AUG 20 2015 BY JULIA |

The Cuba We Are All Waiting to Experience (read from the start) continues…

Don’t count on street signs at every corner, nor every street to be listed on your map. If you are lost, anyone will be willing to help you find your way. Just make sure it’s to your destination, not some place or event this stranger wishes to lead you. And always ask how much it will cost to get you there. I had a young Cuban with dreadlocks, ripped jeans and a friendly smile try to convince me that the day was their national holiday and he could take me to the big party happening just a short distance away. Fortunately I was with my group and managed to shake him off with “we already have a reservation”. Later I found out from the host at our casa, there was no national holiday.

Our group spent the first day sight-seeing in Old Havana, touring castles, forts, bookshops and plazas, sampling daiquiris at Hemmingway’s hangout El Floridita, and wondering about the dead chickens in plastic bags tossed onto the roots of The Tree of American Brotherhood. The tree was planted in 1927 supposedly with soil from the fifty United States to symbolize the friendship between our nations. This left me wondering more about our current relations, and how history and sentiment may change so easily at the whim of Time. Perhaps there were more reasons for the embargo and the slow-to-open doorway for American tourists than I realized.

Our first dining experience was a late lunch at Paladar Dona Eutimia, hidden off the Plaza de La Catedral. Its little dead-end street was not on our map. However, the exceptional meal and mojitos were worth the hunt and the wait (Reservations are definitely advisable now it’s on TripAdvisor’s radar and Facebook, and make sure you are seated at Dona Eutimia and not one of the three restaurants now blocking the way to its little gem of a corner). At home I researched places not only to stay and explore, but to dine on authentic Cuban cuisine. I wish for immersion, not McDonald’s or the Hard Rock Café, thankfully neither of which are yet to be found in Cuba. I’ve read some poor comments about Cuban paladares, restaurants operating out of old mansions and colonial homes. However my experience with the dozen or so we tried across the country was exceptional with fresh, locally-sourced meals that are the epitome of California’s farm-to-table menus. Our best meals in Havana were at Dona Eutemia, Paladar de Los Mercaderos for lunch with the balcony windows open, La Moneda de Cubana for dinner with a view of the 9pm nightly cannon fire shot across the Canal from Fortaleza de San Carlos de la Cabana (by the way La Bodega restaurant at the Castle should be missed), and Nao for a perfect last night’s meal of Cuban food with a modern, inventive twist.

Cuban food is tasty. It should be as all of Cuba is a farmers market. Men and women walk the streets and avenues each morning offering their homemade and homegrown foods for sale. A man walks past the front door of our casa hollering in an almost unrecognizable Spanish, “Tengo el pan recién horneado!” which translates to “I have your fresh-baked bread!” This seems such a simple idea but today in our America taste is often lost as a price to pay for getting a variety of produce on our grocery store shelves quickly. Who delivers their own goods to your front door in person anymore? I tried to explain this to the Cubans with which I conversed, but I’m not sure they understood since they’ve never had mass-marketed grocery stores and produce shipped from around the world, picked before it’s ripened to last the journey and maintain a longer shelf life to maximize sales opportunity and profit. This is one of those facets of a burgeoning new economy, of inviting the West to enter your home. It’s similar to offering a vampire access to your abode. Having the United States of America as an ally brings many positive aspects, perhaps even eternal life, but at what price? A soul most likely will be offered as sacrifice for the benefits of dancing with this devil and having shiny new computers and access to the World Wide Web while eating that very red wax-coated American-grown apple.

The Cuba We Are All Waiting to Experience continues with Exploring Havana Cuba…