Organopónico

Same old story... Three days in and my stomach questions where on Earth it's been shipped to. I wasn't quite sure how the tour around the organic farm would go this morning but I survived and we both found it fascinating.

As always, it's the local people that make these trips and today, we were taken on a tour by the daughter of the man who founded the farm. She was interesting, funny and could talk faster in English than we could! 

There are a few of these farms that came about after the Special Period when the Soviet Union collapsed. Cuba had nothing and the government agreed to let the land for farming, in return for taxes, of course, but it enabled local people to feed themselves. 

It was fascinating to hear that youngsters don't want to work here - it's too much like hard work (and in the summer heat, you can well
imagine that!) Perhaps this is one of the many areas where an equal pay system doesn't make good sense. Cuba is almost 100% reliant on tourism and you would think some monetary encouragement into other areas would make utmost sense. 

The organic crops looked amazing but ironically, a great climate for fruit and veg but very little interest in eating it. Cubans, we were told, typically only eat onions, pepper and black beans. Our guide showed us one area where they sold house plants because Cubans were more interested in greenery in their living room than on the plate! Much of their varied fruit and veg is sold to hotels.

There was more interest in the medicinal food because, as Rich found out when he went to a chemist, there is nothing on the shelves. Cuba is famed for its education and health system but once brilliantly diagnosed, you can not buy drugs or medical equipment. Our guide met one person while we were there whose wife had just had a major operation and was about to use poo bags instead of colostomy bags because you can't buy them. They had come to visit the Organoponico because they knew they used bags and these poo bags that our guide suggested for them would be soft against the skin and had been sent by a European to plant on seedlings. Horrifyingly levelling.

We were shown some plants that I've never seen growing - oregano and noni as well as miniature celery that looked like flat leaf parsley until you sniffed it.

The Soviet-style town that surrounds the farm is like stacked pre-fabricated versions of pale green shipping containers with ventilation holes. 100,000 people. Huge families live in each one and pass them down to the next generation.

The man in my photo is stripping the outers off sugar cane in preparation for juicing in their market shop. Part of my Spanish practice is, when locals ask where are you from, to ask if they know Leeds, the famous football club and tell them we live in Leeds (which seems to go down a treat.) This guy knew it and was happy for me to take his photo too. I know it's barely an interaction but it feels like such a connection and as if you're ever so slightly bridging the unsightly gap of tourist-local.

We've had coffee on the neighbouring balcony to last night's meal, overlooking the old square, which was lovely. Rich had some unusual but appealing looking plantain tapas stuffed with either ham, tomatoes and tuna. I sneaked in some GF plain biscuits to nibble! 

I'm now resting up for the afternoon feeling not too bad but keen not to be ill in a land where the only medication is what I have with me (although that's not too bad a setup - I've learned to travel prepared.) Believe it or not, this year, I'm even filtering the bottled water! I think this will probably be my last exotic trip; it’s wearing.

A little snooze later and I found myself a bit hungry so I've slowly fed myself some emergency British suitcase snacks and ventured out for the evening with Rich. We found a perfect place for food as it was just round the corner and served a rice and veg dish which was just the ticket.

We wandered up to the coast with the intention of catching a bici-taxi home but I felt steady enough to stroll home. A good sign! Rich has headed off to find a bar and I've just finished packing my bits and bobs for the next leg of our travels. Part One has been incredibly good.