We hit the craft market outside of old town and have an hour to do some shopping. It’s huge – and completely overwhelming – with loads of traditional Cuban crafts – paintings, wood carvings, fans, jewelry – after a couple of rows – I’m done! Don’t need anything, really can’t focus on anything – so we wander aimlessly a bit. We decide to get something to drink and see they are selling Bucanero Malta – which is what Julie has with almost every meal. We’re thinking it’s some sort of beer, Bucanero being Ed’s favorite beer. Oh no – how mistaken we were! This is some sweet, sweet, cloyingly sweet dark soda beverage. Yuk! No offense Julie, but it makes my teeth hurt. I can’t even take one whole sip and I’m arguing to throw it away. Makes me shiver still to this day!
So – that experiment failed – we meander and actually stumble upon a jewelry vendor with the coolest shell earrings. They are vibrant colors and she says they are natural and only found in Cuba (translated from Spanish mind you). She doesn’t negotiate all that much – but we still end up with 2 pairs for about 10 CUCs. What the heck (although, now I’m sad that I have them because we watched a PBS special on wild life in Cuba and the shells I have are from Painted snails – Polineta – that live on water and lichen of ferns and plants. The snails are endangered now, because, yes you guessed it, poachers are collecting the snail shells to sell to tourists. Sigh….)
Ok – that done – we have an actual live real beer – then head out to the curb to wait for Osmel and the bus back to the hotel. There is a Coco taxi waiting at the curb (they are so cute!) and an awesome Pink Cadillac (??? maybe, maybe not) across the street with a picture of Che on the front of the hood!
We’re outside with about half our group and a really weird thing happens – this girl comes up to us and asks for Julie. We all tell her Julie isn’t here. She keeps asking are we with Julie, and we say yes, but she is on the bus and will be back in 10 minutes. So the girl tells us that Osmel, the bus driver is her husband, and she is here to give Julie something. We are like, oh, ok, 10 minutes! So, the bus comes, Julie gets off to let us on, I tell Osmel his wife is very pretty – he looks at me like I’m nuts – and off we go. Turns out neither Julie nor Osmel knew this girl – had no idea what we were talking about – and the girl never approached the bus when it arrived. Bizarre!
That funny done – we are back at the hotel with loads of time before our final dinner. Cool – let’s go! Maggi and Richard head to the room to decompress – we hit the streets. At first we thought about wandering into old town to find the craft brew pub, but then we run into Sigrid and Robert – who stayed behind today to go get her camera that she had left at Fusterland – and they tell us they’ve been to the Revolution museum and the Art museum and loved them. So, we think, really? Well, heck, we can go to brew pubs anywhere – let’s go to the Revolution museum and at least get some history from the Cuban perspective – so – off we go.
Turns out to be a great decision. 1 1/2 hours of wandering around Cuban revolution history. Fascinating – and not all propaganda like in Vietnam. We get the whole timeline, history on the Revolution, along with seeing the boat, named Granma, that Fidel, Che and others arrived on from Mexico to begin the uprising against Batista. We also overhear another tour guide talking about how few revolutionaries were with Fidel – and they made it seem like there were a lot more by changing clothes and disguises and moving around a lot. Pretty stealthy stuff!
Not to mention the building itself is beautiful. It used to be the presidential palace up through Batista and was changed into the museum after the Revolution. Very interesting!
We make it all the way through the museum, leaving just at closing time. Perfect timing! And we still have time to spare to soak up some Cuban life while having adult beverages on the patio of the hotel.
This is life….Cuban life!
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