![\"The](\"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/CKP-BSP-Buena-Vista-Social-Club-041718.jpeg\")
<\/a>Photo Christy K. Pollock<\/small><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
We went more as tourists than travelers, a silver anniversary cruise, so the passage was half the time and half the fun of the trip, not just conveyance.\u00a0After 25 years, even before our second date two years earlier, I learned not to speak on behalf of My Beloved (MB). These are my perceptions. Going by the draft’s word count, I have some.<\/span><\/p>\n A few months after the trip, I can’t make this a travelogue. Like any other writer with any other destination, it’s all been said before. Reflective anecdotes I’ve got, though.<\/span><\/p>\n I did not approach the visit as a journalist, nor could I have done much, by my standards, as a professional observer. Yet after decades in news media I can’t help but watch, question, take notes and try to figure things out. When you share what you\u2019ve learned, it’s journalism. Might be less than first-rate, but it’s real.<\/p>\n Our long-planned second honeymoon happened to overlap the day, April 19, 2018, when Raul Castro with little if any notice retired from the office his brother Fidel held for decades before him. Raul’s vice president, Miguel Diaz-Canel, succeeded him. Find journalism on this at “Castro Steps Down as D\u00edaz-Canel Assumes Cuban Presidency<\/a>” and “Cuba’s New Leader Vows to Modernise Economy but No Return to Capitalism<\/a>.”<\/p>\n We almost had no idea anything was happening. The guide for our afternoon bus tour of Havana historic sites mentioned that “tomorrow,” Wednesday, April 18, was going to be important as a new vice president was to be announced. I don’t know if the guides on the excursion’s other seven buses informed their passengers. MB later asked the guide for our evening nightclub excursion, and he knew only about the same.<\/p>\n The Norwegian Cruise Line ship had few channels on the stateroom TV sets so I watched MSNBC and BBC, avoiding Fox News. CNN was not available. Nothing off the boat was in the daily schedule handout so no word on Cuban politics.\u00a0<\/span>Late Thursday, though, BBC ran three words on the bottom screen crawl, “Raul Castro Retires.”\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Internet on board cost $35 a day, so we decided to take a social media holiday. Did you miss us April 16-20?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The tour guides didn\u2019t have it quite right. Days later Diaz-Canal announced his second in command. Actually, he named six vice presidents, The New York Times<\/i> reported April 22. It wasn’t clear if among them there\u2019s a first vice president.<\/p>\n We American and European tourists saw no change from the leadership transition Wednesday. This is Ben Pollock live, reporting to you from Havana Harbor.<\/p>\n We arrived in Havana Harbor on Tuesday morning. We had chosen a bus tour of 15th-17th-century Spanish ruins, a variety of residential neighborhoods from poor\/working to middle class, and commercial and public facilities.\u00a0Their Capitol resembles the U.S. one, but is this much taller, the guide said, spreading her thumb and index finger, apparently a common joke delivered to foreign tourists.<\/span><\/p>\n On the road were Cuba’s famous old cars<\/a>. Due to decades of restrictions and embargoes, drivers generally have had autos from the 1950s at the latest, repairing them as needed. The shinier of these classics, often convertibles, were used as tourist taxis, hired by some of our shipmates. Commuting Cubans may have waxed less, but their motors all purred. Well, every few blocks there was a car on the shoulder with a sweaty man leaning under the raised hood. Note: no air-conditioning in these babies, so their windows always were open in the tropical heat.<\/p>\n The second walking stop was at a never-used Spanish fort, pictured. The earlier was for a walk through the Cristobal Colon (Christopher Columbus) Cemetery<\/a>. No, he’s not buried there but we wanted him in, was a quip of our guide, as Chris is blamed for the island\u2019s historic troubles.\u00a0Several Caribbean nations, she added, have Columbus cemeteries as well, and his remains are in none of them.<\/span><\/p>\n The cemetery was the burial place of Cuban heroes, both recent and further back, such as Jose Marti (1853-1895). “Cuban Poet Jos\u00e9 Mart\u00ed: Everyone\u2019s Revolutionary,<\/a>” reported The New York Times<\/i> in 2016, when President Barack Obama further opened relations with Cuba. (Che’s buried 270 miles east in Santa Clara.)<\/p>\n The memorials are fascinating, with unique statues and various styles of mausoleums. The guide said that despite appearances the Cuban people do not obsess with death, compared to Americans (us) and our leaving flowers, flags and so on.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, MB was waylaid in our bus \u2014 she was in the bus\u2019s restroom when we stopped at the cemetery. All of us got out, and the bus went on about a half-mile up the drive to the chapel, toward which we were to walk, stopping at certain graves along the way. That\u2019s when MB was able to get out, walk back to our group, then stroll with us back to the chapel.\u00a0So she missed the initial sets of comments about this military hero or that writer.<\/p>\n A few of us, restless and curious, walked around during the narration, examining monuments.<\/p>\n One mausoleum struck me, with dark granite (unusual in this graveyard) with a nouveau\/deco stying so I approached it with my cellphone camera app on.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n A worker, in the blue work shirt and trousers of all the cemetery crew, beckoned me. I followed with no thought or apprehension, although in the very moment visualized the diner scene in Mulholland Drive<\/a>, where one guy is telling another about his dream of a scary creature behind the cafe so the two go back there and. …<\/p>\n My trusting physical intuition was right \u2014 the worker just wanted to point out better photo vantage points and, yes, in exchange for $5 U.S., no Cuban pesos for him. It turns out this mausoleum was somewhat wrecked in the back. The worker gestured I should look in an iron-barred, glassless window. It was a bit high, so the worker pointed to where I could step up. He steadied me with a hand to the small of my back. It was a strong confident touch. I felt no fear. Inside the back of the little building was broken concrete.<\/p>\n My photos turned out fuzzy, just as well, nothing to see here.<\/p>\n The old Spanish fort, after we were bused further through Havana, was authentically 16th century but never used militarily. What it had besides a grand view, from a high point, was a government cigar and rum store for us tourists.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n MB bought some Havanas, and I snapped a photo of Russian leader Vladimir Putin that was hanging above the cash register.<\/p>\n The cashier glared at me when I did so.<\/p>\n Customs at the dock was smooth. A row of glass-fronted booths held Cuban customs agents, and security on the Cuban side resembled that of an airport. Returning from the city, we emptied pockets to waiting plastic bins and placed bags on the conveyor belt. We could hold valuables as we walked through the X-ray machine. I would grip my money wallet and passport wallet, wait in line and go through. Then we repacked our pockets.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Once on the ship side following the Tuesday afternoon bus tour, I routinely felt my pockets and my money wallet was \u2014 was where?<\/p>\n I remembered \u2014 I had counted two items to hold and it must\u2019ve been the passport wallet but unexpectedly also the coin case. I returned through a customs booth, and a smiling Cuban security agent pointed me to a table when another guard was inventorying every bill and card, listing each on a paper form. I couldn\u2019t reclaim them until she was done, and she was methodical. But eventually, she had me initial at several spots then sign.<\/p>\n Absolutely nothing was taken. By my experiences, Cuban people are friendly, courteous and honest.<\/p>\n We returned to the ship to rest and for a good, conventional dinner (the cruise liner generally accommodated our vegan diet well) then headed out at 9:45 (Eastern) for a late club date. We chose a successor band to the Buena Vista Social Club<\/a>, while other shipmates chose a Las Vegas style showgirl extravaganza. The latter is not out of line, as it would be similar to what was offered to visitors during the Batista regime<\/a> post World War II. We\u00a0boarded a bus for the Habana Caf\u00e9 at the Melia Cohiba Hotel<\/a>.<\/p>\n Outside of the headline act, one cocktail and appetizer trays to be included in the price of the excursion, we didn\u2019t know what to expect. MB loved her mojito. We were served cheese and sausage platters. Though vegan, I tried some for research. I’m still cured of meat.<\/p>\n On stage was a string quintet of five teenage girls\u00a0\u2014 two violins, viola, cello and upright bass \u2014 playing light classical excerpts and some jazz swing. In the last couple of numbers, some of them sang Big Band numbers, perhaps “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy.” The ensemble played very well, for an amateur high school group.<\/p>\n Our top of the bill show was exactly what we hoped.<\/p>\n The \u201csocial club\u201d stars comprised old timers hale enough to perform. Above them was a screen showing slides of folks in their 1950s pre-Castro heyday. The only one from that generation was a marvelous woman\u00a0\u2014 large-framed, enthusiastic but frail \u2014 the others seemed in their 70s. Young dancers, one man and two women, tore up the stage during most numbers.<\/p>\n There were seven to nine musicians in the backup band including horns. They weren\u2019t deafeningly loud, as would be the case in the States. The drums and brass were NOT miked, for example, the soloists were. One percussionist turned out to be one of the front-line performers. He both sang and danced. He pretty much had most of the stage time, perhaps making him the overall leader.<\/p>\n It was a nonsmoking club. Fidel having quit cigars in the mid-1980s, banned smoking<\/a> in public buildings in 2005.<\/p>\n In the finale, audience members were invited to the stage to dance, and MB leapt at the opportunity, and I hustled to keep up.<\/p>\n
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Photo Ben Pollock<\/small><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Photo Ben Pollock<\/small><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/a>
Photo Ben Pollock<\/small><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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