Unusual dinner in the miserable Cuban countryside
Cuba, where I only made a living sea, with some travel to Havana and in the south, I wanted to tell only one episode:
"Do not accept invitations to dinner by the Cuban people you meet on the beach." This is the first thing you hear from the usual accompanying say you "light" armored bus on the arrival of tourists from the airport to your hotel. The suggestion is given, in their view, the lack of health and safety and other standards to which we are accustomed.
And of course this is the first thing I wanted to do during my stay in "Varadero", and now I consider one of the essential experiences for those who wish to laze on the beaches in
Cuba.
While you're lying on the white Caribbean beach, can sometimes happen to be "boarded" by a sympathetic Cuban, whose kindness and hospitality will remain one of the best memories of the holiday, which stops for a chat about various topics, from politics of his country to the curiosity towards you, until you reach the conclusion the proposal to spend an evening in her home kitchen with a base of lobster.
We want an evening, Pedro (his name does not remember me, so call him) tells us that the place to go is not a 5 star restaurant, you must satisfy the furniture, the houses where he lives are poor, so poor that we can accommodate your own home, because no water and light, so we go to eat from his father.
In this country of course the car is a luxury, so we will come to the doctor of the nearby village, one of the few to be in possession. We agree on the price: $ 10 per person (at that time, 1993, the dollar was about 1300 pounds).
That evening the doctor was on time, go up on his vintage cars (the cars in
Cuba are very old, but kept as jewelry). Virtually on the back seat seems to be sitting on a sofa, with legs spread we enjoyed the scenery. Emerging from Varadero you enter a brick-built houses, many of which are finite, many left in half. We continue, and the houses fall in masonry, to be increasingly rare, the first country ends, followed by a piece of campaign, then a village with houses made of wood. The more you continue, the more it seems that poverty increases .... And we continue!
Finally, after about fifteen minutes, we reach the goal: to enter the village seems to be catapulted into a book set nell'800. The streets are unpaved, sometimes we walk on wooden walkways to overcome a rigagnolo, the side you see the cables of the current drawn randomly on small wooden or earth. We arrive at "our home" and we meet our friend Pedro, who greets us with open arms, flanked by his young wife and parents. Water and food are outside under a thatched roof, his mother is washing the victuals in almost half the dirt and is finishing cooking our lobster. We enter: a light bulb hanging in the center of the ceiling to illuminate the environment with low, consisting of a table, some chairs, an old cupboard, a sofa.
Dinner ready: get 6 huge pieces of lobster, ready to taste (one flesh), a delicacy that does not ever forget. All accompanied by excellent vegetables, fruit, beer, coca cola, water. Needless to mention the freshness, and even the impression of cleanliness appeared satisfactory. So much so that we had absolutely no problems later.
After the dinner we do a tour of the village: some see the house, children leaving the curious to browse. Pedro invites us to visit his house ... we continue to walk in a field with the help of a torch until you come to a hut of mud walls, thatched roof. Within just an old mattress, a small table, the ground floor. No light. No water.
Yet the description of our friend is an immense pride, he explains that that he has built with his father, and over time will be able to improve it, it's just that you are married, the money will come with time.
Let's go back in town and we sit outside with other people, a little to discuss, with a glass of Rhum, a few guitar tunes song.
It 'time to return, the doctor is waiting for us. Our journey in the Middle Ages is over, welcome Pedro and his family, pay the bill (the $ 10 required an offense we feel, we let 20), and we return to our hotel with a veil of sadness and melancholy, but happy to have at least been able to verify for some time that the world does not live as we live.
But that is only a memory, the day after we are on the beach to have fun with our Mojito in his hands, while Pedro is working to find someone to help him to finish his home!