Two weeks in Cuba - Luz Salazar

Just when I thought my last summer at UH was going to be another typical summer and my chances at studying abroad had expired, Mabel Cuesta sends an email saying that the Spanish translation course I had signed up for was going to take place in Cuba! Without hesitation, I booked my flight.

We arrived in Havana Saturday afternoon and just like I’ve heard and seen on TV, it was close to traveling back in time. Mainly because of the old cars and architecture. To my surprise there were many signs that said things like “socialismo es vida” and murals of Che Guevara. I didn’t know much of Cuba and its politics but my perspective was different. I quickly learned that Cubans are very proud and patriotic.

While in Havana we went to a jazz café, toured La Habana Vieja, drove along the Malecon, in an old convertible of course, visited La fabrica del arte and many other things. Although Havana was incredible and unique I felt I was vacationing in a familiar place.

Still, I was sad see to leave Havana but excited to see where we were going to be spending the next two weeks. We took a bus ride to Matanzas which was about two hours away from Havana. We arrive at Hostal Azul where we would be having breakfast and lunch every day and it was our meeting point beofre all of our outings.

My roommate and I stayed at hostal alma, only a few houses down from Azul along with four other girls. There were three rooms and we had a cute little patio outside our rooms. We also had a terrace with an incredible view of Matanzas. Our room had two full size beds, a restroom with a bath tub, a spacey closet and AC! I felt pretty lucky to have AC since it was super-hot and lucky to have an awesome roommate. Chelsea and I officially met on the plane. Our seats were next to one another and we quickly got along. We understood each other and had good system going which made everything smoother and I was less and less homesick because of it.

Our bnb was about half a block away from el parque de la libertad which is where we went for wifi. It was also really close to Ediciones Matanzas, the publishing house we worked at. Every day we had breakfast at Hostal Azul at 8:30. At about 9:30 we would walk to Ediciones Matanzas where we would meet with poets and worked on translating their poetry. We were put in pairs and each pair was assigned a poet. Luck strikes once again when I’m partnered with Rachael. She’s a literature and Spanish major who loves poetry and I’m a Spanish major and work as an interpreter. We worked well together and our poet Maylan Alvarez was awesome. Her poetry was simple and straight forward. It was of real life experiences and I was able to understand it. I felt I could even relate to it.

We worked every day from 9:30 to 1:00 translating nine of Maylans poems. At 1:30 we would head back to Hostal Azul for lunch. There was something planned for us most afternoons which included visitng Casa de templo, Cuevas Bellamar, la Finca del Proyecto Comunitario Agropecuario, Castillo de San Severino, Ediciones Vigia among many more. We had guided tours of the art and pharmaceutical museums and walks in many neighborhoods in Matanzas. For dinner we would all get together to try a new place every night. The food was always delicious!  

For two weeks I felt I was the healthiest I’ve ever been. Eating fresh fruit and home cooked meals, drinking fresh juice every day, walking everywhere and human interaction all the time, conversation and spending time with strangers and new life long friends, all of this made our experience even more special. 

Oh, and spending the weekend in Varadero, one of the most beautiful beaches in the world, was pretty awesome too! ;) 

I definitely miss Cuba and all the wonderful people we met. This unforgettable adventure will always hold a special place in my heart.