Catrin´s Penguins

Therapies Unite is an independant project started by an ex Outreach International volunteer, Laura Brown. Like me Laura came to Mexico as a volunteer however working with children with disabilities. She realised the extent of the help and equipment needed for disabled children in Mexico and decided to start up her own project called Therapies Unite in 2010. Therapies Unite supports many projects and the one that I have been volunteering with for the past 3 weeks is called Catrin´s Penguins.

Catrin´s Penguins was the vision of a Therapies Unite volunteer called Catrin who sadly passed away in 2012. The project was set up in her memory by Laura. A group of volunteers, parents and disabled children meet every Thursday for 1 hour in a local swimming pool. They use a technique called Halliwick Hydrotheraphy which teaches disabled children to swim.

I came across this project in Mexico through somebody that knows somebody…that kind of thing. I have never worked with children before or done anything like this. When I was asked if I would be interested in volunteering I was intrigued and also wanted to do something selfless and rewarding. It sounds strange because I´m out here volunteering but what I´m doing is creative and is my passion and doesn´t feel like it´s any extra effort on my behalf.

Unfortunately I have not met Laura but hear great things about her. Laura is currently in the UK where she tends to spend 6 months raising awareness and money for the projects and also arranges for organisations like the NHS to donate equipment.  In her absence the sessions are run by her Mexican boyfriend Edwin. The two of them are doing something which only some people have the courage and heart to do.

I went along to the first session as an observer.  I was a little nervous about helping out, mainly because I tend to shy away from children (and animals!) and plus my Spanish is quite basic. However I thought ´I need to do more things out of my comfort zone´ and I joined in the following Thursday and have been for the past 3 weeks. The children are all so beautiful with amazing personalities, and to see the joy on their faces in the water is so rewarding. I guess they feel a sense of freedom, relaxed and can express themselves in a different way. The levels of disability and ages of each child varies. The group works one on one and follows the lead of Edwin or whoever runs the session. Techniques such a lying the children on their back and supporting them as necessary, spinning the children, singing, swaying movements etc in the water are used.

For information about this and other projects visit the Therapies Unite website and their Facebook page.

 

Mothers Day in Chimo

On 10th May it was Mothers Day (Dia de Madre) in Mexico and unlike England it is always celebrated on this date. It´s kind of a big deal here. Mothers will have a day off and children sing and perform at school in celebration. The father of my family is from a small fishing village called Chimo, south along the coast of the Bay of Banderas. In his village, Mothers Day is celebrated with a large all day fiesta and we were off for the weekend to join in the party.

We were up early to get a taxi boat from a port called Boca. It takes 1 hour by boat and about 2.5-3 hours by road. I didn´t know what to expect from the boat but it wasn´t this…The boat I would say and judging by the number of life jackets had a capacity of about 40 people. So when I saw about 60 people trying to board I was a little nervous to say the least. Every woman, a few men, children, watermelons, fruit and veg baskets, luggage and Mothers Day presents were boarding the boat. A man was single handedly holding the rope whilst the waves came crashing up to the shore. Flip flops and sandals were off, trousers rolled up as people tried to board the boat. I could do nothing but join in the chaos. I found a seat wedged between two larger ladies and I was grateful for this as the boat powered through the sea. My stomach muscles were clenched and my hand was gripping the seat. Half way through I eased myself into the journey and kind of saw the funny side of it.

We made a few stops along the way and the odd passengers was kind of chucked off…I was thankful each time. We were approaching Chimo when the boat suddenly stopped short of the shore. As I was thinking ´Do they want us to swim from here?´ along came two old men in their wooden paddle boat to collect the passengers, a few at a time and drop them off on land. I was happy to see land.

The fiesta started about 4pm so we had a few hours to go the beach and swim. Now I´m not a big swimmer and especially not in the sea. We walked up to some rocks which had crabs crawling all over them at the base. The 2 girls from my Mexican family stripped off (to swim suits, not naked) and dived right in. I´m comfortable with my local swimming pool where I can see the bottom but to jump into the sea made me nervous and was not something I liked. I hate the unknown of the sea and the control it has over you. I asked if I could just sit on a rock (one without crabs) and push myself in. The 2 girls looked a bit confused. I did this anyway and they both gasped as there were rocks underneath the water but I was OK. I swam towards them, swallowing a whole load of sea water and saw dead puffer fish pass by. There was a boat afloat near by so we swam towards its and I grabbed onto it for dear life. The girls thought there was something wrong with me.

I swam back to the rocks and got out and as I tried to climb out I smacked my knee on a rock and was bleeding furiously. The girls looked worried and asked if I wanted to go home. ‘No’ I said ‘It’ll be alright’. I realised that the sea wasn’t for me.

A very talented young man painted is whole house like this

The Fiesta. We got ready to go to the fiesta where the whole village turned up plus the additional guests that had arrived by boat. The popluation of Chimo is about 90 residents, it’s a small town and everybody knows each other. At first Children take turns to sing mummy themed songs, perform dances and recite poems. There was a raffle and the Mariachi band played intermitantly. FYI- The Mariachi band is nothing like the Doritos advert! All the mothers of Chimo club together and pay for the Mariachi band as they are not cheap to hire. The show went onto into the evening when the mood changed.

Beer and tequilla was flowing and the dancing began. The very popular and traditional music of Mexico is called Banda and the dance that goes with it is very specific. It is usually performed in couples and men will ask the women to dance. So how do I describe the dancing? Initimate, invasion of personal space, hip to hip action and like a horse trot. I was asked for a twirl around the dance floor and was immediately thrusted against the guy who asked me. No hello, What’s your name? Nice to meet you etc. Before I knew it me and my two left feet were taken for a spin/trot. We were in very close proximity, I became very British about the whole thing and tried to make polite conversation! I like my space and I couldn´t handle too much of it before I asked to sit down. It´s quite normal here and the joy you see on peoples faces when they are  dancing to banda is incredible. Done correctly and it is quite impressive how the 2 people are in total sync.

15 new mosquito bites received.

The inspirational women of Banderas Bay

On my first week day in Puerto Vallarta I was fortunate to meet 4 inspirational women.

Vivian whos story you can read through the Bag Ladies page on my blog was born in Mexico, studied in the USA and later retired and moved to Puerto Vallarta with her husband. She started the bag ladies in 2005 to help a lady earn money to support her family. The project has evolved and grown from strength to strength. The bags are sold through fairs, outside golf clubs and on the Puerto Vallarta airport kiosk. Vivian has been my link to the other ladies and their projects.

Rebecca. Her story is simply  incredible. Rebecca moved to Mexico from the USA and was running a very successful shop. She found herself in a very unfortunate position in 2006 when the Mexican authorities falsely accused and arrested her for money laundering. She spent 4 years in prison until she was finally released in 2010. During her time in prison, Rebecca started making dolls and now works with the prison ladies to make dolls for sale. The dolls are shipped all over the world and also sell on the Puerto Vallarta airport kiosk.

Visit her website Prison Dolls

Karen. Australian born, Karen had previously travelled the world and lived in England and USA before settling in Mexico over 15 years ago. She found herself as a single mum in Mexico trying to make ends meet. Struggling, she decided to start decorating small match boxes with images of Frieda Kahlo, Day of the dead and Madre de Guadelupe, knowing that these were all popular figures of Mexico. 7 years into her business she met her Mexican husband and together their business ´Extra Virgin Art´has soared in success. Her products sell all over Mexico, overseas and on the Puerto Vallarta airport kiosk.

It´s actually interesting because when I was in Playa del Carmen I was walking down the popular tourist street full of souvenir shops. I came across one shop in particular and was interested in the Friedo Khalo  and day of the dead imagery used on the products. It was different to anything else I had seen in Playa de Carmen. I looked in the shop but decided not to buy anything and to wait until I got to Puerto Vallarta. Well it turned out that the products I were drawn to were Karen´s handicraft. I think they might call it laws of attraction.

Minerva. A sassy Mexican woman who lives with 4 chihuahuas in Puerto Vallarta. Minerva is the face of the airport kiosk and the products made by the Bag Ladies, Prison Dolls and Extra Virgin Art. This lady knows what sells and how to sell to tourists. She receives repeat custom simply because of her.

My role. As a volunteer experienced in the design industry and a general all round creative I am starting to mould a role for myself. Primarily I am working with the Bag Ladies. They have 2 very unique and fantastic products. 1. Bags made from old newspapers and magazines, 2. Bags made from pop can ring pulls. They have been successfully selling since 2005 but need a fresh pair of eyes. I am here to advise and develop ideas that are to current trend, sell to tourists and also work within certain parameters due to airport restrictions. I will also be looking to work with another prison to help train them in making Rebecca´s dolls and thirdly I am looking at how to freshen up the airport kiosk.

I have got loads of great ideas that I am eager to try. I am finding that I have to work and think differently to if I was at home. I have to think about what materials I need and how I can get them. At home I have all the resources I need, simple things like fabric scissors, needles and a ruler! Unfortuanetly I couldn´t bring all my supplies with me. I haven´t got a computer for reasearch and printing and I haven´t got Photoshop which is my secret weapon back home! I am slowly adapting and changing my thought process, and hoping that I can develop some successful ideas. Watch this space…

3 days a week I work from the Bag Ladies base. I´ll be honest but it´s not the kind of environment I am used to. It´s a specially built brick room on the top floor. It has a tin roof, unfinished walls and floor, make shift tables from old doors and breeze blocks, broken chairs, wires and sockets over head to plug into. It gets very hot with no fan and usually there is 8 children running around screaming! A huge contrast to the Office I work in England.

But I have no complaints. If there is something I need I just need to ask and I get it or we make do with an alternative. I guess it just adds to the process and I am facing different design challenges than what I´m used to but I like a challenge or otherwise I wouldn´t be here. The women listen to religious music on their phones and sing along as they work. The children come back from school and will either play (run aound and scream) or even help in the bag making process. They look at me inquisitively and really want to talk. They smile a lot and will alway share their crisps, fruit and lunch with me. David is a 5 year old who secretly is my favourite. He will often scurry across the floor, pop up from under the table and hand me a ring pull that I dropped. He is eager to learn English and the few words he does know he speaks with such great clarity. They can all say ´cheese pie´.

Mexican life

I have 25 mosquito bites. The repellent clearly from the UK does not work in Mexico. My advice is buy mosquito repellent and after bite from the country you are visiting. My legs are a giant red dot to dot.

My home for the next 10 weeks. I am staying with a Mexican family made up of Mother (Justina), Father, 3 year and 21 year daughters. On the same land lives Justina´s brother, sister and mother. She also has another daughter who lives 2 doors away with her husband and daughter, a son who lives in the centre, and another 5 siblings who live very close by. Each sibling has children plus grandchildren. Everyday I come home there is a different member of the family and I don´t know who´s who except that they are related in some way. I thought Indian families were complicated!

Here is a photo of the house where I am staying. The room on the top is my room.

 

My room. I hope you like what I´ve done with the place. I have gone for a powder blue bed spread with a contrasting white sheet, imported all the way from England. I bought a new pillow just because. I swapped the fridge and bedside unit for convenience and so that I could actually plug the fridge into a socket. I added an extra touch of buying some hangers for my clothes and I like the unique way that they hang over my bed.

 

I have an ensuite shower and toilet but do not have a sink (?) or toilet seat and I can`t get used to not flushing the toilet paper.

I have a fan that has 3 settings. 1. gale force wind, 2. jet engine and 3. tornado. Gale force wind has been sufficient however the last few days I have had to crank it up to jet engine and make sure I weight everything down.

In all seriousness my room is comfortable and clean, and that is all I could of asked for. The family are fantastic. They help me with my Spanish, wash my clothes and feed me.

I´m not sure these photos show you the extent of the hills but this is the hill I climb everyday to get the bus. It`s virtually at 45 degrees and if you wear flip flops you get a free foot massage everyday. I thought about running before I came to Mexico…

Spanish lessons My teacher Norma is fab. Although everytime I go for my lesson I have a mini heart attack. She lives in an affluent area of Vallarta. The houses are big with electric gates and swimming pools. The lawns are maintained and nearly every house has a dog but not your average cute and fluffy dog but big viscous dogs with fangs. So everytime I walk down the street the dogs come bounding down to the gate and go crazy barking and showing me their gnashes. By the time I reach Norma I´m a nervous wreck. I had one incident where a dog was loose outside it`s house and came running up to me barking. Luckily it stopped at a distance and let me pass . I have been a few times now so I know which houses have dogs and I now have a strategic walk pattern. Norma has 2 dogs but kindly locks them in the garden for me. The lessons are going OK. I take 2 hour classes every other day. I am actually finding that having learnt Italian before is more of a hinderess. For example ´ce´ in Spanish makes a ´ss sound and in Italian makes  ´ch´ sound and I am constantly using the latter. I am better than I was before.

Dogs The dogs here are crazy. They just bark all the time…all night and at any other dog that passes it. They are very terratorial.

Buses My mode of transport everywhere is bus. The bus network here is like the London underground. It is 7.50 pesos (about 36p ) for any length of journey whether long or short, and each new ride is 7.50. The busy are all unique. Some have holes in the floor, some cracked windows, some have cushioned seats and some have childrens shoes hanging from the top. There  are hardly no bus stops and you can pretty much stop the bus anywhere you like. The drivers are the best multitaskers I have seen. They can take your money, hand over your ticket and your change in one swift move all whilst driving off and sometimes answering their mobile phones.

The Mexican men will always let female passengers on to the bus first and will often give up their seat for you. Another interesting observation I have made about the men on the buses is that they will rarely sit next to a female passenger even when the seat is free. I have had a man give up his seat by the window for me and to not then sit back next to me. Another thing I have learnt is that you never sit next to the window. Nobody sits next to the window and the reason why is because you have to literally fly off your seat when you want the bus to stop. I have become quite Mexican now…I will not sit next to the window and expect men to let me on first!

Being mistaken as Mexican I´m Indian and because of my skin colour will quite often get mistaken for Mexican or of Latin descent. This can have its advantages. Usually I go about minding my own business and not get the hard sale that other tourists get. But on the flipside I will get locals speaking to me in Spanish and expecting me to talk back and when I tell them I don´t speak much Spanish they look confused and look at me as though I am lying just so I don`t talk to them.

Internet Cafes. My biggest frustration is the keyboards here. So far I have come across 3 different keyboards which operate the @ symbol differently. One by holding ctrl, alt and q, the other by holding 4, 6 and q and now this recent one then one I am currently typing on I haven´t got a clue how to get the  @ symbol. I´ve had to copy and paste the symbol off the internet! An observation as I have now used a few internet cafes is that children as young as 5 are in here playing games and on facebook!

Mucho Gusto man in the ladies toilets. On my second Sunday here in Vallarta I went to an international food fair at the Marriot hotel with the other volunteer. I went to use the ladies toilets and in there was a male attendant. As I was washing my hands he started talking to me in Spanish. I explained that I couldnt speak much Spanish etc. So then in Spanish we spoke a little using my basic vocab I managed to introduce myself and he as Manual, which was then followed by ´Mucho Gusto`which translates as pleased to meet you usually followed by a peck on the cheek which is quite normal here. I am slowly getting used to this. For some reason he exchanged another ´Mucho Gusto` followed by a peck on the cheek, then a third. By the fourth ´Mucho Gusto´he held onto my hand and kissed my cheek for longer than I liked. I pulled my hand away with a very sharp ´Adios´ and waled away. Very strange man in the ladies toilet.

A locked rucksack, 25kg suitcase and a visit to the hospital

Being locked out my rucksack, facing 25 steps with a 25kg suitcase and a visit to the hospital is how I will remember my first day in Puerto Vallarta. It went something like this…

It actually started off in Playa del Carmen when I couldn´t get into my rucksack because the combination lock would not open even with the right combination. Luckily earlier I had taken out my passport and boarding pass and put them into another bag with the intention of transferring everything into 1 bag later. My only worry was that at the airport I wasn´t asked to open my bag.

I finally arrived in Puerto Vallarta after a 4 hour wait in pre departures at Cancun airport where the security alarm went off, then a 2 hour flight from Cancun to Mexico City, a 3 hour stop over in Mexico City and then a 1.5 hour flight to Puerto Vallarta. I discovered I had quite a knack at sleeping across 3 chairs holding my bag securely amongst other passengers.

I met the Mexican co-ordinator, Greta, for Outreach Intenational  at the airport at approx. 9am. She took me to my new home. I knew a 25kg suitcase was a bad idea. This photo shows you the second set of stairs to the room where I had to carry my suitcase… no handrails and a drop on both sides!

After all the introductions and formalities we were off to see the bus network so that I could get around on my own. Actually the first thing we did was go to the neighbours garage and get him to cut open my lock. Whilst I was there I had to eat tortillas with shredded chicken otherwise they would have been ofended I was told.

How I met Isabelle. 1 of the other volunteers, Isabelle was taken ill and Greta needed to take her to the hospital with me in tow. It turned out Isabelle had a stomach infection and was dismissed with some medication. When we left the hospital Isabelle felt faint and collapses to the ground and I have never seen anyone turn as white as she did. She had to be taken back in to the hospital and was put on a drip. Whilst she was in the hospial we managed to eat, see some of the bus networks and do some other tasks. Isabelle was dismissed again after 2 hours and when we left the hospital, again she felt faint and fell to the ground! She was taken in again and this time was fed and monitored. She was dismissed for the 3rd time and I am happy to say that she was OK and subsequently was and is OK.

 

 

 

 

Tulum and Playa del Carmen

On Day 3 of going solo in Playa del Carmen I took myself off to some more Mayan ruins in Tulum. This time by bus on my own and not through a tour, I prefer it that way. No guide or time restrictions I casually walked around. The ruins are sited next to the coast and the views are spectacular.

 

Must Eat at Dona Aurelia. It`s a mexican restaurant next door to Hostel Excel Sense in Playacar and owned by the same owner. I had pollo con mole (chicken with sauce). It`s a traditional mexican dish of chicken served with rice and a spicy dark  sauce that has cocoa in it. It was beautifully presented and reasonably priced too. I got chatting to the waiter who was an aspiring film maker and photographer from Guadralaraja, close to Puerto Vallarta. He was super friendly and gave me some advise on where to visit when I get to Puerto Vallarta.

I haven`t got too much to say about Playa del Carmen. I felt it was too commercialised, not the real Mexico and overpriced. I spent 2 thirds of the amount of money in Playa del Carmen in 3 and half days as I did in 1 week in Cuba! To give you an idea a bottle of water cost me 30 pesos and the cheapest in Vallarta is 5 pesos. The beaches are beautiful, the people are friendly and a visit to Chichen Itza and the cenotes is a must.

You always end up making friends when you are about to leave. My flight to Playa del Carmen on the last day wasn`t until 1.35am and the last bus to the airport left at 8pm. I decided to stay local and walked and sat on the beach. I returned to the hostel with about 3 hours to go. A lovely lady from Venezuala called `lady` was in Playa del Carmen on holiday with her husband and 2 year old son and was staying at the same hostel. I had seen her aound and she would come and sit next to me and always speak to me even though none of us could really understand each other. The family was kind and friendly and would offer me a beer, barbequed meat and tell me to sit near the AC. They had such big hearts.

They had 4 Venezuelan friends with them who I got chatting to. The last 3 hours at the hostel was surreal and the time just flew by. One of the guys who was keen to learn English spoke to me through Google translator and I through my Spanish books and Google translator. One spoke a little English, and another more than he let on. They were curious and asked me lots of questions. They asked me questions like `what`s the rate of inflation in England? What`s the mínimum wage? Do you have democracy in England? Is there racism in England?`and more like this. It painted a clear picture to me of what their life was like. They told me about their current political situation and the one who used the translator said `I want to free Venezuela, which really touched me and made me appreciate how lucky I am.

I showed them a 10 pound note, 1 pound coin and 20 pence piece, and explained how many pennies make pounds. It was interesting because one of them asked me if they could swap the 10 pound note for 10 Venezuelan Bolivars. When I told him the conversion of pounds to US dollars he was suprised. I gave him the 1 pound coin and in return he gave me 1 Bolívar.

 

Going solo in Mexico

After some emotional goodbyes I was off to Mexico on my own. I had this really strange sick feeling on the flight. It was only a 55 minutes but felt like forever. As soon as got off the flight I noticed a change in countries. There was American tourists everywhere… giant advertising boards…shops…capitalism! It’s funny how soon you become used to a certain way and I wasn’t sure I liked this new change.

I took a bus to Playa del Carmen and checked into a hostel that I had found on the internet called Hostel Excel Sense. It was in a quiet and safe neighbourbood controlled by watch men and gates at the entrance points. Close by there was a golf course and the streets were lined with palm tres and modern houses with clean white facades owned by wealthy Mexicans and Americans. The hostel was quiet and I had a room with 3 bunk beds and only me in it. The room was small and I lost count of the number of times I hit my head on the top bunk! The hostel was clean, had a pool, bar and laundry on the terrace. It was decorated in an Indian style with incense sticks, buddhas and imported carved furniture. The only downside for me was the bathroom. The silcone and tiles were mouldy and everytime I had a shower the bathroom flooded. I was in the Venus room so maybe avoid this room if staying there. Otherwise I would recommend it for location, staff and general cleanliness.

12 French, 1 Mexican and an English woman. I decided to book myself on a tour to Chichen Itza for the following morning. It was a 7.30 am start but I wanted to keep busy. I jumped on the tour bus and was greeted by a ´Bonjour!´. All flustered I replied ´Hola, oh Hello, ah sorry erm Bonjour!´ As if learning 1 new language wasn´t enough my brain couldn´t cope with a simple ´Bonjour´. It turned out that the other 12 passengers on the bus were French and only spoke French. I tried racking my brain back to my Year 9 french lessons and could only think of  ´com si com sa ´. The bus driver was Mexican and spoke a tiny bit of English.  It was a long 3 hour journey to the first stop…

Our first stop was to a cenote. A cenote is basically an underground pool of water in a cave. They are commonly found in the Yucatan area of Mexico. You can swim in the cenotes and the water is said to be sacred and pure. I decided it was a once in a lifetime opportunity and even on my own I was going to go in to the water.

Finding a common ground when language is a barrier. After the cenote we stopped off for lunch at a traditional Mexican restaurant. I sat in the corner of the table by 1 of the French families. I tried to think of something to break the ice. I looked across at the young girl in front of me and chucked a few smiles at her but that didn´t work. She was a tough one to crack. My female instincts kicked in and I spotted her nails that had been painted with a beautiful design. ‘Yes’ I thought that would be my ice breaker. I told her with some gestures and a mix of Italian, Spanish and English that her nails were beautiful and she finally cracked with a smile but she couldn´t speak any English. Her father in law to be could and striked a litle conversation with me and she asked me questions through him.

The Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza. These ruins are a spectacular sight. Thankfully they put me with an English speaking guide and group. My recollection of the day besides the incredible sights was mases of tourists, the overwhelming heat with absolutely no shade and tons of vendors selling souvenirs and shouting ‘only 1 dollar, cheaper than Walmart!’

I managed to get some photos before my senses started to shut down.

 

Cuba…where time stood still

On Day 2 we discovered a very talented and humble painter called Sade. By chance we stumbled across a small street market near our hotel in Havana which sold local crafts. The paintings immediately caught my eye but I was relunctant to by one as I knew that I would be travelling on to Mexico. We walked away and was quite far down the street when the artist scalled out to us from far away. He came towards us offered a deal on the paintings. My sister couldn´t walk away knowing he had especially ran to us, I on the other hand said ´quick let´s leg it!´ I´m still waiting for my leg it opportunity. I  ended up buying the painting that had caught my eye and my sister kindly took it home for me. The sad reality is that for me to have a frame made will cost more than what I paid for the painting. See if you can spot the painting I bought.

 

 

MUST VISIT: If you are in Havana you must visit Sade and his art work in the Vedado area. Close to the Monument al Maine near Calle 19.

MUST STAY: I also recommend a family run B&B called Casa Lilly in the Vedado area of Havana. I only stayed here on my final night but wish I had discovered it earlier. It is run by Lilly and her father Ramone. They have an apartment in a high rise block which is beautifully  furnished in a modern style, and also a house across the road which is equally as beautifully decorated but in a tradtional style. For an additional 5 CUC you get the best breakfast you can find in Havana. It consisted of fresh fruit, fresh guava juice, fresh coffee, eggs how you like them and crepes with honey and sugar to finish. www.casalilly.com

The first lady of Havana. The National Hotel

 

Che Guevara sculpture at Plaza de Revolucion

The Carribean beach in Varadero

Everybody has a story like this about Cuba

Before I start here a few things to understand about Cuba. Cuba is a socialist country. This has good and bad points like any other country. The good about Cuba is that education and health care is free, the death rate is low and you will find hardly no poverty as the government will supply housing. One of the bad is that everybody has a ration card and are limited to food and products per person albeit at a significantly reduced cost. On average they earn between 15-25 CUC per month (equivalent to about 8 to 12 pounds). There is no easy access to internet, Skype, Facebook and phone lines are controlled by the goverment.

There is no international influence and you will not find any familiar products on the shelves like Coca Cola, Nike, Colgate etc unless your hotel has a shop. The only real way Cubans know about the outside world is through tourists. In some ways their minds are not poisened or polluted but then in other ways they are getting left behind as everybody else moves forward. A good or bad point? I´ll let you decide.  I questioned their happiness at first but as the trip went on I realised this was wrong of me. I think it´s wrong to assume that they must be unhappy because they don´t have a disposable income to spend on consumables and because we do does it  make us any happier?

So getting back to my story. On our first day in Havana we go to Plaza Vieja a popular area in Old Havana where you will find very old buildings and lots of 40´s/ 50´s American cars. We literally get there when a “supposedly” brother and sister approach us. We obviously looked and smelt like tourists. We got chatting, they were very friendly and spoke a little English which made the conversation easier. We told them we were looking for a restauraunt to eat and they said they knew an excellent place. We had a restaurant in mind which we found in our guide book but the duo told us that particular restaurant had water contamination and was closed for one day only. We agreed to go to this other restaurant and they walked with us chatting all the way. 15 mins passed and now me and my sister were both thinking how we were getting further away from the Plaza and the people, and further into the housing area. Something didn´t quite add up but we still kept walking. It´s a strange thing and when you´ve been to Cuba you will understand but the Cubans have a knack of making you follow them.

I was ready with a contingency plan of how I was going to defend us and run!  I think I should add here that on the whole we found Cuba safe and never felt threatened by the people. The duo lead us into what looked like somebodies house It was actually a Paladar (family run restaurant) with about 8 seats for customers. The Paladars were once ilegal in Cuba and about 15 years ago the government allowed them to operate but only tourists can afford to eat in them. The restaurant owners have people scouting the streets for custom e.g. tourists like us and in return they receive a comission for paying customers. We saw the menu which didn´t appeal and whispered to each. I actually said ´leg it!´but we politely told the duo that we didn´t want to eat there. Immediately the brother and sister duos faces dropped. As we walked away they started with a sob story of how they cannot afford any milk for their baby. Worried that we were miles away from any activity and only the locals were around, we asked how much they needed. To which they replied ´10 CUC´equivalent to about 10 US dollars. To get rid of them we gave them a small amount of change and told them that was all they were getting. It actually turned out that they took us the long way round to hook us in and we weren´t that far from the Plaza.

The ration cards aren´t enough for the Cubans to live off.  The government are starting to phase them out which makes it even harder for them to afford the basics. We understood that they were simply looking to survive and support their family, and they use tourists to make extra money over and above their low minimum monthly wage, and for that I can forgive them. It´s the tactics they deploy that really frustrates you and I think everybody has to get stung once,  it´s the only way you become immune to the polite conversations, the offer of cheap cigar and rum deals, the Í´ll take you to the best restaurant in town etc.

This is just one story like this and we have more and we know of others that have been fleeced out of more! These pictures were sketched of Me, my sister and cousin. The ártist´I use the word loosely asked for 10 CUC (10 US dollars) for them. When we said we didn´t ask for them he said that we had something wrong with our heads and chucked them at us!

Cuba is a once in a lifetime visit that will open your eyes, make you appreciate what you have got and question if you need to have everything you have got.