, and went to bed, with the sounds of roosters, squealing pigs and barking dogs singing me to sleep - and waking me up at 5am the next morning.