Starfish Beach

OK this is the bit where you might get a bit jealous especially if it's cold and grey outside...It's an hour north by bus from Vinales - a tiny little island or Cayo (key) - one little restaurant which the turistas walk a minute from and sit on the sand but if you walk 20 mins along the shore this is what you see...

A Visit To The Country

  After the madness of Havana it was time to get a bit of fresh air - I headed west into Pinar del Rio province - Cuba"s best tobacco growing area I stopped first at Las Terrazas a Cuban eco resort where I stayed in a little thatched hut along with several spiders and frogs - the Cubans know how to put the eek into eco! From there I headed further west to a small town called Vinales - this area is famous all over Cuba for it's scenery    
                                      My hut at Las Terrazas complete with resident vultures!
                                   Butterfly on rainforest walk Las Terrazas
                                    Tobacco drying barn in Vinales - Cuba is all about Cigars!
I stayed in a Casa Particular - these are the equivalent of B&B's - there are no backpackers hostels in Cuba which is a bit of a shame as they are good socially and help with travel planning and local knowledge Self travel around Cuba has been quite challenging - information is pretty hard to come by - especially with beginners Spanish like mine - however I am not totally to blame - Cuban logic is something that is more difficult to learn than the language! If there's a complicated lengthy way to do something thats the way it gets done Ordinary Cubans in their homes and in the street are great but get involved in any transportation or God forbid bureaucracy problem (see later posts) and you are done for! But that's Cuba! As the Cubans say `Es Cuba!`
                                     Oxen working in Vinales - ploughing seeding and pulling carts
     They pull using a Spanish head yoke intoduced when this was a colony and still used today
Campesinos - the people who work in the small Fincas (farms) moving around Vinales Agriculture in Cuba is often on a subsistence level - small holders grow what they need for thrnselves and hope go make a few extra pesos selling off any surplus Lack of mechanisation makes life hard - there are no tractors - animals do all the work - the horse is the means of transport and the ox is the muscle and things are not changing Even in the cities all the public green spaces are hand cut with machettes - no sit on lawnmowers here! The large sugar and tobacco plantations are run by the government and have more mechanisation Still all the produce is totally organic - no pesticides are available I was lucky enough to meet up and have dinner with a family who live on a small finca - it was near the start of the trip so conversation was a bit laborious - mainly consisting of them looking confused and me searching on my iPhone Spanish dictionary for an elusive word! But the food was the best meal I had in Cuba - real Comida Criolla - everything on my plate had been grown or reared on the farm
                                                         Beautiful Vinales countryside
        This is cowboy country! Very few farmers have a car - nearly all get around in carts or they ride
The Vinales area was great for walking running and cycling and if you are adventurous you can climb the   limestone karsts - The Mogotes - which you can see in the pictures
Sugar cane growing near the Mogotes in Vinales and a final word from Raul (Cubans always refer to their politicians by first names)
                  "Beans are as important as guns" !!- is it any wonder he's not as popular as Fidel! :-)

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

This is as Christmassey as I could get!! Hope everyone has a good time _ sadly for reasons best known to Cubas internet service I have been unable to post the blogs I have prepared offline ' its just too time consuming to do them in real time online  so my stories and pictures of this wonderful and sometimes frustrating!! country will have to wait til I get somewhere properly wired!

Christmas is going to be spent diving on the Corn Islands off the Mosquito Coast of Nicargua and then its off to Leon ' a colonial city north of Managua to do a wee bit more vet work before heading south thru Central America

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

The WanderVet

La Habana Loco!

Crazy Havana is the word - quite unlike any other place I have been to!

Colourful Habana

The days in Havana were interesting - I had about 5 days at the clinic and 3 wandering round. Havana is a big city about 2 million (out of 11 million Cubans total with a land area about 80% of England) but the most interesting areas are the Old City and Centro which is the area (barrio) next door - Centro is certainly more representative of how ordinary Habeneros live and the balcony from my Casa Particular (B&B) afforded a great view of Cuban street life - Dominoes is a big interest here and you can find groups of men playing with a passion I did not know you could generate for dominoes!

Dominoes rule here!

 

Street Dogs

Communist Party Poster

Lots of Inspirational Murals of leaders past and present...

Wandering through the streets of Centro all windows and doors are open - people live their lives in full view of one another - you can literally see from one street to another through the houses - I say houses - in Centro they are Old Palacios - merchants houses built in the profits of sugar and tobacco - if Havana had been preserved like London or Paris it would be one of the most incredible cities in the world - I got an opportunity to visit some of the houses with a volunteer from the clinic to administer some of the flea control I had taken over - a lot of the houses have numerous props keeping walls and ceilings from falling in - none of them have windows - the glass long gone - there is electric light but all cooking is done on small gas rings and water is brought in to a communal tank and distributed amongst the building families - often these building are owned by the state - rents are low - about £2 a month - electricity (when its on - powercuts are common) gas and water another £2 - however incomes are low also at £15 a month - the state wage - whether you are a doctor or a roadsweeper the wage is the same. The Cubans have a saying - "They pretend to pay us and we pretend to work"

No advertising here...well only for the Revolution!

A large metal sculpture of Che

Trumpeter sitting on the Malecon wall

Blowing that horn...

Pink Cadillac

Street Dog

Food is the major expense - there is still a ration system in place for basics like rice beans flour eggs - the Cubans queue a long time holding their Libretas (ration cards) for these basics - however it is just about half what is required to feed a family and other food has to be obtained at market price

Typical Habana Centro street

Baseball is an obsession...

Queueing with the Libreta

The state however controls everything - Cubans are looked after by the state like a mother looks after a baby - no one goes hungry - there are no homeless - literacy is high - medical standards are good - but the price is not having a say in how things are run - all laws and regulations are created by a very small group of people - no elections - no free speech - one daily State newspaper - curiously called Granma ( it was the name of Fidel's boat when he and Che landed back in Cuba to start the Revolution) - no freedom of choice and very little freedom of information - all things we take totally for granted - our society in not perfect but for us freedom is everything - most Cubans are contented although they find life somewhat of a struggle - however after 55 years of Revolutionary Government and before that puppet dictatorships no one has a clue what democracy would be like - that fear of the unknown keeps Castroism going - the regime is not cruel but it doesn't give most people a good quality of life either - no doubt democracy will come but like all things in Cuba it will take time!

Fishing on the Malecon

Waves crashing over the Malecon

Old American car cruising the Malecon

Kid sitting on the Malecon Wall

Inside one of the Old Palacios

All very interesting - now lets talk about those other traveler essentials - drink food and wifi - on not talk about them perhaps - wonder why there are no Cuban restaurants on the high street? Now I know - imagine every restaurant in town with the same menu - pork rice beans or chicken rice beans or "meat" rice beans - still only 5 weeks to go! Beer is limited to 2 choices Cristal 4.9% and Bucanero 5.4% - I go for Bucaneros until they run out which is common!

Street Dogs and Old Cars - that's Habana!

I even managed to find a bar in Havana where they ran out of the ingredients to make a mojito! Wifi - well that would be would be just the one hotspot in Havana - the Government allows internet but it is so slow and expensive ( 20% of a monthly wage per hour) that it is outwith a normal Cubans reach - now my cameras are back in action ( I have not had to hit my main one for over a week and my small one responded to an exploratory laparotomy plus a clinic person has lent me one!) I have lots of great pics but uploading them to the blog may be a challenge - we'll see when I get to the internet place - I am writing this on a tablet in my Casa which is a great advantage over my last trip where I spent hours in cafes editing the photos and writing text - now if only my Casa had wi-fi....!

Arrival in La Habana

 

Well I have safely arrived in Havana - just a small scare in Heathrow when an Air France employee told me I had missed my flight then in the same sentence told me I hadn't! Didn't stop me having a minor coronary though! Arrival in Havana was a lengthy process as I got stopped at customs due to the medication and surgical instruments I was carrying for Aniplant - still it was a good Spanish lesson and.after an hour they let me bring everything in
 

Monday morning I headed down to the clinic with my meds which they were very grateful for and met the lovely people who volunteer down there. There wasn't't much going on in the afternoon so I went for a walk into Old Havana - Habana Vieja - the best thj g to do there is just to wander round aimlessly and get lost! Think Venice without any reapairs and you've got the picture There is barely a building that is not in a state of direapair - 60 years of deterioration since the Cuban Revolution - makes for a atmospheric environment but it wont be here for ever as every day buildings collapse!

Nora - who founded the clinic

Edgar the Vet

 Tuesday was operating day at the clinic - mostly dogs brought in by Cuban owners who cant afford private veterinary treatment - neutering costs £1.30!! No that isn't a typo! But with the average state wage being £15 a month you can see its in proportion Operations and carried out somewhat differently to the UK - the owner holds the dog for the anaesthetic and preparation of the operation site and then leaves for the operation - the vet does the operation through the side (in the UK we spay dogs underneath) - takes about 15 minutes - the owner comes in and takes the dog home stll semi anaesthetised! However the surgery was skilled levels of hygeine and pain relief good so I feel the animals and the people are getting a good service 

Tuesday was also noteable for the day both my digital cameras went wrong! Not good - although one of he seems.to repond if I bash against the floor - however I think this is not a long term solution! Just buy another I here you say - this is Cuba! Two choices - Black Market or Government Stores - I'll let you know how that one works out...! Not that there´s goning to be any uploading of pics at the speed I´m surfing ' remember dial up ' try halfing that!!

Cuban Electrics!

Weather here has not been exactly tropical -poured down yesterday but today looks better - we also had to contend with a 24 hour powercut in our area yesterday - and when you have a look at the electrics its not difficult to see why! 

                                                    Adios for now ' The WanderVet

Last day in the UK...

                              Last day - manic last minute packing of course - all fuelled by one of these...

Off  to the airport in a bit - just time for a last minute pint at the Crown - probably the last good beer

for several months....Salud as they say in Cuba - Slainte as they say where I come from!

 - cheers The WanderVet

For the first week in Havana I will be doing some work with Aniplant - a charity which neuters and treats Havana's street dogs. This is the Aniplant Newsletter which will give you an idea of the great work they do