Cuba

Together with Juul Ton, Piet and Edie, we always try to get a week of Cuba in when it is still pre-season. We took off in the first week of December and landed in Manzanillo de Cuba in sunny hot humid weather .
Our hotel was on the Caribean coast at Marea,The Marea del Portillo, it used to be a retreat for the Russians and their families and the Farillion De Caribe which was build in 1984 for Canadian tourist discovering Cuba.
The hotels employ from the local communities and are bussed to work..other wise the parking lot would be full of horse and donkey carts. Locals use their horses and donkey carts for transport and public transport can be a old Dutch RTM bus or just an open lorry, packed to the gills.Tourist get special treatment and travel in luxery coaches with airco.

As always we bring medicine and supplies to the doctors in Marea who cover large areas in the Sierra Maestro Mountains. They have their practise at home and work in the hospital in Pilon too. With no other transportation than a bike the days are long for them. Often they have to share medical equipment as simple as a stethoscope.

The dentist received donations from our local dentist. 100 child tooth brushes, toothpaste, gauze and fillings.
All this is received with happy smiles and we are happy to make just a small difference.
Medical and dental is free the doctors are all well trained but often have no medicine or proper equipment to treat their patients.

Every one of us is allowed two suitcases on the plane and you can imagine most of that space is taken up with what we leave behind in Cuba. Clothes ect. go to the churches and this time is was a Methodist church in Mota.
The people in Marea and in the mountains are kind and will have you for coffee and a meal when visiting.
This time in the mountains it was a pig that was lifted out of its pen and tied up by his hind leg when the dinner invitation was made. The pig was tasty as Juul said;" like my Mom used to make it"!

Granma province in Cuba( a most neglected area in Cuba) is like stepping back into time, we do see just abit of an change everytime we visit this area, more garden plots with irrigation. Houses are improved and more new houses going up. simple but with steel roofs courtesy of president Chavez of Venezuela, a good friend of Fidel. Solar panels to generate electricity in the mountains. Community centres with solar panels TV, vcr, books, and children's activities. We also noticed that all had their kitchen stocked with an electrical slowcooker and deepfryer, a gift from Fidel to cut down on cooking fires. We also saw many parasols to protect from the sun.

A week flies bye and the morning drive back to the airport was through the mountains and past sugarcane fields,small villages with the children in uniform walking to school, the markets busy with food vendors and the road crews cutting the grass with machetes.With the the bougainvilla and oleander in full bloom, the majestic Royal palm rising above all, we say till next time.
Google earth Marea 19 54' 50.96" N 77 11' 59. 06" W
Mota 19 54' 45.09" N 77 09' 12.94" W