When we woke up after the night of drinking and swimming in the ocean, our bodies still plastered with sand, we decided we wanted to get away from the resort area a bit and see the town of Varadero. We walked over to the next hotel on the beach and rented a scooter for the evening at a cost of 15 Pesos. I actually have never driven any kind of motorized bike before that day and I was a little bit worried I might crash. I looked over at Mara as we were signing the paper work for the bike and said “just so you know, I’ve never driven one of these before.” and smirked.
“Oh great!” she laughed a bit nervous, “Thanks for telling me now!”
“I got this!” I reassured and added, “We’ll just take it slow.”
The rental guy gave me a quick run through of the bike and when I say quick, I mean quick! As in, “here’s the keys, here’s the start button, here is your helmet, here is the brakes. Enjoy amigo.”
“Simple!” I smiled at Mara. And it was. We took the evening ripping at 50 to 60 km/h through the entire town of Varadero. Cruised up and down every little side street and looked at all the buildings and restaurants, clubs and bars, as well as got a bit more of a feel for the way of life in Cuba. It was awesome. We stopped at a beach way down the strip from the rest of the touristy spots and parked for a quick break. Just as we got to the edge of the waterfront, a group of HUGE pelicans were fishing and diving in to the water right in front of us. It was breath taking.
We ended the evening at a cabana style restaurant for some native Cuban food and of course, Café con leche. For 4 Pesos (roughly 5$) I had a big plate of rice and beans, fried platinos, salad, a fried quarter chicken, sweet potatoes, corn and to top it off, coffee and water. Actually, I think that that meal was the best money I spent in Cuba.
When we planned the trip, we picked something all-inclusive so we wouldn’t have to worry about being with out drinks or food, so when we left Toronto, we only took close to 100$ with us each. Best Idea for this vacation for sure!!! I’m absolutely positive I would have over spent and paid for a lot of things on this trip if I had taken more money or had access to it. The fact that we had to budget every single peso, made it that much more personal for us to see the country of Cuba. But, if you’ve followed my blog or travels for a bit of time now, you can easily see the developing pattern I have of being some where far away with no money. I actually much pefer to travel with less, it forces me to see and experience things that money would easily take away with convenience and comfort. Not that the 3 star hotel we stayed at made it hard to survive, but rather more appreciative of what we did have and what was offered. Many of the surrounding hotels were lavish and rich on the inside with miles and miles of buffets and Jacuzzis and bars and dance clubs, etc. etc. but none of them offered the personal and more intimate feeling we were able to experience in the less popular hotel with like minded people with in our tax bracket. It was absolutely perfect. I love the hidden things in places, and the people I have had the pleasure of travelling with within my life, usually feel the same way. Making the overall experience of a trip phenomenal.
Ok enough about that. We ended the night back at our hotel watching an amazing cabaret show on the patio, with god knows how many rum and cokes, beers and tequila. Conversing with other travellers about the differences between government, politics, countries and culture. These conversations were of no shortage on the patio at our hotel! Interesting debates and long drawn out ideas of History and revolutions. Again for those of you that know me, know I go all in when it comes to such talks. I needed that. I needed to let out a bunch of dark anger pent up from being in Iraq. I needed to talk with foreign people and help them understand about America and our way of life. And I needed new friends as well as Ideas while I was here. After almost every day on the beach or exploring, I started to look forward to the new arrivals at the hotel, curious about whose brain I could pick.
And again, when the ideas became radical or sometimes others stopped themselves to catch their fear of patriotism. I would smile and say. “Its Cuba tho.”
Relaxing. Sounds easy, definitely looks easy, and to some it might very well be easy, but for me, I have not yet learned the entire trait of sitting still and being calm. Everyone who I told that I was going to Cuba looked at me enviously and said, “awe! You’re going to have an amazing time, just doing nothing, being on the beach…” and so on. I thought to myself, with out the kids running around, and being able to lie on the beach with someone I am close to, in the past it has been a girlfriend or wife that was always included to my beach visits, but on my own I don’t really know what to do. My best attempt was because I was completely hung over from the night before of dancing and drinking, that I made the lawn chair on the beach my home. Drank coffee and water all day and took in the sound of the waves, the sand on my feet, the smell of the air and the breezy warm gusts of wind. Every so often I would jump in the water for a dunk and brush the salt water through my hair, lay down and dry off in the sun. As far as being able to relax fully? I couldn’t.
My mind was bogged down with the pressures of life back home. Yet another failed relationship, that ended once and for all, literally hours before I got on the plane to Cuba, the notion of still holding feelings for passed relationships, as well as the pressure of what the fuck it is I actually want to do with my life. I wished someone would just pay me to write about being on the beach! (Long shot, for sure but I haven’t given up all hope on that dream. )
So I broke out my laptop and started working on my book, writing some new songs and a few poetry pieces. The heart to heart disscussions with Mara helped. She has always inspired me to dig deep within myself and look for the truth about how I feel about someone or something and even though over the time we’ve been friends we’ve had our slight differences, there is no way I can fool her or pretend even to myself. The inspiration came from her telling me to look out at the ocean and with out hesitation mention the first person that comes to mind. That little experiement fucked me up, because I wasn’t the person I would’ve guessed. I sat there puzzled and pondered if it was because I was far away from home or if things were different now. Turns out. The ocean doesn’t lie.
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