Departure day. We rode into Havana in the State Dept. SUV, parked, and walked in the rain to the FOCSA building to go to the top for a panoramic view of all of Havana, but we missed our chance because it was not yet open. The FOCSA building, built in 1956, at 29 stories is Cuba's highest building and is considered one of the seven wonders of Cuban civil engineering. This was our only rainy day, but not a washout. So we moved on to the obligatory photos in front of the famous Che image on the building across from the Jose Marti monument in Parque Centro. The Jose Marti Memorial is a tower of marble devoted to the national hero of Cuba. Presidente Castro's guarded offices are behind the Memorial, and across the square is the famous image of Che Guevara and also of Camilo Cienfuegos.
After running through the rain, we drove to the Deposito del Arte again to buy a shipping tube for which we unwisely refused to spend 2 CUCs on Thursday. In the car I discussed the overwhelming police presence with our friend. He acknowledged me with an additional statement that should have been but wasn't apparent to me - "and those are the ones you see - there are at least as many plain-clothed officials watching you as well". Some of my not so stealthy camera exploits surely could have been watched and documented.
After paying our entire weeks rent in cash on the way out the gate, we returned to our friends' home and Jake and I walked to Carboncita for takeout-pizza. I declared the four pizzas to represent the face of Cuba. They were priced very fairly at 3.50 CUC, about 11-12 inches across, but too large for the boxes they were placed in. The boxes were weak to the point that if you picked up the box, supporting it only in the middle, it would bend and collapse on all sides. The boxes were very thin and weak and would not close properly, the sides kept collapsing outward. Perhaps they were the only size boxes available and were made small and thin in order to conserve paper so that more boxes could be made from scarce resources and marginal production capacity. But for whatever the reasons, although the pizzas were tasty, most impressive was the boxes' ability to make the order look completely sloppy.
Riding through Havana in our friend's SUV toward the airport feels as if we are in a movie, trying too escape from a carload of spies tailing us - he drives very fast, down-shifting with a roaring engine, and accelerating around traffic with a very heavy foot. When he goes to visit prisoners around the country, he says that he hires a Cuban driver because the streets even in Havana lack visible labeling, and are much worse outside the city - he would surely get lost.
At the airport, leaving is easier than arriving, but monetarily more painful as we each have to pay a 25 CUC exit tax. The Castros obviously know that is not a heavy enough impediment to make any departing soul even blink - most cubans would happily pay several years salary and more. As soon as the plane starts moving I start snapping photos of the airport, feeling safe that they won't stop our plane once underway. En route we detour around a big thunderstorm and can see Key West and Marquesas Keys as we approach Florida. Marquesas Keys are the only atoll in North America, but rather than the typical volcano formation, they're believed to be formed by a meteor. Landing in Miami, there is another loud applause throughout the cabin as we touch down on US soil - many Cubans are onboard and some may be exiting Cuba and arriving in USA for the first time, emigrating today.
Sunday 2012-1202
We flew from Miami to Minneapolis back to reality and the only thing here that's more unsettling than Cuba . . . Minnesota winter.
