How to Build an Estufa Lorena

Jeremy was our teacher in this, as he had built many stoves and perfected them over his time spent in the Peace Corps in Panama.  We built this one in front of the volunteer house at Finca de Los Perezosos in Chiriqui, Panama.

Why Build an Estufa Lorena?

Easy to build with materials found in most places.

Uses less firewood, and smaller pieces by concentrating and conserving the heat thus less time is spent gathering firewood.

The Mix

Clay dirt mostly and some sand

No rocks or organic matter

A sprinkle of water but not much at all….this is a dry stove, not moist like cob

The Mold

Build a box out of 4 pieces of wood, the size of the mold will be the size of the stove.

Place the mold ontop of a table/surface for the stove that is sturdy and can withstand a lot of weight.

Begin to fill the mold with the mix.

Only fill the first level about 2 inches thick.

Pack It Down

Stomp the mix down into the mold.  Pack it as tight as you can.

This is very important.

More Packing

To really get it packed use a 2 by 4 or some sort of flat thick board and a hammer.

Smash the hammer onto the board and the board will flatten and pack the lorena mix.

Repeat this all over until the mix is packed as tightly down as you can get it.  The first layer is the most important to get packed tight.

Add Levels

Keep adding levels of about 2 ingh thickness and keep packing them down, first by stepping and then by hammering the board, or just use the board if you want but stomping helps.

Fill the mold up to the top, or atleast close to it.

Remove the Mold

You will also need pots and pans that are either the ones you will most commonly use or close to that size.

Draw it Out First

Draw where your stove entrance will be.  This is where the wood will go in and the fire will be.  This area needs to have room like in the photo to lay the pieces of wood that are sticking out of the fire.

Draw the tunnel chambers and holes for the pots.

The first set of circles (bottom right) are small: the hole the flames will come out of, big: the area that the pot will sit down on.

The second set of circles (top left) is small: the hole the excess heat from the fire will come out of, big: the area the smaller sized pot will sit on.

The third lone circle (bottom left) is the hole for the chimney and smoke to come out.

The lines connecting from right to left create the tunnel that moves the heat through the stove.

Start Carving

Carefully carve out the cavities drawn out, starting with the entrance.

Use kitchen knives and spoons.

Make Sure the Pots Fit

This is important because if there are gaps around where the pot sits, especially in the first hole, the heat will escape and the second hole will receive less heat.

Keep Carving

Carve out all the holes, make indentations for the pots to fit into and carve out the tunnels carefully connecting the 4 holes.

Finishing Touches

Stick a tin can in the chimney hole that you can add on more to, to build your chimney higher.

Add a plaster made of balo leaves mixed with water until they get sudsy and ash.  Rub the plaster on all parts of the stove, inside and out.

Let the stove dry and not get wet.  Build a roof if it is not already under one.

After the stove has been drying for one week, you can start a small fire in it and cook.  After this first time, you can use it like normal.

How to Use It

If you are only cooking with the first burner, place a stone ontop of the second hole so that heat does not escape.

Once a week when being regularly used, the stove should be wiped down with ash to maintain the plaster cover.

Tear Gas and Guns Fired at Ngabe Indigenous People for Protesting the Barro Blanco Hydroelectric Project

On Friday, May 18th a group of Ngabes and solidarists hiked to the construction site of the Barro Blanco dam on the Tabasara River.  They were met with tear gas, bombs and live fire.  The indigenous group was unarmed and outnumbered, 300 to 50.  One man was wounded from a nearby explosion.

“Yesterday was war. [Martinelli] is massacring our people.  He killed one, he killed another and yesterday he nearly killed again.  If we killed one of theirs we would be in trouble, but they kill one of ours and deny it,” Rogelio Rodriquez, a prominent Ngabe community member said.

A group Ngabe men blockading a construction bridge that
crosses the Tabasara River in the Veraguas Province, Panama

Again on Saturday, May 19th the group attempted a second time to block and occupy the dam construction site and they were yet again met by an overwhelming number of riot police.  The protesters had enough time to block the bridge with logs and stones before the police arrived, but the blockade was not enough to keep the police on the other side of the river.  The police force shot tear gas and live bullets at the unarmed Ngabes for close to an hour until everyone retreated into the hills.

The people of the Ngabe-Bugle Comarca have been fighting against the Barro Blanco Hydroelectric Project for 13 years.  If the dam is constructed it will displace thousands of people and destroy acres of rainforest.  Toribio Garcia, one of the leaders of the current movement to occupy the dam site, says that they “will keep struggling until the end, until the dam project is canceled.”

Ngabe people running from tear gas bombs on May 19th

“We come unarmed and they come with so much,” Celio Guerra says, President of the Traditional Ngabe-Bugle General Congress, “Martinelli’s police force is trained in Colombia, in Israel and at the School of the Americas.  There is so much military force in Panama, they could be protecting all the forests but instead they are working for Monsanto, George Bush, Texas, not for us, the people.”

Tabasara River, downstream of the projected dam.

The Ngabe people are “environmentalists more than anything,” Garcia says, “We take care of and protect the nature, rivers, animals and ourselves.  We need this river to survive.”

The dam is being constructed by a Panamanian construction company, GENISA, created specifically for the construction of hydroelectric plants.   The Barro Blanco dam is being funded by development banks including the Dutch FMO, the German DEG, and the Central American BCIE.

Everyone living on the banks of the river downstream of the dam has been told to abandon their homes.  They have been coerced into signing resettlement agreements and told that if they do not right now, they forfeit the measly price GENISA is offering them for their land.

Leftover grafiti from the February protests

Silvia Carrera, the cacique general of the comarca, continues to negotiate with the government. Celio Guerra, says that for him “the cacique does not exist.”  Guerra says that “the government is paying Ngabe-Bugle officials to negotiate their way.”

Carmencita Tedman MacIntyre, a seasoned environmental activist, agrees with Guerra.  MacIntyre feels that the people have been “betrayed by the cacique. It is a whole scam to mislead the people yet the project is advancing rapidly.”

The Barro Blanco construction site May 2012

The government led by President Martinelli is pushing for hydroelectric projects all over the country.  “Energy is more expensive in Panama than many other countries even though we have so many hydroelectric plants,” Garcia says, “the government does it to sell and to make more money than they already have.  We will not benefit from the dam but we will all be affected.”

Portland, Jamaica: Statewide Food Forest

Mangos, breadfruit, coconut palms and Jamaican apples are only a few of the canopy story trees that cover the landscape in Portland, Jamaica.  Passion fruit vines, bananas and coffee make up the understory with squash, spinach, okra, beans and herbs below.

The residents of Portland probably haven’t read volume one and two of Edible Forest Gardens by Dave Jacke and Eric Toensmeier.  They probably have never taken any classes on agriculture and definitely never graduated from a permaculture design course but still working together and alone they have achieved a great agricultural feat.

It may have been their love for fresh produce, shown by the numerous stands and carts packed with fresh fruits and vegetables or maybe it was the rampant poverty that lead to the need to grow as much of their own food as they could, either way the population has done an efficient job at creating a thriving tropical food forest.

Portland lies on the north-eastern part of the island.  The famous Blue Mountains  run through the province and it stays wet most of the year.  Whether I was in a small town,  along the coast or up in the hills, most of the land was planted as a forest.  Ofcourse, there was plenty of wild forest full of native trees but most of the land along the roads and around the houses was planted with edible plants.

I spent most of a month in Port Antonio, one of the larger towns in Portland and visited the market often which was packed with elder ladies selling fruit I had never seen before.  The food was not cheap and not all grown locally but it was good and fresh. Even without the busy market, the people could have easily maintained a nutritious diet off fruit trees growing on the street.

Lava, a young man I met, was a particularly interesting example and probably not a rare one.  He was my friend’s cousin and we visited both his house in town and his mother’s house in the Blue Mountains.  He was growing okra, peppers and lemon grass right outside his front door and beginning to experiment with peanuts.  He was preparing a plot of vacant land that was on the trail from his house to the river.  He also had the hill that his mother lived on planted beautifully with coffee and bananas growing under the older fruit trees and to top it all he owned two pieces of land in different areas along the coast that he had just for the purpose of growing food.  When referring to his two plots of land he called them his “bush” and I could only imagine how wild his farms were.  Growing food was his passion-well, one of his passions; he loved to cook and smoke ganja too.  He said he rarely sold anything he grew, but ate it and shared it with his family.

I would highly recommend Portland, Jamaica to anyone interested in food forests.  Although there is no infrastructure or projects to get involved with that I know of,  I’m sure any determined being could easily get to know people who could show them and teach them about their very own established food forest.

 

Feeling Feelings

I´ve recently been reading a book by Hugh Prather called I Touch the Earth, the Earth Touches Me and it has inspired me to change the way I react to my feelings.

When I feel nervous, I stop and delve inside my body, searching for physical symptoms of this feeling and observe what is going on instead of reacting immediatly. 

Sorrow or joy, excitement or fear. What do those words mean?  Why do I have to give certain sensations specific names?  I´m beginning to ignore the so called names of my feelings and just observe them as they are.  This has been helping me discover how I truly feel.

Give it a try sometime.  The next time a thought crosses your mind that you are feeling a certain way, stop and feel your feeling.  Try it with feeling tired, the next time you think or say, I´m tired, pause and find out what it feels like to be tired.  How do your eyes feel, what are your thinking patterns, what do your feet, your hands, your stomach, your arms feel like?

The Ngabe Indigenous Community of Western Panama is Being Ignored by the Government in their Attempts to Protect their Homeland from the Illegal Construction of the Barro Blanco Hydroelectric Project

The Barro Blanco dam construction will flood indigenous communities and require many to abandon their homes. Everyone living on the banks of the Tabasara River downstream from the dam have been coerced into signing documents agreeing to terms that many of them cannot fully understand because of their illiteracy. The dam will deforest acres of land that is home to many endemic species including the Tabasara Rain Frog.

The most recent hydroelectric dam constructed on the Changuinola River in the Bocas del Toro Province flooded an indigenous community and destroyed acres of pristine rainforest. Now GENISA a Panamanian company designed specifically for the construction of hydroelectric projects in Panama has begun construction on yet another destructive dam.

The Ngabe community led peaceful protests this past February, by blocking the IntraAmericana Highway, but were met with attacks both by air and land. The military-like police force left 2 dead and many injured.

The Ngabe people are attempting to continue their resistance of the Barro Blanco project but the national government is infiltrating their people and confusing the movement. The previously trusted spokeswoman of the Ngabe, Silvia Carerra, has signed an agreement that the majority of the people are not in accord with. The government is not aknowledging the true leaders of the Comaraca who continue to speak out against the construction.

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Is Cheap Travel in Cuba Possible?

We weren’t planning on going to Cuba, so when we arrived we weren’t prepared for the system that we would have to wiggle our way through.  Our plan was to travel like backpackers; hitchhike from city to city, camp wherever we could find a place and cook over fires. We found it very hard to travel like this and thus we found that traveling on a tight budget in Cuba was extremely hard.

Tourism is kept separated from the real Cuba. Tour buses are expensive to keep most Cubans off.  Tour buses go to certain locations and are very confined.  Good luck seeing Cuba as it really is, if you travel this way.  Tourism is how Cuba makes its money, so nothing touristy is free (unless you are sneaky).

The confusing system that involves two currencies, regulations on everything, and a lot of illegal interactions was tiring on our minds, bodies and souls.  Many days would begin and end with frustration and hardship; we found ourselves fed up with Cuba most of the time we were there.  It is not the fault of the Cubans, who are forced to live in the oppressive socialist system, but that of the government and the system itself.  I enjoyed Cuba and learned a lot from traveling the island and so I will share my experience in hope that it will help future travelers.

Below you will find:

• Customs and Immigration: In and Out on a Boat
• Exchanging Money
• Your Money, My Money: The Two Cuban Currencies
• El Ultimo
• Speaking With Locals
• No Dangers In Sight
• Getting Around
• Where to Sleep
• Pizza, Ice Cream and Rum: Food in Cuba
• Where To Go

Customs and Immigration:  In and Out on a Boat

We arrived and stayed at the Marlin Santiago de Cuba Marina (this won’t apply to most if you are arriving by air).  The anchorage was not very good holding, but we soon moved to the dock to check in and stay for a month.  The check in process was intense!  Our friends had arrived the day before and had come over on the dock to say hello but they were shooed away by a man in charge and said that they couldn’t talk to us until we were checked in.

I don’t recall who came first but it was one group after the next and lasted most of the day.  One man checked the boat for pests, like bugs, rodents, pets, etc.  We filled out forms for everyone, writing our names and passport numbers over and over again.  Doctors came on the boat to check for our immunizations, they did not ask to see proof, they only asked if we had a shot for yellow fever and we replied yes we did.  They asked about health insurance.  Cuba accepts most country’s health insurance except if it is from the US, so as Adam and I were from the States we were “required” to pay $2.50-3/day for health insurance.  There was confusion about this and we got ourselves in some trouble about it because we didn’t think that we needed to pay for health insurance so we didn’t and immigration came looking for us…oops.  A vet came on board for some reason.  A man came on who checked dry food stores for bugs. He looked in our rice, flour, pasta, all very carefully to make sure there was no sign of insects.  Another man came and checked our meat and fresh produce for signs of bugs.  We were all good with that part.

The captain left to go, sit and deal with parperwork in an office somewhere and we were left on the boat to deal with the dog.  The dog was only a year or 2 old, still in training, a small, black lab type dog with floppy ears and a smiling mouth.  There were 2 men that searched the boat themselves and then there was the man who was training the dog to smell out drugs ( and humans I bet too).  The men looked in everything–every cavity, every bag, they went through everything I owned, and were very thorough.  They looked in the compartments in the floor, under the seats, in the heads.  They even looked inside Mamiko’s box of tampons and were suspicious of the strange things!

One man found a bag of dried yarrow in my stuff and he accused me of it being ganja.  I told him no, it was a medicinal plant, yadayada, its not marijuana I said, but he insisted.  I laughed.  To check to make sure, they hid it under the pots and pans and encouraged the dog to sniff for it.  Disappointing to the men but no surprise to me, the dog had no reaction to the scent and so they finally believed me that it was infact not marijuana.

We luckily cleared in after all that and were allowed off the boat.  Adam and I went to grab beers and decompress after the long grueling sail from the Bahamas.  We didnt have any money so the nice bartender fronted us 4 beers.

The CHECK OUT processs was much more laxed.  We only had to worry about illegally purchased cigars.  Cuba’s main worry was that we might have Cubans onboard.  They did a quick search in the bigger compartments of the boat to look for stow aways.

Our Captain bribed some guy to not search the boat very thoroughly and so we didn’t have to worry about the cigars anymore.  If you can figure out who you need to bribe and bribe them without anyone else seeing, you can get away with a few things.  This was how a lot of Cuba was like.  Giving bribes and gifts to any official at the marina or any Cuban at all was illegal but happened anyways and was almost expected and normal.  The same guy that tells you you can’t give gifts to people is asking for some clothes for his kids the next day.  Cuba was the most ironic place I’ve ever traveled.

Overall the check in and out was pretty efficient.  Even though the extent of the bureacratic bullshit is more than I have seen anywhere else, they were fairly timely and professional and knew what they were doing.  Many of the officials spoke English or an interpreter came along to help.

Exchanging Money

As we arrived by boat and not by plane, we were not able to exchange our money in the airport which we heard was the best place to do it.  It was easy to exchange money though.  “Cadecas” (exchange offices) will exchange money, but for our USDollars we lost 13% each time we traded money.  We exchanged USDs to CUCs (kept some CUCs) and CUCs to pesos.  We had to arrive with enough USDs to exchange because our US bank cards would not work in Cuba.  Whatever you do don’t exchange CUCs back to US$ if you are leaving because the marina took 20some% from us when we were leaving!

My advice…bring Canadian dollars or Euros and exchange them at no loss.  I guess if you have a bank card from another country that works in ATMs that would be a good idea too but since we were from the US, our bank cards did nor work.

Your Money, My Money: The Two Cuban Currencies

At some point during or after Cuba’s Special Period, a new second currency was created to help boost the economy.  Whether or not the currency is helping boost the economy, I don’t know, but CUCs are what tourists use and tourism is what brings profit to the country.  The original currency is known as pesos Nacionales (national pesos) or pesos Cubanos.  The seond currency is known as CUCs, pronounced “cooks” in English.   When I asked what CUC stood for, Adam said, “It was ‘fuck tourist money’ was what it was, FTM!”  The two currencies were used for different purchases and by different people.

For ease of writing in this article, I will use pesos and CUCs to differentiate between the two currencies.
How it works (more or less as of March 2012):
$1USD=$0.87 CUC (more or less, depending on how you exchange it)
$1 CUC=$25 pesos Cubanos/Nacionales
Cubans use pesos and foreigners use CUCs.  The prices are drastically different for both groups.  For example, in a restaurant a tourist can get a menu and the prices are in CUCs—hamburger for 5CUCs, beer for 1CUC—but that same restaurant could also have a menu in Nacionales—hamburger for 10pesos, beer for 18pesos–and the actual price difference is huge.  That 10peso hamburger is really only less than half 1CUC for a Cuban but to a tourist they charge double, quadruple, sometimes 10 times the local price.
This was one of the reasons why we had some issues traveling in Cuba; everyone wanted to charge us the tourist price but we wanted to travel like Cubans.

If we used Nacionales we could buy a pizza for 5, coffee for 1, ham sandwhich for 5, beer for 18 and get a bus truck that could take us over 60k for 10.  It was cheap.  But if we wanted to stay the night or buy a tourist bus ticket, that was in CUCs and the price was much higher.
I guess, my recommendation is to exchange and get Nacionales for food and drinks but to expect to spend loads each day with CUCs, because pretty much everything to do with tourism is in CUCs because that is the government’s way of making money.  A fancy restaurant, a night out anywhere, a trip to a waterfall, a horseback ride, a t-shirt, a bottle of rum, souveneirs, and bus tickets are all priced in CUCs.

El Ultimo

This concept seems basic but it is vital for traveling in Cuba and thus I have included an entire section on it.  In Cuba, people rarely stand in lines or ques but rather they form organized masses.  We learned this our first day when we went to exchange our money.  We succesfully found the Cadeca and could see something of a line, so we walked to the end of it and naturally I asked if that was the end of the line.  A young man and his girlfriend responded from a shady corner on the sidewalk.  They were the last ones in line, even though they weren’t physically in the line.  Soon enough someone else came up and asked out loud to the group who was last, we said that we were.  The woman aknowledged and went to stand in the shade.

The phrase you’ll hear is “Quien es el ultimo?”  and depending on the situation they might also ask, for example in a bus station, “Quien es el ultimo por Havana?”, Who is the last one for Havana?  Respond and say that you are the last one, if you are, because if not, confusion may follow.  This is a great system for places that straight lines are impractical or where the line would be in the hot sun otherwise.  Make sure that you always ask who the last one is, it is perfectly normal in almost every situation.    Only in extreme situations of transportation have I seen this disregarded and people push and squeeze their way onto a packed bus.  Cubans usually stick to this method and are very respectful of who came first.

Speaking with Locals

Tourists are not supposed to speak with locals about political or social issues and if they get caught, both parties can get in trouble.  I heard from a young German traveller that if he was caught discussing these issues with a Cuban he would have received a warning stamp in his passport and if he was caught speaking with locals 3 times he would have gotten in trouble (whatever that trouble would be, I can’t tell you).  We did not encounter any issues with police and we spoke with many Cubans about social and political issues.  When we did, especially the time we stayed illegally in a Cuban’s home, the young man was very nervous and told us that he was not supposed to be talking with us about his dislikes with the country but that he would anyways.

An elder woman was helping us make our way to the Amarillo station in Trinidad, she was leaing the way.  She noticed a group of 4 police officers coming towards us down the street.  She quickly whispered for us to stop following her and she sped up ahead ignoring us.  After the police passed by, we reconnected and she said that she couldn’t get caught being seen with us because she would have gotten in trouble for helping us.  Absurd rule right!  So Cubans are afraid of helping tourists, and I guess the Cuban government is afraid of the wrong Cubans taking advantage of tourists.  Or maybe the government doesn’t want to chance the possibility of a tourist paying a Cuban some money without it going directly to the government.

Don’t be afraid of talking to Cubans though.  Most everyone we spoke with was kind and helpful as long as the police were not around.

No Dangers In Sight

There weren’t many as far as I could see.  Cubans were friendly people and I never felt threatened or that I was in the wrong part of town.  Apparently there are laws that give Cubans 15years in prison if they steal from a tourist, so your pretty safe in that area.  I did not hear any stories of violence either, between locals or tourists.  As to just being bothered by Cubans hastling you, there are few problems here also, because local Cubans are strongly discouraged from bothering tourists and they are often frightened of you if you get upset with them for this because they could easily get in trouble.  The police in Cuba are around to protect tourists and maintain a positive image of the country.

Getting Around

The transportation throughout Cuba was as diverse as the bird species.  It was hard to travel efficiently and cheaply but you could surely travel like we did, patiently and slowly, if you so desire.  A good website I just found, that has more info on transport in Cuba is http://www.cuba-junky.com/cuba/cuba-transportations.htm.

Los Amarillos: Because there is such a demand for transportation, Cuba has a system of organized hitchhiking.  We traveled this way all the way from Santiago de Cuba to Vinales and from Vinales to Havana.

At the end of each big city and small town there are people that are called “Amarillos”.  They are dressed in golden yellow pants and shirts and their job is to stop government vehicles–ones with blue liscense plates–and organize carpooling.  Tons of Cubans use this system, but we only met one other foreigner traveling this way and he had been living in Cuba for 4months.

Here is a run down of how it works:

1. Greet the man in yellow (El Amarillo) and tell him where you want to go.  Pick the next closest city in the direction you are traveling because it is hard to find rides that go very long distances.  The Amarillo will remember where you want to go.

2. Hang out and wait.  If you want, you can ask the crowd of people, “who is the last one for Pinar del Rio? / Quien es el ultimo para Pinar del Rio?” for example, so that you know who you go after.  Respond that you are the last one in line if anyone else asks, and then that person goes after you and they are the last ones in line.

3. El Amarillo will wave his clip board in front of vehicles with blue plates.  Sometimes they stop and he asks them where they are going.  Sometimes they drive by without stopping because they are full, they are turning soon, or they just dont want to stop and help.  Most of them stop to tell the Amarillo where they are going though, because it is the law.  State vehicles are required to stop and offer people rides around the country, if they are going to the same place.

4. A ride comes to the place you want to go!  The Amarillo will get your attention and you pay him 1peso national for his services.  That’s it.  And the drivers are not allowed to ask for money because they are on the job, their gas paid for by the state, you already paid the Amarillo.

5. In some cases a bus truck might stop.  These cost 5-20 pesos depending on the route.  In these cases, you don’t have to pay the Amarillo but you would pay the man collecting fares on the bus truck.

6. We waited at these Amarillo stops sometimes for hours on end before getting a ride.  You have to be somewhat pushy, especially if people are not follwing “el ultimo” rules.  Sometimes the Amarillos dont help much and in those cases, make sure you are up front when cars stop so that you can hear where they are going and just try and jump in the car if it’s the right place.

Bus Trucks:  I could never remember the Cuban name for these, something like Botellos or Bodellos or Boderos (ask for “el camiones” and people would understand).  The bus trucks traveled from one city to the next and would end at the next city’s bus truck station making it was easy to find the next one.  The cost was 5-20pesos a person.  After finding out which bus truck you want to be on, you climb aboard and wait until it fills up with people, this could take awhile, so be patient.  They had tarp covers and wooden or metal slabs along both sides that served as seats.  Sometimes I would rather stand than sit on the hard boards.  The bus trucks were bumpy, crowded,  windy, loud, smelly and sometimes rain dripped in but they were my favorite way to travel in Cuba.  Like the Cuban.

TourBuses:  This is how most tourists and foreigners travel in Cuba.  I don’t know much about these becuse we only took one.   ViaAzul (http://www.viazul.com/) is one company, or the company, and is pricey but goes all over the island.  For example, from Santiago de Cuba to Havana the bus is about 50CUC.  They are nice buses with bathrooms, luggage storage and movies.

Astro Buses: This bus is for Cubans and is a small percentage of the price for the ViaAzul buses, but from what we experienced, it was near impossible to get on.  We needed to have a Cuban ID card or a visa that allowed us–Cubans only.

Rental Cars: Also possible, but really I dont know much about this.  I heard you have to be careful that people dont jack your car for parts.  Careful where you park.  Careful not to break anything on the car because Cuba is likely to charge you for it.

Train: There is first and second class.  Be sure that if you pay for first class, you get to sit in it but second class I bet would be nice enough and is cheaper than the ViaAzul buses.  From my memory, 50 or 60CUC for first class and 30CUC second class from Havana to Santiago.

Taxis: For transportation within a city or town, taxis are everywhere.  Many of the taxis are cool old cars and others are new cars.  There are route taxis (cars that go back and forth between 2 places for a set price) that usually cost 10pesos a person for a decent distance. To get a route taxi, flag down a car, and ask where they are going or if they are going to where you want to go, and if the answers match, hop in.  There are chartered taxis that seem to be very expensive (we never took any) and can take you from city to city if you want, for prices more like 10-100CUC depending on the distance.

Buses: Local buses are popular in bigger cities and are very cheap.  They often go for 20-40 cents of a Cuban peso.  If you dont have change, which I rarely did, I would just pay 1peso for 2 of us and that was fine, because you couldn’t get change.  The buses go pretty much anywhere you need to go within the city, this is what the locals take; just ask someone where the buses go because there are no signs in the windows with destinations.  The buses are crowded, so try to find a seat or a place to stand that is away from the exit doors.

Bike and Horse Taxis:  These go within cities and towns.  They often have specific routes that they take.  We only took a couple horse taxis when we were traveling with some Cubans that were helping us out.  I believe they were pretty cheap, maybe 2pesos or so.  Ask a local for help finding the right one or just ask the drivers where they are going.

Where To Sleep

Casa Particulars: Cuban guest houses, this is the most common place to stay in Cuba.  You stay with a Cuban family and rent out a room in their home.  The rooms are generally nice, with AC and private bathrooms.  The family offers meals, for a price.  The casas are marked by blue upside down anchor signs on the front doors.  For one night, one room (may have one double and a single, or usually just one double bed) the price is from 15CUC-30CUC depending on how nice the house and neighbourhood are.  The casas are very nice, often with tranquil courtyards, they are safe, you won’t be bothered by anyone there, and the families are very friendly and helpful.……………We would offer 15CUC off the bat and if one house could not afford to only take 15CUC then they would help us find one that would.

Un-Licsensed Casa Particulars: There are casas that operate like official casa particulars but are not paying a cut to the government and thus do not ask for passport information and are cheaper.  You won’t see blue anchor signs on these and you may have to ask around town to find one.

Hotels:  We never stayed in any because they seem to go for 100CUC and up for a night but there were fancy hotels in most cities.

Camping in a cave with a 7ft long boa! Vinales National Park.

Camping:  We camped 3 times and all 3 times, we didn’t let anyone know that we were camping.  The first time we camped just on the side of the road outside of town and had no problems because we set up after dark and left before it was very light out.  The second time we camped up a mountain in a national park that we were not supposed to be in, in the morning we were questioned about sleeping in the bush but denied it and had no problems further.  The third time, we snuck into a cave in a national park and left again before dawn………Apparently there are camp grounds in Cuba, I would suggest doing your research on where they are before you come, because internet is near impossible in Cuba.

Camping up a horse trail in Parque El Cubano.

Pizza, Icecream and Rum; Food in Cuba

We sometimes ate 3 pizzas a day and a couple icecreams because they were so cheap and so easy to get.  They were everywhere in the cities and towns.  For 5pesos I could get a delicious personal pizza, an icecream cone for 1peso, a fresh fruit juice for 2pesos and a 5th of rum for 3CUC.  That’s all for under 3.50USD.

Other street food consisted of ham and cheese sandwhiches, egg sandwhiches, popcorn, peanut bars, fried plantain chips, fruit juices, smoothies, and coffee. The street food was plain and consisted mostly of flour and sugar but we survived on it for 3 weeks, supplementing it with fresh fruit and veggies.

There were restaurants in Cuba, nice ones and more homey ones but we stayed away from them.  Some restaurants charge in CUC only, some would just naturally charge pesos because they cater to locals, and other restaurants had different menus for foreigners and locals.  In this circumstance we were instructed to ask for the menu in pesos and it would be about 10 times cheaper for the same food.  What a strange system, huh?

Fruit and veggies on the street were cheap and sold in pesos.  Things like cooking oil, sodas, cheese and meats were sold in CUCs.

There were beers sold in CUCs and there were other brands that were sold in pesos.  Same with rum. To Adam’s (and my) delight, we found rum that was sold in juice boxes right before we started our long bus ride back to Santiago.  Rum was cheap in Cuba because they made so much of it and  grew so much sugar cane.  Things that were made in Cuba were generally priced in pesos and things that were imported were in CUCs, but that was not the case for everything.  We couldn’t really figure it out….it was very confusing.

Cubans were provided food through the socialist system.  We were shown the small booklets that they used to check off their rations throughout the year.  The amount of food the government provided to the people was not nearly sufficient enough to survive on.  Each person was given approximatly 1lb of rice, 1lb flour and  1lb beans each month.  They got oil every few months and an amount of salt each year.  There were other foods that were dolled out speradically throughout the year.

It was hard for Cubans to afford food that was sold in CUC prices and I once had a guy beg me to buy him cooking oil because he could not afford it.  He was overjoyed about it and rushed home to put it in his home.

Where To Go

1. Vinales had beautiful scenery, tranquil small town, lots of chill tourists, plenty of places to stay, rock climbing, hiking, caves, and farms (tobacco and others).  This was my favorite place by far.

2. Baracoa I never visited but I heard it is a strange town unlike most places in Cuba.  Check it out, because I didn’t get to!

3. Trinidad was a nice town with good authentic Cuban music night life (also a nightclub deeeeeep in an underground cave that blasted reggaeton), close access to a beach and waterfall full mountains.

4. Havana is an alright city with tons of plazas, free art galleries, craft markets, night clubs, and beautiful architecture.

5. Sancti Spiritu was a nice town I only saw by night, it had a fancy downtown area with a thrift store ( I noticed a 4CUC ukelele through the window).

6. Santiago de Cuba was another big city, not as nice as Havana but a good live music scene, some good street wandering, best 5pesos pizzas in Cuba and a nice view of the bay.  I wouldn’t reccomend visiting though.

Cuban Agriculture

To start with, this is probably not the best post you could read on Cuban agriculture because I didn’t spend as much time studying or getting involved with it as I would have liked but here is a little of what I did see.

Cuba seemed to be pretty on top of its agriculture system.  I’m not sure how it works economically at all and I doubt that farmers make much money.  In almost every city I noticed small gardens on personal property, as well as cooperatively run gardens.  Along the main highways there were larger fields of different crops depending on the location.  It seemed like any land that had the potential to grow food, was doing just that.

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CUBA IS SWEET

On our first journey through the east of the island we passed massive fields of sugar cane.  Sugar is probably the biggest agricultural industry in Cuba.  It’s used to make sugar ofcourse, rum, candies and juices.

We were in Cuba during March and that was sugar cane harvesting season.  We saw big rusty machines being used to quickly cut the cane and pile it into the backs of trucks or on train compartments.  People also harvested sugar can using machetes.

The cane was usually pressed in one factory and then made into rum at another factory.  The train tracks came right past the factory to unload the stalks.  The factories were state-run and if sugar cane is anything like tobacco, the farmers that grow it probably have to give a certain percentage to the factories.

We passed many fields that had recently been burned.  I’m not sure why this field was burned or what was growing or what they will plant next.  I learned in Jamaica that sometimes farmers will burn cane fields before they harvest them so that they burn away the leaf blades and only the sugary stalks are left.  This makes the cane easier to harvest since the leaf blades are not there to scratch the harvesters and make them itch.

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URBAN AGRICULTURE

As we drove through various cities, banana plants sprung up around almost every house and school yard.  Bananas and plantains grew everywhere.  In front of most houses people grew gardens, usually bananas, squash, papaya, pumpkin, coconuts or guava.  Many people seemed to be trying to grow as much food as they could in what little space that they had.

COops

I noticed many coops as we drove through the various cities of Cuba.  They were usually fenced in and they all looked the same, with neat long raised beds.

This coop was just outside of downtown Havana near Plaza de la Revolucion.  Havana is huge and so I would assume there would be many of these coops.  In this picture there are 2 different coops right next to each other.

The man working there, told me that the coops had been started by the government so that they could provide more food for the communities.  Each of the coops had their own little food stand where they sold what they grew.  The man told me that the coop he worked in employed 4people and he worked 7days a week.  He wasn’t working at the time I was there (the middle of the day) but relaxing under the shade of a tree.

Most of the coops had long raised beds like the ones above.  At this coop, they had trucked in a lot of dirt to fill these.  They seemed to keep all the beds planted and they were nicely weeded.  They were all set up with either drip irrigation or little sprinklers.

At the end of each bed they had planted marigolds, basil, oregano and other aromatic herbs.  The man said that they did that to keep insects away from their crops.

A lot of the beds were planted with more than just one crop.  This bed had lettuce and beets on the sides.  Other combinations I noticed were lettuce with onions and lettuce with carrots.  Everything was nicely labeled.

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VIñALES

Viñales had beautiful dark red-orange earth.  The hills throughout were round and full of caves.  One of the river caves we went into was made up of a smooth red mud similar to the color of the outside earth.  The rainy season was just beginning when we arrived in March.  Farmers were cutting their tobacco and planting yucca and sugar cane.  Outside of the town Viñales to the north-westish there were tons of fields.  Many of the campesinos seemed to work their fields and then live somewhere closer to town. 

This man was plowing his field and other men were following him around with sticks of yucca, dropping them and then kicking dirt over top to cover them.  Some bigger farms had tractors (like the big sugar cane fields) but these campesinos usually used oxen on ploughs.  They also used oxen to pull carts of various materials or crops around their farms and donkeys or horses to pull things through town.

Goats roamed free on this recently harvested tobacco field. The area around Pinar del Rio and Viñales, in the western half of Cuba is known for its tobacco plantations.  Fields of tobacco covered the countryside.

Men cut the tobacco leaves, usually leaving the bottom leaves on the stem.  They use a special curved blade and wear leather gloves to keep from slicing their hands.  They hang the tobacco on their arms until they are full up and then they hang them on wooden poles balanced on saw horses, like the ones in the background.

After the tobacco dries in the sun for a few days it is taken to tobacco houses to dry and cure for 4months or so.  The houses are made with palm thatching on all sides.  The tobacco houses are dark, with one door on each the west and east side. Inside there are layers of poles for the tobacco leaves to hang from.

Here is a photo of the tobacco in bloom, this farmer has not cut his yet.

The difference between the factory tobacco and the artisanal tobacco is the way it is processed.  Since tobacco is very strong and full of a lot more nicotine than people want to smoke, the leaves are processed before they are rolled into cigars or cigarettes.  The factories use chemicals to lessen this.  The farmers and wives of the farmers process the tobacco using fermentation because they could not afford or access the strong chemicals that the factories use.  They make a mixture of guava leaves, lime leaves, honey and rum and they ferment the tobacco in this.  They then let the tobacco dry and roll it into handmade cigars.  To roll the cigars the women use different leaves for different purposes.  They use one type of leaf for the tobacco in the inside, another leaf for the first roll and a third leaf to hold it all together in the shape of a cigar.  I watched a woman roll a cigar in just 2minutes.  She called it un cigaro al momento!

The tobacco farmers are required to give 90% of their tobacco to the factories, so they are left with only 10% of their crop to make any money off of.  Not very fair is it?  I wonder if this is true for other crops aswell…

PAlm THatching

Just a photo of a house in progress.  I’m not sure where the thatch palm came from, maybe the nearby mountains or it could have been trucked in from somewhere else; it was not uncommon to see trucks piled high with thatch palm.  It’s amazing to see all the palm fronds lieing on the ground; it puts it in perspective as to how many palms are needed for one roof.

FOod FOrest IN THe MOuntains

I went to a man name Raul’s farm.  His farm was just outside of the town, I’m sure someone could help you find it if you wanted to visit (it is one of the few places I can recommend going to in Cuba).  He was a nice old man and was generous with his fruit.  He had a small produce stand where he sold, honey(wild harvested from the mountain trees and caves!), coffee beans, fresh juices, artisanal cigars, and a plentitude of fresh fruits.  I hung out at his place for an entire day.

He grew a lot pf pineapples, had a fresh litter of pigs at the time, fed sugar cane to his horses and had a big pond for irrigation and animals.  His farm sat right up against the side of a mountain and he said that it was all his so that I was welcome to explore the trails.  I felt lucky to arrive at his farm because I had been wanted to hike some trails in the mountains!  Just behind his farm was a set of stairs that led up to a cave called Cueva de las Vacas.  The cave was free to enter although it may not be for long because I learned from a guide that it was now illegal to go there because they were in the process of figuring out how they could charge tourists to enter.  Raul did not mind, he was not in support of charging people.  The cave cut through to the other side of the mountain and had a beautiful view of the town and farm fields below.  There were formations that hung from the side that were reminiscent of the floating mountains from the film Avatar.

When I returned from the cave, Raul pointed me in the direction of some other trails that he said led up to a valley in the mountains where he used to farm.  So I took off and look what I found!

The pictures don’t do it justice.  We stumbled upon an established food forest that was nestled between 3 big cliffs.  In the first forest there were bananas, then coffee underneath and then taro/coco/malanga/Colocasia esculenta underneath the coffee.  I was amazed when I came across this.  It looked so overgrown and like it had been there a long time too.  The ground was covered with leaves and sticks and the bananas shaded the other 2 plants below.

We came across another food forest down another trail.  These forests were not near to the farm, they were well up the trail in the heart of the mountains, about a 30minute hike that included a slight climb up some steep rocks.  But they were perfect areas to grow food; they were flat, shaded and probably caught the water from the surrounding mountains.

The second forest was also surrounded by cliffs on all sides with only one entrance that we could see.  This one looked a little more maintained and was more sunny than the first one.  In addition to the bananas, coffee and taro, this one had some papaya, guava trees and coconut trees.  They were all randomly interspersed with each other and the ground was littered with leaves and fallen branches.  Mountains plants grew around as well and were not kept clean.

When we returned to Raul, I asked if they still harvested from there and he said yes of course they did.  It was great because the forests seemed so low maintenance now that they were established that all the men had to do was make the hike up and harvest the fruit to bring back.

Sailing Trip 3: Toucantoo to Ask For

It has been awhile since I last posted and a lot has changed.  We made it across the gulf stream, leaving Fort Lauderdale, FL and checking in with customs in the Bimini Islands.  When crossing the gulf stream we dropped the sails and threw a line out the back of the boat and went for a swim in the deep open blue water. 

In the Biminis we met a man named Ansil who was a wooden boat builder.  He had known Martin Luther King when he visited the Biminis to relax and write his speeches.  Ansil had taken MLK out on his boat a week or 2 before his death to sit in peace in the quiet mangrove channels and write one of the last speeches he ever gave.

It was great to be in the Bahamas but we weren’t in cruising mode yet.  Andy still had to make his way to Nassau to catch a plane back to the states.  So onward we pushed, sailing across the Great Bahama Bank through the night, pulling into the Nassau harbor just after sunrise.  Nassau is home to a dock that can house 5 cruise ships at one time and the famous Atlantis resort–it was very touristy to say the least.

After Andy left me and David headed out to the Exuma Islands, a chain of small islands we call Cays.  Our first island was Allen Cay, a small island with a population of friendly (begging) iguanas.  We didn’t have any fuel for the dinghy motor so we swam to shore when we wanted.

Taking our time, we could stay and go whenever we wanted.  We cruised down to Norman’s Cay, Warderick Wells Cay (which was inside the Exuma Land and Sea Park), to Staniel Cay, then to Black Point for the day, Little Farmers Cay and then things changed….

In Staniel Cay I put a posting on a bulletin board that I was looking for a new boat.  At a restaurant that night I met a group of people traveling on a wooden boat, the captain’s name was Tam.  Tam’s crew was getting off to head back to Nova Scotia Canada within the week and he was looking for crew.  I had seen the boat when we were at Allen’s Cay and had thought it was so call, I called it the Pirate Ship.

Tam left to take his crew to the airport in Nassau and we planned on getting in touch later to see if I could crew for him.  Not sure if we would meet again, me and David on the Toucantoo headed down to Little Farmer’s Cay for the First Friday in February Little Farmers Festival, 5Fs.

We arrived at Little Farmer’s on the Monday before the Friday so that we could get a good anchorage before the crowds showed up.  Little Farmers was a family island, meaning that foreigners can’t get land or businesses (I think). 

We and 4 other boats that we knew where anchored there so we invited them over for “sundowners” on Toucantoo.  Gary and Ray, a couple from Australia, John and Elise and their dog Moose, were from Annapolis, MD, Debbie, a solo sailor was from Oriental, NC, and Russ and Carol, were a couple from the Appalachians, NC.  Everyone brought their own beverages and snacks.  I made fresh salsa and corn tortillas which I rolled and then fried crispy into chips.  The next day we had a ladies brunch on Debbies boat with mimosas, fresh sweet rolls, and omelets.  It is interesting the friends we made on other boats, so cool how we travel together and help each other out.

I was glad to see Tam’s wooden boat show up at Little Farmers.  We talked again and made plans for me to join him on Monday.  I’ve been on the boat with him a little over a week and it has been wonderful.

As we were sailing into Georgetown a guy who was watching his friend kite boarding took some photos and then came and found us to give us the photos. 

The boat’s name is Ask For (because he got what he asked for) and he built it himself (well everything except the hull).  It is a beautiful boat, a Chesapeake skipjack, with 2 wooden masts and gaffs(wooden poles that hold the sails up) at the top of the 4 cornered sails.  It has 3 sails, the main, fore and jumbo in the front.  The blocks, cleats, and much of the other hardware are wooden.  It has been great sailing with him because he lets me steer the boat most of the time, something I didn’t get to do much when traveling with David–Tam doesn’t have AutoPilot.  I am learning more about how to keep the winds in the sails and it is great being on a boat with less technology to go wrong.

Along with Ask For, travels a boat called Blue Dream.  Blue Dream’s captain is Tommy, an 18year old from Richmond, VA.  He made it all by himself all the way to Eleuthra, Bahamas, where Adam flew in to join him.  Adam found Tommy on a website similar to the one I used to find Toucantoo.  We have been traveling with Tommy and Adam for a week or so and we all have a lot of fun.  Me and Tam cook for them so they don’t have to eat cans and mac & cheese every night.  We play hearts and backgammon at night and Tommy enjoys rum most times of the day.

Adam and I went spear fishing one morning off of some Cay I don’t remember and I speared a Lion Fish.  Lion Fish are invasive from the Philippines area and they are taking over the Caribbean, eating young fish and lobster eggs and have no natural predator except humans.  I cut off the spines and we filleted it, it was good meat but we each only got a small bite out of it.

At Galliot Cut Tommy, Adam and me went spear fishing again, but the current was so strong we didn’t get anything.  It was tough swimming so we decided to let go and drift with the current.  Holding onto the dinghy we drifted back towards our boat.  On the way we saw an Eagle Ray with a 8ft wing span, a small turtle, and a small southern stingray.  The next day Adam and I saw a shark!  Not just a nurse shark but a real shark, we think might have been a reef shark.  It eyed us and swam away, we quickly got up into the dinghy.

We are now in Georgetown, on Great Exuma Island.  There are over 200 sailboats anchored here!  It is a cruisers scene and there are plenty of activities to keep people occupied like beach yoga, volleyball, poker tournaments, pool tournaments, etc. 

Most cruisers rarely ever just go for a day sail.  Ask For’s draft is only 3 feet so unlike most boats with drafts of 5-7 feet, we can take the boat anywhere in the harbor and don’t have to stick to the channels.  We grabbed our friends Tom and Deb, David and his new crew member Mike, and me,Adam and Tam and we went for a sail.  Everybody loved sailing on Tam’s boat because it is so classic and picturesque and really sails fast.  We sailed all around the anchorages, cutting in between boats, putting on a show.  It was a great day and hopefully we’ll do it again before we all part ways.

Tam will continue to cruise the Bahamas until he returns to Nova Scotia for the summer.  Tommy is heading down to Puerto Rico and Virgin Islands.  David is headed to St Martin with Mike and me and Adam (we think) are heading to Cuba.  So, the next post will hopefully be full of adventures in Cuba and notes on the history and culture too.  Can’t wait!

How to Travel on Less than a Shoe String Budget

I’ve been traveling most of my life.  I began as a child on trips with my parents and went on my first solo trip to Baja California, Mexico  when I was 19.  Since then I have traveled around the US and Latin America and have picked up smome unique ways of traveling that I thought I would share.

Tip 1:  Craigslist Rideshare

Craigslist is a free classified adds website.  There is an option to look for rideshares.  I often check the city that I am in and the city that I am going to, in order to find people heading the same direction looking for people to carpool with and save gas.  I have had only good experiences through rideshare and as long as you are able to feel out a person before you get in the car with them then you should be fine.  Sometimes I share gas costs with drivers, sometimes they don’t ask but I still usually offer, sometimes I help drive, sometimes I sleep.  I have offered rides as well and that has worked out nicely, especially if I am going a long way and don’t want to drive alone the whole way.

Another place to find rideshares is at local Coop grocery stores on their bulletin boards.

Tip 2: Couchsurfing.com

This is a credible website for finding free places to stay for short periods of time.  I have made good friends through couchsurfing and will always consider it first before a hostel, not because it is free but because it allows me to stay in someones homes, make friends, and get a local person’s view of life.  It is safe because people leave  references for each other.  If anyone has a bad reference, you probably don’t want to stay with them, but most people have great references and are great people, that are interested in sharing their homes to fellow travelers.

Tip 3: Findacrew.net

This is a website that allows you to search for people that have boats and need crew members to help them.  If you can find the right boat this website might lead you to a job or free passage to distant lands.

Tip 4: Glean fruit trees

Many towns are full of under appreciated fruit trees.  Washington state has apples, wild berries and mushrooms.  Florida has oranges.  The tropics has mangos, avocados, and coconuts.  Don’t steal them, but kindly ask whoever’s tree it is if you can have some and they are more than likely going to say yes.

Tip 5: Public Libraries

Most libraries will give travelers day use of their libraries.  Free access to books, resources, and computers.

Tip 6: Hitchhiking

If you know more or less where you are going and are confident at sizing up strangers quickly then hitchhiking is a sound bet for getting you to where you want to go.  Often you may need to walk a bit, ride in a few different cars, sit smooshed in between 5 children and a baby in the back seat, but generally hitchhiking is fun and safe.  I have met great people, shared stories and gotten good local info on where to go next.  Be smart and remember that you can always turn down a ride after the person has stopped for you if the situation doesn’t feel right.

Toucantoo Sailing Trip, 2

Sailing is amazing!  It is so wonderful to have the wind with us and moving without the loud sound and smelly gumes of diesel!

The way sailing works with the wind is still boggling my mind and I have yet to grasp it.  I always thought that wind pushed the sails forward but no…it has to do with pressure, the wind somehow pulls the sail boat forward.  I have learned the terms close hull, close reach, beem reach and broad reech…all terms for what direction the wind is hitting the sails.

Night watch is a kick.  We take shifts, three hours each, usually 9-12, 12-3 and 3-6.  The last 2 night watches I was able to read and sing from my song book in the light of the moon.  It is so calming to be out, alone at the helm just me and the night sky.

Sun setting off the coast of Florida somewhere.

 

We made it to St. Augustine after 2 almost 3 days at sea.  We arrived at the docks eager to put our feet on ground and take warm showers, both of which we did.  St Augustine was a cute town, full of Spanish architecture, live music everywhere, art galleries, and tropical trees.  Up above is a picture of a deciduous tree that engulfed a tall palm tree.

I love seeing plants growing out of cracks in the concrete.  These ferns were growing out of the side of a wall.  Pretty impressive.

A fountain inside the courtyard of the old Hotel Ponce de Leon.

The old Hotel Ponce de Leon, named after the Spanish explorer/conquerer.  Now the building is Flagler College.

Here is a shot of David (front) and Andy.  Two good guys, we are having a fun sailing the seas!

Here is a view of St Augustine from out boat.  Lots of sail boats hanging out.

Our third tuna of the trip!  We have been eating tuna almost every meal.  Sushi, sashimi, steaks, pan fried with ginger rice, and tuna egg breakfast burritos.

I was joined during my early morning shift by at first just one dolphin and soon enough 10 then 13 then another pod came from up ahead and there were 30 dolphins swimming around the boat.  They rode the bow for over an hour until they noticed a school of fish and had breakfast.

At this moment we are headed off shore of Ft Lauderdale, FL headed to the Bahamas!