Cuba: Day 8 - Part 2

Downtown Havana, with the Capitol in the background

Back at the hotel, we have a fascinating guest waiting for us:  American author Marc Frank, who now resides in Cuba.  He wrote the book Cuban Revelations, which National Geographic sent us to prepare for this trip. (Mine has been passed on to the Ann Arbor District Library, and they were thrilled to have it.)  He not only talks about Cuba’s history but also its culture.  One point he makes, comically, is how important family is here.  Comically because he says his Cuban wife, who is from a large family that’s always visiting, is away right now and he finally has the house to himself.  He fields questions, including The Big One:  what will happen to Cuba once the embargo is lifted.  Like most Cubans, he is cautiously optimistic.  Many people here don’t see the downside, but we Americans are more pessimistic.  I hope we’re wrong and they’re right.

       Then it’s time for us to prepare our suitcases.  I have little to pack and our farewell reception isn’t until 6 so I take my camera out for one last paseo through the streets of Havana.  To try a different route than the one we’ve taken several times, I head down a street that’s being dug up for a new sewer system.  As the old one probably dates from the mid-Fifties - or even before! - it’s sorely needed.  Also it would be a good idea before the expected influx of American tourists that Cubans feel is right around the corner, now that Obama has started the process.
       This is not the tourist trail and different from what I’ve seen so far. The streets have their share of memorable people.  There’s the lady in the flesh-colored leggings that reveal... well, pretty much everything, including her thong line, but who attracts little notice except from me.  There’s the toddler in her mother’s arms, a pacifier in her mouth but wearing a very fashionable red and black smocked dress with a matching red poppy headband, and gold sandals to boot.  There are the five pre-teen boys playing street soccer, with a girl as goalie - and she’s very, very good... maybe even the best of them all.  There’s the man trying to paint a wall while two others tell him how he’s doing it all wrong.  There’s the young man crouched in the gutter, repairing his pedicab, flipped on its end.  There’s the bearded man intently reading his novel on a park bench, impervious to the noisy, busy world around him.  And the white-haired lady embroidering on another bench.  And the lady on yet another bench who wants me to take a photo of her little dog Princess.  The people of Cuba.  I’ll miss them.  But it’s time to get back to the hotel and change.

       After the reception, a huge surprise.  We come out the hotel door and... there are five classic cars waiting, including a red Edsel.  Taxis to take us to our last supper.  What a wonderful thought.  The perfect touch!  We pull up in front of El Litoral on the Malecón along the Atlantic.  This restaurant is decorated à la Fifties, like the cars.  It all fits together.  What wonderful memories the National Geographic team has woven for us!