So we just got back from our first weekend trip and it was less than thrilling to say the least, and for the most part awkward and strange. I know that I cannot fully describe the events to portray the complete awkwardness or the reasons for our unhappiness. It wasn't horrible but it could have been a lot better.I enjoyed being out of the city to see a different province and do some different things, but the things we did were kinda strange and not much fun. We hopped on the bus on Thursday, greeted our weird tour guide who turned out to not know much about the places we ended up going, and headed out to Matanzas province. We got to the hotel that night which was pretty nice but the weather was freezing. We walked
down the street to Tropicana which is supposedly the best cabaret show in Cuba. It was pretty impressive, and the food was decent but it was outside and freezing and it was overwhelming and strange. For us, we were so used to spending time in Cuba, with our Cuban friends and all of a sudden we were thrown into the tourist realm of the country and it was
strange and I didn’t like it. The costumes were bright and beautiful but a little too revealing, the dancers were good but you could tell they weren’t really into it, and the music was decent, but it was such a weird experience because it just seemed so fake and almost forced because we knew what was going on behind the glamour of the show.
The next day we spent a day touring the town of Matanzas. We woke up in the morning to the creepy voice of the tour guide over our wake up call. From there we headed to the breakfast which ended up being the best part of the weekend. Ham and cheese omelets with pan con mantequilla, fruit salad, coffee and juice. Perfect start to the day really. If only the day had lived up to its beginning. The tour bus emptied us out at the main square in Matanzas. Here there was a huge statue of José Martí of course, and a little park surrounded by buildings of all different colors and the old American cars that circled continuously through the busy streets. When we
got there, apparently we didn’t have a set plan so Profe asked us if we wanted to tour an old pharmacy which some of us did, but then he said we would have to pay for the tour. After much back and forth they finally let us in for free and it turned out to be pretty interesting. It was one of the first pharmacies in Cuba and it was still set up the way it used to be. There were rows and rows of old containers that used to hold remedies from back in the day. These remedies ranged from aspirin and things that are still used today to herbal remedies that were obviously used much more often before new technologies were discovered. Blue, green, brown, and white bottles lined the walls, and we saw the equipment that would have been used to make some of the medicines. After the pharmacy, we headed outside of the city a little bit and found ourselves in a seminary where they teach theology. None of us could really figure out why we where there but it had a nice view…From there we went to lunch, sat outside in the 40 degree weather, and waited about 3 hours for our lunch which then was a little disappointing. This was basically just a Cuban thing, that sometimes you waited awhile for unsatisfying food, but we were already frustrated with Profe and blamed our frustration on him and cured our pain with wine.
The afternoon fared a bit better. For one thing the sun came out and we came out from the hiding of our hoods to the slight warmth. We went to this place where they make homemade books where they use stories, poems, or plays and put them into a new book with images and ideas that go together with the theme. They were really creative and we all ended up buying books to take with us.
We all had maybe a tiny bit of hope for the next day when we would head out to some towns in the country, but after we got on the bus after our yummy breakfast, our guide informed us that he didn’t really know much about these towns. We all just looked at each other, slunk down in our seats, and geared ourselves for the day. We started off in a town called Jaguey Grande which could have been interesting but was instead boring and completely useless. I won’t explain everything but the highlights were a museum-to-be, a restaurant with flies and stale Pelly’s, a stray puppy, an erotic art exhibit which Profe photographed and was really awkward, a small church, and homemade cashew wine. The only reason I appreciated the day was to be in a different town and see more of Cuba, but the things we did were less than exciting or even educational.
Varadero on Sunday gave us a bit of a relief from the relief and from the Profes, but it was really strange to me. We got there, after driving through the country past nothing but orange trees, horses, and little shacks to find ourselves in what almost seemed like a strip along the Southern Floridian coast. There were about 70 hotels and there were
no Cubans around, just tourists. We walked to the beach, staring confusedly at the designer stores and accusingly at the stuck-up tourists who refused to even try to speak Spanish. The beach was beautiful though, and we found an all-inclusive resort where you couldn’t pay if you weren’t a guest. Since they couldn’t charge us, they served us food and drinks all day and we tipped them a lot more than they ever would have made off of their salary. So we lounged by the (cold) hot tub, vented about the weekend, and drank tequila. Not too bad. Then we headed back on the bus, and almost cried for happiness when Maria welcomed us into her warm arms and Chino welcomed us back with that huge handsome smile.
down the street to Tropicana which is supposedly the best cabaret show in Cuba. It was pretty impressive, and the food was decent but it was outside and freezing and it was overwhelming and strange. For us, we were so used to spending time in Cuba, with our Cuban friends and all of a sudden we were thrown into the tourist realm of the country and it was
strange and I didn’t like it. The costumes were bright and beautiful but a little too revealing, the dancers were good but you could tell they weren’t really into it, and the music was decent, but it was such a weird experience because it just seemed so fake and almost forced because we knew what was going on behind the glamour of the show.The next day we spent a day touring the town of Matanzas. We woke up in the morning to the creepy voice of the tour guide over our wake up call. From there we headed to the breakfast which ended up being the best part of the weekend. Ham and cheese omelets with pan con mantequilla, fruit salad, coffee and juice. Perfect start to the day really. If only the day had lived up to its beginning. The tour bus emptied us out at the main square in Matanzas. Here there was a huge statue of José Martí of course, and a little park surrounded by buildings of all different colors and the old American cars that circled continuously through the busy streets. When we
got there, apparently we didn’t have a set plan so Profe asked us if we wanted to tour an old pharmacy which some of us did, but then he said we would have to pay for the tour. After much back and forth they finally let us in for free and it turned out to be pretty interesting. It was one of the first pharmacies in Cuba and it was still set up the way it used to be. There were rows and rows of old containers that used to hold remedies from back in the day. These remedies ranged from aspirin and things that are still used today to herbal remedies that were obviously used much more often before new technologies were discovered. Blue, green, brown, and white bottles lined the walls, and we saw the equipment that would have been used to make some of the medicines. After the pharmacy, we headed outside of the city a little bit and found ourselves in a seminary where they teach theology. None of us could really figure out why we where there but it had a nice view…From there we went to lunch, sat outside in the 40 degree weather, and waited about 3 hours for our lunch which then was a little disappointing. This was basically just a Cuban thing, that sometimes you waited awhile for unsatisfying food, but we were already frustrated with Profe and blamed our frustration on him and cured our pain with wine.The afternoon fared a bit better. For one thing the sun came out and we came out from the hiding of our hoods to the slight warmth. We went to this place where they make homemade books where they use stories, poems, or plays and put them into a new book with images and ideas that go together with the theme. They were really creative and we all ended up buying books to take with us.
We all had maybe a tiny bit of hope for the next day when we would head out to some towns in the country, but after we got on the bus after our yummy breakfast, our guide informed us that he didn’t really know much about these towns. We all just looked at each other, slunk down in our seats, and geared ourselves for the day. We started off in a town called Jaguey Grande which could have been interesting but was instead boring and completely useless. I won’t explain everything but the highlights were a museum-to-be, a restaurant with flies and stale Pelly’s, a stray puppy, an erotic art exhibit which Profe photographed and was really awkward, a small church, and homemade cashew wine. The only reason I appreciated the day was to be in a different town and see more of Cuba, but the things we did were less than exciting or even educational.
Varadero on Sunday gave us a bit of a relief from the relief and from the Profes, but it was really strange to me. We got there, after driving through the country past nothing but orange trees, horses, and little shacks to find ourselves in what almost seemed like a strip along the Southern Floridian coast. There were about 70 hotels and there were
no Cubans around, just tourists. We walked to the beach, staring confusedly at the designer stores and accusingly at the stuck-up tourists who refused to even try to speak Spanish. The beach was beautiful though, and we found an all-inclusive resort where you couldn’t pay if you weren’t a guest. Since they couldn’t charge us, they served us food and drinks all day and we tipped them a lot more than they ever would have made off of their salary. So we lounged by the (cold) hot tub, vented about the weekend, and drank tequila. Not too bad. Then we headed back on the bus, and almost cried for happiness when Maria welcomed us into her warm arms and Chino welcomed us back with that huge handsome smile.
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