Cuba Images

This Saturday come see some of my art.
SOAPBOX-Group show.
Four 20x30" prints of mine will be on display.

Saturday,October 4th. 5pm ($2 covercharge, or a bottle of twobuckchuck)
Sunday, Oct. 5th, 11am-10pm (No charge from 11am-6pm)

I'll be at the show on Saturday from 5-8ish.

ADDRESS:
The Lafayette French Ballroom
140 Linden Ave. Long Beach CA. 90802

I Miss Cuba

Recently I've been receiving emails and notes from my Cuban friends. It makes me think about the country more then I usually do (which tends to be alot) Anyways,I grabbed this old, but never seen before image from my February trip. I'm so glad they weren't too devastated by hurricane season this year. Poor Cuban's, there's no escaping the country during hurricane season, you just have to tough it out.

Note From Cuba

Luis (middle) is a Student at the Havana College.
I spent 3 days with him and his friends... they treated me like family and I did the same in return... Heres what he wrote me.

"Hi Samuel, you can´t imagine how much I miss you, and the rest of the
group too, you know you change our life for ever because we never
tough that one day we going to meet someone so special like you.
I feel sad because I can´t meet you since the first day you was here in
Cuba, we just spend 3 days with you, I have to say that
you are like a god*,
because not everyday someone meet a nice boy like you.
You are young but you have a great heart, more bigger than your body,
you are kind, brave, honest, a real friend, and you accept me like I
am, today I check in the internet all your webpages, photos, your work
is really cool, I have to congratulate you, for all the good things
you made and make in the present too. I know that you going to be very
famouos one day and this day is very soon. Please never forget me, I
am still crying because you leave. We wait outside of the airport
until your plain enter to the sky, well I guess that you are in
mexico now I hope you see this email anyway I´m going to send it for
your normal email too, well bye for now but I have still many things
to tell you, excuse the way I write but I´m not so good writing, I
understand and speak well but I have many trouble for write in english
ah!!!, bye little mouse take care and you was so kind and good with me
that I have to say I LOVE YOU a big hug your friend Luis."

I'll post more from Luis and his thoughts on a Post Fidel Cuba... He's mentioned that he wants to marry a girl from Equador. He writes "...maybe I get married with a friend she is from Ecuador and can help me to get out of this country."

When Luis sent me that note, it made me sad to read it, but it also made me happy to know that I could go somewhere, meet a group of people and effect their lives in such a way...




*I think he meant hero.

Havana Club

Rum, Rum, Rum! I've ordered 3 Mojitos* since I've been back from my Cuba trip and I am truly spoiled... That muddled fresh mint leaves in a chilled glass, that fresh squeezed lime and the main ingridiant Havana Club RUM! I can duplicate the mint and the limes and even the chilled glass, but I can't seem to get my hands on some of that Havana Club Rum!
Its whats on my wish list.


If you like Mojitos and know of the best white rum to use, let me know which you prefer. Otherwise I'm going back to Cuba for a drink...whos coming with?


The reserve is good too.



(If you have connections with this, feel free to let me know:)
*I had to return one of the mojitos because it tasted nasty! I asked the server what it was and she said a mojito... it was made out of syrupy minty sauce and had horrible rum.

CUBA: Final Note

Final Note


This trip is and has been the most emotional trip I have ever taken… actually the 2nd most emotional!(Banda Aceh can't be beaten if we are talking about harshness and adventure) This Cuba trip has been a life changer as well.
Would I do it again?
…I’m not sure….
there were times I wanted to give up, times I wanted to throw in the towel and call it quits. But I didn’t’ (plus I couldn't) and now I feel the rewards.
Cheers to adventure, 2 cheers for being uncomfortable and risking much, 18 cheers for priceless memories, pockets full of info & new knowledge & most of all, cheers to Cuba & A Coming Change...

The End…
…[The adventure] To Be Continued


Luis walking on the street with me



another roof shot of me.

Extras:

• The Cubans: Luis & Leslie (Pronounced Lay-Lee)(see B&W picture of Leslie below) Thought I should be a famous singer. My voice is better then my pictures? (Ahh Ohh! I may be in trouble if that’s the case)

• Ralph is the heartthrob now. Everyone wanted to see pictures of him again & again.

• I’ve inspired the crew of students to get in shape. We walked up 18 flights of stars everyday at least 3 times a day. Elevator was broken . now they are going to do it even when it works. Also go to the gym.

• I sleep & eat more then these people.

• Buses seat 40 but can holed up to 85 people, you often breath 3 other peoples breathe before getting a fresh one. Really easy to get sick.

• Fires are everywhere…not sure why…burning garbage, brush, ect.

• The sun is hotter here. Burning made easy.

• Downtown Habana has no beach…just a Grande Wall

• Pens suck here (mine jiggles a lot) That’s why I use tape.

• My English is horrible now. I now talk w/ an accent.

OH! & Cheers to getting back home safely!


Leslie in the doorway.

Relaxin on some steps after walking miles and more miles.

Goodbye Cuba.
I'm outa here!!!

Havana Cuba: Leaving

I didn’t write yesterday.
I was too busy going to the beach, drinking white rum & sprite and taking pictures. I got burnt for the first time this trip. Now I’m muy rojo.

Leaving
This morning... I was nearly screwed over big time.
But Jesus must be looking out for me. I set my alarm for 7 am, but forgot to factor the hour time difference! Ahh! I woke up at 6 am and couldn’t sleep. I tossed & turned for 15 minutes by needing to go to the bathroom really REALLY bad. While I was in the bathroom it dawned on me the time was really 7:20am and not 6:20!!! I was so happy that God had taken care of me and forced me to wake up. I needed to leave at 8am inable to catch my flight back to Mexico City. I would have been really messed up if I missed my flight!
Leslie & Luis showed up at my door like they said they would at 8am. They wanted to usher me out of their country and spend time with me during my last Cuban minutes.
Luis said he went to sleep at 5am! HAHA! He takes great pride in not sleeping. These people are amazing! They stop at nothing to be your friend, to come alongside & comfort you when you are sad. Cubans don’t have much interms of money, cars or homes. They lack NOTHING in heart. I’m writing this in the airport & I’m nearly crying…I guess I’m allowed to cry once in a while. The girl next to me is tearing up too at the site of me writing & crying at the same time. Haha, crying must be like yawning….contagious!
I learned some key things from my Cuban friends
Family & friends are the most important thing of Havana. Yes most of them are secretly frustrated w/ politics. They do want change. This is a place where you need to work all day to put some bottled water on the table or cervesa on a special occasion. And yes the Cubans have their issues, but where they lack…they make up w/ their big hearts & patience the love for each other & respect for their heros. In Cuba, life is hard. You can’t leave the country for any reason for fear you will see & experince greenier pastures, incase you won’t want to come back. The Cuban paseo or even CUC are useless everywhere else in the world. (The money exchange is horrible even if you come from a good economy) The Mexican paseo exchanges horribly as well as the USD (usd has a 20% surcharge added to every exchange) my 500 peseos from mexico got me 31 cuban (cuc) in the us, 500 mexican paseos would get me about $46 dollars.
I never thought I would say this, but I’m sad I’m leaving. I am sooo excited to speak to Ira, Josiah & Audrey.The second I’m in Mexico, I’m going to call them! I feel like Truman in the Truman’s show,in a shelter, seclueded from the rest of the world but also being closely watched!
This trip has been hard. I wish I could explain in words how much I've learned, but its just not possible. I've been alone, I've been lost, I've had to deal with getting cheated and stared at and being a minority, dealing with fear and getting fined for being here. Not having contact with the people you love the most is a huge damper on the day. Not only did I struggle with much, but I had no excess money, no credit card and certainly no luxary items...besides my Canon 5D (My best friend).
This trip has been a huge eye opener…the world may continue to get smaller w/ the population online and everyone united, but there is one place that refuses to give in to the almighty dollar…and that is Cuba.







Miguel on his front porch.



Fidel







A stronger Samuel




I'm sad I'm leaving.

La Playa 2

Feb 3,2008 Habana, CUBA

I spent yet another day on a Cuban beach! Which means another 2 hours of crowded bus rides...(from Hedado to the south eastern beaches) and this time I mean it was CROWDEDDDDD!!! I am literally making a statement in saying that I would breathe the breath of at least 2 new people everytime I inhaled... it was like a rolling box of humans, nothing but humans... i imagine being hauled to jail would be a somewhat similar feeling, except at that point you don't have to fake like you're enjoying it.

Alright Samuel, no more complaining...
Look why I took that wretched bus trip.
La Playa!!!

This was a highlight of the trip.
and the highlights inside the best day include:

1. Havana Club white rum (mixed with lime sodapop...mmmhmmm!)
2. Getting berried in the sand. (I would show pictures, but they are too graphic in terms of particular sand phallus' they attached to my sand body)
3.Ummm...the topless cuban women...(Sorry you had to read that mom)
4.The water. It was beautiful!
5.Getting to know my cuban friends more.
6.Relaxing and getting tan and then really tan and then burnt. (I wasn't that burnt and it quickly turned into a golden tan.)

taking some slick pictures!

heres a few.

My Cuban Familia

Castaway styled beach front property.

The other Cuban beer. its muy fuerte! Heres a picture of me enjoying myself...are you getting upset that I'm having so much fun without you??? haha

YES! i was as happy as I look.

It was a fun day and it was topped off with more homemade food, relaxing in the girls bunk bed rooms and watching the coast erupt from the crashing waves against the brakewall.

Tomorrow I return to Mexico City...I'm sad...but excited to return to Long Beach in 2 days!

Feb 2, CUBA journals: 18 Stories

Feb 2, 08
Today Was A Good Day

I spent most of the day (noon – until now) w/ the university crew.
Its so nice to be around my generation again. I walked to the market, bought veggies for dinner, soda & cervesa. Each cervesa is 1 cuc. Which is a lot to the Cubans. So I felt rich buying 10!
The girls live on floor 18. Each floor has 17 steps, the elevator is currently broken. 3 times up and down and my legs are once again done for! (306 steps to the top x 3 times = 918 steps!)
This culture is sooo different! The water only flows into the sinks, toilet and showers for 2 hours each day* 6-8pm I was able to experience the stock piling of water for the other 22 hours when agua didn’t flow. Another thing I take for granted.
The rooms in this place aren’t furnished. Only a set of bunk beds per room. “oh how nice it would be to have a couch right here” I said at least 4 times. Dinner making was interesting, especially preparing the lettuce…which took nearly 30 minutes for one head. Such filthy lettuce! Leslie (one of the girls, who looks like Christina Ricci) helped me hand wash each leaf by pouring water over it w/ a cup! Yeah, salad never will taste the same.
We went on the roof. 280ft up. Mini fences (small, not meaning plenty) I took pictures of the sunset, caught a pigeon & sipped Cuban Beer. An Amazing highlight indeed.
I’m not sure how many people keep sugar under their bed in Tupperware besides these Cubans. Although I may start when I get home.
Great day indeed. I also ate 2 hamburgers I helped make (or burn one) I need to edit some pictures.
Good night indeed.
Remind me to talk politics. (or at least Write it.)


Cheers

*Not sure if this was just for their building or for the whole neighborhood...I doubt this is for the whole city.


18 stories of pure workout

The Market was in an old shed down the street. Unmarked and unclean.

Bright Colors Dominate Habana

I was starving, so Leslie made me a hamburger...
yeah, this is how they make um!

As you can tell, I ate the hamburger...now I'm happy.

Best meal ever! I ate even more then the night before. Maybe I can gain a few of those 10 pounds I lost while trying to spend $8 a day!

Cristal is sexy, don't you agree?

Rooftop sunset viewing. These fences wouldn't do well in CA. insurence companies would flippp!

Yeah, they would really flipppppp!


My Cuban friends quickly got used to the many images I would capture.
Rooftop relaxing.

More relaxation.

The pet Pigeon and my crew.

Havana: Miguel and la Casa Madre

Havana, CUBA: Feb 2nd (morning excerpt)

Supposed to meet Miguel @ 10am. Still not sure of the exact time here even. Sometimes its 2 hora different then my iPhone, now I guess its only 1 hora ahead. It feels like this place plays by its own rules… its weird. (its actually 3 hours different)
Anyways I kept checking the window for signs of him…but nothing…due to the time confusion I’ve been having.
Finally I spot him. I’ve decided no more walking (I've averaged around 20 miles a day, or so my feet would complain)…plus I think he wants me to be blessed/converted by/to his “afrocubano” religious leaders- so I grab a shirt and some shorts to give to him. This is the last time I will be seeing him. I pick out a matte black long sleeve striped shirt & those hideous cut off jeans shorts (they'll think they're nice in cuba) + 40 pesos (I finally found out the money thing! 25 cuban pesos = $1 cuc but they look similar… its truly bizarre) he seemed happy to get the stuff. Plus the money was big time to him. I wish I could have given him more.
Returning to mi casa, the casa madre wasn’t happy w/ me giving stuff to him (she must have seen me do it) she said a lot of things… I understood peligro (danger) & cuidado (careful) I nodded and tried to explain he’s my amigo & he’s showed me around a lot.
Anyways, I’m not sure I like this woman she acts like a pissed off mom & wears too much make up & perfume (if that’s what you would call it, more like "Glade" bathroom spray to me) she gave me hot milk & café and some hard as a rock white bread & butter for breakfast. Shizz! I’m hungry! I haven't been spending more then $8 a day the past 2 days, so I may be able to get another good meal and a souvenir to take home w/me. The university kids want to make me dinner too! So that’s slick! I’m meeting up with them @ 12 noon.
I need to eat something and maybe go workout until then.

Catch you later!

-S™




Miguel in his room.

Afrocubano
(A little freaky if your coming to me for answers)

This is a little example of how we communicated the first day.

Keep in mind, these are excerpts from my recent trip journal... if you want to read more, you'll have to go back in my blog posts... if this is confusing... awesome! US citizens aren't confused enough...so this might be new to you.

Havana: The Students.

The crew. (LtoR Luis, Me, Mike,Geysis,Leslie and Ruth)


Havana, Cuba -Feb 2nd,2008


I went looking for my young friends I met on the street. They told me what building when I met them. They must have said good things to their building mates because when I got there the people standing outside immediately knew who I was.
I didn’t meet up w/ the original crew but met one similar and 3 of the 6 knew a little English!!!(how refreshing to speak in my native tongue for the first time in 4 days!)
With the new crew 6 cuban's and me, we grabbed food & cerveza at a local outdoor cafe near the highway looking out towards Florida ( this was the best meal I’ve had all week!) arroz con pollo w/ dried platanos tons of picante caliente sauce & all for pretty cheap! (the whole group couldn't believe how much I could eat.)
We then jumped on a little train like bus & toured old Habana, singing the whole way, when we got off after about 35 minutes it was about 11pm.
After sitting on the ledge overlooking the ocean for a while we then went Salsa/Reggeton (don't know if that mixes well, but after some cuban rum, it doesn't matter) So Dancing at the "university disco" on the 8th floor of their building.
After 2 and a half hours of dancing then resting, dancing then resting, I had to get some sleep! They all ended up walking me 20 blocks to my home @ 2:30am. They said I live in a dangerous zone. The end of a fun night... plans tomorrow of meeting them for lunch! I'm so happy to meet some fun people my age with relaxed personality's and honest and good hearts. I feel like I've known these students for years and its only been 5 hours! Good night Feb 2nd.





Like I said, I was hungry! I impressed them all with how much I eat.



Out on the town.











Thats why they call it the disco!


Some of that beloved Club Havana (with cola) Spilt

Things always tend to get crazy.


Trying to look awesome.