I was finding Santiago a bit much. Hot, dusty, traffic everywhere, lots of fairly dry historical sites with dreadful English translations making understanding it all quite hard work.
And then it all changed. After the ice cream we were wandering through the old town and stumbled across a beautiful little second hand bookshop. Always happy to find a book shop, I went in and the owner came over and started chatting to us. Following our usual routine of why CDD and I speak Spanish excellently and not at all, the book shop owner opened a drawer and got out two plastic cups, filled them with ice cubes, poured generous measures of Havana Club white rum and passed them our way. He invited us to sit with him and listen to his friends play us some music there in the shop. Everything about it was beautiful. The music was son - the classic Cuban style popularised by those clever Buena Vista Social Club folk - and the voices were stunning. I was also given a little notebook with a picture of Che on it and implored to learn Spanish.
So there we are. I quickly relaxed and developed a taste for rum and ice at three in the afternoon. Santiago and I became friends.
About Me
- January C.
- Leaving the British winter far behind, I'm blogging about my travels in the Cuban sunshine. The photos are a combined effort between my travel chum CDD and me. The words are all mine.
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