Picture Perfect

Booking this beach house was the best idea ever! We had a leisurely morning at our apartment in Vedado. Neither of us are morning people and being in a different time zone makes mornings even uglier. We took our time getting ready, splitting the second half of the giant leftover Cubano for breakfast, and realizing that our placemat was a dead match for Adam Levine’s Super Bowl performance tank top. The Cubano was just as good reheated. We packed our backpacks for our overnight at the beach house in Santa Fe and decided to go pick up some internet access cards as the beach house was listed as having a WiFi hot spot. Neither of us were anxious to get online but as a business owner, Brandon wanted to try to check on business, and I wanted to confirm that we hadn’t received any updates or changes regarding the experiences we had booked. I searched on the maps.me and found there was a ETECSA shack right around the corner. In Cuba you have to purchase internet cards that are good for one hour at a time to connect to the internet in WiFi hot spot areas. That is the only option.

We found the ETECSA (no idea what that stands for) shack and stood in line. It was a little white box with two windows, barely cracked and covered with bars. As we waited in line we realized that people had to show ID to get their cards. Shit. We needed our passports. Which were not on us. We turned around and walked the three blocks back to our apartment for a passport. And then went back to try the shack again. The short line moved slow and people constantly tried to cut in. We had only grabbed Brandon’s passport so I suggested I should stand off to the side so they don’t demand mine too. After a few minutes we were finally the proud owners of two hours of WiFi, to the tune of $1/hour. WiFi that would be closely monitored. We would want to make sure to clear all of our cookies and not access any important information that required logging in.

Our breakfast hadn’t been much and it was lunch time already, we were hungry. But after the time it took to get the WiFi cards we only had about five minutes until we were supposed to meet our driver! We rushed back to the apartment, stopping in the little alley behind our street and grabbing ham and cheese sandwiches from a little storefront, actually quite a large storefront, that only had a couple dozen beverages and a couple dozen sandwiches available to sell. It was a whopping $1 for both sandwiches. We stuffed our faces as we rushed back to the apartment and, sure enough, Julio was already out front waiting for us. Thankfully our bags were packed and ready to go, we just had to run upstairs and grab them.

As we drove west out of La Habana, we drove down 5th Avenue, it was a very important street Julio explained. All the embassies lined 5th Avenue. The American Embassy stood empty while the Russian Embassy stood tall and overbearing. Police were definitely in strong force in this area, they stood on every corner and at times on the center divides of the road. Julio explained that the President and dignitaries drive down this road so it must be very secure. You aren’t supposed to take pictures of the police or military and Brandon gave me a look, shaking his head, as I tried to sneak a picture through the ancient car window.

Finally we arrived at Fusterlandia. This giant art exhibit had been on my “must-do” list and I was excited, I didn’t research it much but knew it was some giant mosaic art installation. The artist, Jose Fuster, agreed to help the government beautify the bus stop in the area and in realizing how much joy it brought people decided to begin turning his home into a mosaic piece of art, and then spread his work through the neighborhood, decorating neighboring homes. The main event of Fusterlandia is Fuster’s home where you wonder the “yard” of mosaic art he has created, going up four stories. I wanted to be more impressed than I was. It was definitely a work of art but much of it seemed very rudimentary and wasn’t my aesthetic. The most interesting part was standing on the higher levels and seeing the “regular” homes surrounding this massive, bright, sculpture of a home. Looking over the railing into the yard right next door a pig could be seen and heard in a little pen rooting around in the muck. Yet, following my gaze up set my eyes to feast on a large mosaic “VIVA CUBA” with the Caribbean ocean shimmering in the background.

Though Fusterlandia had to be a pretty decent place as we did spot a guy there donning a Dallas Cowboys hat (that made these two Coyboys fans smile)! Artists had little shops all around. I really *wanted* to want a painting from one of them but Cuban art just doesn’t seem to be my aesthetic. Nothing excited me much. I don’t think I like Cuban art. And I had such high hopes.

We got back in the car with Julio to head to our villa in Santa Fe. We were right on time as we were supposed to meet our AirBnB host and check in at 3pm. Julio grew frustrated as he could not find the address or figure out where the villa was. I had been smart enough to save the phone number of the host offline so he called her, received thorough directions, and got lost again. He finally stopped a guy on the street and asked for another set of directions to the address. As we pulled up to Villa Elimar I gulped at the crumbling homes surrounding us. Julio realized he knew this place, he has dropped people off here before, and in fact, lost his new cell phone his last drop-off at this villa. Julio seemed edgier on our drive today. We thanked him for his services and booked him for our airport return.

There was no sign of our AirBnB host. We tried the first door for Villa Elimar, locked. As we walked down the side of the little home my excitement was palpable. The beautiful sea was greeting us and beckoning us to come relax. We found our host, Elizabeth, as we approached the back side of the house and its full wall of glass doors. Elizabeth was mopping the floor. She was deeply apologetic that she was still prepping the house but we didn’t mind one bit and we knew we were ten minutes early. She invited us to wait on the back patio while she finished, and offered us two beers for the inconvenience. The back deck was heaven. The little infinity pool, however, had a hose trying meagerly to fill it. We could look past that, the view was unmatched and the seating just right. Elizabeth finished the house, invited us in, gave us some information that we were able to decipher between her broken English and our poor Spanish skills, and then the house was all ours.

We spent the afternoon enjoying the amazing sea view that had enticed us to rent this little slice of heaven. Sunbathing leisurely we sipped on beers and chatted while the clouds mixed above us and the sun played between. We knew there was supposed to be beach access nearby but didn’t know where. Watching the little hose try to fill the inifinity pool I just wanted the water to cover the Baja shelf but nonetheless, I still enjoyed walking out onto the point of the pool and surveying the sea. Our home and deck were raised about ten feet and sharp corral met the concrete slab of home below as the sea undulated less than ten feet away. One live sea creature was surrounded by beds of his petrified friends, forever imprinted in the ancient coral.

At one point, Brandon decided to take a little dip in the pool but there was no warning that the first step was a doozy. There was, of course, no hand rail, and one step in his feet slipped completely out from under him as he fell. He smacked his arm on the edge of the pool and his ass on the step as the cold water tried to cushion the blow. It was a scary moment as he easily could have hit his head and I’d be writing from a Cuban hospital right now. The bruising he received is pretty impressive, but for my eyes only. I won’t say much more about that afternoon for this is my travel blog, not a love life blog, and the details of our time I hold sacred (and will continue to do so). It was an amazing and perfect afternoon of warm sun, the glistening sea, cold beer, and, most importantly, time with the wonderful man who was by my side.

Realizing that restaurants can be hard to come by, and knowing we would be in a quieter neighborhood, we had arranged meals through our AirBnB host, via a private chef. Our dinner was to be ready at 6:30pm and at about 4:45pm Chef Sanders sauntered right into the house with a plethora of pots, pans, and bags of food. Chef Sanders spoke basically no English but had a warm smile as he moved about our kitchen working his magic. To hold us over he prepared an appetizer of fresh bruschetta. Probably the best bruschetta I have ever had with cilantro replacing basil. Cilantro! In place of basil! Genius! And the bread it was on, a perfectly textured garlic bread. Cuba has amazing bead, some of the freshest and best-tasting bread either of us have ever had.

While Chef Sanders put the finishing touches on dinner, we watched the sun slowly set, bidding us adieu for the night. As the sun kissed the water a beautiful scene was painted across it’s face as the stacks from a refinery came to cast their shadows and a sailboat slowly slithered by casting its own. No pictures can capture the beauty of that sunset. Or the beauty of our moments this afternoon.

Dinner was a delicious, typical Cuban meal including a “salad” of cabbage, tomatoes, lettuce and cucumber, chicken, rice, black beans, fried plantains, and yucca. Dessert was ice cream and a flan-like caramel custard cake. The entire meal was delicious but the yucca is my new favorite thing ever. I tried to find out how it was made and, if I understood it right, the yucca is boiled while a sauce of oil, vinegar, and garlic is cooked down and then poured over it. So good. Elizabeth’s son and co-host, Michael, showed up at the end of our meal to make sure everything was going well and help Chef clean-up. We learned from Michael that the WiFi hot spot in the home had been destroyed in the tornado two weeks prior, as had the pool pump hence it had just been repaired and the pool finally being refilled. I was not sad that the WiFi didn’t work.

We spent the rest of our evening on the deck, enjoying the warm night air and listening to the sounds of the sea sing to us in the dark. Fully relaxed and at peace with happy bellies it was perfect, our entire afternoon at the house had been perfect. And then back to reality of where we were. As we lazed side-by-side on the deck’s cushioned sectional, we both jumped, and I basically froze in terror, as a man walked right onto the back deck from the side of the house and quickly spit out words incomprehensible to us. I sat wide-eyed and frozen against Brandon as he approached us, and we finally realized he had introduced himself as security. He wanted to meet us and let us know he was there. Ahh. My shoulders immediately loosened and my heart rate finally slowed. Thank god we were dressed and decent! We knew the house had overnight security out front. I thought that meant security cars driving by. No, this was a dude hired to sit in front of our gate all night. But wait, the gate. The villa was gated and those gates were locked. How did he get in? We still aren’t sure. After having the crap scared out of us neither of us could fully settle back down outside so we decided to call it a night. We have a photo shoot tomorrow and want to be rested.

The villa has a master bedroom with a king bed at the back of the house (which is the side closest to the street) and a smaller room with a queen bed in the middle of the house. We, of course, had planned on staying in the king bed but Mr. Security and the guard next door seem to be having a blast catching up outside. The walls in Cuba all seem to be pretty thin. From what we know of this country so far it is loud enough all night that it’s already hard to sleep. So we decided to sleep in the queen room. It is remarkably quieter in here. I’m also now officially fascinated by Cuban etiquette regarding los banos. In both our apartment in Vedado and this house, the bedrooms have attached bathrooms with toilets but NO bathroom doors! Not a bathroom door to be had. In our Vedado house it’s taken one step further as the bathroom has only glass walls leaving a clear view of the toilet from the bedroom. Is that just not an expected privacy here? It’s a good thing we both see taking a trip together so soon as solid relationship boot camp, learning even more about each other than we thought we would!