Good morning Cuba!
The girls and I started the day with our usual stop at our mercado for fritas. Then, we continued to Mimita’s house where we were greeted with our usual café and a surprise treat of malanga fritas. We had developed new traditions.
We presented Mimita with a gift from my friend, a computer tablet. Although we told Mimita about the tablet, her enthusiasm when seeing it was that of a child at Christmas. While she pushed buttons and ran her hand across the tablet, Mimita elaborated about how this gift would allow her to face-time with her children.
My girls answered questions and demonstrated uses on the tablet. After a while we decided to put the tablet aside and explore.
Luis had been raving about a paladista mercado a few blocks away and today we would visit. My girls wanted guava and I wanted mamey.
This mercado was bigger and had a wider selection of fruits, vegetables, meats, and flowers. We found our goodies and headed back to the house to leave our purchases.
Luis dropped us at the Almacenes San José to purchase the art we previously viewed and needed to bring home. Art secured and we were off again.
We wandered what were now familiar streets and snacked on churros and bolas de coco frita. We stopped at other art galleries in Plaza Vieja and purchased a few more pieces.
We stumbled upon Piscolabis, a tienda (store), and recognized the name from our research. The store was sparsely stocked with unusual handicrafts. We sat at the small outside tables and enjoyed some café while we people-watched.
Time for cena (dinner). Our research provided us the nearby paladar of Doña Eutima located at Callejon del Chorro # 60-C | Plaza de la Catedral, Habana Vieja. It is located at the end of an alley with other flanking paladars. We were seated at the closest table to the entrance and courtyard.
We ordered frozen lime daiquiris and mojitos, shrimp cocktail, and garbanzos for appetizers. For dinner, we ordered the picadillo, closely as delicious as my Mami’s.
Mimita phoned Luis and we were whisked away to our casita. We enjoyed our usual recap of the day’s activities on the breezy balcony and then off to bed.
Home sweet home…90 miles away from home.
Until next time…
· izzy
For 50 years I eagerly listened to stories about Cuba from my parents, family, family friends, and even strangers. With the passing of my Papi and my Mami I began to long for the connection we shared with our birth-land. After months of planning, myself along with my two daughters and a close friend traveled approximately 93 miles south of Key West to the Pearl of the Antilles.
We arrived to Cuba as a party of four…but we felt like a party of five as we carried a backpack with us always. The backpack became known as la Mochila and Mimita affectionately nicknamed it “la 70 kilo mochila”. Each morning I packed la Mochila for the day ahead.
Early morning wakeup call! We were chomping at the bit for our road trip to Viñales. The four of us walked to Mimita’s home where we were once again greeted with café. Today Mimita would stay home to care for her mother and Luis would drive and accompany us on our first road trip in Cuba.
I awoke in my bed to the familiar humming of my room air-conditioner. What time is it? There was not a clock in my room and our cell phones slept in la Mochila. Who else is awake? What are we going to do with our day? It was a leisurely morning for all of us. Because of our limited Wi-Fi access, weather was determined by opening the wood shuttered doors to our balcony. The day was a overcast. It felt right, like a comforting blanket, we were assimilating to Cuba.
Up at eight bells!
No time for our customary trip to el mercado. We need to pack our overnight bags. We are taking a road trip to Varadero Beach.
We returned to the open air establishment for café and pictures on the beach. The wind had settled, the surf had calmed, and the red flag had been removed allowing bathers to venture into the pristine water.
Time to hit the road.
We awoke to a leisurely morning…my favorite kind of morning.
We arrived at Mimita’s where she had a stack of photo albums for us to enjoy. The pictures in the albums made me melancholy. Mimita’s albums contained many pictures I had never seen. My parents only had a few pictures of Cuba in their possession.
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