5 countries in 36 hours

In the 60s there was a film which poked fun at Americans touring Europe, titled ' If this Tuesday, it must be Belgium '.
Well as I needed to get back to see the doctor, I brought forward my return, and did my own Central America version.
So on Friday teatime I said goodbye to Alice in Cuba, by suppertime was in El Salvador, Nicaragua for bed on Friday and breakfast on Saturday, (I stayed in the hotel opposite the airport, walked over to check in my baggage and went back for breakfast - I paid the same for a double room with amazing shower, and a copious breakfast that I did in Habana for a room in which the bathrom had a toilet that took 5 minutes to finish its percussive flushing, and a window onto the kitchen from which wafted the smell of gas (and not  forgetting the powdered instant tea!) - BUT it was very central and we were supporting the ongoing Revolution).
As Nicaragua is a few hundred miles near to the equator, the sun rises with a vengeance straight up at 6 a.m., and it's tropically warm by 6.15. - different to the sometimes cloud-muted slower incline in Habana, so  breakfast by the pool had geckos running back and fro and to.
The USA for Saturday lunchtime and eventually England for Sunday breakfast. On the plane over amongst the cliche-ridden films, featuring stars instead of actors, fastcut to generate interest in the totally predictable storyline there was Breakfast in Tiffany's - how had I got to my age 'baht seeing it? So I did and enjoyed all the little touches which Almodóvar lovingly referred to in his ' Women on the edge of a nervous breakdown '. 

Things to look forward to -
different clothes to those I've been wearing for the last 2 months;
putting toilet paper in the toilet;
newspapers in English;
going to the library;
Indian restaurants;
sleeping in my own bed;
good soap;
wifi;
marmalade;
a wide variety  of cheese;
playing gamelan;
Seeing a doctor who speaks something other than Spanish.

Things not to look forward to -
the weather;
the Coalition government;
Jet lag;
English reserve;
The knife

VInales 21-23 December

We got the afternoon boat from Cayo Levisa so as to maximize beach time, but the wind got up in the early morning and blew all day (it was the day the world was supposed to end), so we sheltered with others in the bar waiting for the salsa class to start. The crossing back to the mainland was quite rough so we kept getting Caribbean spray in our faces.
As we arrived back at 5.30, our taxi ride to Vinales was mostly in the dark, through a very rural area of Pinar del Rio - people on their way back from tending fields by horse, cart, etc.. The weather was cold so we had to put socks on!
The accommodation seemed to be in a back street of Vinales, but turned out to be full of casas particulares. After a quick meal we wandered into town and found a bar with an acoustic band who were very good.
Next day was market day so we wandered around looking for things to take back for people. VInales had a very similar feel to Estelí in Nicaragua - a rural, tobacco-based cowboy town, only with American cars instead of pickups.
There is a lot to see in the Vinales valley - there is even a tour bus! We hired an American car - a 1957 Studebaker President and went up into the hills for a view of the the valley which is full of red earth overlooked by limestone cliffs, followed by a fascinating visit to a tobacco farm where we learned about the processes of growing, drying and then rolling the 5 different leaves from different heights of the plant into cigars, with honey as the glue!
Then a walk through a cave inhabited by runaway slaves followed by a simple meal 'neath limestone cliffs. Quite a contrast to Cayo Levisa and Habana.
CHristmas Eve we got a taxi back to Habana Vieja for our last week. The motorway from Pianr del Rio to Habana was VERY quiet - so quiet that the taxi driver drove over the central reservation to get to the services on the other side! 
Market Day
Outside a casa particular
Yes it's a cow with a saddle

Cayo Levisa Monday 17th - Friday 21st December

We got up at 5 for an early breakfast before going round to Hotel Tejadillo to board a minibus for the 3 hour journey west from Habana to Cayo Levisa, which is an island that can be reached by a boat that makes the 30 minute journey twice a day.
About 50 cabins face a Caribbean beach with white sand and clear transparent water - other than the Spanish voices you could forget you are in Cuba. The shallow waters mean that the sea isn't cold, and there are trips out to snorkel and scuba dive nearby reefs, as well as salsa classes, massage and a sunset boat trip around the island - it's Tranquillity Central and the busy streets of Old Habana are a world away. Drinking coconut juice from the nut with a straw - champion!
Built in 1992, it's very well designed, and brings in a lot of European and Canadian tourists, especially French.
Alice is reading the Lonely Planet guide to Cuba which she has downloaded on her KIndle - she found us a great restaurant the other day with it. She keeps giving us pertinent facts such as the ban on mobile phones was only lifted in 2008, 51%of all hotels are government owned, and that shops were all government owned prior to last year Apparently there are a lot of new laws that will become active in January which will mean further changes and more freedom. The Lonely Planet says that the food at Cayo Levisa is dull - well they've done summat about that ... also the chef regularly comes out in uniform to sing and dance with the band that play every night ...  he's irrepressible
The snorkeling trip
Sara in the sea before breakfast
The view from Alice's balcony
The sunset boat trip

Habana Vieja 14th December

We breakfasted early and then went to the Musuem of Bellas Artes (Cuban section) which was very interesting, but unfortunately we finished it off with lunch in the cafe.
Then we wandered slowly to the Malecon to watch to feel the seaspray and enjoy the variety of vehicles passing by. After a call at a pharmacy with not much on its shelves and a siesta, we headed into the evening to a nearby bar where there was live music.  Though Ben had brought his saxaphone he couldn't play because a restaurant nearby had managed to get a local law passed whereby brass instruments weren't allowed because of the noise! But we made friends with some of the musicians and the day after he ended up playing in the bar of the Hotel Tejadillo with some, and later on with some others in the Hotel Inglaterra.
We had wandered the streets of Haban Vieja which are quite full of tourists - especially French speaking. The Spanish baroque colonial style is enhanced by a Caribbean flavour which produces a rich cocktail. In old Habana the crumbling colonial buildings are often painted in florescent pastel pinks, yellows and greens. The suburbs tend towards pink and green - but in more subtle shades.
If you are a museum goer you could spend months here before you have seen them all - ceramics, chocolate, guns, Simon Boliivar, Benito Juarez, money - they all have their own as well as the stuffed animals in the Natural History and the tanks and rockets in the Museum of the Revolution.
Some differences between Nicaragua and Cuba:
there are street names and numbers in Cuba;
streets are cleaner in Cuba;
Cuban television has fewer channels, very few adverts - breaks between programmes are filled with cartoons, exhortations to feel good about the cultural, educational and health standards in Cuba (there are also dubbed American films and programmes (even Disney!) which presumably come via Mexico;
Cuba has a lot of tourists, for whom prices are similar to Europe, whereas Nicaragua is cheap;
in Cuba Che is everywhere - a big picture even in the hospital;
there is great music in lots of bars in Cuba, often played acoustically by motley collections of people of different ages and different sartorial standards and who may turn up in another band playing a different instrument;
Nica has billboards that try to  sell you things you don't need - Cuba has less billbaords and the messages are things like - 'These changes will bring more Socialism' Í love this island' ' Socialism or Death;
At the side of the streets in Nica there are stalls overflowing with fruits and vegetables - and they sell a very salty cheese, whereas Cuba has less stalls, less fruit & vegetables and what cheese there is  tastes processed;
In Nica it's quite easy to be a vegetarian as they eat very lttle meat due to iits cost - Cuba has inherited the Spanish mentality of ' if it moves, eat it ';
Nicaragua has cyber cafes and hostals with wi-.fi - Cuba is not really online at all, with 1 or 2 hotels having slow connections if they have one at all.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

The Day of Waiting

La Dia de Esperanza started back  at the clinic waiting to see a urologist, but as he was operating in a hospital I settled down to read Giovanni Belli's account of life in Managua.
A richly evocative tale of growing up in middle class circles, marrying early, working in advertising, getting drawn into the underground Sandiniista movement, fleeing to Costa Rica, helping organize the revolution, meeting Fidel Castro, the eventual overthrow of the Somoza dictatorship and ending up in California. The Country under my Skin is a captivating book.  
After another examination and more soothing words from the urologist, I went to Indira's parents for a lunch of vegetable soup from Camaguey and then headed off for the airport.
The airport was bedlam - full of people, long queues - the lights even went out at one point. But after an hour or four, Sara, Alice, Ben and Sabrina arrived, tired after a long long flight. They were hungry and thirsty but luckily we managed to get  sandwiches and water at the casa particular before surrendering to sleep.  

Habana Vieja

Old Habana is a warren of  narrow streets that is easy to navigate, but dark at night,  and usually the bici-taxis have no  lights. In the daytime it iis full of people. I walked up to the Malecon  and looked out  at the Caribbean. I got talking to two women, a Cuban teacher of dance and her friend, a French Canadian. We enthused about the music of Kate & Anna McGarrigle and talked about the sad passing of Kate, mother to Rufus and Martha Wainwright. I looked around the Catedral, various plazas before going to Chinatown for a meal with Indira and Paco.  
During the meal I mentioned a certain problem I was having and we eventually ended up at Cira Garcia clinic in west Habana to get my tube changed. After calming words from the doctor we got a big American car to taxi us into town and went to a bar festooned with Spanish and Andalucian flags.

Managua and Cuba

Amelie's boyfriend, Marco, travelled up with me tp Managua and we jumped in a taxi to get to my hostal. The taxi driver dropped us off by a school as he didn't know where the hostal was - there are no street names and no house numbers which makes finding places very difficult. Eventually we had to ring to get directions as policemen a few streets away hadn't a clue.
TUesday  11th December 4.20 a.m. I am sitting in the garden watching little white pieces of flowers that illuminate the dark, move down a tree and across the garden, courteousy of leaf cutter ants.
I breakfast in San Salvador where you have to pay in dollars as there is no local currency.
Tea time and it's Cuba, which is slow to enter due to the leisurely pace of immigration and baggage retrieval. The first thing I notice is 2 storey houses, which you don't get many of in Nicaragua - probably due to the existence of regulars tremors and earthquakes. Then it's the cars. The famous American cars of the 40s, 50s and 60s (I had model cars of a Chevrolet Impala and a Ford Thunderbird) are interspersed with lots of Ladas as well as modern cars. When we get into Habana there are lots of motorcycle and sidecars, bicycle rickshaws called bici-taxis, and threewheelers called huevitos because they look like eggs - they are even painted yellow. Taxis are are either red, white or yellow - I even saw a yellow stretch Lada!
I found my Casa Particular in Habana Vieja and then rang Indira and Paco. Indira is a Cuban singer who lives in Bristol with her Spanish boyfriend Paco, who works as a waiter at  La Ruca, but who amongst  other things was once in charge of the Belgian sailing team and has captained yachts across to and around the Caribbean. We met up at the Hotel Nacional, a very large hotel on the seafront that once was owned by Lucky Luciano. The 45th Latin Americal Festival was being held in Hanaba so the terrace bar with directors, actors and the like.

Staying with Joel's sister Isabel in Diriamba was delightful. She has a 4 bedroomed bungalow on the outskirts of Diriamba and I think you would call them middle class - 3 of the bedrooms had windows. It was a pleasure to be in a house that didn't feature telenovelas all the time and her children and frinds were easy going, sociable people.
Her daughter Amelie's boyfriend, Marco travelled with me to Managua and then we tried to find the hostal I'd booked, which took some doing. People never seem to know where things are in Nicaragua - a policeman sitting at the end of the street from here sent us in completely the wrong direction.
But eventually we found the hostal that caters for 'mochileros' and then went to the shopping centre for something to eat. The only difference between Las Américas and Cribbs Causeway was that evereybody had black hair, I looked to be the only foreigner, and in December everyone was in T-shirts. Diriamba was warm with breezes - Managua is hot and sticky.
Tomorrow morning I have to be at the airport for 4.30 to catch a plane to El Salvador and then change for Cuba. I think, however, that I will be entering  a country where it could be hard to be a vegetarian and where WiFi is still in its infancy. Vamos a ver

Adios á La Mariposa y bienvenidos á Diriamba

One of the delights of La Mariposa was the animals - including this toucan. The staff were really great, very helpful - and this is Gonzalo, who drove me to various clinics during the week - qué hombre!
Last week was difficult for others besides me - 1 of Paulette's dogs died & 1 disappeared - they think it was taken by a large boa that slithers around the next-door land. Others were ill, including Martin, a Swiss student from Oxford University studying tarantulas! I saw a large male on the wall so he captured it - when he leaves he'll take his bag of tarantulas up to Léon University, where they will be catalogued before they get flown to Oxford!
Joel, the Nicaraguan that I know in Bristol is one of a family of 10 - 8 brothers & 2 sisters! Nowadays 1 is in Germany & 2 are in the USA, including the 1 who has been in Los Angeles for 25 years and doesn't speak English! I'm staying with Isabel, who lives in Diriamba, which luckily was only half an hour away from La Mariposa, for a couple of nights before I go up to Managua for the flight to Cuba.
This is the most southerly point I have ever been in life - Trondheim the furthest north, San Francisco the furthest west and Delhi the furthest east.
Thus my Spanish conversation classes carry on, in the notable absence of a television. The story that Joel told me about his sister, in her youth a Sandinista gueriila in the jungle, later a human rights lawyer sent by the government to Cuba & Europe, is expanded upon. She was in Costa Rica for a conference on the development of clean water when she gets a phone call. Ortega's wife is ringing to ask her why she went to the conference without asking her permission. Having no need to prove herself, she gives Ortega's wife a mouthful, and on return gives in the governmental car and her well-paid job and goes private. I remember Joel's comment 'we are Sandinistas, but not Danielistas'.

Some photos from la Mariposa

I hve been staying with a family just up the road from La Mariposa. There are 3 houses in a row and are all one big family - I can't for the life of me work out which child is whose as they are in & out of each other's house all the time.
Here is a photo of Rosseling with her mum Brenda, and one of Tatiana, Rosseling & Camille.
La Mariposa is home to Guillermina, who used to live in Sheffield, and so has a right good accent 

La Mariposa

is a delightful place, a language school designed and built by Paulette herself, surrounded by trees - especially bananas, and vegetable gardens. There are dogs, chickens, and large cages containing animals that have been donated by people that can no longer look after them: - monkeys, ducks, budgies, parrots, toucans and birds whose names I can't remember. The number of species of birds landing on bananas and in the birdbath far outnumber those I have seen so far - I remember 3 from Francisco's garden. Paulette puts it down to the lack of pesticides.
She sold a 2-bedroomed house in Sheffield to fund this and made it home for herself and Guillermina 6 years ago. People stay here or with familities nearby, and gIven the proximity, it's not surprising that most of her clientele are from the USA.
On Monday a Frenchman arrived who speaks nothing but French! Some of us with a smattering tried to talk to him but Spanish kept getting into oour sentences.
Paulette has generated a number of projects, and is now thinking of going into semi-retirement. Guillermina is learning Spanish at the local secondary school.  
Besides having Spanish classes in the morning, my time has been taken up with tubes, blood tests, ultrasound and consultations with a doctor who doesn't speak English! The ultrasound lady was interesting - before she started she said a prayer and afterwards she gave me a book called the Way to Christ.
The results of all this were that the doctor thought I should get back to the UK asap to have prostate surgery. However someone who can't sit down and has to go the toilet every 15 minutes to pass a few drops isn't someone who can get on a plane. He agreed and so fitted me with a temporary catheter, so Cuba (fingers crossed) is still on for next Tuesday - have tube, will travel!

A banana tree complete with flower for Rosa & SIena, Jane's daughter in Estelí

Adios a Esteli y una aventura empieza en La Mariposa

May be that joke about Wiwilí was a mistake .... but I'll come to that later.
I feel after a bus ride in Nica that I should get a certificate of achievement, as they get mighty crowded and very uncomfortable - especially the microbuseswhich should carry about 10, but manage to squeeze in about 20 - my rucksack tied to the roof with plastic string..
I arrived at La Mariposa - a Spanish language school set up by Paulette, a friend of a friend, six years ago. Before that she had adopted a Nicaraguan girl and lived in Sheffield.
The night I arrived I had a very restless night - I thought I'd eaten something that was giving me stomach ache, but I couldn't urinate.
The next morning by 8.15 I was at a local doctor's having a tube inserted so that the liquid that was making me unable to sit down could be drained. Tomorrow I'm off to Diriamba for a blood and ultrasound test as the doctor think's it's an inflamed prostate.
I'll never make a joke about willies again