Yasmina's staircase

Friday, December 8th 2017

Trinidad and Habana, Cuba

It’s 7:30am and we are gathering for Darnel’s amazing coffee before our 8am departure to Habana. Once we all have coffee in hand, Darnel and I go over our bill for the mini bar. We drank all of the beer and most of the soda. Our bill comes out to 12 CUCs. 

By 7:55am, Yusmani, our driver, is knocking on the door. By 7:59 we are on our way. The car ride is long and I spend most of it watching Netflix on my iPad. At one point, Yusmani pulls over to pee on the side of the road. While we are waiting patiently, a police officer approaches our parked car. Oh crap, we quickly nominate Laura to talk and roll down the window. Laura manages to sputter out something to the effect of "bano de la naturaleza", which translates to "nature's toilet". Soon Yusmani comes running back to the car and we all laugh. 

At the halfway point we meet up with Hickli again and switch into his boat of a car. Andrew sits up front and explains that we need a place to stay in Habana. Hickli is all business and it's taken care of in 5 minutes flat.

Eventually, we arrive at our casa particular in Habana. Hickli asks if we want to look around first and we all get the feeling that we should. We enter into a shell of a building and into another building inside of it. We are led up a marble staircase, which is significantly tilted to one side. 

Hickli introduces us to Yasmina, who shows us the first room. The ceiling is low, but there is an AC unit and lots of space. She says that she needs to clean the second room, but shows it to us anyways. There are toys and clothes strewn everywhere. This is clearly a child’s room and I feel terrible about taking it. None of us are sure what to do, but we are uncomfortable refusing the house so we just smile and nod.  

Yasmina asks if we want coffee and I automatically say yes and then immediately regret my decision. It takes 20 minutes to make the coffee and the boiling water is raising the temperature in the whole apartment.

Once we’ve fully displaced Yasmina and her son, we head into town for lunch. We pick the first restaurant that we see (they are all starting to taste the same anyways).

After lunch, we walk to our old neighborhood to visit the shopping square that Pablo showed us on our first day. First things first, we all buy a few bottles of rum. Next Laura and Andrew go into the the cigar shop. There is conflicting information on how many cigars you can bring back to the US. I sit outside while Laura and Andrew figure everything out. I feel like I should be buying more cigars, but, honestly, I just don't want them.  

Next, we walk slowly back to our house while looking for tshirts. I am surprised by the lack of souvenirs in Habana. Eventually I find a t-shirt and canvas bag; I successfully negotiate the price down by 5 CUCs. It's our last day in Cuba and I am finally getting the hang of things!

Once we drop our stuff off, it is getting to be late afternoon and we have nothing left to do. We find a table on the front porch of a large water-facing bar and start to peruse their extremely complicated drink menu. When the server finally arrives he explains that they only have mojitos. Alright, tres mojitos!

20 minutes later, we see our server walking towards the bar carrying a large bag of ice on his back. I think to myself that I don’t even want ice but am gracious when our drinks finally arrive. Around 8pm, we decide to walk over to La Buena Vista Social Club. We we arrive it comes to light that (A) tickets are 80 CUCs each and (B) there are no tickets left. We ask if we can sit in the bar for appetizers and drinks and they oblige. 

This place is pretty cool, but compared to everything else, it is grossly overpriced. I end up ordering a sangria and we all split an appetizer. We have a nice time and decide to head back to our side of town for dinner. By the time we get there, it’s late. We pick the first restaurant we see. The service is slow and we finish 2 rounds beer before we get our food. Somewhere amidst fatigue, dehydration and Yasmina’s tilted staircase, I get the idea that nothing in Habana is structurally sound, including our current balcony. I study the balconies on the building across the street intently. I am sure that our table is going to crash down to street-level any minute.  

After surviving dinner, we make the short walk back to our casa particular. Upon approach of our titled marble staircase we all quietly take out our phones for pictures. For the last time, we ascend the staircase. 

I have officially met my limit for crumbling infrastructure and overcooked meat and I am glad this is our last night in Cuba. 

When I enter my room, it is only partially cleaned. I think that I will never fall asleep, but I am out the second my head hits the pillow.