Our Cuba Adventure - Part 8

So here we are, well into our five-week of our Cuban adventure. We are biking around looking for people who can speak enough English to explain stuff that we just cannot fathom. There are not many tourists on this side of the island and Playa Largo has many Casa Particular that offer accommodation. There is even a hotel here but it's a bit dodgy and I would not recommend it. The locals say it is more for the locals than foreign tourists.

We share our casa with Lee-Anne, a Canadian lady in her late 50's. She scares us slightly and at first we enjoy her company but as the time moves on we see how her speech and her personality changes. This is when we find out that the flask she is sipping on is continuously being filled with Crystal, the local Cuban beer. There is evidence of her debauchery in the bin at the entrance to the kitchen. At least three-dozen empty cans are left there for the family to clean up after her.

Lee-Anne has the "family visa" and she is staying with our hosts semi-permanently. She doesn't have to pay for accommodation but contributes to the general running of the house, while the Cubans cook, clean and shop for her needs.

She tells us it is her eighth time in Cuba and she normally stays for three or four months at a time. She is on the dole in Canada and the money she receives from her government allows her to live a pretty good life. She tells us without inhibition about her affairs with Cuban men, they are often married but entertain western women, which is still prohibited on the island. They are known as Jinetero, in the simplest form they are hustlers in any way but most are known for being in the sex industry. Whether for a day, a week, or for an entire relationship, it is not uncommon on the island.

Lee-Ann has had many Cuban boyfriends, it's not just the cheap fags and the crisp light beer that brings this sad alky to Cuba. She has had many adventures dating Jinteros, most of them being fake "in love", so as to continue an on-going relationship with a foreigner. It's a sad truth, but according to Lee-Anne it does happen.

Most of the time they will have their own families on the island and when the foreigner comes, their partner vacates the home and the rest of the family plays along. They work together for the duration of the stay as was happening with the family we were staying the wife of Lee-Anne's heart throb got fed up with having drunk and lazy foreigner staying in her house and she made it unbearable even for a thick skinned Canadian lass.

"Cubans Love sex," Lee-Ann confirmed what we have heard a few times already. When there's nothing to do all day and the culture is very open with sex in general, the field is wide open. For Lee-Anne the field was ready for play.

"Ojos que no ven, Corazon que no siente" (Eyes that do not see, heart that does not feel) is a great Cuban saying describing cheating spouses; it did not seem to bother Lee-Anne who was ready for another heartbreak.

On the second day of our stay in Playa Largo, she was gone for most of the day. That afternoon I cooked a feast, which she sneered at, she was already a little drunk as she had spent the whole day at the beauty parlour, getting ready for something. Freshly painted nails on both hands and toes and a funky hairstyle made Lee-Anne look pretty dashing.

And while we were rocking on the porch after dinner, Lee-Anne produced a bag of salty almonds and a freshly refilled flask and we settled to her storytelling. She was a lot more brutal on the second day, telling us of her relationship with her estranged sons, her good for nothing ex-husband and her love of animals - horses in particular.

"Horses are one of the reasons I love coming to Cuba," she told us, "They are so much better than humans. I hate all humans." The conversation continued in a downward spiral from there but we did learn about how Cubans have difficulty in handling their new found wealth and how growing their own vegetables in their back yards is not acceptable as someone might just assume that they were peasants.

The next morning we woke up to a small frugal breakfast of a little stale bread, fresh tomatoes and chilli flakes washed down by steaming cups of fresh Cuban coffee. Our food was running out and Playa Largo was running out of food supplies. Lee-Anne was devastated as her favourite beer "Crystal" had run out and she would have to travel to Cienfuegos to buy more supplies.

Right after breakfast an old black Dodge pulled out in front of our Cassa, and her friendly driver was there to pick her up for a day on the beach. Lee-Anne was heading for the beach where she was planning to meet a handsome Cuban, fingers crossed.

It was our time to leave Playa Largo, its dusty streets and oh so quaint harbour, where motorised boats were forbidden, and head back to granny Nieves and start planning our return back home to SA. Catch our penultimate series next week. Keep safe and stay vigil.