el megano beach
the bone box buildings at the cemetery
one of the many rivers in matanzas
the party boat near matanzasHola!
So yes, it’s been quite awhile since my last update, but it’s just because time flies here in Cuba and I’ve been having a great time! The past few weeks have been pretty busy with classes, and now that we’ve settled into our new city, we’ve started venturing out of our neighborhood more. A few weeks ago some other girls and I went to Matanzas, a town east of Havana in the next province over. The town itself was okay - pretty sleepy and at the time windy and cold like Havana - getting there and around, however, was quite an adventure. We left our hotel at dawn Saturday morning, cabbed it to the bay, took a ferry ride to Casablanca train station, and waited for the Hershey train to arrive. The train never came. So after flipping through our guidebook we decided to head back to the city and try to take a bus to Matanzas. Luckily there weren’t any issues at the bus station and the ride was easy, but we arrived much later then we expected. Once in Matanzas we walked to the casa particular (private homes that rent rooms to tourists) we were supposed to stay at, dealt with some logistics, and, as our hostess (Margarita) suggested, we took the bus a little ways out of town to a river. It was very beautiful there, not too many people around, and we sipped mojitos on a “party boat” that was docked at the beach and blasting reggaeton.
When we returned to Margarita’s (after waiting 45 minutes for the bus to come) we ate an amazing dinner that she and her husband had prepared. We feasted on a whole grilled fish, salad, veggie soup, sweet potatoes, and super fresh guava juice. The combination of our exhaustion from the day and serious food coma put us to bed before ten, but we woke up the next day bright eyed and ready for an adventure. We had decided to go to Matanzas because we’d heard/read that there were some great caves, one for swimming in and the other for exploring on foot, and nice beaches with good snorkeling. Set on getting in the water, the five of us piled into an old Chevy and headed for a reef. When we got there we saw that it was too windy and the tide was too low to get in, but got a recommendation for a protected ecological area near by that a river flowed through. When we got there we were greeted by a tour guide who told us about the many trees that grew in the mangrove we were in and who joined us on our peddle boat trip down the river. It was calmer in the mangrove and we parked our boats on a small sandbar and jumped in the cold water for a moment. We did a little bird watching and headed back to the dock. At this point we were pretty hungry so we asked our Chevy driver to take us back into town. After some detours, which included picking up his 5 year old daughter to ride with us, we parted ways at a tasty pizza place. Tired once again and not wanting to leave any chance to miss our bus back to Havana, we decided to go over the bus terminal early. When we arrived we found that an unscheduled bus would be arriving within 20 minutes heading to Havana. Finally the unreliable transportation worked in our favor and we were back home before dark!
It seems our trip was well timed because since then we’ve all been very busy with our projects. Every weekend I’m working on at least a couple of shoots and we’re all editing our projects here and there. My second project is a portrait of Havana’s giant cemetery, Necropolis de Colón. I’ve already shot there three times and still haven’t seen the whole place. It’s very beautiful (sorry I don’t have any photos yet, I forgot to take some while we were shooting!) and you can’t see from one end to the other as there is just tomb after tomb with incredibly ornate sculptures, mausoleums, and other memorials for the dead. One of the things that attracted me to the place is that I heard that in order to deal with over crowding and make room for new graves, bodies (or bones at that point) of those who can’t afford to maintain full graves are exhumed when they’re ready, then a box is made for the bones, labeled with the person’s name and date of death and stacked in big, open-air cement buildings. It’s a crazy thing to see, especially when lids are left off because the bones don’t quite fit!
And when lazy Sundays come around I’ve been heading off to the beach! We’ve gone to two of the Playas del Este that are outside the city. They are the most perfect Caribbean beaches. The sand is fine and white with big coconut palms and the water is clear, warm, and turquoise. And with all this sun I’ve been getting very tan! This week is our last week of classes before spring break, we’ll be going to the other side of the island to Santiago de Cuba and Baracoa. Even though time’s been going by quickly, we are all very excited for a break from classes and to explore a new part of the island.
I miss you all. Send me updates about your lives. I’m slowly forgetting what life was like in the land of constant technology and consumerism, and I need to know what’s up!
Love,
Camila
