Traveling into Cuba has been pretty rough; lack of sleep
and cruddy airplane food has taken its toll on a lot of the members of our
group. But as we are made our final descent into the airport of this island
nation, I couldn’t help but feel a little pang excitement due to the turbulence
as we came in for a landing. As we finally came to a stop on the tarmac it
finally set in, I am in Cuba. My first experience in Cuba was the line through
customs, which was very strange due to it being my first time in a foreign
country. As soon as we were through luggage claim we were met by our translator
and amazing guide Orlando who showed us many of the amazing monuments of Cuba.
We also met Sol who is our coordinator and told us about some of the exciting
things we will be doing over the course of the next three weeks.
Sunday night after we all settled into our casa’s we took
the bus to a restaurant called Café Song which was the amazing place that had a
wonderful family style dining area. They brought out three appetizers and a
3-course meal with an ending of an impressive dessert that tasted amazing. The
appetizers consisted of fried potato with a sweet berry sauce that was almost a
syrup consistency. The other appetizer was fish and cheese ball fried with a
ketchup and mayo sauce to dip. Lastly, we received bread and a tomato and olive
oil spread. The meal itself was stunning and consisted of three different
prepared pork dishes, which included a type of rib that completely fell of the
bone and was incredibly delicious. All in all, the food so far has far exceeded
my expectations and so have the people and their genuineness.
It’s Monday now and we have had a very busy day. We have
spent half the day in the classroom learning about Jose Marti who was a Cuban
hero and a very influential person within Cuban history. We also had a Spanish
lesson today to assist us with our communication while in Cuba. For lunch,
quite a few of us went to Decameron which was incredible and cheap, considering
the quality of food we ordered. After lunch we took the shuttle to the Jose
Marti memorial, which is a giant star shaped structure with a statue of Jose
Marti out front. In the base of the memorial our guide gave us an overview of
his life and the role he played in Cuba gaining its freedom. After the lesson,
we took the elevator to the top of the tower and could see miles in any
direction, being able to look out over the city we will call our home for the
next three weeks was truly a sight to see.
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