Cuba has so much energy

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Hi everyone,

Well it has been tough trying to find an internet that works in this beautiful part of the world and as for loading photos onto CDs I am not sure that I will get to do that till I get to Mexico City in just over a week. I can´t use my hotmail at the moment as it keeps crashing the system so if you need to contact me please use my bigpond address [e-mail]

My first day I spent wandering around Havana and felt a little like a fish out of water because of my under developed spanish language skills. I needed to buy a bag to leave some stuff behind at the hotel cos you all know how I can shop well my backpack is currently 20kg and rising. I went to a shopping centre and luckily there was a Cuban lady there who spoke English she helped me out heaps, she was a teacher and so helpful even gave me her address and phone number in case I got stuck. I muddled my way through the first day and felt way more confident by the end of it.

I wandered around the streets of Havana and down the Malecon which is along the sea wall. Lots of buildings with great character and in various state of disrepair. Kids playing in the water and making their own skate boards and having a ball. The place has so much energy it is amazing and music blaring from everyones homes and dancing in the streets.

I visited the Museum of the Revolution so saw a little of the history there and got my fill of Che and Fidel.

Then had a mojito at a cafe and was met by a guy who wanted me to come back to his Sisters shop which happened to be next door. The whole family lived in basically 3 rooms. His mothers bedroom was the kitchen as well! I ended up buying 3 cigars.

Then dinner well that was another adventure in itself. I asked at the hotel to be referred to a good place to eat and the security guard happened to recommend a resturant, found out later this just happened to be close to his house and when I came down to get a cab to go there there were a couple of extra packages...his kids who needed a ride home! So I just went with the flow and ended up in a private resturant where the front door was locked...so feeling a little anxious at this point however lots of Cubans have resturants in their homes and they are supposed to only be able to seat 12 people. There was a full on resturant upstairs complete with bar and band and I ended up having a great night so there you go.

I am in Santiago de Cuba now and have spent the past 2 days looking around the city. I have created a couple of business opportunities already. I bought a painting off a guy who is a fantastic artist and actually teaches Art at university here in Santiago, his wife is doing her masters in sociology and sudying Australian society. He wants me to perhaps help him distribute some of his Art in Australia which I will gladly do.

The hustlers are pretty firece here and everyone is looking for a ticket out of the country, consequently a marriage proposal on day 2 in Santiago which I hosed down in a big way. The people can´t even make enough money to survive so I guess you can understand why they are so persistent. There is a guy here who is a musician and speaks English well...he has helped me out with a tour of Santiago and a box of Cohibas in exchange for a couple of beers and dinner. The cohiba cigars are the best in Cuba and which are about $20 AUD each if you buy them from the Cigar factory in town however they give a box a month to their employees and they are allowed to sell them for extra income so I got my box via this means and it cost me about $100 for 25. So Dad some of these will be your pressie from Cuba on the proviso that you give up smoking after smoking them. Azza same deal for you and Colin will save some for you baby. John Simpson I have even got you a contact to possibly get these imported into Australia!! Not bad for a day´s work hey!!

I hit the dance floor in Casa de La Musica last night which was fun and am heading to Trinidad tomorrow for a couple of days followed by a day in Cienfuegos then Santa Clara to see the Che monument and Veradero to lay on the beach for a couple more days. My tan is improving however I am peeling now...bugger!!

Then I head back to Havana for a couple of days. It is very expensive here as the USD is only worth about .80 CUC which means that our AUD$ is worth bugger all...about half so I need to pull in the purse strings big time.

Anyway hope to be able to put some pics up soon.

love to you all

Sim xxx

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