#he thought lechuga meant beautiful

[djungelskogjamjam]

One time my friend’s brother wanted to show off his Spanish skills to his mom for Mother’s Day so he gave her a card that said tu eres amable y lechuga

[itsdelkel]

Hi Its Kel

and sorry to take so long , but heres my thoughts and impressions of Cuba.

The last time i was in Cuba was on a package tour with the family and i loved it . However that was not the true Cuba and spending two months there , often living in the community has given me a very different experience.On arrival in Havanna my first impressions were that things had really started to change. it was much smellier and louder than i remembered but buildings were being renovated and improved and there was more enterprise about. But life in Cuba is still hard. Food is often scarce and queues are long. Queues for bread, for super markets , for internet cards. As a woman who likes to look good , that was definately a challenge in cuba. No hair dye available, no body cream , no decent nail shops , unless you love long and loud acryllic lol! Good job i brought my root touch up!!! Also the quality of the water is terrible . If id stayed any longer i think my hair would have turned a discusting yellow.

|n Havana we started to learn some Spanish and we visited the wonderful casa de Musica where a band plays twice a day and you can dance to your hearts content. Music is everywhere in Cuba . I adored it . Every house has music playing, every restaurant and there is always at least a music house and a few night clubs in every town.

So we found our travel legs in Havana and started to believe that this trip is real and then we took the 6 hour bus ride down to Trinidad. This is a beautiful , cobbled stones , hilly , colonial town where the people are so kind and friendly. We stayed in a casa with great breakfasts (enough to save for lunch) .The sights and sounds here were amazing. We would be woken in the morning by cockrels, horses and carts passing by and all manor of salesmen shouting to advertise their wears along the streets before the day got too hot. We stayed there twice and in the second casa we were lucky enough to be staying with one of the best chefs in the town. This was such a blessing as food in Cuba is sometimes scarce and variety in restaurants limited. But with Mario and his family we ate like kings and were genuinely treated like family.

So From Trinidad we travelled down to Santiago. This was a 13 hour bus ride !!! but we got there and it was worth it. This is not really a tourist area and we lived in an apartment and were fending for ourselves. That meant buying our own food etc. The first morning there i will never forget. Just after dawn we started hearing the street sellers coming. There was Lechuga man with a big wheel barrow full of lettuce, then a man with a bucket and a whistle , a man selling floweres and then a man on a horse and cart selling all kinds of roots and cabbages. that fisrt morning we didnt know what their cries meant so i would send derek out to look and buy what ever he could. The man with the bucket turned out to be selling Patilles(little buiscuits filled with Guava jam ) still hot from the oven. I loved it in Santiago. Shopping everyday for whatever we could find and then having to be creative and make dinner. I think i discovered that cooking is not just something i like but a pasion of mine. In Santago we practiced yoga and insanity , learned some cuban salsa and saw taditional music played in the streets and a famous salsa band in a night club. Our hosts were so kind and that place will always have a place in my heart. It was here that we met our friend Yasmani , who kindly helped us navigate the city and also helped us to undrestand life in Cuba. Cuban people are kind and warm and so layed back. They tolerate the queuing, the waiting and the lack of opportunity with remarkable acceptance and good spirit. In all the time that we were there we did not hear a cross voice , see an angry face or hear or witness anger towards each other or to a child. Cuban perople are educated and have access to free health care. All cultures are valued and celebrated equally (something the western world could learn from) and the arts are encouraged and there is always a celebration or a festival to get the community together. Does all of this compensate for an enforced standard wage and how difficult it is to leave and start a life somewhere else. Not sure.