Cuba 1985
My friend and I were nineteen. We were each dating a man five or six years older than us. My friend and her boyfriend asked if we would accompany them on a trip to Cuba. I was born in Bangkok Thailand and left at the age of four. I had never gone to a tropical destination since then.
Naturally I was extremely excited at the chance. My boyfriend, now long time ex husband, agreed to go along. It was very inexpensive. Of course it was the bottom of the line resort. We stayed in wooden cabanas. The showers gave us electric shocks.
When we arrived at the resort I was overjoyed with the tropical landscape. It flooded me with memories of my first years in Bangkok.
The next day or two, we both, really wanted to get away from these guys. We realized from early on that we didn't really like them. We married them anyway.
We told them we were going to the nearby local's beach, and they didn't protest. We were happy that those two sticks in the mud were not interested.
Off we went on mopeds that we had rented. We were on a mission to find a bar. We were a little naive about the communist way of life and thought it would be easy.
We rode along beautiful cane fields for miles and miles, and reached what looked like a small village.
My friend was a very typical blonde bombshell, so it didn't take long before we were approached by a Cuban man, also on a moped.
He spoke a little English and asked us if he could help us. We told him we were looking for a bar. At first he didn't understand. We explained making a drinking motion, and we kept saying "bar, cerveza you know?" Somehow we got the message across and he said "ok" and we followed him down the road.
He led us to a building that didn't look like much of anything. We were confused that there was no flashing neon light with a picture of a cocktail.
He pointed to the building and said "ok go." You would think that we would change our mind and go back but we proceeded onward to the door. Feeling quite weird and nervous, we went inside.
It was absolutely pitch dark. We could have used a flashlight. As our eyes adjusted we began to see the appearance of two candle lit faces staring back at us from the far off back of the place.
We were not going to walk that far so we sat on the nearest seats which were bar stools close by at the bar. We just looked at each other and looked at the bar tender. He was absolutely stoic. We didn't want to get up and leave. We would pretend this was normal.
These people didn't understand why two tourists would want to go to a local's bar when drinks were generally included with the vacation deal back at the resort.
We looked at him and one of us said "Dos cervezas por favor."
He surprised us when he abruptly said"No cerveza!"
Okay.... we thought. We asked him "vodka orange por favor."
Again he abruptly said "No vodka!"
Now we were a little confused. Why is this a bar when there are no drinks or does he just not want to give them to us. We were not going to let up.
We asked "rum and coke por favor."
At this point we were willing to keep going until he cracked.
Again his answer would start with no as he abruptly said "No coke!"
We finally asked him what he did have.
The answer was "Rum! only Rum!"
Well after all that we were not going to leave, so rum it was. We buckled up and took the rum. It was awful as we expected. We weren't going to let him see us sweat. We had another.
Well now we were tipsy enough that we didn't care what the bar tender thought of us being in there. We left giddy and he was disgusted with us.
To our surprise and annoyance, the Cuban that led us there was waiting for us and he started to follow us. We really wanted to shake him so we told him our boyfriends were waiting for us. He left us after he kissed my friend's hand. We returned the mopeds, and went back to the local beach next to the resort. We decided to stay there for a while.
After a few minutes we found ourselves surrounded by seven or eight Cuban boys, singing and playing guitar. We were in the middle of a circle. We felt quite giddy and honored that they would serenade us like this. The rum hit us pretty hard so we were not feeling any sense of responsibility. We wanted more and more fun.
Within a short while after that, we found ourselves in a boat with two boys, one was the captain and the other the smiling host.
We felt so caught up in the moment. We were so alive as we were taken out onto the crystal blue waters. We laughed at how lucky we were and how our men had no idea what we were up to.
Wait the men! Oh no. We had lost track of time. My friend didn't have a care in the world but I would be the one that would be struck by the voice of reason. Often it was her but this time it was me.
I felt a sudden tragic fear as the shore would become farther and farther away. I wasn't so much afraid of the strange boys, as the reaction we would get when we stumbled back to the resort. The guys were probably looking all over for us. Perhaps they had police involved already. I quickly put the brakes on our adventure telling them "we have to go back! I had severely killed everyone's buzz. My heart was pumping at the thought of returning and what we were in for.
They took us back and let us off with moods changed. I was surprised that they walked us to the torn down fence that we had hopped over to get to the beach from the resort. We thought they would appreciated if we gave them some money. We knew they were poor.
They were so insulted. They motioned with their hands that they didn't want anything, turning away quickly and walking in the other direction. I guess they were really trying to entertain us.
We stumbled back to the resort, now both of us quite nervous of how much trouble we would be in. We still felt a little tipsy.
We couldn't find them. We went looking and finally noticed them lounging by the pool drinking beer and laughing. They hadn't missed us at all. They could tell we had been drinking though. We told them about the bar. They didn't care.
We both thought how we could still be on a boat in the ocean.
I left all of my photos in Canada so I made an attempt to sketch out some scenes and color them in Photoshop.
Wow.... What an experience!
It just reminds me of when I left my parents house to another country, the feeling was something else. Traveling is one of my hobbies, much things to learn too.
Nice post 👌
Thank you so much. I can't get enough of exploring.
While I was reading this post, I felt like I was watching a movie.
Pretty exciting! Thank you for sharing!
Who made this?
If you mean the post and pics, I did.