Cuba (2022)
Inhalt/Content
Across Cuba by bus
On one hand, there was sentimentality from the farewell, but on the other, there was excitement for the imminent return to Germany. We went to the bus station. As always, we had to be there early to check in at the Viazul office. When we arrived, I couldn’t believe my eyes: behind the counter, the employee was sitting with Colectivo-Carlos, and they were exchanging banknotes. When they noticed my presence, they quickly hid the money, and Carlos left the room. The Viazul employee stamped my tickets and gestured for us to sit in the waiting area. There was another power outage, so we sat there in the dark for a while. Meanwhile, a storm was brewing outside. Two Greek women entered the waiting area; it seemed they were taking the same bus. At least we weren’t alone anymore. Gradually, more Cubans joined us. Some boarded other buses, while others seemed to be waiting for our bus as well, although there was no sign of it. It finally arrived at the Santiago bus station with a one-hour delay. Loading the bus went relatively quickly, and soon we were on the bus, leaving Santiago de Cuba behind. Even though it was quite late, it wasn’t easy to sleep due to the Greek women talking loudly behind us. When it finally became quiet, sleep didn’t last long because we made stops every 1-2 hours. Among all the bus routes between Santiago and Havana, ours was the longest, taking over 20 hours.
We felt like we were reliving our journey in reverse. Sometime in the middle of the night, we reached Camagüey. Kevin quickly got off to buy something to drink, but unfortunately, he had left his glasses on the bus, and there didn’t seem to be anything to drink there, except for a few overpriced juice packets. In Santa Clara, we had a longer breakfast break. Unfortunately, there was a power outage here, and the restaurant where we had enjoyed the delicious juice and affordable burgers was closed. Next to it was a small cafeteria selling sandwiches, so we got something from there. We thought our bus would go directly to Havana from there, but we were mistaken. Instead, our bus took a detour to Varadero, where we arrived around noon.
I had been to a terrible all-inclusive resort in Varadero with my parents in 2005. This city is an awful place because it is completely cut off from real life, and one beach hotel follows another. Now, 17 years later, I noticed that some of the hotels were vacant. It seemed that COVID and the general crisis had hit hard here. The break was scheduled so that we could have eaten something, but since it was a touristy place, the prices were accordingly high, and we only bought something to drink.
After the break, plenty of package tourists got on the bus since it stopped at both the Varadero and Havana airports. Tanned, some in beach dresses, holding full water bottles in their hands, they boarded, and just looking at them filled me with a strong dislike for these people. A woman from Viazul got on and collected all the tickets, including ours. Presumably, she thought we were part of the package tourists and didn’t realize that we had already traveled across the country from Santiago.
The doors closed, and the journey continued. To my surprise, I noticed on the map on my phone that we were heading towards Matanzas. That’s where the oil tank was burning! Was it even safe? And indeed, soon we passed the entrance to Matanzas. A dark cloud spread across the sky. The package tourists looked at each other in confusion. I heard some Germans asking what was going on. Wasn’t this the top news in Cuba? How can people be so isolated that they don’t realize that a few kilometers away, oil tanks are burning, and a disaster is unfolding?!
The bus continued toward the black cloud, and indeed, we passed the road right next to the burning oil tanks. In Germany, this road would have been closed long ago. I was relieved when we had finally passed by. From then on, the black cloud followed us. The wind was blowing in a way that the smoke was drifting toward Havana, where the sky was black when we arrived.
