And then to Santiago de Cuba.
Alright, I’ll go ahead and say it. I really adore this place. Correction: I adore the people in this place.
The countryside is more than beautiful.
But the people are more so.
Like the other islands in the Caribbean, it has “that light” that I’ve never seen anywhere else.
I know, I know, I’m showing you the pretty stuff.
I’m really just getting that stuff that everybody else sees out of the way before showing you “my Cuba”, the part that I fell in love with.
Because, at this point in the trip, images like these were all I expected. Then the story moved beyond the images. The people moved beyond the flat facades with the dog and pony show given to outsiders.
I would love to show you my Cuba. But I would dare say, no image could contain it. No words would do it justice. There are certain parts of life where the reproduction of the experience fails and the memory of actually having been there is capable of keeping me going just long enough to return to that place.
It all started in a church.
Little introductions. Who you are, who they are. Why are we here, why are they here. I give my little statement, realizing that I’m not really here for any reason than to be the floater, the guy who doesn’t have a job.
But in that freedom, I found more than I ever expected.
The freedom to wander. The freedom to go and be and do.
So, stay tuned. My Cuba is on the way.
-Noah D.
