Losing a part of me

Author: Mitch Garvis

  • Day 762

    My bags are mostly packed and I went out for breakfast. I was supposed to meet a friend but he was a no-show… very irregular for him, and I am a little worried. With that said, I know he had a meeting last night where he had to make a speech, and he might have been out very late. I know I will hear from him when he wakes up and he will be extremely sorry. In any event, I had my last breakfast, and have one more meeting with another friend from 11-1, at which point I will grab a taxi to the airport. As much as I hate leaving Havana, I am looking forward to being home for a little while.

    I missed my steps goal yesterday by 500 steps, but only because I ended up walking home after midnight. I was at about 2000 steps by the time I went to bed, so I still hit it. I also had way too much to drink (thanks to my buddy the restaurateur who kept pouring, and then the person who wanted to meet with me to learn about cigars who kept ordering) so I was not really concerned by the steps by 11pm. If I have not lost weight this trip it is because of those two days of alcohol, the pasta I’ve been eating (most meals here involve pork or seafood, and my religious beliefs supersede my weight loss), and the little chocolates that most cafes serve with a cup of coffee. Having said that, I am not worried. If I need to redouble my efforts when I get home then I will.

    Have a great day folks… I’ll see you tomorrow in Canada!

  • Day 761

    After missing the mark (only by one measure) the previous day, I shot through my fitness watch’s steps goal yesterday, surpassing 20,000 steps for the second time in a week, and for the third time since I got to Cuba. With that said, the soles of my feet are feeling it a bit today. It is nothing like it was a week ago, but I am still going to take care to not overdo it too badly today. The goal on the watch is 17,420; I will not force myself, but expect if I do not surpass that, I will still come close.

    I have not been eating entirely smart, but I still expect that I will not have gained weight during this trip. I know the pair of shorts that I am wearing today felt much tighter last Sunday when I first put them on, but that could be all in my mind. In 48-hours I will know for sure when I step onto the scale Thursday morning.

    As I had planned, I did my cigar shopping yesterday. While the selection is abysmal, I still found a couple of very good boxes of cigars to take home with me. I am not disappointed! What did disappoint me was that the Partagas store (behind the Capitolo) was closed. I am told that it is going to be reopened and that they are simply rebuilding it. The store certainly did look like a construction site when I walked by, so that is certainly plausible. In the meantime, for my second trip in a row I ended up at the La Casa del Habanos in Plaza De Armas. L found two boxes with a lot of age on them which is rare and difficult. A good cigar gets better with age which is why I have a few boxes in my humidor at home that have been there for a couple of years. The two boxes that I am bringing back are from 2017 and 2018 respectively, meaning they are absolutely ready to smoke right now. I am excited to crack them open, although I will not be doing that to smoke them in the winter… they will either wait until spring, or else for a day when I am invited to a friend’s indoor lounge.

    What else did I do yesterday? I took my laundry in to be washed, lest I find myself out of socks and underwear. I took them in early in the day hoping they would be ready in the afternoon, but because of a misunderstanding (on my part) they needed to dry overnight. I am never inflexible in Cuba, but I did need to take one pair of socks which I took home straight away and hung from my fan so that I could wear them today. Owing to the damage I did to my feet on my first day, this is my first Cuba trip ever that I have run out of socks. My sandals have stayed in the room the entire time! In a bizarre twist, it is also my first Cuba trip that when I packed my suitcase, I only packed the socks that I thought I would need for working out, hence the need to do laundry. It is not the worst thing – I will have much fewer clothes to wash when I get back to Canada. I spent some time talking with the tourist friends I met who were going home yesterday, exchanging contact information so we can stay in touch. I had dinner with a friend who reminded me of the truth of what I call Cuban Standard Time, which is to say that she was ninety minutes late. No matter, that gave me ninety minutes to people-watch in Parque Central.

    We had old clothes for dinner! Okay, that needs some clarification: One of the most popular Cuban meals is called ropa viella, which is really shredded beef. It was delicious! We ate at a restaurant a minute or two from the Capitolo called Paladar Kilometro Zero – all of Cuba is measured in distance from the capital, and that is where it starts. The food was amazing and the musicians were fabulous, playing instrumental Cubanized versions of many American and European standards. I always appreciate a good saxophone, and this guy could play!

    After I dropped her off, I met a couple in the bar across the street from her who were speaking English. They are a married couple, he from New York and she is local. She is a tour guide, and we had a great conversation. As has happened several times this trip, I offered them a cigar and they insisted on buying me a drink. I eventually walked back to my buddy’s cafe and ended the evening there.

    My plans for today are very simple and uncluttered. I have two oligations: I have to collect my laundry, and I am having lunch with Johnny. After that…? I dunno. Until then? I dunno. I am going to walk back to my apartment to drop my computer off, and then I will likely walk around the old city for a few hours. Oh, and I am sure that throughout the day I will drop in on a couple of friends where they work to say hello.

    I am both pleased and shocked by how advanced my Spanish has been. Five years ago (or even two!) I was breaking my teeth to understand and to be understood… and I would avoid being alone for any length of time with people who did not understand English. This past week I have spent many hours with several individuals and groups who did not speak any English, or if they did, I did not trouble them with it. Yes, functioning entirely in Spanish is a bit tiring for me, but I did not realize until the past couple of days how it (my Spanish) has advanced. I am really happy about that, and will continue to work on it.

    As for food… I will continue to be mostly good, without restricting myself. I will continue to eat and drink moderately, and I will get a lot of steps in (without overdoing it). If my weight on Thursday is exactly what it was the morning I left Canada then I will be extremely happy, but I am prepared to be as much as 3-4 pounds heavier without getting too down about it. Whether or not that happens, I will be back on the treadmill by the weekend.

    Have a great day folks!

  • Day 760

    After a wet and rainy day yesterday, this morning is sunny (for now) but windy. I am told that it is going to rain later, but so far there is no sign of that, nor is it expressed in my phone’s weather app. We will see.

    Yesterday was the first day since I arrived that I did not hit my steps goal according to my fitness watch’s bar. To be fair, it raises the bar higher when I keep hitting it, and yesterday’s goal was 17,250, and I was short by about 1,300 steps. A combination of the rain and a friend insisting we take a bicycle taxi somewhere – and my deciding to not push for it at 11:30pm (I could have, but decided to relax) meant that yesterday was my first day since I got to Cuba that I did not take 16,000 steps… only 15,880. I am not upset.

    My feet are not in pain but looking at them after the wet day yesterday you can see that they are blistered and calloused. I am also wearing my last pair of clean socks, and it is a good thing that I took my dirty clothes to be laundered this morning. I will have them back in time for me to ‘dress up’ for dinner with my friend. It is the first time that I can think of that I am planning to wear long pants and a long-sleeve shirt in Cuba. Even though my clothes supply will be replenished, I am still planning to wear the shirt that I saved for the occasion. I want to look good tonight! No, I am not going into detail… but the shirt is my black guayabera.

    Today is the day I am actually going to start my cigar shopping. Yes, I have bought plenty of cigars to smoke here… I mean for what I plan to take home. I have to be economical about it because I only have so much cash on me… but also there are limits to how many I am allowed to bring back to Canada. Oh well! I will visit a couple of shops to see what is available, and I will make my decisions based on that.

    I am not meeting my friend until dinner time, and my only obligation between now and then is collecting my laundry. I will also try to remember to go back to my casa after lunch to turn on the gas so that I can have hot water to shower before dinner. Other than that, I will be on my own, free to saunter from shop to shop to see what cigars are available. It would be nice if I could hit today’s posted goal of 17,110, but I will not push myself too hard. My breakfast was just served to me, and I’ll have a reasonable lunch. 17,000? If yes then yes and if not then whatever.

    Have a great day!

  • Day 759

    Yesterday was another good day… for a lot of reasons. It was also a bad cheat day with regard to my food intake. Lunch was good, and the pizza that I ordered for dinner would have been fine… if Johnny hadn’t ordered another pizza for us to share. I take solace in the fact that I clocked over 21,000 steps yesterday (plus another 3,000 between midnight and bedtime) so hopefully I was able to burn off the calories.

    It is raining today so I am sitting here at my friend’s restaurant trying to decide to go out to head to San Rafael to see another friend. He is waiting for me so I guess I have to go. The big decision is should I detour to my apartment to grab my baseball cap.

    Have a great day folks!

  • Day 758

    I think I messed up the days again yesterday so I now have two posts in a row called 758. I’ll figure it out and fix it later.

    Yesterday was another great day. I logged over 16,000 steps again. I don’t have the time right now to go into it, but if I can later I will write all about it for tomorrow’s piece.

    Have a great day!

  • Day 757

    I clocked 19,300 steps yesterday (not including the 1700 steps I walked after midnight but before bed), bringing my total since I got to Cuba to just over 99,000 steps in five days. By any measure that is a big success. I am glad that the pains in my feet are still less and less every day. I did not take any painkillers before bed or when I woke up. I am relieved that I am able to get through it without needing to take a day off of my intense walking.

    I met a friend who is a local yesterday, and he took me to a locals bar where they made me the largest (and strongest) mojito I have ever seen in my life. It had a shot of six different rums in it. Wow! We were having a great time dancing in the street outside the bar and just enjoying life… in a very non-touristy area of town. It was a lot of fun, but I had to be careful because I know how drunk I was. When he and I finally parted company I went to my buddy’s restaurant and ordered a plate of pasta to make sure I had something in my stomach that would help with the potential issues one might have when they drink that much.

    After dinner I went to my other buddy’s restaurant for a coffee, and I met some other friends and hung out for a few hours. I then went to see another friend who works in a hotel in the old city, and we had a great conversation until 3:00am. Needless to say I did not get a lot of sleep last night. Somewhere in there I was challenged to a fight by a drunk American arse who asked me why Jews are the new Nazis. If I didn’t love my friend who works there, after he decided to not come outside to ‘talk’ I would have made sure he stepped out. The encounter sobered me up in a hurry to be sure. His friends were disgusted by him – not only because of his behaviour, but one of them was Jewish. Some people just don’t get it. His friend told me that he would be ashamed of himself when he sobered up. I assured her that he might feel stupid for saying it to someone like me, but that I guaranteed that his opinion of Jews would not have changed one bit. Some people are just terrible people.

    I have not weighed myself this week, but I would not be surprised if when I step onto the bathroom scale next week, I will have lost a couple of pounds. It is hard to walk as much as I have been walking and not lose weight. I have also not been eating badly at all. Here’s hoping, right?

    Once again, I have written my article, but the Internet is down. It is now 12:15pm Friday, but I do not know when I will be publishing. My fitness watch has by steps at nearly 3,900 so far. That will be over ten thousand before the day is done, and I would not be surprised if I achieve 15,000 again. We’ll see.

    Have a great day folks!

  • Day 756

    So much for my original plans. I recorded over 16,000 steps yesterday. They are sore again today, but not as bad as yesterday. I am glad I brought a bottle of Aspirin though!

    I left my laptop in the room… maybe I’ll write more later, but I’m not going out of my way to be connected this trip!

  • Day 755

    There are some things that would be difficult for anyone who has not spent time in Cuba to understand. One of these is that Internet is only available in some places, and then only when it feels like working. As an example, it rained yesterday, hence despite having written my article, I could not publish it because the Internet does not work in Cuba when it rains. Additionally, the previous day’s article was written and I thought it had published… but I was wrong. Don’t worry, I am able to backdate them so that when today’s article goes live my 756-day streak should be intact.

    I do not go out of my way to be online when I am here. Several hours after my article was finished, I was sitting at a café and the Internet was working… but my article was on my computer back in my apartment. I did not feel it necessary to run back, grab my computer, and come back to the café… not only because it is possible that in the fifteen minutes I was gone, the Internet might have dropped again. It’s all good.

    Despite writing about it in the past tense, I am actually starting today’s article yesterday… which is to say, last night. Yes, as I type this out I am lying in bed and ready to sleep. My feet are in agony – between Monday and Tuesday I walked over 44,000 steps! I got back to the room and peeled my shoes and socks off, then hobbled to the shower where I stood painfully but necessarily under the hot water. I did not shower this morning and I felt grungy. I briefly considered not shaving because that would entail standing for another five minutes or so. Once my stubble was gone I then considered (again briefly) not walking to the kitchen where I had to shut the gas for the water heater… I did the responsible thing and endured those extra thirty or so steps. Now I am lying comfortably so that the soles of my feet (which are currently about 40% blister) do not have to touch anything for the next eight hours or so.

    I am not eating as well as I should, but in the balance between caloric intake and calories burned I suspect I am doing well. I had a reasonable breakfast, a rich lunch of pasta with cream sauce (and a couple of glasses of rum, thanks to my buddy who owns the restaurant), and a mostly healthy dinner (although the French fries were not a good choice). I smoked several cigars throughout the day and drank more coffee than I probably should; the restaurants here serve a piece of chocolate with each cup of coffee, and I do not feel too guilty for eating them. Unlike yesterday (when I indulged in a piece of chocolate cake for desert after lunch) those were the only sweets that I had. I also had two glasses of juice… but I am sure my body will forgive me. All in all, I am hoping that were I to step on my bathroom scale this morning I would not be too disappointed.

    I am planning on taking it easy Wednesday (today). I will do some walking around Old Havana in the morning, and sometime in the afternoon I am meeting friends at the Hotel Nacional (4km from here). Unless my feet experience some sort of miraculous recovery, it is my intention to take a taxi to get there and back. Those will be the first I have taken since the one that brought me from the airport. The plan is to relax, smoke cigars, and to chat. No harm in that, right?

    —

    Okay, it now really is tomorrow (today) and I am sitting at the café in Calle Aguilar. I had the same breakfast I’ve had every day and am enjoying a cup of coffee. I just had a nice conversation with an American who lives just south of Montreal (in New York State) who is on his first trip here, and we spoke about cigars and economics and how to help the people here… while not getting taken in by the ploys that abound. Now I am going to finish my second cup of coffee and when I put my computer away I will pull out my backgammon set in the (probably vain) hopes that someone will sit down to play. It does not seem to be a very Cuban game. Oh well.

    My feet are still hurting, but not nearly as bad as they were last night. I am still going to take it easy – I doubt my step count will exceed 10,000 today – and will take taxis if I am going to leave Old Havana. Unless my friend from Portugal invites me to the Hotel Nacional for coffee I will not be leaving the neighbourhood. I had a lot of trouble falling asleep last night because of them, and finally I broke down and took a couple of Aspirin. I took two more this morning and will proactively take a couple more throughout the day. I have no problems pushing myself, but there is a fine line between pain and injury… and I want to make sure my feet do recover so that I am not in pain the entire trip. I know that I overdid things my first few days here, and I know I have to pace myself. I can go back to Canada and limp around, but if I want to go to the store in Canada I can get into my car if I am in too much pain to walk. That is not an option here.

    It is still cool and a little cloudy, but the sun is coming out and I will be wearing sunglasses today. What else will I be doing? Who knows… whatever it is, I’ll have fun. There will be cafes and restaurants and music… and hopefully some backgammon involved.

    Have a great day!

  • Day 754

    I surpassed all expectations yesterday and am quite proud of myself for it. I ate a healthy breakfast, I went for a jog (which after 1 km in the heat and humidity turned into a power-walk), and I had a healthy dinner. I did a lot of walking, surpassing 25,000 steps! I had a single alcoholic beverage (a rum that was offered to me by a cigar roller friend as we smoked his creation, so I could hardly refuse). All in all, it was a good day. Had I brought my bathroom scale (which I ended up not doing) I suspect I would have been happy with my number this morning.

    I did get taken by a teenager who offered to convert my money at a decent rate. My usual guy was not available, so I tried to convert fifty dollars. The guy disappeared, and I am now $50 poorer than I was. The way I see it, it was my charitable donation to the Cuban economy. While I am usually careful with money, in the grand scheme of things that money was about 30-minutes of work for me… and three months’ salary for him. I was thinking that if I come across him again, I can hold my head high… he may think he got one over on the stupid turista, but in truth he just proved that I am much more of a man than he is. It means I will be able to buy three fewer cigars than I would have. Put in that perspective, I came out okay.

    When I did connect with my brother, we sat with a couple of friends of his for a little while and talked. The guy is from South Florida and works in technology, so we had a lot to talk about. The four of us would end up having dinner later.

    I told Johnny that I would go for a run while he did what he had to do; we went back to my apartment so that I could give him some real money to convert for me, and then he left to do his thing and I changed into my kit. We agreed to meet at 2:30pm at another friend’s café. I hoped to jog five kilometres but decided to pull up at 1km because of the conditions. I ended up walking along the Malecon to the Hotel Nacional, making about a 4km distance. I took a break there, reviewed my stats (6m45s for the jog, and under 9m30s per kilometre walking). I used the restroom, looked in at the cigar shop, and then headed out to walk back – another 4km. I took a cold shower (I miscalculated how far in advance I have to turn the water heater on), and then went to meet Johnny.

    The Conde de Villenueva hotel is absolutely magnificent… and it is currently closed… as is the cigar shop which is one of my favourites. Johnny was able to hook me up very well though – he has friends who were able to arrange for us to meet the senior torcedor (cigar roller) there. Raoul replaced my friend Reynaldo when he moved to Mexico, so I was not sure about what I would find. I was pleasantly surprised not only by the stock but also by the quality of the custom-rolled cigars. We sat for an hour chatting, smoking cigars, and drinking coffee and then rum. After enjoying one of his cigars, I asked him to make twenty-five of them for me for next week to take home. Yay!

    While neither Johnny nor I had eaten lunch, we had one more stop to make before heading to the restaurant in Calle San Rafael to meet Dennis and his wife for dinner. We popped in at my buddy Osiris’ restaurant and spent an hour talking with him and his wife. It was wonderful to see him (as it always is), and we promised we would meet him for lunch today (which we will do shortly).

    Dinner was at a Turkish restaurant, and I had a Doner Kebab. I had asked for the plate, but there was a miscommunication, so I got the sandwich instead. No great loss. It was quite good, and while all four of us were exhausted, we stayed there until 11:00pm chatting. I introduced Dennis to cigars, showing him how to properly enjoy it. In fact he enjoyed it so much that he enjoyed a second one! Johnny told him that he was getting a Master Class from me; I told him that he might be getting a class from a master, but it was really a primer. Master Classes are not for beginners!

    When we finally got up and left the restaurant, we said our farewells and exchanged contact information. Johnny and I will meet Osiris today, but Dennis has already flown back to the USA. I walked around for another ninety minutes or so before finding my way back to my apartment… after tracking down (with some difficulty owing to the late hour) some bottled water to take back to the room.

    As I prepared for bed, I realized that I was hungrier than expected. Not only had I skipped lunch, but by now the sandwich I had for dinner was nearly six-hours in my rearview mirror. I decided to have a protein bar so that I was not uncomfortable trying to sleep. My buddy Lyle had recommended the protein bars I brought, and he was right about how good they are. I lay my head down to sleep satisfied after a very complete first full day in Havana.

    The decision to come to Cuba was made because I needed to clear my head and get away from the usual grind. I wanted to relax, do a lot of walking, see my friends, smoke my cigars, and be beholden to nobody. In those respects, yesterday was a perfect day. What will today bring? We’ll see… it started to rain shortly after I finished my breakfast, so I brought my laptop into the smoking salon of the bistro, and here I sit. The Internet is down (welcome to Cuba), so I will likely have to wait until later in the day to publish. In the meantime, the rain seems to have stopped, and I am going to walk back to my apartment, drop off the computer, and then head out to see my buddies for lunch. After that? Whatever I want.

    Have a great day folks!

  • Day 753

    Saturday evening was not nearly as successful as the rest of the day was. I took my son the younger for dinner, and I was very happy to see him (as I always am). He confided something in me about his relationship with his brother that disturbed me so much that when I got home, I was not able to concentrate on anything. Packing my carry-on bag should normally take me five minutes but it took me nearly an hour because I was so scatterbrained. Likewise, when I did get to bed, I was not able to sleep a wink. It is frustrating as all get-out when one is tossing and turning, head full of terrible thoughts, knowing that the alarm is set for 2:00am. The last time I looked at the clock it was 12:25am, and I was extremely worried that I would not wake up with my alarm.

    Fortunately, I did wake up, and while I was exhausted the whole time, my travels were uneventful. I was in my apartment in Havana by 3:00pm, and by 3:30pm I was sitting with my brother in his bistro in Old Havana. I said several times that I was going to take a nap, but that never happened; I alternated between walking around the old city and siting at my buddy’s restaurant.

    I will be good today. There is no good reason for me to cheat. I will even try to go for a run… despite the fact that my feet are blistered from walking around in my sandals yesterday. I’m already at 5,000 steps, which is nothing to sneeze at.