The Cuba Connection Part II

Last November Michael and I gave a 15 minute talk on a rock-star-status stage in Paris to 5,000 Airbnb hosts about our Senior Nomad adventures. As I described in an earlier blog, the effort to come up with a presentation for the Airbnb Open we could do together without ending our marriage was a challenging one. But we did it and the marriage survived.

Under the lights and on the big screen in Paris.

We felt an immediate connection to another married couple under the same pressure. They were part of Airbnb’s big announcement about their ever-growing presence in Cuba. Sylvio and Julia Ortega own a beautiful ten-room hostal in Havana and they were there to enthusiastically invite all of us to visit. They too, had the giant stage to themselves. The difference was only one of them spoke English, so Julia was not only sharing her side of their story, she was translating for Sylvio as well. I am not sure if that made for extra anxiety or if it might have been to her advantage.

We were happy to continue our Airbnb-lifestyle in Cuba!

We quickly bonded around our shared experience, and now that we could visit Cuba on our own and continue Airbnb-based lifestyle we made plans to visit them as soon as possible.

During the holidays we planned a three week visit for early February. We knew we’d spend our first week in Havana with the Ortegas, and from there we put together an itinerary that would give us a good overview of the island by using The Lonely Planet, travel blogs and advice from friends who had been there.

We used Lonely Planet to help us with our itinerary.

As we close in on our 100th Airbnb, we consider ourselves to be experts at using the website, but trying to book rentals in a communist country with little or no Internet access added a layer of complexity we hadn’t expected. 

You'll find many Airbnb choices in Cuba. Just be patient.

In some cases the Airbnb's we wanted were booked. Or were they? Because the internet is not available (as in banned) to individuals in their homes, ordinary Cubans gain access to the internet by standing in long lines to buy 1/2 hour or 1 hour scratch cards with a temporary user and password number on the back. Then they have to find a public park with a wifi signal (generously provided by the government) to use their cell-phone, or the rare laptop, to connect. Or, they can stand in even longer lines and pay to use a computer terminal at a government controlled internet station.

Near the park where there is wifi available. It's a social affair.

Most Airbnb hosts count on friends or relatives in other countries to field booking requests. Their contact then calls them to see if they have availability, because many of the private homes, or "casa particulars" as they are known, are also rented through European sites or a knock at their door by a tourist. The owner responds to the query, updates the calendar, and then the intermediary gets back to the interested party to see if they still want to book through Airbnb! It took longer that usual to find out if we had a booking or not. In the end we found five places that looked good. More on those as the story unfolds. Here's a link to a site with good information about Airbnb in Cuba: http://dcinno.streetwise.co/2015/04/02/airbnb-opens-homes-in-cuba/

We arrived in Havana on February 5th for a seven night stay at Casa Rosa Ortega and it was great to be reunited with Sylvio and Julia. They run a beautiful "hostal" - in Latin lingo that means their property is not a private home, but not a hotel either. There are ten rooms for rent on a property they own, and they offer food to lodgers and locals. Each morning we were served a delicious complimentary breakfast in the covered cabana, with lunch and dinner available upon request, and a bar open all hours. Our hosts were gracious and the staff couldn’t do enough for us.

The courtyard at Casa Rosa Ortega. Our room is on the right behind the table.

The cabana where you can meet other guests or play a quiet game of backgammon in the corner.

After two additional weeks in places that paled in comparison, and witnessing just how difficult it is to get goods in Cuba, we came to admire this couple all the more for their intrepid spirit and creativity. If you get to Cuba, do your best to stay in this rare oasis in the gritty city of Havana. Here's the listing: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/5704246.

A wonderful day at the Market with our host Julia

Early one morning Julia took me along on the daily market run. I am so glad she did because I was curious about how they managed to feed so many people based on the limited number of grocery stores or markets we’d seen - and most of those had very little to offer. Procuring anything in Cuba is challenging, but getting enough food can become an all day affair. Rum and beer however, are plentiful and cheap.

We headed to Julia's favorite fresh market for fruit and vegetables. There are no parking meters and parking lots are rare in Cuba, so for a good ten minutes we navigated the potholed side-streets around the market looking for a "human" parking meter. That would be a person holding a space with a couple of vegetable crates. You paid him a few pesos to squeeze into his space and he kept an eye on your car. There were a lot of these "meter men" around the market - and once I understood what they were doing, I noticed them all over Havana.

Paying homage to the keeper of the plastic bags at at the entrance of the market.

Our first stop at the market was to spend a few pesos to purchase a dozen plastic bags from the stern woman who sat squarely at the entrance. Sort of like using bathrooms here, If you want toilet paper, it's going to cost you.

Every day Julia gathers most of the requirements to make a full breakfast for up to 20 guests, as well as offering lunch and dinner on request. She goes to different markets depending on what she needs. The market we were going to had the nicest produce in her opinion - and since she had me in tow, she didn't want to expose me to the less pleasant parts of her daily shopping blitz.

Julia working hard to get the best of the best for all of us back at at the casa.

The market itself wasn't large but their were piles of impeccably fresh local produce on offer. We moved briskly down the narrow aisles, stopping at stalls where Julia is a regular. There was a lot of cheerful bantering and bargaining and it was fun to watch. We filled our bags with tiny bananas that were twice as flavorful as any I've ever had, ripe papayas, oranges, pineapple, avocados the size of a cantaloupe, fresh peppers of every size, gnarly tomatoes, cucumbers and herbs. The best moment was when Julia had a vendor insert a coring device deep into the flesh of a melon an pull out a sample so she see it was ripe all the way through.

Julia was frustrated over the lack of a few key ingredients that meant we'd have to go elsewhere to find. Apparently this happens often, and Cubans just shrug it off as part of daily life. As we went to different markets in search of meat, eggs and bread Julia would buy extra condiments and other staples that might not be in the same shop the next day. Another staff person was out collecting beverages and household supplies. It takes a coordinated team effort that includes staff and Julia's father to be continually on the prowl for provisions. And they have to do it every day.

This is an example of the store shelves we saw in Havana.

Ordinary Cubans receive monthly rations but they are meager and they to spend a great deal of time finding food as well. Here's a good article from the Guardian about the food situation in Cuba: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/24/cubans-food-struggle-rations-consuming-obsession

A mansion in ruins just down the street from where we were staying in Havana.

A classic car waiting for some love. Most have been retrofitted with polluting diesel engines.

Our experience of Havana outside of our beautiful casa was a further lesson in the harsh reality of life in Cuba. Casa Ortega is about a 15 minute cab ride from the center of Havana, so we were staying in a typical neighborhood where few tourists would ever see. Just outside our front gate we were immediately surrounded by once-elegant homes now in ruins. But those ruins are occupied - you can tell by the laundry hung on lines outside and we could see families inside darkened doorways. The poverty was palpable.

A street just a block from our house in Havana.

The streets were so full of kitchen table sized pot holes and that our taxi drivers reduced their speed to a crawl and cautiously wove from side to side to navigate around very dangerous conditions. Working street lights are a thing of the future so driving at night was even more difficult.

One of our favorite experiences was riding in these puttering little Coco taxis.

Michael at the famous Hotel National in Havana where we found a fast Internet connection.

Where is the Cuba everyone should see before it changes? On the margins, not in the touristic center. We did visit the old city, and walked the Malicon and saw plenty of shiny classic cars from the 1950's. We saw the statues and the tributes to Che. We danced to the beat and we could see that cigars are a necessity of life. And we met many wonderful people who were glad to see Americans. However, once you leave the postcard perfect center, or the beach resorts, you will find a harsher reality. And that is the Cuba worth experiencing now.

Thanks for following along,

Debbie and Michael Campbell

The Senior Nomads

The Cuba Connection

We got to Cuba thanks to to a tip from Airbnb that put us in touch with an Amazon-like super model disguised as a travel agent. Her name is Antoinette. Just like her Cuban mother, she has been wearing 6” heels since she was thirteen and she doesn’t take them off until she goes to bed. And now she runs her mother’s travel agency in Miami serving Americans traveling to Cuba. She helped us with everything we needed for the trip other than booking our Airbnbs.

Connecting with Antoinette in the departure lounge at the Miami airport.

Her thick black ponytail whipped side to side as she took catwalk-worthy strides towards us at at the Miami Airport at check-in for our flight to Havana. She had our tickets, our visas (traveling as “journalists”), our health insurance documents and a whole bunch of advice about traveling to Cuba.

The lovely Antionette. The agency does not have a website - but you can give them a call.

If you get the urge to visit Cuba, and you are willing to travel from Miami (the cheapest and easiest US departure point as I write this) give Marianao Travel a call at (305) 331-3002. Tell her the Senior Nomads sent you!

Down to one bag for our trip to Cuba. It will be an experiment in traveling with less.

Because of the unknowns of traveling to Cuba, including getting around once we arrived, we decided to consolidate our worldly goods into just one of our two large suitcases. We basically took our warm weather clothes and stuffed them into one bag (along with our trusty pillows, of course). Then crammed coats, heavy shoes, pants, sweaters, books, anything to do with cooking (since wouldn’t be doing any of that), and other non-essentials into the other bag. After some negotiation, we were able to stow it with the Bell Captain at the Sheraton Miami Airport while we were in Cuba. It all made sense because when we got back to Cub in three weeks, we planned on spending the night at the Sheraton.

A typical load of who-knows-what heading to Havana working around the embargo.

Now we see why people spend $20. a bag to get them wrapped in plastic at the airport

Unloading at the other end in Havana. Our suitcase is in there somewhere!

While Antoinette helped us check-in we couldn’t help noticing our luggage didn’t match most everything else that was heading for the belly of our chartered plane. Baggage check-in looked like a long line at Costco. There were a few tourists like us of course, with normal suitcases, but everyone else had mounds of cheap bags swaddled in multiple layers of blue plastic wrap to keep them from breaking open. We couldn’t tell what was underneath most of that wrapping but it was easy to recognize boxes containing flat screen TV’s, computers, a vacuum cleaner, a car seat, and, yes...a kitchen sink. Antoinette told us the charter airlines make their money on the freight hauled to Cuba by friends and relatives, not the passenger tickets. We could certainly see how that could be true!

Happy to be in a taxi heading to our first Airbnb in Havana!

We arrived in Havana a little late, custom clearance was slow, and of course getting our luggage separated out from the plastic wrapped booty took some time. We were hot and tired and very glad to see a young taxi driver holding a sign with "Campbell" scrawled on it waiting outside the departure gates.

I loved this upbeat image! We can't wait to see what the real Cuba is all about.

Cuba has been on our travel wish list for some time. We moved it up the Senior Nomads itinerary after learning Airbnb had opened listings there, and because we met Airbnb Super Hosts Sylvio and Julia Ortega at the Airbnb Open in Paris last November. Their home in Havana was our first stop on our three week tour of Cuba. I’ll start with our arrival at the door of Casa Rosa Ortega next!

Thanks for following along,

Debbie and Michael

The Senior Nomads

San Miguel de Allende - We'll be back!

The magical city of San Miguel de Allende!

It was my nephew David and his partner Noah that first suggested we continue our Senior Nomadic lifestyle with a visit to Mexico. They fell in love with Mexico City, and San Miguel de Allende, a small, high desert town four hours north of Mexico City. They were convinced we would love both as well. They were certainly right about San Miguel.

The fabulous Rosewood hotel where we watched the Seahawks lose in the playoffs but had a lovely massage!

Not only is this artists enclave well preserved and filled with architectural treasures, it is crawling with artisans, painters, musicians and writers.There seemed to be endless activities, cultural events, performances and classes. Not to mention spontaneous celebrations, a parade that passed our front door and fireworks at all hours. The food was good and plentiful, and, for better or worse, there was a very comfortable Starbucks with good wifi in the center of town. Of course the sun shone everyday and everything was very affordable - what’s not to love?

We made the local paper while we were in town!

The lovely Jade was the author and photographer for the article.

It is said you will always come back to San Miguel. Some people even say when you visit this enchanting town the first you'll do is have breakfast and the second thing you’ll do is buy a house. We could certainly see why our hosts spontaneously bought their house during recent visit - and also why number of retired expats (foreign residents) from American and Canadian make up around 20% of the population for at least part of the year. 

The master suite of our airbnb. One more floor and you're on the roof deck!

Our Airbnb was in the center of the old town and it was one of the best we’ve stayed in. It was a  narrow four story house with a roof deck facing the cathedral. Every room was decorated with great style and the details and amenities made it just like a stay in a four-star hotel. https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/6569224

Window shopping for things we definitely could not buy!

Fruit, fruit and more fruit! We are eating healthy -when we aren't at the bakery or the taco stand!

Don't forget your greens! Now that is a lot 'o' broccoli!

During our ten day stay we met so many interesting people. It is one of those places where you could easily strike up a conversation anywhere - with anyone who looks like you! And there were plenty of Senior Nomad types. We met an interesting couple at an event and that turned into lunch together. The next day we took a tour of their magnificent home where an extensive remodel is near completion. Their new home sits behind an unassuming narrow wooden door on a side street - but once that door opened you entered a serene courtyard, and beyond that 1000 square feet of meticulously designed living space spread over three floors! I think they are there to stay!

Caps for sale!

Michael also met a stranger in the line at the grocery store that turned into a gathering with her friends at the spectacular Rosewood hotel on the rooftop bar.

Our favorite bakery.

A wide range of subjects covered over cocktails.

At sunset one evening, I was taking a walk in the Hardin (the "garden" square that is the social hub of the city) and spotted a nice looking gentleman sitting by himself on a bench. He was facing the magnificent cathedral that is the center of San Miguel's universe with his camera carefully set on a tripod pointing slightly skyward. My inner art-director took over and I sat down to ask him about the shot he was hoping to capture. “Thousands of starlings are said to swirl together to form a massive dark cloud and then swoop around the cathedral spires at dusk”, he answered. Seemed worth waiting for to me, so I got out my iPhone and we chatted while we waited for this phenomenon to take place as the cathedral turned a burnt orange against the deepening blue sky. His wife came along and the conversation turned to travel and comfortable shoes. The starlings didn't show, but we had such a nice time chatting we decided to keep the conversation going over breakfast. I didn't realize until we met the next morning that I had met Bob Krist, a renowned National Geographic photographer, and his delightful wife and partner Peggy. bobkrist.com

The cathedral at dusk.

New friends Bob and Peggy Krist.

Maybe best of all, a woman who follows our blog lives in San Miguel and e-mailed us to see if we would like to get together - she had a car, and would be happy to take us touring. Her name was Lydia Jane, a sage traveler and a great character. She and her trusty dog Boo picked us up and we spent a nice afternoon at the botanical gardens strolling amongst the cacti!

Debbie with Lydia Jane at the botanical garden

This is one of the places where we could actually imagine staying put for a while! Just as the fortunate people who live here foretold - we will be back! 

Thanks for following along!

Debbie and Michael
The Senior Nomads

p.s. We’d like to thank son Christopher and his lovely wife Jamie for the Christmas gift of spa treatments at the Rosewood! It was such a treat for these frugal nomads to be pampered for an an afternoon.

Savouring Mexico City

Mexico City - a sprawling metropolis that could take a year to appreciate!

I have been on short trips to beach resorts in Mexico for work, but didn't really leave the manicured grounds. Michael hadn't been there at all. So really, this Senior Nomad visit to our southern neighbor was a first exposure to real Mexico for both of us.
 
Like Hawaii, Mexico offers us pale northwest denizens much needed sunshine, pristine beaches, volcanoes, palm trees, coconuts, pineapples, frothy tropical drinks, drums beating to indigenous music, whole roasted pigs and nearly naked people.

Now, with some perspective, I suggest creating a new paradise that blends the two - like shaking up a pina-garita or putting that roasted pig on some street side tiki-tacos. It would be a idyllic place where the beaches are beautiful, sidewalks aren't out to kill you, the food is incredible - and it's cheap!

Arrived in one piece - time to find the walking tour!

Back to reality. Our first destination in Mexico was the sprawling and somewhat alarming center of Mexico City. Once our taxi from the airport exited the gnarled traffic on the freeway he began a slow, hour-long crawl through streets that looked very forbidding to our neophyte eyes. There were scores of ramshackle food stalls, swarms of pedestrians wandering in and out of traffic (no doubt avoiding sprained ankles from the perils of uneven, pock-marked sidewalks), competing boom-boxes pounding music out of shabby shops, and a good number of scavenging dogs.

Just when we were reaching extreme anxiety about the location of our first Airbnb, we turned one more corner and broke into the clear. Leafy trees lined much wider streets and big park emerged straight ahead. The sidewalks began to look less like they’d been bludgeoned with sledge hammers and we passed several lovely churches. The neighborhood began to match the photos on the Airbnb listing. Whew. https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/5955186

Shopping at the small neighborhood grocery store - check out the faces of the ladies ahead of me!

There was still plenty of action on the street - but much less intimidating than what we'd just traversed and our Airbnb was a quiet oasis because it faced onto an interior courtyard in a new, secure building. We were also just far enough from the city center that our neighborhood, Roma DF near Condesa qualified as "trendy" and "in transition”. That meant even though there were hip cafes and bars, a few boutiques and a handful of galleries, there were still pockets of derelict storefronts, piles of trash and desperate looking people but after a few days we began to appreciate life in this complex city. And we knew we were safe because there seemed to be at least one police officer for every 10 people.

Galleries were on all sides of us.

Our hosts were a delightful young couple, Alfredo and Daphne, and their one year old son Bruno. We learned from them that when they met they each had an apartment. As the romance blossomed they rented out one or the other on Airbnb. When Bruno was on the way, they moved into a third apartment together and now have two rentals. Things are going well for them in a city where it is hard to make a living. They topped up our list of things we must see and do in Mexico City and gave us details on our immediate neighborhood and the apartment. We went to bed.

These lucky dogs spend the day in the park with their walker who also teaches them obedience drills in between strolls.

Part of the joy of being Senior Nomads is that we can "nap at will". That, and having enough time in a new city to explore at a leisurely pace. And that was a good thing as we adjusted to Mexico City’s elevation (7,200 ft) and heat. We took our usual two-hour free walking tour and spent almost a full day at the Museum of Anthropology. We also got the chance to watch the Seahawks eek out a win against the Minnesota Vikings in a great seafood restaurant with multiple big screens.

Beer. Beer with Shrimp. Beer with Shrimp and the Seahawks game on. Beuno!

We also shopped in the neighborhood markets, and I made a few Mexican inspired meals. Food is so affordable (perfect avocados at 20 cents a piece), it was easy to become inspired.

Michael being his usual helpful self with our fellow walking tour companions.

A good afternoon of shopping - ingredients for Spanish Rice and Margherita Chicken

We had dinner with the hosts that own the Airbnb where we would be staying next in San Miguel de Allende. They live in Mexico City. It turned out Mariana, our host, is a partner in a very respected bistro in Condesa so we were able to meet at the restaurant and get a sampling of local cuisine along with further tips on how to spend our time in Mexico City and of course in San Miguel. Getting to know our hosts is one of the best part of using Airbnb! And Mariana and her husband, Gustov were no exception.

A moving tribute to the 43 students missing and presumed dead after being kidnapped last year.

To be honest, we didn't bond with Mexico City during that first week - I think we were experiencing a bit of culture shock. We knew we'd be back for another week after San Miguel, so we'd just have to wait for the "magic" that made it the New York Times number one choice for the 52 places to visit in 2016. http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/01/07/travel/places-to-visit.html?_r=0

The famous Ideal bakery - just load up a huge silver tray from over 1,000 choices, take it to the counter and before you can say heart attack you have a large box full of goodies to go.

After ten days in San Miguel de Allende we came back to Mexico City, and we did find some magic that second week. Our Airbnb was in the very center of the city close to all the major sights and the pulsing night life of downtown. We were able to step outside our latest home and get right to the business of being tourists. And when we’d had enough we could step behind the door to the street into blissful silence because we were deep inside a converted palace! Ours was one of only 11 apartments in the complex. It was cool, comfortable and peaceful. We met our host, Juan Carlos, a great young engineer who had a hand in the refurbishment of the building and now manages the apartments. https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/1022380

Our oasis in Mexico City. The perfect airbnb for sight seeing and for resting in between!

Michael was able to attend a football match in this soccer mad city and had a great experience. He’s busy writing his sports report blog on that. We become proficient in using the metro system and got further afield. A visit to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadelupe was a moving experience.

Michael's birds-eye view of the football match. Watch for his blog about his adventure!

We sat high up in the balcony of the stunning Palace of the Arts to experience a performance of the Mexico City Folk Ballet. It was a blur of color from hundreds of amazing costumes and the music got into your soul. The Mariachi Band stole the show with a grand finale - especially with a jazz inspired dueling harps solo!

The Mexico City folk ballet was a definite highlight of our stay.

We had lunch with a former colleague of Michael’s who runs FIRST in Mexico City. We met Barbara and her son Alex at one of the city’s finest restaurants. As we ran through our adventures thus far, you could watch her turning pale as she heard about us using the metro, Michael attending a football match on his own, and, horror of horrors, eating street food. That was not her Mexico City - and she felt we were fortunate to be in one piece. She did, however, approve of the ballet.

This doesn't really even begin to show the disrepair on the sidewalks all over Mexico City.

More than once were given this sage piece of advice "when you are walking, look down - never mind the scenery or your cell phone, you don't want to break an ankle!" Never were truer words spoken. After three weeks we were fairly confident traversing the hap-hazard sidewalks and pothole riddled streets - but I am baffled that we didn’t see more walking wounded on crutches in both Mexico City and San Miguel.

The street food was tantalizing - you could eat three meals a day for under $10.

Fresh fruit with lime, chili and salt! Had to buy my own shaker to take on the road!

Perfect on pineapple, corn, and steak!

Poor walking conditions are just part of the ramshackle world that is Mexico I suppose. And worth the risk in order to get to the street food. We had heard all the warnings, but who could resist the staggering variety and the tantalizing aroma of sizzling meat (some more discernible than others), tortillas made on the spot to fill with intriguing toppings, sauces, and fresh guacamole, then there were melt in your mouth tamales and spears of perfectly ripe fruit sprinkled with lime and chili powder! All for pocket change. I knew I couldn't. And eventually, Michael couldn't either. Unfortunately on the day before we left we got hit with a dose of "tourista" after we enjoyed 5 tacos for 20 pesos (a dollar). We were unwell for a couple of days which made for awkward travel, but personally, I think it was worth every crunchy, drippy, spicy bite.

A lovely sculpture at our nearest metro station. The trains were clean, fast and crowded!

In the end, I would describe Mexico like an impressionist painting covered with bold stokes of vibrant color and dark smudges that when viewed as a whole, becomes a clear and very beautiful picture of a country full of warm, proud people who celebrate life as it comes. 

Thanks for following along,

Debbie and Michael
The Senior Nomads

Heading to Cuba!

 Michael and I head to Cuba for three weeks tomorrow morning! We are so excited about exploring that amazing island - and we're going to do it by bus! We've got 5 Airbnbs lined up in different cities and they all look very interesting. Our first stay will be with a Sylvio & Julia, Airbnb hosts from Havana we met at the Airbnb Open in Paris last November. Their home looks beautiful - and as with all the others, we will eat our meals there with other guests. https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/5704246

We are both looking forward to a lull in internet connection and cellphone coverage. We have plenty of reading and writing to do - but we also plan on slipping into the past and enjoying some "island time". 

Sylvio & Julia spoke on the Keynote stage ahead of us, right after Airbnb announced their successful launch in Cuba. Currently there are over 3,000 listings there! Here's a great article from Fast Company that summarizes how it happened way better than I could!

 http://www.fastcompany.com/3044895/most-creative-people/no-internet-no-credit-cards-no-problem-how-airbnb-launched-in-cuba

I had so much to say about Mexico that I am still working on that blog! Should be out as soon as I have a good internet connection! We look forward to sharing that experience and our Cuban adventures after we get back on the 26th of February.

Debbie and Michael Campell
The Senior Nomads