Cuba – “Hasta la victoria siempre”

– Full slide show at the bottom of the page –

Lima, September 18th 2016

Friday, march 25th

Our plane took off a few hours ago and La Habana’s lights are finally appearing, sparse and spread out along what seems to be the sea. It is dark outside. Somewhere in this big city something that marks the end of an era is going on: the Rolling Stones are performing for free and for the first time in La Habana, in front of a huge crowd. Yes, the Rolling Stones are in Cuba. Earlier, the same week, President Obama was in this same city in order to work on the trade embargo between those two countries. Historical week then.

Last Monday we didn’t know yet that Cuba would become our destination for this week of vacation. We were looking forward to a climbing trip somewhere not too far, vertical and sunny enough. Bariloche in Argentina looked really appealing for a while. Halas, the beginning of our vacation was as well the beginning of the Semana Santa, the Easter weekend, which is as well a holyday in Peru: the price of the flights increased pretty badly. At some point we even thought about staying in Peru to visit Huaraz and the nearby cliffs but El Niño was still pretty active and it was pouring rain on a daily basis.

Luckily, there are a lot of tools on the Internet to easily compare flights prices. From Lima, it quickly appeared that Cuba could be the most interesting destination: affordable flights, good climate (maybe a tiny bit too humid at this time of the year)… and I remembered that my friend, Olivier R., went there and mentioned some climbing possibilities on the west side of the country. Tuesday evening the plane tickets were bought for a departure on Friday. It was just after validating the purchase that I realized that I didn’t know much about Cuba: all my knowledge was basically limited to what I remembered from my high school history class and to what I had read on the news. Clichés about the country are numerous: rum, cigars, Che Guevara, Fidel,… I had absolutely no idea about what to expect in La Habana. In order to balance our ignorance, we tried to plan at least our first night there, but Easter, the Rolling Stones and Obama are as many reasons to visit the country and La Habana was absolutely packed with tourists. It suddenly seemed impossible to find a roof for our first night. There are basically two kinds of accommodations in Cuba: state managed hotels and casa particular, which is more or less a small bed and breakfast. Hotels are expensive and to us, it seemed much more interesting to stay in the city and to exchange with people. After hours on the phone and on the Internet, it appeared that we might have found something.

From the plane I try to locate the concert light show. I would have loved to be there too, but it was impossible to find an earlier plane. We are finally landing when the Rolling Stones are probably leaving the scene. The taxi driver is taking us to “El Centro”, downtown. He speaks proudly of Cuba while showing us the crowd walking in the dark streets, coming back from the concert, head probably still full of music. He even takes us on a short tour near the Senate and some other interesting buildings before stopping in front of our casa particular. We are pretty sure that someone is waiting for us but after ringing the bell, a sleepy watchman carefully opens the door. The taxi driver is still waiting, just in case… Nobody was waiting for us in this house: it is full and it is past midnight. Listening to our explanations, the watchman decides to wake up the owner. Sleepy but smiling, the latter is finally leading us to a room: a couple of European had to cancel their reservation at the last minute.

It is chilly on the morning. The first light helps to understand the place: it is a 3 stories colonial house. Bedrooms and a large living room that leads to a balcony are situated on the second floor. From there, the first glimpse of La Habana brings a variety of rich and mixed feelings.

At first I feel astonished. In the street, buildings are decrepit or heavily deteriorated. Sometimes it is a couple of floors that have vanished while the first one is still occupied. On other buildings, nature is taking control of the concrete slab and it is not unusual to see a tree letting is roots and branches wondering between walls and roofs. Behind a window frame without glass a kid is looking at the growing activity on the streets.

Then, some kind of fascination is taking over when the first old American cars are quickly appearing, witnesses of a time that is considered past everywhere else in the world. It looks like time hasn’t elapsed here like it did elsewhere.

Finally some awkwardness brings an end to this first experience: are we not some kind of voyeur? What is our insight on this world worth? What are we really bringing here?

In every casa, meals are Gargantuan and our breakfast follows this rule. The very friendly owner is delighted to have Spanish-speaking tourists in his house and take advantage of it by showing us all his improvement projects and asking for our opinion.

We will then spend the two first days walking the streets of La Habana Vieja, the historical part of the city, the most touristic one as well, and of El Centro. Shy at the beginning, I dare not shoot too many photos, worried to overstep a boundary with a world that is not mine, but after a while, looking at my camera, a couple of kind folks are literally posing with a large smile, behind the wheel of an old Lada or smoking a huge cigar. An elderly man approaches and asks me to take a picture of him for some money. He immediately explains that this is “his work”. I reply that shooting pictures is more or less a job for me too. He seems cool with that and we chat about what I like to photograph. He talks about the French history and seems to know more than me about it… After this nice chat, he poses with his friend and asks me to take a photo as a memory.

The main streets with their renovated buildings are packed with tourists. The classics souvenirs shops are lined on both sides and the overall vibe is definitely different than what we felt on the morning. Everything seems too artificial, but stepping out of the main path just a little is enough to be back in the vivacity of the daily life. Indeed, it is this hectic life, those smiles or this willing to enjoy life as much as possible that I will remember. La Habana is an exceptionally lively city.

After two days of photos and tourism, it is time to head to Viñales, little town in the heart of the namesake national park. The large majority of the Cuban cliffs are located in this area. After 3 hours on the road, an old taxi stops in front of the casa that will be our home during 4 days. We somehow managed to book a room there, following the recommendations of our climbing guidebook.

Here, it looks like almost everything has been recently renovated. The houses are painted in bright colors and a lot of them are currently being expanded. It appears that every single house can now offer more rooms to tourists and the owners have jumped on this occasion. Therefore the standard of living seems higher here than in La Habana and our host will even appear driving a brand new Kia.

Cliffs are visible from the city and within walking distance. The path crosses some farms and tobacco plantations. When the light is good enough, contrasts are stunning: the soil is red, everything else is green and the blue sky and its puffy clouds are playing with the sunlight.

Rock is excellent and steep, offering an athletic style of climbing. We ended up visiting only 2 areas, but that was more than enough to fill our days. Every single route we climbed was absolutely amazing. It is probably possible to spend entire weeks here, as possibilities seem countless.

Taking advantage of a day off, it was perfectly normal to jump in a cab and head for one of those pretty isolated beaches. The crowd is small and for a couple of hours we have a piece of white sand for ourselves. I’m casting some flies in the transparent and warm sea and a couple of modest fishes are lured by it. I don’t know those colorful species but they seem greedy and voracious.

From Viñales I will mainly remember the smiles and the apparent tranquility of everyone we met on the trails or in town, the images of cows pulling a plow in the red soil and the kindness of the farmers when we are crossing their land to go climbing. Aren’t we invading a little their life? The limit between a respectful visit and an abusive one is sometimes hard to define and only a flawless behavior from climbers and hikers will help to keep those excellent relations. Everyday Raoul offered some bananas as snacks and invited us to get a Mojito on the way back.

A bus, packed with tourists, is bringing us back to La Habana. We kind of regret the charming old taxi we took 4 days ago, cheaper too. The last day in La Habana is totally different than the first one, in the streets almost empty of tourists.

When we are taking off for Lima our heads are, of course, full of fresh memories but of questions as well. I often hear that we have to visit Cuba now, before it changes forever. Of course, changes have started to occur. You see new cars in the streets; renovated buildings a bit everywhere and people can finally buy the house they are living in. Those changes are unavoidable, perhaps necessary and will probably bring improvement to the daily life. Big, deep changes won’t probably come from the country itself, but more likely from outside… Cuba will probably always be a very interesting travel destination: climbing, fishing or beaches won’t change much (hopefully…). On the other hand, daily life, cities or infrastructures will develop in a way that might slowly make us forget that one day Cuba followed a different path. It is not too difficult to imagine that in 20 or 30 years from now, Cuba will be like all those country that are more or less looking at the same direction. Will we still find the vivid life and animated streets?