January 6, 2009
Lunch in Jaruco: Visiting with Maria and Michael
So, I awoke with the worst head cold ever. Yay.
Marie-Anne and I went up the road to the second bridge and within a few minutes along came Maria and her friend in his car to pick us up. We chatted a bit along the way but the car was very noisy so I just watched out the window and took a few pictures as we drove to Santa Cruz del Norte, then right by the old factories we went under the road and headed south down a country road in the direction of the Hershey plantation. We went through banana plantations and miles of sugar cane, until we arrived in Hershey (Camilo Cienfuegos) of chocolate fame. One of the main buildings, completely dilapidated is literally semi-transparent and you can see right through it. Our route also crossed the little railway that connects a number of the small towns and has a tourist train that we have heard about, too.
Continuing on, we arrived in to Jaruco about ten minutes later for a total distance of about 40 km from the hotel. Really interesting and completely non-touristy. There were people all over, carts, old homes, narrow streets... and then we were at Maria's home. Her husband Michael spoke very little English - he was working away in the kitchen and on the barbecue to make us lunch which smelled delicious. Like many of the Cuban homes they are fairly simple yet very clean. We sat in a living room which was about 20' by 20' which adjoined an empty dining room. Off of these rooms were two bedrooms, the kitchen, and a little room where the dining room table sat. The walls were cement, the floors were ceramic tiles and the roof trusses were visible from below and on top of these were clay roofing tiles which seemed to be the norm for every house. Out in the back yard there were banana palms, coconut palms, a dalmation, all of which was fenced in. Beside the house were two lean-tos but they were empty because she said that anything left unsecured in them would most certainly be stolen. In fact, she said that not too long ago some guy walking by on the sidewalk had reached through their blinds to see if there was anything to steal from their living room. He took off when Maria screamed, but she saw him doing the same at their neighbour's a few days later and the neighbour lost her wallet. Sitting in the comfortably cool living room, these same wooden blinds opened on to the sidewalk.
We went over to her parents' home down the street to meet them. A very nice house with leather chairs, nicely decorated, with glass windows. But her father's pride and joy was his back garden where he grows orchids, papaya, palms, and dozens of other plants and trees in pots and hangers everywhere. Really interesting were the orchids which grew right on the outside of a branch or coconut husk with the roots exposed to the air and wrapping right around where they grew.
It was suddenly lunch time and out came the meal. A salad with shredded cabbage and lettuce ringed with slices of tomato and drizzled with oil, vinegar and salt - simple but delicious. A garbanzi bean mix with tomato sauce, chicken and pork - similar to a dish I have had in Spain - it was to die for. Chicken legs with most of the bones removed and cooked over the barbecue - delicious. White rice. Yucca cooked with bacon or pork - very tasty and kind of like potato. It was easily the best meal we had ever eaten in Cuba. Too soon we were full so we helped them clean up then relaxed in the living room where she showed us photos of their friends from Nova Scotia who will be visiting again in February.
Michael went down the street to get their two-year-old son Diago. Cute as can be, he was a little shy at first but when we gave him a toy (Martin from 'Madagascar') he was quite taken that when he shook the toy it would speak. Like a little Canadian monkey we know who was taken by 'Alex' the lion from the same movie. I took quite a few pictures of Diago in his chair, by the door and playing with his tractor.
At 5:00 pm our driver was going to bring us back to the resort and a few times I saw Poinsettia hedges and trees but don't think I was quick enough to catch them with the camera. We gave the driver a pen, some gum and he seemed quite pleased - maybe because of the pen which seem to be in demand this year.
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