INTERLUDE IN CUBA, PART 2

Roof brackets, Trinidad

From Cienfuegos we made a day trip to Trinidad, Cuba’s best-preserved colonial city and a UNESCO world heritage site. It reminded me of some of the Spanish colonial architecture that we had seen many years ago in Venezuela, particularly the simple facades in strong colors of field and trim and the characteristic wooden bars over the windows. One interesting feature in Trinidad that I hadn’t noticed elsewhere was the use of ornate brackets to support roof overhangs on many house facades that face the street.

Trinidad

Trinidad

Trinidad

Trinidad

Trinidad

Trinidad

Trinidad

Trinidad

Trinidad

'55 Chevy in Trinidad

On the return trip to Havana from Cienfuegos, we stopped at the Bay of Pigs, the site of the ill-fated CIA-sponsored invasion attempt to topple Castro. The CIA bungled this one badly, although it is debatable if they would have succeeded even with a more professionally planned amphibious landing. Several Cuban exile members of the invasion force that were familiar with the proposed landing site warned the CIA that there was an impassable reef there. Their concerns were dismissed because the CIA analysts were convinced that what they saw on their aerial photographs was only seaweed. When the landing craft ground to a halt on the reef, the invading force had to abandon equipment and wade ashore, exposed to gunfire from the shore.

But the biggest error was strategic: failing to account for Fidel’s popularity. President Kennedy was told that as soon as the invading forces reached shore they would be joined by welcoming local inhabitants and that units of the armed forces would defect. Well, the local inhabitants in this area had been isolated and destitute before the Revolution; Fidel had quickly built roads to the area and schools, giving them hope for the future. So the locals were the first to fight off the invaders until the army arrived to finish the job. Final score: 1,511 exiles landed, over 100 were killed and 1,214 were taken prisoner. To this day, the Cubans refer to the invaders as “the mercenaries”.

"THE MERCENARIES REACHED AS FAR AS THIS POINT"

Trinidad Art Institute

The arts in Cuba are vibrant, certainly the music, which we heard everywhere. Afro-Cuban music has spread over the world and had a strong influence on American jazz. Live music is present everywhere, “conjuntos” playing in restaurants, passing the hat for tips and selling their CDs. Every band you run into seems to have CDs to sell.

Gates by José Fuster

José Fuster

Entrance to Fuster's studio & home

In Fuster's Studio

 In the visual arts, the most memorable visits we made were to the Trinidad Art Institute, a secondary-level school for gifted students; José Fuster’s studio and home, where the artist is engaged in a 17-year project of covering his home and the neighborhood with amazing Gaudíesque ceramic murals and sculptures; and Callejón Hamel in Havana, where Salvador Gonzales has covered all available walls with murals that celebrate Santería, the Afro-cuban religion that is a blend of Catholicism and religious practices carried to Cuba by African slaves. Having listened to Afro-Cuban music for years, I was never aware of the strong influence of Santería, until I noticed in Cuba that the lyrics often feature the names of the “orishas’, or saints, that practitioners of Santería pray to.

Callejón Hamel

Callejón Hamel

So finally, how to sum up our experience in Cuba? The Cubans consider their revolution to be ongoing, not something that ended when Fidel and his group took power. It’s not easy to understand how you can keep a revolution going for 53 years, but part of what keeps it going in people’s minds is the ongoing difficult relationship with the US.

Shop window, Havana

The embargo has been tough on Cuba, and it took a particularly harsh toll during the difficult “special period” that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union, which had been Cuba’s main economic prop. However, whenever it looked like the embargo was close to being lifted, Fidel took controversial actions that left the US with no choice but to continue the embargo: first by invading Angola after liberalizing efforts by Kissinger during the Ford administration, then by shooting down planes piloted by Brothers to the Rescue during the Clinton administration.

So the inescapable conclusion seems that Fidel had political reasons to want the embargo to continue, despite the economic hardship. (This is an “epiphany” that

Christopher Baker writes about in “Mi Moto Fidel”.) For one thing, Fidel has from the beginning been obsessed with freeing Cuba from the US domination that has been a fact of life since the Spanish American War. The embargo helps focus anti-American feeling and also is a useful excuse for why economic conditions aren’t any better.

Still, Cubans are very quick to insist that they like North Americans (their term for people from the US) and their culture, although they hate the US government and its policies.

Primary School "Uruguay", Las Terazas

The big achievements of the revolution are the agrarian reform, the educational system at all levels, and the health care system. Poor people in the countryside have been the greatest beneficiaries of the revolution, because before 1959 they had nothing and no prospects. Now they have benefited from the agrarian reform and their children had the opportunity for higher education. The revolution aimed to guarantee housing, health care, education and a job for all people, and to a large extent this has been achieved. And illiteracy has been virtually eliminated.

The failures of the revolution have been the poor economic performance, the rigid one-party political system, lack of tolerance for dissent, and until recently, a prohibition against private enterprise of any sort.

Raúl took over in 2006 when Fidel’s illness forced him to step back. Raúl has instituted some liberal reforms that have been popular, including issuing licenses for legally operating private businesses, allowing the purchase and sale of property such as houses and cars, simplifying the bureaucracy, and allowing Cubans to go to tourist hotels and restaurants for the first time. Compared to Fidel the charismatic leader, Raúl is more the pragmatic technocrat focusing on boosting the economy, though not looking to the west for models, more to China and Vietnam.

So how do Cubans view Fidel and Raúl at this point? I asked one Cuban after a lengthy conversation which of the two he considered the better president.

“No question, Raúl is the better president because he has already made some positive changes. Fidel talked too much.” When I asked him what he thinks will happen after Raul is gone (he is 80 after all), he said “We will have more changes and faster because we will have a younger president”.

Taxi driver with '57 Chevy

It will be interesting to see.

INTERLUDE IN CUBA, PART 1

Greeted by Che at Havana Airport

Cuba turned out to be a fascinating place, and not necessarily easy to understand. I will try to pass on my impressions of this intriguing country, even while I realize that I’m likely to be guilty of oversimplification of complex issues and may have some things completely backwards.

Havana Airport

Our flight from Miami arrived in Havana at 11AM on Saturday, December 10^th. A lot of people have asked us how we could fly to Cuba directly from the US. Well, it turns out that the embargo is somewhat more porous than we all had imagined. Our tour was arranged by National Geographic, which holds a license from the US Government under a “people to people” exemption for travel with a cultural and scientific purpose.  Other organizations, such as the Smithsonian, also hold licenses and the list of organizations is growing. So US tourism to Cuba seems to be increasing quickly; at this time some thirteen US airport have received licenses for direct flights to Cuba.

Havana Airport

Already travel from the US to Cuba, which also includes family visits, is second only to travel from Canada. The embargo also allows import of agricultural products, thanks to the power of our agricultural lobby. Not just food, where the US ranks as Cuba’s number one supplier, but various other “agricultural” products such as newsprint, and picture frames made of wood. So are you confused about our Cuba policy? Read on, it doesn’t get any clearer.

The Capitol, Havana

Our “people to people” experience in Havana included an excellent lecture by Miguel Coyula, a retired architect and urban planner, now devoting his time to historic preservation of Old Havana. He talked about the economic problems of restoration and of housing. Most materials for construction have to be imported with hard currency, which is in short supply. Housing has been made readily available to people thanks to government subsidies, but much of it is substandard and unsafe, and residents do not have the money to make improvements. Every year many houses in Havana collapse, sometimes killing their inhabitants. People are moved out of the most dangerous structures, but they wind up in temporary shelters that don’t build community and are stopgap measures at best. Coyula calls this a “vicious cycle” that is hard to break.

Residence in Historic Havana

Residence in Historic Havan

Books for sale, Havana

For most Cubans, the challenge is how to obtain CUC in order to survive. Employment in the tourist trade is an attractive source, including in sex tourism. So every Cuban needs a hustle. A professional, such as a physician, who is paid largely in CUP,  may be found driving a taxi on weekends when he can make many times his regular salary. Another large source of hard currency is from remittances from abroad (estimated at $1 billion or more per year with more than half coming from the US). The irony here is that the anti-Castro Cubans in Miami are sending their money to relatives in US Dollars which their recipients must exchange for CUC, paying the 10% penalty which goes to finance the government that the embargo was supposed to topple. It is truly a testament to the spirit and ingenuity of the Cuban people that they are able to make their way in this difficult environment.

The jurists that we spoke with allowed that the dual currency is a serious problem that is not sustainable. They indicated that there are plans in the government to work toward a unified currency, with a goal of achieving it by 2014 or 2015. For me it is hard to believe that it will occur, simply because the current system benefits the government too much. They pay low salaries in worthless currency and collect a hefty tax on US Dollar remittances, much of which get spent in state-owned hard currency stores. But it isn’t totally out of the question; after all, Raúl has pushed through some reforms.

Walking around Havana I fell into conversation with a young couple with a six-month-old baby in a stroller. After exchanging pleasantries, the mother asked me if I’d be willing to buy milk for her baby. She said that their ration coupons only provided them with three

liters per week for the baby and nothing for adults. To buy more, they would need hard currency. She took me to a nearby store where everything was for sale for CUC and I was able to buy her some powdered milk.

Growing wrapper leaf at Finca Robaina

Smoking at Finca Robaina

Our itinerary took us west from Havana to Pinar del Río, where we visited the nearby Finca Robaina, one of the best tobacco growers in Cuba. They specialize in growing wrapper leaf for cigars, supplying the famous Cohiba brand among others. The wrapper leaf is grown under screened cover to reduce the intensity of the sunlight and to protect from wind; filler and binder leaves are grown without any protection. Growing the leaf is a very labor-intensive process, not to mention the rolling of the cigars, which is done in factories, mostly in Havana. We were offered cigars that had been rolled at the Finca with their own leaf. I’m not a smoker, but I thoroughly enjoyed the cigar and later in the trip enjoyed smoking a large Cohiba and some small Romeo y Julietas. Very pleasurable! Unfortunately, the embargo still prohibits bringing Cuban cigars into the US.

Monument to the Miami Five, Viñales

Monument to the Miami Five, Viñales

Viñales

After Pinar del Río, we bussed to the small town of Viñales, where we spent the night. There I first noticed monuments to the “Miami Five” (known more commonly as the “Cuban Five” in the US). They are considered national heroes in Cuba. The five were intelligence agents that Cuba contends were sent to the US to infiltrate terrorist elements of the Cuban-American community in the aftermath of several bombings in Havana and the downing of a Cuban airliner. The Cuban government presented information about the Cuban-American terrorist organizations to the US, but the FBI declined to move against the organizations and instead arrested the five for espionage, contending that they were gathering military intelligence at Key West Naval Air Station. They have been imprisoned since 1998. One of them, Gerardo Hernández was recently released, but is serving a three-year parole in Miami before he can return to Cuba. It is a complicated issue with conflicting legal arguments on each side. If you want more information, check out the Wikipedia entry for the “Cuban Five”, which seems like a fairly objective overview. 

Viñales

Viñales is set in a valley with spectacular scenery, where you find unusual limestone mounds, called “mogotes” (haystacks). They are the result of erosion and the collapse of surrounding strata into underground caverns. Some of these mogotes rise to a height of 1,000 feet.

"Mogotes" in the Valley of Viñales

We were lucky to have two excellent sources of local information along with us on the entire trip, Neyla Carpio our guide from HavanaTour and Christopher Baker, an expert from National Geographic. Christopher has 20 years of experience in Cuba, has written several Cuba guidebooks and one entertaining travel book “Mi Moto Fidel,” a chronicle of travel through Cuba on a motorcycle. Chris and Neyla both lectured during the trip, and on the drive to Cienfuegos they got into an interesting discussion about Fidel. Christopher’s characterization of Fidel emphasized his very considerable ego and need to dominate every situation, while Neyla ,who is a proud member of the Communist Party, talked about how Fidel improved life for so many Cubans and how he is considered a father figure by many.

Cienfuegos is an attractive city east of Havana where we spent three nights. It is situated on Cienfuegos Bay on the south shore of Cuba. There was a small marina there with some sailboats tied up. Oh well, maybe someday . . .

Che in Cienfuegos

The "Miami Five" in Cienfuegos

Stay tuned for some more stuff on Cuba in my next post.

1951 Studebaker Champion, Cienfuegos

MIAMI AIRPORT

We drove to Miami from Charleston, so that we can catch a flight this morning to Havana, the start of our National Geographic tour of Cuba.  We left Bottlenose at Ross Marine which is on the ICW a short distance past Charleston. After Bottlenose was hauled we couldn’t stay on board any more so we rented a car and stayed a week at a hotel in Charleston. The week was spent removing a lot of stuff from the boat and getting repairs organized. And eating a lot of good food. And sightseeing.

Bottlenose at Ross Marine

Ross Marine seems like a very competent yard. They have been very thorough so far and we feel like Bottlenose is in good hands. We will be returning there on about December 21st with the hope that everything will be completed then so we can resume our journey south on the ICW. Meanwhile, Cuba for the next ten days.

Relaxing at the hotel

Charleston single house, modest

Charleston parking garage

Charleston single house, grand

Railing at Huguenot Church, Charleston

Pink House, Charleston

Heyward-Washington House, Charleston

Fan light in Charleston

CHARLOTTE, NC

Anchorage at the Pipeline Canal

We finally made it to Charleston, after leaving Oriental, NC, on Wednesday, November 9^th. We spent a night in Morehead City, and by Friday we were anchored at a very nice spot on the Pipeline Canal, just past Southport, NC.

Disaster struck on Saturday in South Carolina as we were passing through the Pine Island Cut, the infamous “Rockpile”. We hit a submerged rock when we drifted out of the narrow channel while trying to avoid an oncoming boat. After the impact, water quickly flooded over the floorboards in the starboard hull. Our pumps couldn’t keep up with the flow and we were stuck on the rock on a falling tide, about two and a half hours from low. We radioed TowBoatUS for assistance and were dragged off by TowBoat helped by Sea Tow.  Unfortunately, when they took us in tow, they banged us into the rocks again, this time damaging the port hull. When Anchor Marina in North Myrtle Beach lifted Bottlenose, it revealed the shocking sight of a 7” diameter hole in the starboard keel.

Hole in the starboard keel

Damage to the port keel

The boat was put on the hard and the next week was spent dealing with insurance, cleaning out the thick Carolina mud that had sucked into the boat and having the marina make temporary repairs to enable us to continue on our way before more permanent repairs. There is a Hampton Inn very near the marina, so we had a convenient place to stay while the boat was up on blocks. Vince did a nice job on the fiberglass repair and the following Saturday we were back in the water.

In consultation with our insurance adjuster, we had decided that Ross Marine in Charleston would be a good place to have the final repairs made, so we continued on our way south. It sure felt good to be back on Bottlenose again!

What remained to be done was reinforcing the hull repairs, tabbing keel bulkheads that had come loose, patching some seams, and making miscellaneous repairs. With Thanksgiving coming up, we didn’t see any point in rushing to Charleston (since nothing would get done until the following week anyway). So we proceeded in leisurely fashion down the very scenic Waccamaw River, and then spending two nights at a marina in Georgetown.

Waccamaw River

Waccamaw River

Georgetown was a great stop: the Rice Museum provided a terrific overview of the rice economy in the 19^th century, when Georgetown shipped more rice than any other port in the world. The rice economy was dependent on slave labor and consequently dwindled and eventually collapsed after the Civil War.

There’s great food in Georgetown. We ate at Limpin’ Jane’s and The River Room and didn’t even have a chance to try the most highly regarded restaurant, The Rice House, which is closed Sundays and Mondays.

We were aiming to get to Ross Marine on the Monday after Thanksgiving, so we had plenty of time when we left Georgetown on Tuesday. We wound up anchoring at Awendaw Creek at about mile 436 (a really nice anchorage if you go in a ways around the bend). The following night we anchored in Dewees Creek and stayed an extra night, celebrating Thanksgiving there. We felt like we had something to be thankful for--being back on the water.

Shrimp boats and pulp mill in Georgetown

From Dewees Creek we had a short motor hop to Charleston where we tied up at the City Marina, intending to stay two nights.