June 22nd 2007: (From beck) "Nick and i got back from Cuba yesterday and i thought it was time for a photo update! we are heading toward mexico city this afternoon having sucessfully scammed half price tickets on the bus! we are both considereing coming home a bit earlier now because we are nearing the end and particuarly nicks budget is low and we dont want to get home with nothing!! the first lot of photos im sending are from Nicaragua with the exception of 2photos, the one of nick and i on a becah with a rainbow is in Coasta Rica- Playa Samara, and the one of nick on a blue beach with a storm in the backgroud is Tulum mexico!! i am goingto send a heap first and you can choose out what you think is interesting, then ill send a second lot from cuba!!
From Nick: "Cuba was fun, a wierd place definately not as socialist as i thought, even if socialist at all...not as expensive as we thought too...it was very pricey but once you got a bit of local currency it was still bad but nopt too bad...havana was a special place...so yeh, we are going to jump on a bus in a few hours here, 20 hour trip to puebla, god mex is a big place, and then to cholula i think again to get our remaining bags...we may explore a wee place down south for a week maybe ,maybe, its a delicious cloud forest really temperate with old shaman ladies and local dancing and mushroom healers all that sort of hippie stuff, might be fun...but i think well probaly skip it and come home so we could be back in just over a week...
And some insight from Beck: "From what i have seen the people in cuba live with what they have and whatever they can get there hands on.. old chairs can be brightened up to look new, a car repainted etc. There is no wastage as such. even handy crafts where amongst some of the more inventive i have seen from cutlery jewelry to can hats. While almost ever person i speak with complains about their struggle to live in Cuba, people seem relatively content. Most cubans are unable to leave the country, have no rights to independent speech and opinion and find it hard to get there hands on some of the most basic products like soap, however i feel that the struggle here brings a passion for survival. Cubans are intelligent, educated people - because of this, i am convinced that some will spend their lives in contempt for all of the opportunities and things they will never have. Due to the fact that media is controlled, people are very misinformed and cubans regularly compare themselves and the strength of their political influence to Europe and America, unaware of the fact that to most of the world they probably only represent a small backward island in the Caribbean. Many cubans however are extremely contented with the socialist dream of cuba, one man i met talked of the ability to send his daughter to school for free, in a safe neighborhood where everyone literally knows everyone due to the fact that it is so difficult to relocate as a cuban. He spoke of Fidel Castro as a god and pointed out that his daughter would even have a policeman escort her across the road to school.. he looked at me and paused as if waiting for an amazed reaction, seemingly unaware of what we back home like to call the 'lollipop lady'.
The mix of people here is beautiful to see, i finally know what it is like to be in a country where there is next to no racism, the music too is a delight and so many good musicians to be heard! a shame that they all play covers from the 50's but Cuba has really become a bit of a theme park for tourists so they go with anything that they know will be a hit!
