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In the end we got back to where we started but it
was a full day of activity in between: schools, tourist hotels, private botanical garden,
cave, market, socialist art and culture/folklore show.
 School: My strongest impression was
that is was a religious school; clean, orderly, well dressed uniformed students, excellent
discipline and the dominate wall graphics were the icons of the "religion."
Education is mandatory for twelve years. In the upper grades the are multiple tracks, some
academic and some vocational. The students at the grade 1-6 school that we visited were
quiet, curious, neat, clean, relaxed and smiling. The books we saw being used covered
challenging material for the respective grade levels. Cuba’s literacy rate is said to
be 97%. Though there was very little politics in our program and discussion at the school,
the school administrator felt that the U.S. economic embargo is having a negative affect
on their ability to provide a better quality of education. As our first in depth look at
one of the priorities of the revolution it was impressive. This was the first of a half
dozen schools in the province where we would leave note books, calculators, pens and
pencils, paper and other school supplies.
Hotel: This was a capital and energy intensive hotel for the
use of dollar spending tourists. The PR director for the hotel explained that they offered
an "eco-tourism walk that visited near-by houses and farms." But one
wouldn’t want reality tourism to go too far, after the walk the clients retreat to
what is a fantasy for most Cubans: air-conditioned rooms, manicured lawns, swimming pool
and more meat at every meal that the Cubans see on their ration card for a week.
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Botanic Garden: The octogenarian, Caridad
Miranda, local known as the fruit lady, has hundreds of species of plants and trees,
dozens of kinds of fruits and an encyclopedic mind for all of it. In part it shows what
Cuban agriculture could do if they set their mind to it. |
Cave: The Cordillera de Guaniguanico (mountains) are largely
limestone and filled with caves. The Indio Caves which we visited are unique because after
walking a few hundred meters into the cave you come to a subterranean river. There you
board a motor boat, motor up river a bit and then back down river until you motor right
out of the cave. Oh, and into a market of curio sellers. Once on the boat it was hard to
hear the explanations over the sound of the motor and the boat never lingered so it was
more like a tourist trap than an geological tour.
 Market:
After the cave it was past time for lunch. This was a bit of an education in Cuba’s
two currency system. At the caves there was a restaurant that took only U.S. dollars. For
four dollars you could get a meal of rice and chicken. In town there are restaurant that
take only Cuban pesos. For about a tenth as much you could get a meal of rice and chicken,
with the added advantage of being able to watch the street life: students on their way,
mothers and baby out on errands, older men bicycling to appointments and couple relaxing
together in the town square.
| Socialist Art: A cross from the Dos Hermanas
cabins where we are staying is a mural painted on the side of rock face in brown and
primary colors called "Prehistoric Mural." That’s its name and subject, not
its origins. |
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It was painted shortly after the revolution in 1959. It is a mixture of
dinosaurs and early man, but not a particularly compelling or quality rendering. The
Cubans with us took little notice of it and I never heard them mention it. Instead
everyone spent the afternoon around the swimming pool. |
Culture/Folklore: For the evening we return to the town for a
performance of music, dance and culture. The were several cycles of Afro-Cuban drumming
and dance, a guitar and singing solo of Spanish origins, and fashion show by local
teenagers. Then everyone joined in the dance. Lots of good cheer (and local rum).
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