Cienfuego, Cuba

    My internet hasn't been working for the last week. Something about
squirrels and wires.  I was about to get cranky about it when I did my 
Costa Rica/Cuba double check.  "Are they going without? Then I can too."
After Storm Blaster Sandy, I can now ask myself about my own citizens as well.
My sister Kathy is in Connecticut. No power. No hot water. NO HALLOWEEN!
Her nine year old went ballistic. They cancelled it. The roads are so 
dangerous with all the downed power lines and since it was dark in spite
of a full moon, they cancelled Halloween.   
     It doesn't matter to the millions of people here in America that Cubans' deal with power outages every day. Often several times in an hour. While on my adventure in Cuba, we were taken to Cienfuegos. A pretty coastal town that
is clean and beautiful.  Situated on the Caribbean Sea, La Peria del Sur, 
The Southern Pearl, is an inviting port city that is worth spending time in. 
Clean, colorful and copious, this city has been visited by Columbus, the Spanish 
Conquistadors and the French.  The French influence is felt in the sophisticated streets, shops and design.  The main area is a boulevard just for people, that passes both government owned and privately owned stores.  We came across a shoe store that carried top of the line American and French athletic shoes.  The look and feel of it seemed right out of SoHo.  Very chic and cool.  It's hard to explain the difference between private and government own shops.  Owners have the "right" to carry the products they want instead of being told what to carry.  They pay for the inventory and get to keep the profits, but must pay extraordinary taxes, 80%, in exchange for this freedom.  The difference is noticeable in the pride of the people working in these businesses and the 
fresh inventory that they carry.  Within 10 doors of each other was a department store, government owned, and the shoe store.  In the department store were
tiny appliances, (average of $400.00), plastic flowers($4.00), top of the line
dirt bikes and other gear bikes (over $300.00 and all the bikes I saw on the roads were the old-fashioned bikes without gears.  Who would be buying these bikes? we wondered.)  I got out my camera and took pictures and was promptly

told cameras were not allowed.  By contrast, the woman who owned the shoe store with her husband welcomed my camera and proudly showed off their

collection. The shoes were all quite expensive, even by American standards, but
she was selling them on a daily basis. 
     One of the highlights of the town was the Thomas Terry Theatre.  A grand ole
beauty that for some reason brought to my mind Abraham Lincoln's era, this

theater was in remarkable shape and was currently being used for comedies, dramas and musical performances.  It wasn't air conditioned, not many buildings are, and the fans placed all around on the magnificent wooden beams seemed out of place.  Nonetheless, it was a fantastic example of the wealth that was once flowing freely in Cuba. We were only allowed 10 minutes inside, but it was enough to imprint in my mind the glory days gone by in old Cuba.  From here we were taken to a very nice hotel, colorful, right on the Cienfuego harbor, completely void of any guests. We were given yet another Mojita, 
 (one everytime we stopped for lunch or dinner or just to visit a special spot!) We were ushered into what must have been a ballroom and were seated in folding chairs lined up theater style.  We were treated to a remarkable gift, 22 A capella voices. Winners of a Latin Grammy, these men and women were rich in sound and soothing to the soul.  They were fantastic and we were fortunate to be able to see them.  
     What made their performance even more remarkable was the fact that 
the electricity stopped working over 10 times in the 45 minutes that they sang.  They never skipped a beat, nor turned around in surprise. This was such a common occurrence for them that never missed a beat. Remarkable in so many ways. They are led by a young woman in her late twenty's and they are
considered privileged because they can travel freely around the country and get to experience many places that are off limits to the normal Cuban. They are also 
paid additional Cuban Pesos which improves their lives as this choir is not their primary job. They are called Cantores de Cienfuegos and can be found on YouTube. Worth the search if you love a classical choir. 
     The spirit of the Cubano's is remarkable by any standards. That they live
surrounded by rubble and ruin, without any of the amenities that we have in our daily lives and that they do it without complaint (publicly at least) is either a testament to their fear of Castro and Communism or a testament to the will of the human spirit to rise above oppression. 
     It's hard to explain to my nephew that Halloween is just a silly holiday 

exhibiting all that is greedy and excessive in America. It's harder still to explain that the children in Cuba rarely are treated to any candy at all.