CUBAN TRANSITIONS

After an excursion in Cienfuegos, those of us who had left the beach were supposed to meet the rest of the group at the botanical gardens.  The bus was at the hotel, so we found alternate transportation—three horses, each dragging a cart and a driver.  We all excitedly piled in, assuming the venture would be short, but exciting.

After only moving by bus, it was great to see the rural space up close, and get to know our knew drivers.

 

I sat upfront, with Alexi, our 22-year-old driver, who loved his hard-working horse.

Alexi had never heard of the botanical gardens, so we followed closely behind the other two carts.

We had no idea how far the gardens were, but we were moving about the speed of a bicycle.

 

Even far into the fields, and farms, propaganda billboards made appearances, asserting the government’s influence outside of the city.

(A father holding his young baby, as we pass by in our buggy)

Riding on the road, with cars everywhere, proved difficult. Sometimes we were angrily passed.  Our horse’s hooves would slip from the oil on the pavement, as Alexi explained, and all of a sudden would begin to fall.  Alexi tried his best to keep the horse afloat, but we took a lot of breaks to give him a rest, and let him walk on the grass.

 

 

(Taking a break for the horses)

Alexi soon understood why our horse was so slow! He had to pee. So we pulled over and Alexi tried to coaz his horse, so the other two carts pulled over alongside us, as we waited.

Alexi, though quiet at first, was very interesting.  He had never left Cienfuegos in his life, and greatly admired Fidel.  Raul, on the other hand, he didn’t have strong feelings for.  He explained that he wasn’t in school, because he had to work, but he met lots of different kinds of people working as a driver.  His two brothers were in graduate school, while he lived at home with his mom.  He was curious about parties in the US, but we told him they were nothing compared to Cuban fiestas.  When we asked about American music, he said he was a big fan of Pitbull, and he played reggaeton on his cell phone for us.  He really loved Cuba, and as we looked through the souvenirs we had bought, we showed him old postcard pictures of Che and Fidel, which he excitedly viewed, as I held them in his sight-line.

When we stopped again, Gordon took a break in the grass.

We soon discovered one of the carts had a flat tire, so we tried to find another way to get to the gardens.  Only one car passed the whole time we were stopped, so the driver found a farm to hold his horse, on the side of the road, and we piled on to the two carts which were left.

We stopped again to readjust the horses girdle, and make him more comfortable.

An abandoned bus on the side of the road

Lisa and Gordon get comfortable on the cart, as we very closely follow behind.

When the weight got to be too much for the horses, up big hills, we all helped out by walking along the road, as they rode ahead.

All in all, it took us about three hours to get the garden, and needless to say, we missed the tour.  However, finally getting to see another side of Cuba, without the shielding comfort of our huge bus.  We encountered difficutlies, but our drivers were dedicated to getting us to the garden, and happy to be part of the experience.