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16 November 2009
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Travels through Cuba: part twenty one
by Pete Keane

Newspaper seller

Surf's up! So Pete Keane heads for the beach...

I arrive at the apartment at about 11 am. Lourdes is there to let me in. She detects a hint of sadness in me and offers me some coffee. Soon after Lazaro arrives. With him is a very attractive woman called Yiisa and her little boy, E’tre’u. Yiisa is a member of Friends of Cuba, an organisation set up to help the country with aid, advice and promotional work. Yiisa is from Bermuda. She’s a very positive, spiritually charged individual. We sit and chat till about four in the afternoon. I am particularly interested by her connections with the Friends of Cuba organisation and ask her many questions about it. I promise to call her later that evening but collapse into a deep sleep after my 12 hour train journey from Santiago.

I awake refreshed the next day, grateful for a 14 hour sleep. The weather doesn’t look too bad either. My first priority is to go down to Calle 23 to confirm my return flight and renew my tourist card. Neither, it seems are possible so I so the next best thing and pack a bag for the beach.

Young E’tre’u

When I get there it is raining heavily but the surf is fully up. I fight to get out to the bigger waves with my body board and catch a few rides. It’s funny, on the way out to meet them, they look like they’re going to snap you and the board into a million pieces but once you get on top of them they’re not quite the monsters they seem.

Back on the beach I meet a couple of young Cubans, David and Arturo. David is a graffiti artist. Arturo is hoping to become a computer programmer. Arturo’s English is better than a lot of people I know back home. His father spends a lot of time working in Russia. The old alliances between Russia and Cuba are it seems, still very strong. I take a walk back to their barrio and admire some of David’s artwork that he is kind enough to share with all his neighbours by blasting it all over the apartment complex where he lives.

I end up buying some take away pizza for us. It’s not quite what we would call pizza in the UK but it is hot and filling. The boys ride back into Havana with me and wish me a safe journey home.