July 31st
Waking up at 7:30 am to catch the bus after staying up till 3am wasn’t easy. Ugh. I somehow managed to get out of my casa at a reasonable time though. Trying to find a taxi to the bus stop was a confusing experience. Many of the taxis in Cuba are not for tourists and can not take tourist money. So, one after another, taxis would tell me no and just leave. Time was ticking away and I was starting to get pretty nervous, but then I was able to get a ride from an “unofficial taxi†(in other words, just some random guy on the street).
The bus ride was 9 hours which isn’t too bad. They played reggaton videos at about a billion decibels for most of the way. Halfway through the journey, we stopped at a roadside eatery so people could get some food. Unfortunately, this wasn’t really a restaurant, they just sold snacks, but the people on the bus descended on the stalls like they were starving. People were buying food and tons of it. They sold these large bags of saltine-like crackers and people were buying like 6 bags at a time.. it was crazy! People were walking away with armfuls of soda, candy, etc. The only nonpackaged good here were these pathetic looking sandwiches that had a slice of paper thin baloney in them or these buns that had, not a whole hot dog, but two hot dog slivers inside. The other thing that people were going crazy for were these non-alcoholic malt beverages which I decided to try… nasty!
We finally arrived in Camaguay, and I started walking. A couple guys asked if I wanted a taxi ride, but I declines. See, it turns out that I’m pretty strapped for cash. I only brought 75$ per day to spend, but after the rip-off conversion (us dollars get a 10% tax),I ended up with only around 58CUC to spend per day. With hotels costing 25CUC, internet costing a whopping 6CUC per hour, et etc, this doesn’t leave me too much. I started the walk into town. A little way into it, I looked at the map, and it turned out that I really miscalculated how far it was. It turned out that it was almost 2 miles away. Uh-oh. And then… it started raining. No, not raining, but dumping. I’m not talking a light shower, I’m talking Niagara falls. It was seriously an insane amount of rain from out of nowhere, and I had to take cover under the awning of some peoples house. Turned out later, that the ride into town would have only cost me like a buck or 2. Damn.
Eventually the rain lightened up and I walked to town. I walked up to the cheapest hotel from the guidebook and look inside. Hrm.. that’s odd… everyone inside is wearing eyepatches. Umm… ok. So, I go inside and it turns out that it’s not a hotel anymore but is now a hospital for people with eye problems. Next, I go to one of the Casas listed in my book. They’re full. But they say they’ll call around to find me a place. I wait there while the lady calls place after place after place, each time shaking her head as she hangs up the phone. This is not a good sign… especially since it just go dark. Finally though, she says that she found a place. Phew.
While the lady was calling, I talked to her daughter who spoke really good English. I really don’t know why, but I instantly got a strange feeling that this girl was Russian. I don’t know if it was the accent she had in her English, or her mannerisms, or what, but there was definitely something Russian about her. I looked around the house to see if I could see any telltale signs. Hrmmm… blue and white china everywhere. Very Russian. But it might not be too. Finally, when I mentioned that I was having a hard time learning Spanish, she mentioned that she was having a hard time learning Russian. Ah-ha!!! It turns out that her husband and mother-in-law are Russian. I’m still not sure then, how I got this Russian vibe. But, right before I let her know that I was Russian etc, the guy showed up to take me to the casa. Damn.
The inside of the casa that I’m staying at (and the Russian’s casa too) were both pretty fancy. Ok, I don’t mean super posh or anything, but definitely way nicer than the casa in Havana. They had really nice furniture, ornate buildings, and nice TVs. It seems like people in this town are a bit better off maybe? Actually, I’ve really been wondering about the people who own these Casas. So, the average Cuban makes about 13$ per month from the govt. It’s socialism, so everyone gets paid pretty much the same. There are a few private enterprises allowed like these casa and certain privately owned restaurants. So… are these people rich? If they make like 25$ a night from tourists, even if they only get booked like ¼ of the nights per month, these people should be ridiculously wealthy by Cuban standards. Of course, I know that the govt taxes them heavily for being entrepreneurs, but still…I do wonder how the money thing works out.
After unpacking, I went to find food. It looks like Camaguay doesn’t have a raging nightlife like Havana did. In Havana, even at 2am people were everywhere, while here at 10pm,the streets were fairly empty and most places were closed. I got a funny version of spaghetti w/ what looked like chopped baloney in it for dinner, and then since I was beat, went to sleep…