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Published: January 18th 2009
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Us with John Lennon
Don't think even photoshop can fix the angle! After the dramas of the previous evening we both slept like logs until 0800 when we headed a few blocks north of the casa to try our luck with my visa now that the internet transfer had taken place. The machine was out of order initially but we were fortunate to only have to wait a few minutes to try our luck. The ATM seemed to be doing the job but ‘failed transaction’ came up on the screen and we still had no access to our money. Determined to make the best of a bad situation and with CUC20 still to our name, I talked Jo into continuing on sightseeing in Havana while we could. If the card wasn’t going to work we were stuffed anyway so all we could do is find a cashier in a nice hotel that hopefully spoke English and maybe we could get the money over the counter.
We walked the 3km to Parque Lennon in south Verdado where a bronze statue of John Lennon sits on one of the park benches. Fidel Castro had banned Beatles music in the 60s but after Lennon’s opposition to the Vietnam War he was labelled a “revolutionary.” An
Security Cuban style!
Not much of a photographer but a top bloke. old, old security guard saw us take an interest and pulled Lennon’s glasses from his pocket, out them in place and offered to take a photo of us. His aim was a bit off and I didn’t think even Photoshop could fix it but it was the thought that counted.
A few blocks on we visited Necropolis Cristobal Colon (CUC1 each + CUC1 camera) where over 1 million Cubans are buried. I was particularly keen to find the grave of Eduardo Chibas - one of Castro’s early heroes and Lonely Planet had the “address” of the grave as Calle 8 between Calles E and F. Unfortunately the “street signs” had disappeared but after 30 minutes of wandering we found an elderly caretaker that pointed us in the right direction. We also stopped at La Milagrosa (the miraculous one), the tomb of Senora Amelia Goyri who died during childbirth in 1901. To try and cut a long story short, her husband visited the grave several times daily for years, knocking on it then leaving walking backwards so as to look at her for as long as possible. Apparently when she was exhumed, the baby - that was said to be
buried at her feet - was in her arms. She has since become the focus of a spiritual cult. When we got there a woman was knocking on the tomb, kissing it and left walking backwards.
We timed our exit perfectly as the hop-on hop-off bus almost knocked me over in the street as we passed through the not unimpressive gates to the necropolis. We got on board - spending most of the rest of our money in the process - and spent 10 minutes on board, getting off at Hotel Habana Libre and unsuccessfully trying another ATM before going back to our casa where I managed an hours sleep.
Our only remaining hope was to try a bank directly. I approached the counter and managed to signal to the teller that the card didn’t work in the machine. A passport and three minutes later he punched in my visa number….. Success! We were back! We immediately went to Habana Libre to use the internet and transfer all our money to my visa. We returned, relieved, to our casa, paid Nicolas’ father-in-law (who looked a little relieved too) and spent a few hours writing the diary and relaxing
before getting a cab to the Viazul terminal and booking our overnight bus to Santiago de Cuba (CUC51 each - 12 hours) at 1815. The air-conditioning was set to sub-zero and the poor local lady behind me clearly about to hard freeze so I loaned her my jacket - a move I regretted for the remainder of the journey. Jo and I managed to claim two seats each and that helped us get a bit of sleep but not nearly enough.
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