Inspection of Daniel’s old balloon and frustrations with Belize

A bit of a frustrating day as we are making no progress to go anywhere. The Belize aviation authorities are making a huge fuss about everything, we can’t fly directly to Guatemala as it’s too far and we don’t really want to go to Mexico if we can avoid it.

Phil attaches a sticker to the Beech kindly presented by Daniel

Flippie, his wife Vlooi and a good friend Michael at home are working like tigers all day trying to make the impossible possible whilst our Cuban friends are assisting with communications with the Belize authorities. But things are still not going the way they should. Rather depressing for now…

inflation of the old FESTO balloon

After a very delayed pick up, we finally get to Kawama airport where Daniel, the balloon master is waiting for us. We offer to inspect his old Cameron 105 envelope that the Lithuanian balloon club (Gintaras Surkus, Hello Gintaras!) donated to the Cubans many years ago. The balloon has been sitting in its bag for years and looks rather tired and porous.

Phil and Daniel inside the balloon

A cold inflation and a check of the fabric tells us with one eye that this balloon sadly will not fly anymore. All the coating has gone off the middle panels and there are numerous small holes. But the hyperlast parachute still looks in good shape and so does the tempi label. Anyway, the action makes for a good photo shoot for all the skydivers and other staff of the airport.

We then retreat back to Casa Rosa and head for the only wifi place in town: a noisy Cuban café bar 10mins walk away. Whereas Vinales was dotted with wifi hot spots, Varadero – also a major tourist hub - seems to be devoid of any such facilities. 

Our subdued mood only cheers up over a couple of strong Mojitos and some delicious fresh fried fish at a local restaurant. The conversation tonight revolves around steam trains and mentalities of different cultures. A good distraction from current problems and frustrations....

Flippie and Phil in discussion

The drama with Belize continues for the rest of the day until late at night.

at least dogs don't seem to have any worries...

So let me tell you a bit about shopping here in Cuba:

Being the only female in our small team, I try and feed the ‘boys’ with food as most days when we travel, we don’t get time to have lunches. Still hoping that we might get away to ‘somewhere’ by early tomorrow, I set off with my rucksack trying to find a supermarket here on the strip of Varadero.

street scene in Varadero

Asking around, I am finally pointed to the one and only shop. As I try and enter the store, I am waved away. Eh? Ok, I finally understand: personal bags are not allowed. I must pay 1 cuc and drop it at a luggage deposit counter.

I am now hunting for food. But the shelves are pretty empty. You can buy all sorts of spirits, good wine and dozens of different types of rum and vodka, but there is no bread, nothing to put on bread, no vegetables, no fruit, no butter, no milk. In fact we found that the whole country doesn’t have milk or butter.

empty bread shop

So not much has changed since we discovered that shortage in 2007 when we had to stay at an all-inclusive club at the Bay of Pigs. Breakfast buffet opened at 7am. We turned up at ten past 7 only to find that the buffet was empty. Looking around the tables we saw piles of yellow little balls and bread stacked up 50 inches high. The little yellow things turned out to be butter!!  Butter was clearly something rare and desirable – and it obviously still is like fresh milk.

The only stuff you find that resembles the taste of milk is mixed up milk powder.

Looking into the massive deep freeze I stare into an empty abyss. The only two things you might occasionally find in those freezers are large packs of frozen meat or ice cream!

sunset over Varadero

Having failed to buy anything except some water and a piece of cheese, I now have to find the paneria to get bread. Bread only comes in fluffy white burgers or sliced soggy toast. I start dreaming of German bakeries and return to our base with my selected few shopping goodies. Experiences like this, make you appreciate the stacks of foods that we find in our supermarkets and how truly spoilt we are for choice.