South America (Dec 2004 - May 2005)

Peru (Dec 2004)

What can I say about Lima, the capital of Peru? It has a small but beautiful colonial centre, but its the most dirty and chaotic city I have seen up to now, the smog is unbearable. If you walk on the streets, you might be robbed. So you could take a taxi, but instead of your hostal he might bring you to a bad neighbourhood and rob you. So you take a bus, but they are very crowded so you might be robbed. The first bus I entered, I was immediately advised to close the window because they might snatch my packs through the window. Up to know I have heard a lot of personal and recent stories: in Guatemala a bus of Germans got robbed and a Dutch girl in a boat got shot from the river side, in San Jose in Costa Rica a big American was robbed in full daylight in the centre and left literally in his underpants, not to mention the even more dangerous Honduras and Nicaragua. But the stories here in Lima are uncountable, and I met a Dutch guy who only had his clothes left. Nevertheless, I seem to be lucky (knock on wood), because I had my head chopped of....Ha ha, I met a friendly magician, and repaired the guillotine act in a poor outskirt of Lima. Last picture shows the ´casino de policia´, whatever that may be.


So I took the bus from Lima to Cusco, a dazzling round the clock ride through the mountains, going from sea level to over 4000, back to 2000, up again, etc., flying from left to right, watching Terminator 3 and the Hulk, and on top of it all the whole bus was playing bingo to win a free return ticket. Who the f**k would ever want to go back to Lima? It was quite a relief when I arrived exhausted in Cusco, in the old days the Inca capital and nowadays the touristic capital of Peru, but fortunately a lot more quiet during the rainy season. To get accustomed to the altitude, I spent a day reading so I could plan a rough route through South America. Cusco wasn´t that much safer than Lima, I met a guy who was drugged by a girl in the disco and woke up the next morning with a big headache and without his wallet. But Cusco is a great place from which you can visit the countryside of Peru, see pictures.


Near Cusco I visited the Inca ruines of Sacsayhuaman. On one side it is impressive how they were able to manage these giant stones, but on the other hand when you compare it to ancient Rome they just seem like a bunch of farmer boys. Sorry for that.


Spectacular ruines at the Inca site of Pisca, way up in the mountains.


More old bricks at Ollantaytambo.


I am getting a little tired of all those Maya and Inca ruins. Fortunately I reached the final ones of America, last but not least, Machu Picchu, a whole town on a mountaintop.


Time for some action after all those dead stones. In Cusco I visited a festival where a bunch of young guys in weird costumes have ritual free fights. In the beginning everybody is dancing and makes a circle, then two guys step into the middle, take off their bank robber masks and embrace eachother friendly. De pronto they start smacking eachothers brains out. It ends after a minute or so with another embrace while the host keeps repeating that we are all amigos to calm the crowd, check the movie below. I suggest we ban American wrestling immediately and replace it by the real thing from Cusco.

MOVIE: Peru Cusco fightdance.avi

MOVIE: Peru Cusco feliz navidad.avi

Bolivia (Jan 2005)

La Paz is the administrative capital of Bolivia, poorest country of South America, but the centre of La Paz doesn´t look that poor. It is also the highest capital of the world, it stretches from 3500 in the bottom of the canyon to 4000 m on the top, and lies beautifully amidst snow capped mountains. The most beautiful capital I have seen up to now. Ya estoy enamorado de Bolivia.


Shopping time, and I don´t mean the ubiquitous tourist pottery or textile, but carnaval masks made of coca leaves, handy witchcraft articles like dried frogs, lama foetuses, and scents to attract love, good luck, and money, and lots more. Open the box carefully mum, don´t be afraid cause it´s all dead. Ya estoy enamorado de Bolivia.


Biking time. Near La Paz is the so-called road of death, generally considered as the most dangerous road in the world, since every month a few vehicles tumble down into the canyon, but I think for bikes it´s not half as dangerous as Mexico. With mountain bikes we descended from 4700m to 1200m, from the snowy mountains down to the tropical forest, crossing a number of climatic zones in a few hours, an astonishing ride. Ya estoy enamorado de Bolivia.


Drugging time. The coca museum in La Paz teaches us the health benefits of chewing coca leaves, making the life at high altitude more bearable, and that is why coca leaves are an important part of the ingenous Andes culture. However, gringo´s fancy the purified stuff, which is rather unhealthy. Therefor the museum teaches us scientifically the similarity between a manual orgasm (masturbating), a chemical orgasm (by sniffing coke) and an electrical orgasm (take a monkey, put an electrode in its brain pleasure centre, let the monkey push the button itself, which it will do continuously for about 4000 times, and it dies happily everafter). Entonces chicos: todo con medida. Or in other words: Drug taking is like masturbating, the more you do it, the more you think is the real thing. Among the famous addicts were Bush jr, Hitler and the pioneer dr. Freud himself, who ended up with nose cancer. Since the US population snifs half of worlds anual production and they love to start and loose wars, they started a war on drugs, not surprisingly enlarging the consumption, production and criminality. But in the Andes countries you can still legally drink a fresh coca tea in every restaurant. By the way, you probably knew that more than a hundred years ago Coca Cola contained pure cocaine, but did you also know that Coca Cola still buys tons of coca leaves, just for the taste they say...Ya estoy enamorado de Bolivia.


Skiiing time. Worlds highest ski area is near La Paz at a breathtaking 5300 m, but we were a month too early for ski fun.


Tourist time. La Valle de la Luna is a pittoresque area of clay rocks at the bottom side of La Paz.


Climbing time. While we were making an attempt to climb the over 6000 m Huayna Potosi mountain, there was a big strike going on in La Paz, because the government wanted to raise the price of a running water connection to such a ridiculous amount that the poor indigenous people could never afford it. As in most of the Central and South American countries, the economic and political power is in hands of some rich families backed up by the army, whose main interest is filling their own pockets, and they don´t care at all for the poor majority of the people. Misfortune never comes alone, so the day before the climb I got a real bad stomach and hardly slept, in the morning we climbed to 5200m and made a base camp, but the wheather was so bad (o.a. electrical storms) that after a sleepless we had to go down again, and returned with a mini bus to La Paz. However, near La Paz were road blocks of the strike, and when we tried to sneak through, people were running towards our bus and threw stones, so we had to stop and walk on. On the pictures you see us walking through the rain all the way down into traffic free La Paz with a big bag of heavy climbing equipment, very good exercise if you haven´t slept or eaten for two days. De pronto ya no estoy enamorado de Bolivia.


Pampas time. North east of La Paz is Rurrenabaque, a village on the border of the pampas (wetlands) and the jungle. With a kano we went to a lodge in the pampas, where we have seen loads of animals: squirrel and howler monkeys, numerous birds, kaaiman, etc. We swam in the ink black stinky water with pink freshwater dolphins and fished for piranjas.


Jungle time. Walking with a guide in the jungle we were taught about the trees, insects and snakes, and took a refreshing dive into the river.

MOVIE: Bolivia jungle.avi

MOVIE: Bolivia potosi mine.avi

MOVIE: Bolivia salar de Uyuni.avi

Chili 1 (Jan 2005)

In the northern Chilean deserts lies the oasis of San Pedro de Atacame, a small village and hip tourist hangout amidst salty landscapes.


So what do you do when you´re stuck in a desert village, the bus to Argentina is booked out for days on a row, and you´re desperate for some action? Exactly, you make wrong choices: you rent yourself a bike and a sandboard, bike into the desert, and slide down the dunes. There are some similarities between sandboarding and snowboarding (you get a sun tan real quickly, all the dudes try to look hip) but for the rest this sport sucks: it´s very slow, you have to wax your board every ride again, and if you do the ramp and land badly, you have to scratch the sand of the back of your (eye)balls.


Near San Pedro is the biggest salt plane of Chili, the Salar de Atacame.

Jan 25-29: San Pedro de Atacame

Argentina 1 (Feb 2005)

The bus from Chili to Argentina climbes up high across the Andes and traverses salt lakes, colourful mountains and gorges. Entering Argentina is a reverse culture shock, since I wasn´t used anymore to this level of wealth, especialy the old French cars give Argentina a distinctive European eighties look.


The route from Salta to Cafayate goes through the Quebrada de las Conchas, a gorge of with exotic rock formations and colors.


After the cities of Tucuman and Rioja, I visited even more exotic rocks in the national parques of Ischigualasto and Talampaya.


South of the city of Mendoza is the city of San Rafel with the beautiful canon of Atuel, where I did some nice rafting during the night with mere moonlight, and the day after another time in daylight to see what we bumped in to the night before. And once again I crossed the Andes with a beautiful bus ride, from Mendoza on the Argentinian side to Valparaiso on the Chilean side.

In the mean time in the Netherlands, my family is winning awards in a carnaval parade with my indigenous wardrobes sent from America...


Jan 30, 31: Salta
Feb 1: Cafayate; 2, 3: Tucuman; 4-7: Rioja; 8: Mendoza; 9: Canon de Atuel; 10: Mendoza

Chili 2 (Feb 2005)

No two houses look alike on the hills of ValParaiso, this city has thethe most unique and bewildering mix of arquitecture and colors you can imagine, completed with winding streets to make you loose your way, lifts to take you up the steep hills, and old slums next to moderd office buildings. Weird, bohemian, caleidoscopic, anarchistic, beautiful.


Santiago de Chile, the capital, nothing special.


Finally, someone tried to rob me. I was already afraid I had to leave South-America without the experience of being robbed, but then again I still had a last chance in Brasil. While I was having a coffee on a bench in a city park, a gypsy came up to me to read my hand. Since I was not prejudiced and I was curious about wat nonsense she was gonna make up about my future, I thought what the heck, the worst thing that can happen is being robbed, ha ha. Obviously very stupid of me, and a few minutes later she got all my cash and I had learned a new trick to make a fast buck. Dodgy Rodgy however does not like people who do not want to work for their money, and even more if they play innocent when caught stealing it. Unfortunately you can not hit women, even if they are being very very dishonest, so I asked her to return my money, but instead she started making a scene and four of her friends came up to help her. I ended up dragging the f**king b**ch by her wrist across the park in search for a police officer, while she was scratching and biting my hand and her friends were jumping around us and screaming that I was damaging her imaginitive baby in spé, and I was topping of this open air spectacle by finally putting into practice the most insulting swear words of my book "malas palabras". Great scene, too bad I did not have a free hand to film it. When they realized I was not going to let loose of her wrist until we reached the cops, and other people started to help me, they returned me my money, bit by bit. Now I am prejudiced against (fake) gypsys! As I am since I grabbed two Maroccan bastards a few years ago when they stole my bycyle in front of my kitchen while I was looking through the window right into their faces, and they even denied it was them, haha.


Okay then, one more time rafting, because the river Trancura near the very touristy town of Pucon is quite spectaculair to raft.


Okay then, one more time vulcano climbing, because the vulcano Villarica is also very spectacular. You can look right into the pumping red hot heart of mother earth and feel the burning heat when she burps up lava and gasses. Very very impressive, just check out the movies below and put on the sound at the third one. Also lots of fun was going down the vulcano, we slided all the way down on our butts in a ditch in the snow.

MOVIE: Chili vulcano.avi

Argentina 2 (Feb 2005)

Bariloche is also a former German/Swiss colony, and you can still smell the chocolate. Besides loads of beautiful lakes and mountains, there is a weird black glacier with a lake of small black icebergs.


Near the hippie town of El Bolson are the remains of the famous Patagonie Express, an old steam train running on narrow gauges through the vast Patagonian steppe.


After two days of bussing tho the south, I finally reached the Parque National Los Glaciares. First I went two days hiking around the very steep El Chalten mountain with its lakes and glaciares and impressive views.



A few hundred kilometres south in the same park, near the town of El Calafate, is the world famous Perito Moreno glacier: an ice wall of 50 m high and a few kilometers wide advances each day two metres into the lake while falling apart. First you hear the ice cracking, than you see up to a 50 m high tower of ice tumbling over into the lake, or it slides down vertically into the water and erects again out of the water before finally falling apart. Because everything is so large it seems to happen in slowmotion and the sound takes seconds to reach you. When the ice hits the water it sounds like a canon and produces big splashes and waves. Huge and spectacular, hard to catch on a photo but forever in your mind.


And last but not least in the same park, South America´s biggest glacier Upsala, 80 m high and 12 km wide, and loads of more glaciers and icebergs.

Feb 20, 21: Bariloche; 22: El Bolson; 23: Esquel; 24: Comodoro Rivadavia; 25, 26: El Chalten; 27, 28: El Calafate
March: 1: El Calafate

Chili 3 (March 2005)

The national park of Torres del Paine is supposed to be one of the highlights of South America, but I think it is overrated by far, as is the whole of Chili, they just have better marketing and a safer image than most other South American countries, and thus a remarkably amount of Yankees which were scarse during the rest of my journey so far. The mountains of Torres del Paine are not that spectaculair, it is famous for its unstable wheather, the trails are poorly marked, the refugio´s are so so, the food is so so, and it is ridiculously expensive: I had both my most expensive meal and my most expensive bed of my whole journey so far.
Therefore dear children, let me be the last foolish European to set foot on this park, and let´s all go instead to Bolivia and Argentina, they deserve it better.

March: 2: Puerto Natales; 3-5: Parque National Torres del Paine; 6: Puerto Natales

Argentina 3 (March 2005)

Oh la la, c´est Paris, avec les balcons, l´obelisque et tous les Peugeots.
Mamma mia, e Milano, con tutti gli capuchini e gli pani di prosciutti e formaggio.
Puta madre, es Madrid, con todas estas mujeres morenas tan guapas.
None of the above, or perhaps all of the above, because this is Buenos Aires, a European metropole in South America.
Once, the South European immigrants brougth their superbe culture across the ocean and created a South American paradise of European quality of life, in sharp contrast to the ever degrading plebejan Anglo-Saksian culture of their North American counter part. Moreover, since the Argentinean financial crisis, this classy paradise has become within backpackers´ reach. Hurray for all the incompetent and corrupt South American governments. The same thougth must have crossed the mind of Sergio, a friend from Chihuahua in Mexico, who took a plane and tried his luck in this city as a to be chef de cuisine, while I was waisting time biking and bussing on my way to here.


The cemetery in the neighbourhood of Recoletta is like a little village of mausolea.


The beautiful hostal where Sergio and I are staying.


The neighbourhood of Boca is not only famous for its football club but also its colourfull buildings.


What more did I do in Buenos Aires? Not much, making nice pictures as the ones above, hanging around with Sergio, went to a nice outdoor house party in the park all night, I was in a chase with street kids and was almost sent to hospital by a guy who thougth I was sending the kis to hospital, I went to some nice musea, bla bla bla.
March: 7, 8: bussing Patagonie; 9-29: Buenos Aires

Uruguay (March 2005)

Montevideo is the capital of Uruguay, which is rather similar to Argentina but a lot smaller.

Mar 30,31: Montevideo

Argentina 4 (April 2005)

San Ignacio ruines of jezuit missiones. In the 17th century in the border region of Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina, some jezuit missionaries started communities not only to convert the Guarani indians but also to protect them from slavery. These communities (missiones) prospered in the paradise but were destroyed in the 18th century.


Iguacu falls. At the border of Brazil and Argentina are the mighty Iguacu water falls. When Eleanor Roosevelt saw them, she sai ¨poor Niagara¨, and indeed they are impressive. The waterfront is kilometres wide and you can take a boat trip to get soaked under the falls, as if I wasn´t already because of the pooring rain. Around the falls you can see monkeys, toecans and loads of exotic butterflies.

April 1: San Ignacio: 2,3,4: Puerto Iguazu

Brazil (April-May 2005)

Iguacu falls. From the Brazilian side you can get a nice panoramic view of the falls.


Itaipu hydroelectric dam. Near the falls is the biggest dam in the world, with its 14 MW even bigger than the new CHines dam in the Yang-Tse river. It provides 25% of the electric energy for the 180 million Brazilians and nearly all for Paraguayans. The Brazilians are so proud of it that the tour is free.


Bonito, Rio da Prata snorkeling. In Spanish and Portugees, Bonito means pretty, and that is an understatement for the village Bonito in the south east of Basil. Floating in the cristal clear water of the Rio da Prata river, you can see underwater springs and loads of fish (over 1 meter), while above the water you see the birds and monkeys in the jungle, muito muito bonito.


Bonito, Grotta Azul cave. Near Bonito is a cave with a very bright blue lake. In general Brasilians are very relaxed and gay people, especially on the country side; when we returned form the cave on a mototaxi to Bonito, just when we were taking the picture, the driver showed me with a big smile that we just got a flat front tire, but no problem because we kept on cruising with it for 25 km on dirt roads, ha ha.


Bonito, Abismo Anhumana cave diving. I had a special cave diving "adventure" near Bonito. First we abseiled 70 meters down inot a cave with all our diving equipment. At the bottom of the cave was a deep lake, where we made a little boat trip to admire the stalagtites. But the most beatifull part was not until we dived underwater between huge stalagmites, cones of dozens of meters high with the natural light that fell into the cave, very mystical (unfortunately no pictures). However the water was freezing cold and at the end we had to climb the 70 meters rope up again out of the cave, pfeew.


Sao Paolo. A huge city with lots of skycrapers and little of interest. Brasilians are very religious and superstitious (what´s the difference), as soon as I got out of the metro I saw a guy with a bible in his hand doing some kind of exorcism on someone sitting on the sidewalk. Also you can see a lot of little people preaching in the parks, people in halls praying and singing, etc.


Rio de Janeiro, Copacabana beach: the story of two corrupt Brazilian police officers who don´t like Dutch farmer boys any more.
My first afternoon in Rio I was strolling along the world famous beaches. Trouble was in the air, because I already had a little incident near the Ipanema beach, where some guys were throwing fruits at me. When I continued walking I found out why: I was in a dead end street where guys please guys, whoops. So I took a hike and went to the Copacabana beach (left picture above) with a mission: since Peter Little Millman didn´t fancy the Mexican butt picture (see Mexico) because he prefers type B4 (Big Bubbling Brazilian Butt), I promised him to try to shoot a real B4 picture or movie in Rio.
Anyway, walking on the sidewalk of the Copacabana beach, a bump wanted to sell me drugs but I refused. But while we were talking, a police officer came up to us to check it out. He stripsearched us but the bump threw a little package in the sand between us, and I thougth "Fuck, I´m framed". The bump might be cooperating with the police. Running off was no option because the place is packed with police and all wear guns. So the three of us walked on the beach to a police stand with a second officer, and they said I was going to jail, deportated to Holland, had to pay a US$500 fine, and more bullshit to threaten me. However they didn´t take me in but started informing about my financial situation, of course they wanted a salary supplement. Quite a dissapointment for them to find out I was only carrying the equivalent of about 17 Euros and no bank cards or values whatsoever, just my camera. They even tried to persuade me to go to my hotel for more money, but I played the dummy despaired tourist whilst thinking of a solution. After half an hour they decided to go for the bribe, I handed over all my money and I was released.
Okay, I was f*cked, I am not gonna say I enjoyed it, but I couldn´t care less for the money, and revenge and jealousy are not in my dictionary. But justice is! And I hate corruption. And if everyone acts like a weazel, we would still be talking German in Holland, so I had to do something. I was gonna f*ck these guys three time as hard, and it was gonna hurt. Dig Sjeeke van de Beese, ha ha.
First I thougth of making a picture of them but that was too hard and too tricky. Instead, I went to another police force who brought me to the police station, where I testified against the corrupt officers. And here comes the funniest part: the military police called in all the police men who worked on that beach, and I had to identify the two corrupt ones out of a few series of line-ups. A hilarious situation of course, can you imagine standing in an identification room, looking through a mirrored window at a line of police officers standing in their beach shorts, and the chief of police asks you to pick out the bad guys? Ha ha, I could even take a sneak picture through the mirrored window (middle picture above). Because these guys were going to jail, I had to sign an incredible amount of papers for the judge, about 120 autographs.
The last time I saw the Copacabana beach was at 3.30 am when we were racing by at 120 km/h in a police car with lights on back to my hotel. Lots of fun, for my next birth day I definitely want a police car like that because of the excellent race suspension. It has been a long time since the Brazilian police death squads operated in the favelas, but just to play safe I changed my looks for a few days (right picture above), ha ha.
"Fortune is with the bold" they say, but my money is now police evidence...


Rio de Janeiro. Rio is a beautifull city with diverse neighbourhoods, built between beaches and rocks. After having played the songs of "The girl from Ipanema" and "Corcovado" lots of times in the big band, I finally got to see them for real. On top of the Corcovado hill stands the famous huge Art-Deco statue of Jezus, looking down on the city with his arms spread as if he is gonna bunjeejump. The city´s center contains an extraordinary cone-shaped cathedral. During my stay Miss Brasil was elected, but unfortunately it was a white chicks only party, and like the rest of all people in television it seems directed by the Klu Klux Clan. Same in other Latin-American countries, where the European beauty ideal seems dominant. However, on the street in Brazil it seems to be truely multiracial cause everyone mingles.


Ouro Preto. Near Brasil´s third largest and not very interesting city Belo Horizonte is a pretty village in the hills called Ouro Preto, which is famous for its baroque 18th century churches.


Brasilia. The capital should have been one of my highlights of Brasil, because it is a city which was designed from scratch in the early 1950´s and then built in the middle of nowhere in the middle of Brasil. Whereas the natural layout of a city would be a star with circles (radial and tangential roads like all old European cities) and a modern city layout would be a grid (like US cities), the layout of Brasilia looks like an aeroplane: its wings are the residential areas, and the body being big roads with offices in the centre; the nose of the plane is where all governmental buildings are. It all sounds like a nice idea, but just as many other megalomane planned projects, it lacks the human scale and is therefor far from attractive and practical. Moreover, the city layout was designed by a professor who made up such a complex system of street and house numbers, that people who live here don´t even understand it themselves. Hilarious if you walk around with a hotel´s address and everyone sends you in different directions. This remembered me of a few "professors" who wanted to derive theoretically the ideal photocopier layout, with the same desastrous results. Anyway, besides the exotic city layout, I was expecting some interesting modern architecture, but that was also a dissapointment.



Salvador de Bahia. Also called "the Afrika from Brazil", and it is indeed the most wild place I have ever been. In the bus to this place I already noticed that people are realy different here, very direct and cheerful, we had a lot of fun. But arriving in the beautiful old colonial centre of Salvador, the atmosphere was striking and my first impression was that of a madhouse. Everyone is hanging on the streets. Beggars are very aggressive, in a restaurant this guy walks in and just graps all the food from the plates. There was so much noise and music at night that we had to move from the center to another hotel to get some sleep, but even in this residential area you can hear lots of music, fireworks, religious ceremonies etc.
Nightlife is great, drum bands walk in the streets, good music bands everywhere, and everyone is dancing. The climate is very hot an humid but this is nothing compared to the women. It was all too much for this English friend of mine so he fled to another city, but I am used to it now and enjoy it a lot. Unfortunately my camera couldn´t handle the humid heat either and broke down, damn, now that I needed it more than ever, haha.

April 6-9: Bonito; 10,11: Sao Paolo; 12-16: Rio de Janeiro; 17,18: Belo Horizonte, Ouro Preto; 19,20: Brasilia; 21-30: Salvador de Bahia
May 1-6: Salvador de Bahia

Cuba (May 2005)

Pause in Mexico. Before going to Cuba, I first had a stop in Cancun, Mexico, to visit my beloved Andrea.


Cuba. I did not plan to go to Cuba at first hand, but some months ago I read a biography of Che Guevarra, and his life and role in the history of Cuba were so impressive and interesting that I decided to pay Cuba a visit. It is a very complex country and difficult to understand, therefore below I will tell a lot more about politics, economics and society.


History. Cuba was a Spanish colony until the independance wars in the late 19th century. When the Spanish were almost beaten, the USA took over Cuba because they had a large commercial interest. During the bootleg (the USA alcohol prohibition period), Havana was turned into a yankee gambling and whore house. In 1953, a young lawyer named Fidel Castro, made an attempt for a coupe to overthrow the dictator Batista but he failed. Most of the rebels were executed but by mistake Fidel was jailed and later exiled to Mexico. Here he organised a new rebel group to invade Cuba. One of them was the Argentinian Ernesto Guevarra, nicknamed Che, an adventurous doctor who had made two journeys all around South and Central America, and was eager to join the Cuban revolution. Both Fidel and Che came from whealthy high class families but were dedicated to the socialistic revolution to improve the poor peoples lives of Latin America. In 1957, Fidel and Che and 80 rebels more embarked in a little boat and invaded Cuba. Most got shot or captured by Batista soldiers, but 12 guys managed to make it to the mountains, amongst them the leaders of the rebel army: Fidel, Che and Camilo Cienfuegos, see picture. Here starts the incredible story of how a few man with balls organise a revolucionary army after a few years of guerilla war they eventually beat the huge professional army of Batista. In the deciding battle, Che leads 50 rifled rebels to capture an armoured train with 500 heavily armed soldiers. The rest is history: in 1959 Batista flees to the US, Fidel takes power, the US is pissed off and starts making trouble, Fidel nationalices all industry, the US is even more pissed off and blocks all economic trade with Cuba so Fidel has to become allies with the Russians, the US is now realy pissed off and in 1961 even tries to invade Cuba with 1500 CIA trained ex-Cubans in the Bay of Piggs. The invasion failed, partly because they thought that they would be welcomed by the people instead of shot at (sounds like Iraq), and partly because Kennedy didn´t want to give full air support. In 1963 the Russians wanted to install nuclear missiles on Cuba but Kennedy bounced them off while the world was holding its breath for a nuclear war. And then it finally became more quiet in Cuba.


The socialistic society. Before the revolution, the majority of the people were poor and illiterate and exploited by the rich families who owned all of the land and industry, as in most Latin American countries. After the revolution, most of the rich fled with their money to the USA to Florida, where almost 2 million Cubans live, with 11 million in Cuba itself. Unfortunately, most of the professionals (doctors,engineers) went along with them, heavily promoted by the CIA to sabotage the revolution. Fidel wanted to start a socialistic society but his was hard without professionals or money, nevertheless they succeeded. Almost everything was nationalised, and still the states owns almost everything, not only the majority of the land and industries but also houses and cars. Volunteers were sent all around the country to alfabetise everyone and to build hospitals, schools and roads. For the poor people this was a giant improvement, so in the beginning the revolution was very successful, despite the continueing economic blockade. Fidel and especially Che are still very popular among the Cubans, because they risked their own lives many times for a better society and have always lived very modestly without profitting of there situation, in contrast to their Sovjet and Chinese Party members.
Moreover, education and health care are still completely free for everyone, and the basic needs as food and housing are very cheap. So there are no truly poor people, everyone has had a education, food and health care. However, most people are afraid to tell you the flip side of the story like the economic problems, because there is a lot of social control and people are still going to jail for criticising the system.


The double economy. Because of the US economic blockade and its pressure on other countries to do the same, the Cuban econmoy was very dependent on the Sovjet Union. So when the Sovjet Union collapsed in the beginning of the nineties, Cuba lost his biggest trade partner and fell into a big crisis, which is still not completely solved. Like in the war, most things were rationalised again, like food, clothes and fuel. In 1993 the US Dollar was legalised and in 2004 it was replaced by the Pesos Convertibles, who equal a US dollar. So basically the economy is split in two: all the basic needs such as housing and food can be paid in stores with Cuban Pesos (left picture), but the clothes or the the extra food or luxury has to be paid in Pesos Convertibles (right picture), and all these prices are about the same as in Europe. Since the average monthly salary is only about 15 Pesos Convertibles, it is impossible for normal Cubans to buy the extra food or luxury. However, if a Cuban can work with tourists or have family in Florida who sent money, they can afford the "luxury". Actually, the money coming in from the Cubans abroad is together with the tourist industry the core of Cubas economy, the other industries (like sugar or tobacco) are marginal. So the double economy also splits the society in two, the normal cubans versus the cubans with connections with tourists or family abroad. Fidel however wants an society equal for everyone, so he tries to stop this process by forbidding Cubans to go to hotels, buy cellulars or cars. On the long run, the beard wants the Cuban Peso (now 4 dollar cents) to rise in value so that it equals the Peso Convertible and Dollar, to unify the economy again, but to me this sounds like magic: the Argentinas also tried to keep their Peso to equal the Dollar, but after a few years they collapsed into a financial crisis. Anyway, after the Sovjet crash new economic relations have been made with other lefties such as China and Venezuela. Cuba for example sends lots of doctors to Venezuela, and they send oil in return.


Work. Since it is not much use going to work for 15 dollars a month if you can get it a lot easier from tourists or from family abroad, a lot of people do not work anymore, especially young people. So Fidel tries to encourage them by paying them to go to university, ha ha.
Also typical for communism is that it encourages people to become creative (or corrupt):
If you are a poor sigar roller in the factory but they give you two sigars every day to smoke at home, of course some workers save them up, steal a wooden box and seals, and sell the stuff to a tourist to multiply your monthly salary.
If the medicine in the state farmacies is very cheap with a doctors recipe but very expensive in a dollar farmacy, of course some people start dealing in medicine on the street.
If you are not allowed to watch foreign TV channels, of course someone in you neighbourhood buys a satellite dish and hooks up the whole neigbourhood.
If you can not afford to buy an official CD, of course people start copying discs and selling them.
If you can not afford to rent an official video, of course people start recording them from TV, and having a door-to-door service twice a week to bring and collect them.
If you are not allowed to buy a cellular phone, of course you ask a foreigner to buy it for you.
Etc. etc. etc. As you notice, even Fidel can not stop a peoples revolution, ha ha.


Jineterismo. Just like in Peru, Cuba has its own special word for people who try to hook up on tourists for money, which literally means jockey-ism. Generally Cuba is very safe because of the everpresent police and control, but the jinetero"s will try to be friends with you and steal your money in a smooth way: free drinks and meals, gifts, etc. Normal Cubans are very nice and relaxed people, but the problem is that whenever you are in a touristic area you will meet nothing but jineteros, up to now I have never experiencened so much harassing, molesting, irritating end cheating persons, especially in Santiago de Cuba.
The most dangerous ones are the "lovers". Even maried women with children know how to hook up on ingenuous foreigners, especially lots of italians, get married with them, live abroad, and return after a year with half their money. In one casaparticular we stayed, the hosts had several marriages of their guests each year: on the two photos above you see two Italian couples, the left one was already divorced after 5 months.


Casas particulares. What makes Cuba so interesting to travel is that you get to know the people (if you speak Spanish) by staying in private homes, casa particulares. On top of that, they are cheaper than hotels and restaurants (all state owned), the food is a lot better and the people are friendlier. For example, they all make fresh fruit juice for you, while no bar or restaurant serves this because they are just too lazy. Communism doesn´t work.


Transport. My first day in Cuba I almost had a orgasm in public because of all the classic American cars from the fifties. It is like an open air interactive car museum: you can hear, smell and touch them, and you can even take a ride! Besides these classics cars and a lot of Lada´s, you can also see people being transported in coco-taxi´s, motorcycles with ´zijspan´, horse carriages, bicycle taxis, converted trucks, only in Havana the "camels" (truck with trailer for 400 people, see last picture), and... old Dutch busses still showing Dutch destinations, hilarious.


Havana. This city has got it all. In Havana Vieja you can stroll around in the old streets with crumbly houses. In the centre you can admire the beautiful hotels, churches, plazas, the Capitol, the musea. In Vedado there are loads of beautifull mansions of the former rich, Casa de la Musicas and movie theaters to go to. But most fun is just to walk around and see the Cubans hang around on the street and the balconies, doing nothing, kids playing baseball, guys repairing their classic American cars, men and women always flirting with eachother (and you). This is a city where you can just walk around for a walk and never be bored.


Varadero. Most tourists to Cuba visit only Varadero or one of the other beach resorts to enjoy the beaches. Here is where I picked up my fellow traveller for two weeks, my ex-colleague Jut, and we made a great start by completely getting burned on the beach.


Trinidad. A nice but touristy colonial town, good music at night, nice beach.


Santiago de Cuba. Already on the bus terminal people were all over us to get us in to a casa particular or taxi, even hard-core Spanish swearing couldn´t keep them off our backs. On top of that is the very hot and humid climate, hell on earth. But fortunately Santiago de Cuba also has alot of nice things, like the night shows in the Casa de la Musica and the exotic Tropicana ballet.

MOVIE: Cuba ballet tropicana.avi