Saturday, January 16, 2016
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| Our final Cuban sunrise. The sun has finally returned to Cuba! |
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| Horse cart signs |
We had a final breakfast buffet about
7:45am. Bags were out by 9:45am. We loaded the bus at 10:15am. We had a stop at
a group of open-air thatched-roof small buildings. There were rest rooms, bars,
souvenirs and snacks and music. There were 4 or 5 other buses there so I guess
it exists solely for tour bus stops.
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| Horse cart signs and always people waiting by the road |
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| Old cars |
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| Old train crossing in Matanzas |
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| It looked like it came out of a Mad Max movie! |
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| Our roadside rest stop |
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| Papaya tree |
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| Havana Club Rum factory |
We arrived at Jose Marti Airport at Havana
about 12:40pm. The place looked like a mob scene out of India or Saigon. Oddly
enough most of the throngs were outside arrivals waiting. That worked for us
with light crowds at departures. We had a pretty short wait to have our bags
weighed and checked. Trish ran around exchanging CUCs to US Dollars for people who wanted and she could find Cuban citizens willing to do it at 1 to 1. Again , contrary to our pre-trip info only our checked
bags were weighed against our 44 pounds allowance. We went to security around
the corner but first had to exit a final time through customs/immigration. They
took our last segment of visa. They had us remove our glasses for photos. The
lines were short and there were several lines open. You exited directly into a
very short line for security. We all got through quickly after removing our
watches and shoes. Right around 1pm we were at the gates area, I guess you
would call it, a large open room with rest rooms (reeking!), a small cafeteria
area, some shops, duty free, money exchange, etc. In the center of the room was
a lot of seating, but not really enough. It took us some time to find an area
to sit with all 4 together. It took more effort later to find seats together
near the gate doors and glass front to see what was happening on the tarmac.
Clay bought us sandwiches and drinks to share for lunch. Clay and Judy had a
parting Cuban beer, Bucanero. Judy and I went to use the restroom at about
2:40pm thinking we had about 20 minutes before we’d start boarding for our
3:40pm flight. By now we had realized that we could not hear announcements
where we sat nor could we watch the departure doors or boards closely. We got
moved about an hour after our flight should have departed. That was about the
same time our on time status and our flight listing disappeared from the status
board. We could hear announcements and see everything now. We had learned that
all the flights were delayed whether the status board listed it or not. We
learned that some departures were announced and some were not. Some departures
were posted over the exit doors and some were not. We heard 2 AA arrivals
announced and saw the planes parked on the tarmac. There were a couple of
Spanish-speakers in our group and 2 of them relayed that the 2nd
arrival should be our outboard to Miami. Given that we had waited over an hour
for our own luggage on arrival and having watched several arrivals unload, we
knew it would be about an hour and a half before we could possibly board. I
went to the restroom again about 20 minutes in advance a second time. Almost a
full six hours after we arrived we thought we saw them boarding our flight with
no sign or announcement. Clay and I got up with our carry-ons and got behind
about 8 to 10 people. We could see the agent scanning the boarding passes and
the people going out and across the tarmac to what we thought was the right
plane. We asked the people in front of us what flight they were boarding and
they had the same flight number as we did. I waved Mom & Judy over and we
struggled to hold our positions as people crowded and surged forward. The last
people to board were still complaining that there had been no announcements or
signs for the flight. I honestly have no idea how the first people in line and
out and boarded knew it was time to go! Several people in our group asked how
we knew and I told them we’d been watching. I had learned an important lesson
at the Delta gate in RDU waiting to fly to Orlando on my birthday last year! If
people sitting at the gate at RDU could be left behind because of no or wrong
signage and no announcements, then it was bound to happen anywhere and it did.
The AA ABC charter flight seemed to be completely full so I guess everyone
today did figure it out.
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| Farewell to Cuba |
The flight was about 45 minutes with another rushed and
limited pretzel and beverage service. We landed and then it took us about
another 2 hours to get out of the airport! MIA is a nightmare for international
arrivals! They use kiosks for customs which does not seem more efficient to me
than the old paper form filled out on the plane. We had to walk a maze, ride
escalators and a train to get to a long line for a kiosk. It took our photos
and printed them on a receipt. Clay’s receipt had a big X across it. Then we
had another long line to get through border control/immigration. As we came to
the end of the line, a woman was calling American citizens with an X to come to
a shorter and closer line. Clay veered over and I tried to follow him. Mom
& Judy were not far behind me. She had checked Clay’s form and waved him
into her line but she told me no. I pointed to Clay as he walked away. She
asked if I was with him and I said yes. By this time Clay had reached a turn in
the line and turned around and said I was his wife. She told me to go ahead. I
did and turned back as a large family shoved Mom almost to the ground. I was
shouting to the woman that my Mother was with us. She finally got the family
through and asked which my mother was. I pointed and she waved Mom & Judy
through. I guess the X was a random assignment but it meant a shorter and
quicker line with no photos or fingerprints. After we got through that we had
to go to baggage claim. Three bags were found pretty quickly on carousel 9 but
not Clay’s. Everyone was desperate for a bathroom by now. I was the last to go
so I volunteered to stay with the luggage. There were few bags left on the
carousel by now I noticed a lot pulled off and sitting around the aisles so I
started scanning for Clay’s and soon found it. It was staged to be loaded on a
cart by a man with a wife and small child in a stroller! I hesitated to leave the
other’s bags but ran down and grabbed it just as the man reached to pick it up.
It looked like Clay’s small black hard sided 4-wheeled bag and it had the 2
ribbons I had tied on it as well as the blue Friendly Planet strap and a Tulane
University tag. The man yelled at me and I kept running back as I checked that
Clay’s name was on the tag. I still can’t believe he was trying to take it!
Clay and then Mom came back to me before the man finished loading his cart and
he had to pass right by but did not confront me again about Clay’s suitcase. I
used the restroom and then it took us about 15 minutes of walking to find that
the line to exit the baggage claim circled the entire room! It was probably the
distance of a city block. We learned that one of Judy’s wheels had been
damaged! We were getting worried now. We thought there was a gate closing
deadline for the paid parking lot where we left the car. I thought it was
midnight or 1am. Clay thought it was 10pm. It was not written on the printouts
I had remaining. (I had to give one to the attendant before we left.
Inconveniently, I think it was printed there. Clay had a digital copy of it on
his phone, in the car.) So we were rushing like the deadline was 10pm and we
were all anxious to get to bed tonight anyway. It is exhausting to fly anymore!
We all felt better for the US public restrooms anyway! After we got out of
baggage claim with our bags, we got in more slow lines to get through Customs.
Fortunately, we all only answered where we’d been and turned in our photo
receipts here. Now we had to go up and down through some more mazes to get to
the hotel shuttles. We walked outside and in about 100 feet saw the Crowne
Plaza’s bus loading. Clay and I ran and caught it so we all got our bags and
seats and arrived at the hotel’s secure parking lot and packed the car and left
by 9:50pm. So we never did find out when or if they lock the gate. It poured
rain again as we left. We haven’t missed a rainy day since this trip started!
We had some kind of GPS malfunction and after driving in circles decided a stop
for a quick meal was in order. We ate a quick light meal at McDonald’s and got
Clay some caffeine and started out again using his phone as a GPS this time. We
had already figured it out from the Google Maps and what Mom had read on road
signs while eating, but we directly got out. Mom had the $3 for the Alligator
Alley toll and we went on to her home in fairly heavy traffic for midnight and
after. We all got to bed around one AM. Judy had planned to drive on home
originally, but not after the 4 hour or so delay. There was another Cuban guide
on our shuttle bus from the airport and he said the LA flight before ours was
delayed even longer and he said last week his return flight had been delayed 10
hours. We were expecting delays and we got them.
There are some real challenges to traveling in Cuba that we
have not experienced anywhere else in the world in the last 20 years. Change is
the only thing happening rapidly in Cuba and we wish them well. We are all glad
we went and all glad to be back in the USA. We discussed it again a few times
in the past few days and no one has a desire for another trip. Of course, we
said that after the Canadian Maritimes and the Mississippi River too, so time
will tell.
One last random observation. I don’t think I wrote about it
before but Clay commented on it and I don’t know if it bothered him as well I
don’t know if our experience was usual or unusual. The thing was that out of
our tour group of 23, only 4 were men. The other 19 were women. There were 2
mother-daughters traveling together, and one woman traveling alone but all the
rest were women friends traveling in pairs. Only 4 couples were traditional
married couples. As I say, I don’t have any reason to believe this was because
of Friendly Planet or Cuba but it was remarkable and I thought I should point
it out.
A cultural exchange moment. I don't remember writing about it before so I will do so here. Our Cuban guide, Grency, had her 31st birthday on Tuesday. I usually keep some embroidered patches from North Carolina in my travel purse. They are great for traveler diplomacy. They are a one size fits all gift that is compact and easy to carry as well as being just a cool thing to give someone who is unlikely to ever visit North Carolina. I try to keep at least 1 NC flag and 1 NC Great Seal in there. When I went to get one out to give Grency for her birthday, I only found a flag. OK, I gave it to her. When we got back to the room, I got out my stash of patches and put all of them in my purse. A couple of days later, Grency came back to me on the bus and gave me a Cuban 3 peso coin from 1990. She explained that it was interesting because of the picture of Che Guevara on one side and the Shield of Cuba on the other. She proceeded to explain the meaning of the symbols. I immediately started rooting in my purse for the Great Seal of NC. I knew she'd like it, as it too is rich in symbology. I gave her one and when she asked me to explain it I am sorry to say that I drew a blank! She told me she'd Google it. I have Googled both now of course. I found an interesting common element and I hope that Grency has too by now. I hadn't ever actually noticed it on NC's seal before, but there it is. Both symbols contain a Phrygian cap, an ancient symbol of freedom! Of course, there would be a slight difference, Cuba's cap has a single star on it. Now we have all learned something.
Despite my earlier claims to the contrary, we have already planned a couple more short trips for 2016. We've already booked the spring NC Transportation Museum trip. We are waitlisted for Crystal Cruises' Northwest Passage cruise. Fingers crossed that we will somehow clear the waitlist and take this trip. The Northwest Passage cruise is the final trip on my bucket list! Also, for our birthdays this year, we have booked a parade view room of the 2016 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. I believe this may be the most expensive per diem ever for us! It is certainly the most expensive hotel room we've ever booked. There are fewer NYC hotel rooms with a parade route view than you would expect though, so I guess when you have a high demand, limited quantity commodity you can set your price high and still sell out. Just like that Northwest Passage cruise! So, stay tuned.
