Cutumba and Rum (ba)!
Trip Start
Apr 10, 2006
1
16
65
Trip End
Ongoing
Santiago de Cuba, Cuba
Sunday, June 18, 2006
Wednesday saw me onto another bus for the 12 hour trip to Santiago de Cuba... The trip was through some great scenery - the Cuban countryside is very clean - and really interesting as the farming methods used seem to be from about a hundred years ago. I arrived after dark and was met by the seemingly nice Mirtha (time would prove otherwise...) and whisked off to her casa.
I think Santiago de Cuba was definitely my favourite town in Cuba - it just had a cool vibe and definitely had much more stuff going on than in Havana - and it was far less touristy. I went to the Carnaval Museum on my first day (since I wasn't going to be able to stay for the real thing) which was great - very interesting and inspirational - their costumes are amazing!! I had lunch in the park and chatted to a couple of Cuban rasta guys, who seemed fine (by this time my dodgeball antennae were constantly on high alert!) but they unfortunately got fined and taken off to the police station for doing that - the government uses strong-arm tactics to discourage "fraternization" between foreigners and locals. It's supposed to be aimed at stopping tourists from being harassed by dodgy locals (although it didn't work for me in Havana!) but I think it's more just to stop communication - all those dangerously anti-communist or pro-democratic things we might talk about. Later on, I went down to the Cutumba centre - an amazing discovery - to meet a man called Ramon (who had been recommended to me by a British chap that I met in Havana whom he taught how to play the drums). I told Ramon about my project and he was immediately so welcoming and friendly - we got on fabulously well and I really hope to work with him at some point. Cutumba is a company that performs afro-cuban folkloric dance and music and offers various classes. They have performed overseas and I was very lucky to see a show of theirs the next afternoon (a German producer was over to see the show with the intention of organizing a tour) - it was amazing!! All the passion and vibrancy that I had been looking for but had not yet found - in abundance! Ramon invited me to another show that night at a place called the Casa Caribe which was also great - and he and the guys from his band were just really nice. We met up the next day and they all patiently explained to me what I wanted to know about the music, the dances, the history - of course with the assistance of ... a bottle of rum ! Ramon and I met up again in the evening and chatted until about 2 am about all kinds of things and life and creative experiences - my Cuban Spanish had hugely improved!! I was really lucky to have met him and to have had those experiences in Santiago - it kind of redeemed Cuba for me I think.
