Day 109: Cuba
Early breakfast is awesome. Especially when there is Captain Crunch. Do you know how long it has been since I have eaten Captain Crunch? So long.
We had early breakfast because our field program left at 6:45. So early.
We had signed up for Pinar Del Rio: Land and Tobacco. We were going to go learn about how they make rum and cigars. But first we had to make it educational and visit a university.
We drove two hours out to Pinar Del Rio, a province all the way to the west of Cuba, and visited the University of Pinar Del Rio. It is one of four universities in the area. Pinar Del Rio means pine forest near the river.
We were ushered into a small conference room where we were first shown a presentation about the province and then about the University. It was again in Spanish but instead of having a translator they had written the slides in English so that we could read them.
The university was founded in 1972. It has 2089 undergrad which includes 150 international students from 41 different countries. Most of them are in South America and Africa.
They have 583 full time professors and 134 part time.
There are 21 possible degrees and 11 masters degrees. The most interesting one that I saw on the list was tobacco farming. There was also natural resource exploitation.
They do exchange programs with professors from different countries and are open to welcoming professors from America.
When the presentation was over they handed out soda to each of us and then one of the students stood up and asked us to tell them what we were majoring in and what we thought of Cuba. So we went around the table.
There was a general consensus: Cuba is overwhelmingly welcoming.
After Molly had spoken one of the boys raised his hand and asked if she could explain her tattoos. It caught her really off guard. She didn’t really know what to say and ended up describing the quote on her back. They seemed really, really interested in them. I wonder if tattoos are not all that common there.
When we were done going around and talking about ourselves they had a guy sing us a song and then a band came in and played us Cuban music. They just stood in the corner of the room. When they said that we were going to hear from a band I expected us to change locations but no, everything happened in that tiny conference room.
What I was really impressed with was how well all of the students knew English. They didn’t all speak it fluently but they could understand it perfectly fine. It was clear that they were really, really exciting to have us there. It was overwhelming to not only be consistently asked about yourself but to have the asker be genuinely interested in your answer.
When we left the university we went to a rum factory. On the way there we noticed that our police escorts were still with us. We were escorted everywhere that we went. There were two of them and they lead us and followed us around everywhere.
When we were in the giant caravans in Havana they would stop traffic so that we wouldn’t get stuck at lights and separated. Anywhere any SAS group went they had a police escort. We were told that Cuba was a relatively safe country so we were pretty sure that it was to make sure we only went where we were supposed to go.
Byron asked our tour guide about them and she said that it was for our protection but his question about whether or not other tour groups also had police escorts caught her off guard and it was clear that she wasn’t telling us the whole truth. They didn’t bother us any and it was cool to be escorted around everywhere. It certainly made all of us feel more important.
At the rum factory we were taken back into a room and shown the process for making rum. They start by soaking the berries in alcohol for thirty days. Then you add sugar and caramel and soak them for 2 to 3 months. Then it is bottled. There were huge barrels everywhere filled with the berries. They were called Guayabita del Pinar. They are like mini guavas. They had a bowl full of them that they had just fished out of one of the barrels. We were allowed to try one.
I popped one into my mouth and bit down. It was an explosion of rum flavored rubbing alcohol. It was not a good taste. I spit it out. No bueno.
We got to look at the machine that fills the bottles. They are corked and labeled by hand. The process was not all that complicated, it mostly just involved waiting. At the end we were given a taste of the rum, it was very sweet.
I took it on an empty stomach and could feel it sitting there for way longer than was ok. We were not at the rum factory for very long. Less than an hour.
There were a lot of souvenirs tables at all of the places that we went, just like all of the countries that we had been to. It became a running joke to go look at all of the souvenirs that we were not allowed to buy.
We stopped at a random rest stop that had an incredible view. There we saw a man riding a cow. With a saddle. It was a huge white bull and he did not look like he minded being ridden. It was interesting and made all of us want to ride a cow.
After that we went to see a huge cliff face that had been painted. They cleared the trees off a flat cliff face and painted a huge mural on it. It was pretty cool. We were all taking pictures in front of it when someone decided that we should take a group photo.
So we did.
But, instead of taking one where we are all lined up and rows and smiling like normal people we all spread out all over the huge field and held really strange poses. Then, we took a video of us all dancing strangely in this field in front of the giant mural.
It went to a weird place .
But I love weird places.
After that was lunch, where we ate rice, beans, chicken, pork, and potatoes. The appetizer was these hard, crispy bread rounds that was served with tomatoes and cabbage. We decided to invent something and put the tomatoes and cabbage on the bread. It might have been that you were supposed to eat it this way so we could have been right. It was good none the less. Dessert was like a rice pudding.
During lunch I was sitting near Mr. Schuchardt, Molly, Byron, and Patrick. We talked about the prohibited things that people have done on the ship and then we talked about how much people dislike Byron with Byron. I mean, it's not that people dislike him, it's that he gets annoying because he is brutally honest. But apparently he knows this and just embraces it. That was an interesting conversation.
Mr. Schuchardt is a really, really cool dude. I wish I had gotten to know him earlier. He is a media studies professor on the ship. He is sailing with his wife and seven of his children. His wife is current pregnant with their ninth child. He would be the coolest dad. It was fun. Lunch was fun.
After we ate we walked up into a cave, boarded a boat, and went on a short boat ride through a cave. I didn't really read the itinerary for this before we went on it so it was a surprise. But it was a very cool surprise.
The cave was not all that big, but it had interesting rock formations that they pointed out to us as we went a long. We went down to one end, turned around and went back the way we came. Then we continued the other way and found that the river we were on continued on out of the cave. It was absolutely beautiful. We went out a huge crack that formed the cave opening, there were vines hanging down covering part of it. I felt like we were in a movie.
We got out of the boat just outside the opening to the cave, the river continued on ahead of us. We walked by all of the souvenirs we weren't allowed to buy and saw a guy with a water buffalo wearing a saddle that you could sit on if you gave him a few bucks. Of course we were going to take up that opportunity.
I can now say that I have ridden a water buffalo.
The tobacco farm was next. There I learned that the best leaves are in the center of the plant. In October they plant the seeds in a nursery and then after 45 days, when they are about 10 cm tall, they move them into the ground. After three months they are harvested and moved into the barn to be dried.
They are dried in the barn completely naturally. The only thing they do is open and close the windows to let more air in depending on the weather.
After that the government comes and takes the leaves. The central nerve of the leave is what is used to make the cigars. The government decided what kind of cigars the leaves should be used for and then they are sent to the plant.
I was given a tobacco leaf by the woman who was telling us everything. It is now in my journal. They did have cigars for sale there, some people did buy them. I learned that if you hold a cigar upside-down, roll it in your hands and tobacco falls out of it then it is either fake or it is rolled poorly.
We took pictures popping up from in-between the tobacco plants in the field. It went to another weird place.
After the tobacco farm we headed back to the ship. It was a two hour bus ride so I snoozed. It had been a good day, Cuba is a beautiful place. I am really glad that I signed up for the field program because it got me out of Havana and I really felt like I experienced Cuba.
When we got back to the ship Molly wanted to exchange her money. The night before we had stood in line for the money exchange before we left for the amphitheater. It was cutting it close and we were not anywhere close to the front so I just walked up and cut the line. I had two minutes to leave, I told the girl at the front of the line this and she was fine with it. So I had money but Molly only had reals and pesos.
We went onto the ship, dropped out stuff and then got back off the ship. We were walking down the terminal when suddenly busses came pulling in. They just kept coming…the baseball game was back. Over 400 people went to see a baseball game in the afternoon. The busses just did not stop, there were probably 12 or 13 of them. I told Molly we had to go back. She looked at me like I was crazy.
"We do not want to wait in that line to get back on, we have go back on the ship right now."
The busses were still coming and we were standing in the middle of the terminal going back and forth. I finally convinced her and turned back towards the ship. Just then the busses started to unload and people started running towards customs. We took off running. We got there right before the huge mass of people did and got back on the ship before the insanely long line started.
Guess we weren't going to be exchanging Molly's money after all.
We went to dinner instead, hearts still racing from that chaos.
In the evening we went to the Farewell Celebration. It was supposed to be on the third night but they had to move it because they change the time we were leaving. So we were farewelling one day earlier. It was another caravan moment. There were about 300 of us that went to the celebrate. It was at a restaurant that had set up a huge stage and tables outside in a courtyard. We found seats at a table towards the back. We got two sodas and a plate of appetizers for free.
Just as they served us our food it started to rain. It started gradually but then turned into a monsooning downpour. Everyone made a break for cover. We were standing inside when I heard the music still going, I looked out and saw that most of us had embraced the rain and was dancing in it. I dragged everyone else out there and we just rocked out in the rain with 200 of our closest friends. We were absolutely soaked and slipping everywhere. It was so much fun.
At one point we went back into the covered area and Marie and Lillian broke out the cigars that they had bought earlier in the day. Molly and I decided to smoke one so that we can boast that the only thing we have ever smoked was cuban in cuba. It was disgusting but awesome and will not be happening again.
The event officially ended at 11:30. There was a lot of people struggling. There had been a bar there that sold both individual drinks and bottles for cheap. Two people were taken to the hospital. We were a hot mess. The group of us were originally going to sign out and go out from there but we decided it would be safer and cheaper to take the busses back to the ship and get a taxi from there. So we all got on random busses.
The busses were an absolute mess. Our was like a huge party, they plugged an iPad in and were playing music. Most people were standing up and dancing. I guess we were luck, the other busses all had people throwing up on them. It was mess, an absolute mess. I think the five of us were the most together out of everyone.
We reconvened in the terminal and headed to the club that Lillian and Marie had gone to the night before. It was the place to be, it seemed everyone ended up there. It was called Casa de la Musica.
It took a while to get the party started there but once it did we just danced the night away. There were so many SAS kids there that we just took up the entire dance floor. We were all pressed together in a huge pack and just danced it out. At one point a guy came on the stage and spoke. He would say something in Spanish and then music would play, then it would fade out and he would say something else. This went on for a really long time. Since we couldn’t understand what he was saying it got really annoying. We just wanted to dance! And not in short bursts!
The whole night was a fantastic example of how we all take care of each other even though we might not really know someone. We spent a lot of the time dodging creepy local guys. At one point a SAS kid named Raj grabbed my hand and pulled me towards him to get me away from one guy. I have never really spoken to Raj.
Later on there was a guy that was stealing passports. It happened right in front of us, the kid grabbed it back from him and they chased him through the crowd. In the chaos Molly got pushing into a table. Another SASer that she didn’t really know pulled her back up and made sure she was ok. We just know how to look out for each other and I love it.
We got back to the ship around 3:20 and went up to the snack bar.
They were out of noodles and sandwiches. Not good. We all made a huge fuss that we had to choose other things to eat. Since when do they run out of noodles!!
Sleep didn’t happen until almost 4:15. I would call the entire day and night a success. That is, until my alarm went off at 6:45.
