Chivirico, Cuba, Day 4

Day 4 and we're still going strong.

As I made my way down to the village, this silver car and a very happy woman sat in the car with the door open.  It seemed like a perfect photo op.  Later we met her at the market. Her English was very good.  Turns out her husband was the circuit doctor for local hotels. She told us a little bit about what life is like as a doctor's wife. While he doesn't get paid any more than other government salaried people, he was given a nicer home.  I think he probably was given the car too, as a tool to do the driving he was required to do. In looking inside the car, it was no gem.  Seat springs were barely contained by the seat coverings.  The stick shift had a nut at its top to help the driver maintain his grip.

Today was market day in the village.Well every day is market day but the Saturday before Valentines Day is BIG!!!  I'm not sure if most Saturday's are this energetic but wow.  Everyone was stocking up.  It's probably bigger than Christmas in Canada or Thanksgiving in the US.  We saw countless cakes carried, uncovered, supported by only a piece of cardboard.  Two such cakes got to ride with the driver of one of the horse and carriages.  It jiggled like it was made of Jello.

Everybody was happy. Everybody but the lady on the bus.  Two kids were carrying one handle each of a reusable grocery bag. The bag's contents squirming to get free - the live chicken somehow knew that it would be tomorrow night's supper.  As for the market,  they had lots of tomatoes, dried beans,rice and bananas (or plantains).  I wonder what would normally be sold from the booth that was locked up tight.

Isn't every holiday worth a haircut?  It seemed that on every third front porch was some kind of a barber's chair.  This day, they were all in use.  I bet every man in Chivirico had a haircut that day.

At the end of our walk about, we had the opportunity to visit the local cinema.  Cuban and international movies are shown there.  Concerts and dance performances are held on its stage. The projector room was open to us. In it, two Russian projectors, connected by a cooling hood, stood like sentries watching over an empty theatre.  The seats of the theatre were all carefully arranged but the seat numbers did not follow any logic.  Life in Cuba.

Chivirico, Cuba, Day 3

This kind of travel is new for Nancy and me.  Staying over an hour away from the closest airport.  In a resort with only 32 rooms. Two hundred and ninety eight steps down to and back up again from the beach - but what a nice secluded beach.  Rooms were clean and basic.  Food was plentiful but not full of variety.  But proximity and availability to Cuban life - top of the charts.

Today we were invited to a Cuban art gallery open house.  A few local painters had their art displayed for sale.  Also in the small gallery, they hosted a band and a dance demonstration.  OK all of the above were great but this was the afternoon it rained.  What happens with rain? Humidity.  Mix that with 25+ tourists in a little room with sweaty dancers and we were all sweaty.  The show was fun and the art surreal.

One of the locals that we met was German, pronounced "her maan".  German practices a religion known as Santa Ria.  Our group was invited back to his house so that his "Padrino" could perform cleansing ceremonies on us. Once the rain stopped we walked over to German's house, about 15 minutes away.  Again, into a hot, humid small room we packed ourselves. Have I mentioned how spoilt we are here in Canada?  After a couple of tourists had their readings done this evening, the Padrino(s) came into the room with thick branches of soaking wet tree branches.  The leaves smelt great.  Each of us had the opportunity to be cleansed.  OK, here the cynic in me comes out - how can a big overweight man and woman, soaked in sweat and he smoking a cigar perform a cleansing?  Well, several people commented how good they felt after the ceremony.

A short walk, in the dark, back to the base of the hill where the hotel was. Remember those 298 steps?  You still need to climb that elevation even if you're travelling by road, only then it's many more steps.

Cuba, Day 2

After a lengthy discussion about life (in 2016) in Cuba, we took to the streets of Chivirico again.

We walked through the older section near the paved road. Note the spotted pig being fed dinner.  I love it's collar.  Walking between two concrete apartment buildings built by the Russians, one could see the attempt at Soviet influence.  Sorry, the buildings were too ugly to make a nice photograph.   A side story - Norvis, probably now 30 something, told us that as a misbehaving child, his father didn't threaten him with no dinner but rather with having to watch Russian cartoons - the cartoons were that bad.

The second image is that of a boy waiting for goods at the local rations store. I see in his eyes the recognition that he'll likely have a life of waiting in line for too few goods at the same time he looks at me with an expensive camera slung over my shoulder.  However, I never got the feeling any Cuban would want to switch places with me. They love their families, their lives and their country.  They might like our watches and cameras but they're willing to wait.  They know their time will come.

In several different areas of the village we watch children play "football", karate, baseball and/or just hanging out.  There was loud music here and there but never obnoxiously loud.

There are three shots of a woman (Zoolema, our guide for the afternoon), her daughter and her mother.  All three live in the right half of the house behind them.  Zoolema is now single. Like many separated parents, she and her ex physically split the house so that they can both raise the children.  Zoolema is trying to save to build a flat on the second floor of her side of the house.

Later, back at the hotel, dancers tried to entertain us.  Problem was that their stereo didn't work nor did they move into the light, so many of us didn't know that they were beyond rehearsing.  Oh well, life in Cuba...

Chivirico, Cuba - Day 1

Last week Nancy & I were fortunate to visit a small town in Cuba.  Chivirico, population about 3,500, had only one paved road.  Chickens, pigs, goats and horses were commonplace in the backyards, front yards, streets and hillsides.  One of my photographic objectives for last week was to "shoot" people, with them knowing.  The people of Chivirico were willing participants.

On our first day we were invited into one family's home where the mother roasted coffee beans, mixed those beans with sugar then brewed us some coffee.  Very tasty.  Later a walk through the village.