Perspectives of a Wandering Geographer

My ol’ friend, John Dunham, from my undergrad days at Ohio State U., is very skilled with Photoshop.  He took the photo from my first Cuba blog post, replaced the ball cap with a Che Guevara beret, and lit my cigar.  All that’s missing are an AK-47, cartridge belt, and the commitment to lay my ass on the line for some revolutionary cause. I’m up at 4:45 AM.  The taxi will be here in an hour as I want to be at the airport three hours before my flight.  Maybe a bit of overkill but I’m not taking any chances.  I take a quick shower, get dressed, and take my stuff out to the lounge at 5:40.  There is no wifi this morning so I can’t get an update on the status of my flights or Hurricane Nicole.  As always, I’m nervous about early morning taxis showing up and getting me to my flights on time.  Javier, the host at Balcones , is sitting with me in the lounge.  He says I should stay here rather than go down to the street to wait for the taxi....

“What was your favorite thing about Cuba?” friends have been asking me.   Without much thought, I reply:    “The beautiful Vegas Grande waterfalls in the Topes de Collantes, north of Trinidad.”   But that experience lasted for less than ½ hour while I was there at the falls.   Upon more reflection, I think I really enjoyed the Cuban people I met.   And that’s saying a lot coming from a misanthrope like me.   I like my friends but otherwise, I’m a bit standoffish.    There are a number of adjectives I could use to describe the Cubans I met:   friendly without being pushy, helpful when I needed help, relaxed but not lazy, honest and unthreatening, innovative in dealing with scarcities (like the lack of available spare parts for their cars).   Admittedly, I’m not including the touts and hustlers in tourist areas who were a pain in the ass.   And there were definitely a few jerks and incompetent people I ran into.   But overal...

Yesterday, the hostess at my casa particular , Silvia, arranged for a colectivo (group taxi) to pick me up at 7:30 this morning for my trip back to Havana.   I have enjoyed visiting La Punta and Cienfuegos but I wouldn’t bother returning.   Nor would I go back to Santa Clara or Sancti Spíritus a second time.   Trinidad is OK but mainly as a stopping off spot on the way to the mountains of Topes de Collantes.   Still, these cities and the countryside in between have provided me with a good look at Cuban life and landscapes outside Havana. Early in the morning, I take a walk in the park at the scenic and quiet tip of La Punta one last time.  7:30 comes and goes giving me extra time to check on the hurricane situation. I learn that Nicole will totally miss Fort Lauderdale where I’m scheduled to arrive tomorrow morning. I’m starting to get nervous about the colectivo actually arriving when a black, late-model Peugeot pulls up at 7:50.  The price is a reasonab...

A good breakfast at my casa particular at including pancakes.   The wifi here is spotty and I’m antsy as I want to track Hurricane Nicole as she bears down on Florida potentially interfering with my flights in two days.   I later learn that the wifi only works when Silvia’s son-in-law turns it on as they get charged by the hour.   Miraculously, the power stays on all day and night today.   After breakfast, I walk north up Calle 37 and Paseo El Prado a couple miles toward downtown Cienfuegos (translation:   100 fires), a city of 150,000.   Because this city is on a large bay, it’s not as hot as the other towns I’ve visited in Cuba and there is usually a nice breeze.   I check out a Chinese Restaurant for lunch but there is almost nothing vegetarian on the menu and the selections are overpriced.   I’m getting burned out on sightseeing and decide to turn around.   As I’m heading back toward La Punta (also called Punta Gorda ), I hear some gr...

Cuba, you have a trash problem.   Yes, I know – you’re not alone.   Much of the world has a trash problem.   From my experience, it’s a typical and regrettable problem in many developing countries.   Why?   First of all, countries like Cuba don’t have an adequate infrastructure for collecting trash and disposing it in a sanitary manner.   Furthermore, people haven’t been taught an ethic of keeping public spaces clean.   There is no monetary incentive for them to recycle their beverage containers or enforceable laws mandating that they throw waste paper in a trash can.   And finally, if you’re poor, you have other priorities like figuring out where you next meal is coming from. To be fair, it’s not just developing countries that have a trash problem.  When I was a kid, roadsides in the U.S. were full of trash.  They probably would still be were it not for adopt-a-highway programs that bring civic-minded people out to clean up a stretch of...