Photos from Cuba

The Partagas Cigar factory. The birth place of 'Cohiba', 'Monte Cristo', 'Romeo Y Julieta' (Nope they are not Comrade Shakespeare's legacies, they are cigars)


Taxi Taxi


Old Havana


Opposite the Swedish Embassy that houses the United States Trade Centre (The US doesnt have an embassy here).


Public Transportation "Revolution style"


A View from the Avenue Malecon

More notes from Havana

My eleventh day in Havana. Crappy food has resulted in my weight going down by 4 Kgs. Looking and drooling at skimply dressed, Latin American women has resulted in a further reduction of 2 Kgs. Walking up and down La Habana Vieja (means, Old Havana...I am just showing off, dont mind me) has also contributed to further reducing the quantity of physical space I take up in the universe.
There are few websites that give you a fair amount of information about travel to Cuba.
www.cuba-junky.com is one that I found quite useful. If you intend going there, then theres your online travel guide. ME. Internet is a carefully regulated concept here. Most Cubans have access only to their emails. Browsing is a no no. Even to access their emails, they need wait in a line which sometimes stretches for a couple of blocks. For foreigners its different, they (or rather, WE) have wireless internet in the hotel!!
Oh yeah, and the smart ones reading this might ask, why cant the locals use the wi-fi in the hotel? They cant because, 1: Locals are not allowed to enter the hotels. There are dozens of security types in front of each hotel to make sure of that. 2: Even if they did manage to enter the hotel, they dont have a laptop to connect to the internet. More on regulations in Cuba at a later date (It is actually quite fascinating).

More Havana tales

Being in a country where you can’t pronounce 'toilet' the right way (I know as much Spanish as you know German) (Note. If you know German, change that to Mandarin), (More Notes: If you know German and Mandarin, you should be spending your time doing something more useful than reading this), and get sent to the bus station instead of the loo be a bit of a pain at times. Though I won’t complain about my life, there are times when I feel lonely. With an extended family back home and a girlfriend to boot (she reads this, I'll get booted for sure), the life of traveler gets on ones nerves at times. Oh well, the shoe is always better on the other foot, the pasture is always greener on the other side et al.
Typing this out in my room at the Hotel Saratoga in Old Havana, listening to A.R.Rahman's Jana Gana Mana,(internet in Cuba exists now! as does www.raaga.com)I feel a tad bit lost and lonely. Never mind the fact that I'll get over it, it just goes to prove that...oh to hell with it, who cares what it proves.
You only live once, Live it well, Yeah yeah yeah, we went through it before, but that fact is important enough to be repeated over and over again.

Notes from Havana

I saw Fidel Castro! Didn't meet him, just saw him, like one sees Julia Roberts getting off a car and walking down the red carpet.
Cuba is a contradiction. You see people on the road dressed to the Sixes, but they have a bit of bother finding their next meal. You see real nice looking / dressed and (cultured) people standing in a line for hours to buy bread. You also see foreigners eating lobster and crab meat while the locals with what money they have trying to buy meat in the black market on the sly.
You see Comrade Castro having a little chat with his country men and women in the local park and on the other hand, you have locals extremly wary about the police and hmm..the hidden police.
Cars from the 1950s, 60s, baseball crazy folks, crumbling buildings that were built in the late 19th and early 20th century, Havana is a surprise, to put it mildly. I can’t say I fell in love with this place, but I can tell you that Havana has got under my skin.
Friendly folks, great weather, ohhh and good Cigars+cheap rum. Prettiest women I have ever laid my eyes upon (excuse me, that was EYES), minimal traffic that results in air one can breathe without having ones lungs scream like a chicken on its last throes. Havana rocks on that count.
My fourth day here, lemme see,
a. I was invited to lunch at this guys place, he works in a cigar factory.(More to come there)
b. Met a guy who claims to be an Indian by descent and wants to hook me up with a girl.(Creeps me out)
c. Went drinking with a guy who claims to be a cleaner in a cemetery. (This guy speaks English a bit too well and knows shit loads about world news to be a cleaner in a cemetery. Secret police? Its quite possible here, but then again what do I care. )
d. Saw Comrade Castro as I already said. His convoy is a lesson to Indian politicians. Five cars and no headaches to the public. They mind their business and don’t bother others (I was thrilled just to see him though).
e. Staying in a hotel that serves lobster. (Lobster apparently is a big deal here.)
f. Been walking up and down the Malecon (photos shortly) and reaching the conclusion that this is the best marine/beach/playa (Spanish for beach I guess) road on the planet.
Among others I ran into a wanna be rapper who seems to have cut an album (he showed me a CD with his mug on the cover), a security type (Ministry of Interior, as they are called) who wants to be a rapper and a beer swigging Mexican who supposodly is an ex-rapper.
Che Guevara ranks second in popularity here. The fact that he was a doctor from Argentina who decided to fight on behalf of the Cubans might have something to do with that. His story is a must read, his writings are also a must read.
More Cuban history will follow.

Viva La Revolucion

Ernesto 'Che' Guevara.
This picture was taken by a Cuban photographer called Korda. More information on Che is available here .
The AM is in Cuba (smoking a cigar, of course) and hes got loads of pictures. The internet connection in Cuba leaves a little to be desired, so stories and pictures will be uploaded in a while.