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Vol. III P. 20

COUNTRIES and CULTURES of the WORLD, THEN and NOW, VOL. III

TRAVEL [In Guatemala]. My first visit to Guatemala was in August, 1968. We landed at La Aurora Airport, GUATEMALA CITY. Our plane taxied up to the little yellow terminal. [When we returned a year later it had been replaced by a modern glass, concrete, and stone terminal.] Our bags were searched for firearms. My wife and I took a taxi with our sons, ages seven and nine, through palm-lined streets, north to to our moderate price hotel, downtown. Our room with high ceilings and shutters was comfortable even on hotter days. The city, 1500 meters (4,920 ft.) high, has spring-like weather. Our tasty meals in the restaurant included fried bananas, beans, and tropical fresh fruits. We walked a few blocks to the Central Park. A one-man band carried a drum strapped to his feet and drumsticks to the back of each foot. A harmonica was fastened to his neck. He carried a sort of accordion. Another entertainer was a preacher, carrying a black Bible, deliverying a "fire and brimstone" message in clear Spanish. Many downtown street corners were "protected" by a soldier with a rifle or a machine gun.

The next day we moved to the Pension Alemaña on a quieter avenue near several embassies, north of downtown. It had a gas water heater that heated only when the hot water faucet was open. Many Latin American countries have this fuel-saving type of water heater. The dining room served tasty German and Guatemalan food. Our sons became attached to our housekeeper for 10 days. Sometimes she agreed to babysit evenings for extra pay, while my wife and I celebrated. A fort heavily guarded by soldiers was nearby. We watched the Pan American bicycle races on our avenue. Many racers sped by, sometimes taking a sip of water as they pedaled. Motorcycles just behind carried spare front and rear wheels. An ambulance offered "free services" to the cyclists.

Guatemala's quetzal (named after the elusive bird with a long colorful tail) was equal to a dollar U.S.A. in 1968. We rode the new European buses all over the city for only five cents each. Avenues run north and south, streets run east to west. Sixth Avenue is the main business and shopping street. The National Stadium, just east of downtown, seats 60,000 people. The Cerro de Carmen in the northeast is a good viewpoint of the city. Minerva Park on the north side features a large concrete relief map of Guatemala. Made by Guatemalan engineer Francisco Vela in 1905, it is made to scale except that the height of the 34 volcanic peaks is exaggerated. We planned a trip east to the jungle of Lake Izabel but bus service was uncertain, and we were warned that guerrillas controlled large areas. On August 15 we joined Guatemalans in celebrating a holiday, dia de la Asunción, in Minerva Park. Many booths were set up under white awnings made of flower sacks sewn together. Vendors sold ears of corn roasted over a charcoal fire, plus slices of watermelon and tropical fruit, and wrapped pieces of candy made of brown sugar.

On our first visit to Guatemala we put our sons into a private nursery school. They spoke Spanish, like all of the other children there. For our younger son's birthday we bought two big piñatas, one was like a rabbit, the other a witch. We filled them with two kilos of wrapped candy. The piñatas were hung on a line. The children, blindfolded, took turns hitting each piñata with a baseball bat. When blindfolds were removed they lined up. The teacher then said they could go. Each child rushed to get as many pieces of candy as he or she could.

We browsed in the crowded Central Market, in a concrete building a full block square. Like others in Latin America, stores selling similar products were grouped together. In the center little restaurants made tortillas, soup, and roasted corn; other foods cooked in big kettles over an open fire. People ate on long tables made of rough boards. Children of vendors played in the narrow aisles. Candles were a basic necessity. Few poor people have electricity or kerosene lamps. Even the rich need many candles, electricity often goes off. Stores surrounding the market were also busy. Another large market was the Artisans Market near a bus station in the south. In the market a family made buckets and ladles from old "tin" cans, carefully cutting the steel and shaping it. Early each morning the 2nd-class buses, like a school bus except for bright colors, brought people from outlying villages to the market. Ten or 15 people rode on the roof as the bus arrived, along with big bundles of things to sell. After unloading, women put the heavy bundles on top of the head, carrying it to their pre-assigned stall in the market. At the end of their long day they rewrapped unsold merchandise and took it home. Short stalks of sugar cane were sold cheaply, chewed, the juice was swallowed, and the tough peeling and pulp was spit out everywhere.

We spent much time with our sons in Central Park, where there were always interesting people and things to see. A shoe shine cost only the equivalent of five cents in 1968. We became acquainted with one of the boys, who was too poor to go to school. On our last day we gave him a carton of dried milk and a box of corn flakes. He said it would be a special treat for his family, they would have it for supper. We were approved for a tour of the white National Palace. Reception rooms have beautiful parquet floors and chandeliers. Perhaps it is best known for the wall murals showing Guatemala's history, especially the Indians, with many topless maidens. Each afternoon a side door of the palace was opened and loaves of bread were handed out to the poor. This practice ended before our later visits. The palace and the cathedral made of pink stone, with twin towers, are on the edge of Central Park. There are many flowers. Another time we toured the University of San Carlos and its botanical gardens. The sapodilla or chicle tree, an evergreen with wide-spreading limbs, grows wild in the lowlands. The sap is tapped by carefully making V-shape cuts, then boiling it. It is mixed with synthetic gums to make chewing gum. The brown-skin fruit is also eaten. The gardens have several types of fast growing bamboo, and many other tropical plants.

The La Aurora Zoo, in the south, had a good collection of animals and birds from the Americas. The National Archaeological Museum has a big collection of Mayan and other local artifacts, dating back to 1000 B.C. There are six permanent exhibition halls for archaeology and ethnology, showing how Mayans lived. Carved stones brought from many Mayan cities are shown. We took a bus to the Kaminaljuyú Colonia in the northwest. We had read in a local newspaper that University of Pennsylvania archaeologists had just excavated a lower tomb. They found the well-preserved bodies of a young women, a boy around nine years old, and a baby. They estimated that they dated from 1800 B.C. When we expressed interest in it an archaeology student with candles led us down though the ruins to the tomb in a low level. Ceilings were arched, Mayans later reverted to the corbel V-shape arch. Our sons were fascinated by seeing the well-preserved body of a boy their age who played there 3800 years earlier!

Guatemala has modern buildings including the municipal building, the Social Security Institute, the tall Bank of Guatemala, and the National Mortgage Bank with carved designs on one wall. Olympic City is near downtown. Most employees working in industry or for the government have pension and health care plans. A Social Security contribution is deducted from their checks each payday.

We made an excursion to AMATITLAN, a village, and LAKE AMATITLAN, some 20 km. (12 mi.) south. The lake is some 12 km. (7 mi.) long, surrounded by high hills. We ate a picnic lunch and bought coconuts with the top slashed. We drank the "milk" through a straw. An enterprising man made a merry-go-round, using the rear axle of an old car. The owner pushed it round-and-round by hand. We returned to the city on the narrow (one-meter wide track) train. Other passengers carried baskets of things to sell in the afternoon market, including strings of big fish freshly caught in the lake.

We took a bus to a typical village, SAN VINCENT CAUQUE. Round homes were built of corn stalks, leaves removed, standing vertically, bound together with cord. They supported a thatch roof. Homes in other villages are made of bamboo or adobe. The standard daily wage rate in 1968 for an agricultural laborer on the big farms was one dollar. One mother proudly showed us her son and daughter. She asked how old our sons were. She said "Mine are older, but smaller. Yours are bigger because they get enough to eat." She said that she had delivered ten other children "but they all died."

We became acquainted with a physician and his family. They lived in a new colonia with modern bungalows made of concrete blocks, then painted inside and out. Each had a carport protected by a fence, a small inner open patio, living room-dining room, kitchen, bath, and three bedrooms. Practical homes like that for the small middle class are being built in much of Latin America. On our last visit in 1968 the family were in shock. Their 18 year old son had borrowed the family car to take home his girlfriend. After saying goodnight he didn't hear the challenge of the little soldier with a rifle. He was shot, dying quickly.

We also met several employees from INCAP (Nutritional Institute for Central America and Panama), a UN-sponsored organization that processes waste fish to make a protein supplement. It was widely distributed in Central America, selling for a low price in markets. It provided badly needed protein to supplement the standard diet of beans and corn (maize). We learned that INCAP planned a weekend flight in an old DC3 plane to the Mayan ruins in TIKAL, in the jungle of Peten. They had four extra seats, so we paid our share and joined them. We flew northeast over mountains, then low jungle, Lake Petén Itza and the town of Flores, landing at a grassy airstrip in the national park. My window on the plane had a crack, the air coming in was noisy. We quickly put on insect repellant and our straw hats. It was hot and humid. Many trees have been cut and the temples and other ruins are being reconstructed. We rode all day in two trucks, frequently stopping to look at ruins. Many of the stone stelae have been stood upright, each has been dated, using the Mayan calendar and their numbering system. (See Ancient Civilizations.) Archaeologists say each steale tells of some of the ruler's accomplishments during the period, something like modern politicians. Children were permitted to climb on the big round Mayan calendar stone, stood vertically in the soil. We climbed two of the highest temples, numbers I ("The Great Jaguar," 47 m. or 154 ft. high) and IV, even higher. They are steep but the timid or wiser can hold a chain installed along the steep steps. Priests stayed in the small rooms at the top of each temple platform, sometimes speaking to the multitude below. We watched a group of noisy monkeys as they scampered through the trees.

Another excursuion was a weekend trip to CHICHICASTENANGO, a Quiche Mayan town some 125 km. (78 mi.) northwest. It is easy to get to by Galgo, a fast, comfortable first-class "Greyhound" bus. Each Sunday it has the best-known Indian market in Guatemala. We had reservations to stay Saturday night in a pension a few blocks away. Many of the guests came by private automobile. In the evening the big outside gate is closed, giving cars some protection against being robbed or stripped during the night. In much of Latin America hotels and motels have enclosed parking for the cars of guests. In the early evening we walked on hills at the edge of the big town. On la Democracia hill many Indians swung buckets with glowing coals and embers, praying to ancient Mayan gods Pocojil and Pascuala Abaj, carved from a big black stone. Early on Sunday morning Indians began to arrive on foot, burro cart, or bus from distant villages with bundles of things to sell. Women carry a heavy bundle on the head and a baby in a big shawl slung over the shoulder, either in back or at the side. Men sometimes carry things on the head, but more often on the back, with a trumpline from the forehead to help support the weight. White flour sacks sewed together were put over poles to provide protection from the sun or a light shower. Each part of the open air market sold a similar product. There was cheap unpainted furniture made by village carpenters, pots fresh out of the kiln, many types of bright colored textiles woven on backstrap looms, leather sandals made in the home, blouses and shirts with colorful embroidery, and many types of fruits, vegetables, and nuts. I had never before seen several types. Nuts, seeds, and other products were sold from burlap bags. Each family or village specializes in making or growing something for the market. Similar markets were held throughout Latin America long before Europeans ever heard of the Americas. We watched two men cutting up old automobile tires, they added a strap of cord or leather to make sandals. Many men wore black trousers that end just below the knee. Each village has its own textile designs, like the tartans of Scotland. Guatemala's textiles are the brightest and most colorful in the world. Many of the dyes, such as indigo blue, are still made from local plants. Local Indian men wear mostly black, the pant legs cover only the midcalf.

The Saint Thomas Catholic Church overlooks the market square. Indians and tourists sat on the steps, watching everything. Many Indians swung buckets of burning incense on the steps. They merely added the Christian God, saints, and angels to their repertoire of Mayan gods. We watched a funeral procession. The men shuffled forward, then backward, stopping often to rest the heavy coffin on a table which a youth quickly inserted underneath. Midafternoon the market ended, people began to pack unsold merchandise. Many men had too much cheap beer to drink and were left lying on the ground as women swept around them. Soon the grounds were clean. During Semana Santa or Easter Week local Indian men erect a tall pole in the square, a vine to the top and to their waist, then go "flying" around it. We returned to Guatemala City on a 2nd-class bus, like a schoolbus. The driver slowed down for anyone near the road, his assistant shouted to see if they wanted a ride. We were lucky, with seats, while later standing passengers were packed in like sardines in a can.

I returned to "Chichi" for the Sunday market in 1992. It was much bigger and more crowded than 24 years earlier. We parked the van several blocks from the market square, and walked several blocks past shops and street vendors selling beautiful textiles, wood face masks, cheap jewelry, handbags, baskets, and much more. In the market square smoke from burning candles was bad, and there were many flower petals in the air. Firecrackers were noisy. The long line to baptize babies in the church began each Sunday at 3:00 A.M., a curandera (healer woman) told me. I sat more than one and a half hours in the relatively tranquil churchyard, watching the Indian families in their beautiful bright clothes. Marimba and other music announced the beginning of a dance in honor of a saint. Four men danced, each carrying or wearing on the head a bamboo framework resembling a horse, with many baloons attached. Later they led a procession out of town. We met them around 3:00 P.M., resting after a warm 8 km. (5 mi.) walk, partly uphill. Most of the Indians sit on the ground like North Americans and Europeans, a few squat on the heels like Asians. One woman danced to help the baby wrapped in her shawl fall asleep, frequently reaching back to give it comforting pats. Many people threw trash on the ground, although a trash barrel was always nearby. Most of the vendors' stalls had a temporary roof of plastic--much better than the flour sacks they used earlier. Some of the women in our group almost filled the van with purchases. After a leisurely late lunch we drove toward Antigua. Some men pushed an ice cream cart several kilometers uphill to get to a place to make more sales. In fields men burned debris from the harvested corn crop.

I rented a car in 1968 for a drive to Volcan Pacaya, some 30 km. (18 mi.) southwest, past Lake Amatitlan. We stopped in the village nearest the volcano for a guide. I hired a youth about 14. He said I should hire his little brother to guard the car. I jokingly said I thought all Guatemalans were honest. He said in Spanish "No, señor, there are lots of bad men." I hired his brother. After hiking a few kilometers we heard a loud boom like cannon every 25 seconds or so. Then we saw the mountain's cone, with smoke, flames, lava, cinders, and big boulders being emitted, to roll down the mountainside. We stopped as close as we dared go. The boulders, the size of a small house, rolled part-way up our low ridge, then fell back down into a valley. On the return trip to the city I stopped at the Park of the United Nations, overlooking beautiful Lake Amatitlan. Our sons enjoyed the swings and seesaws. We also stopped in PALIN, with a huge ceiba tree planted long ago by the Spanish. Planting the ceibas in towns is one of the best things the Spanish did for Latin America. The market flourished in the shade of the giant tree. During my 1992 visit to Guatemala several groups climbing Volcan Pacaya were robbed. The groups with at least two armed guards were not robbed.

Before leaving on our 1968 trip our local newspaper, The Seattle Times, agreed to publish a series of articles that our nine-year old son wrote and mailed to the newspaper. His published articles were Our Plans, The City, The Schools, Shoe Shine Boys, A Holiday, The Chewing Gum Tree, The Jungle, and The Indian Village. He also wrote The Food and The Volcano. He was pleasantly surprised when we arrived home to find a nice check for his articles.

We knew that for several years Guatemala had been plagued by violence. There were kidnappings for ransom as well as killings, by the Right and the Left. I didn't tell anyone in Guatemala that I was then employed by the federal government in the U.S.A. In towns and the city we saw thousands of soldiers and police armed with carbines or machine guns. They were friendly when we spoke with them. We moved to another pension downtown for our last week in 1968. One afternoon we returned to our former pension on Reforma Avenue to visit friends. The owner said that she had just heard on the radio news that the ambassador of the U.S.A., John Gordon Mein, had been killed a few blocks away. A revolutionary group had tried to kidnap him, he resisted, along with his chauffer and guard. They were killed. We returned by city bus to our downtown pension. We ate an early dinner then read in the room. Two days later, after dark a rebel group set up a cannon on the opposite side of the street outside our window. They tried to capture an armory a few blocks down the street. We turned out the lights in our 3rd-floor room and peeped out occasionally. We didn't get much sleep with the noise of the cannon, but it was gone before daylight. The armory was blown up, apparently to prevent weapons from being taken by the rebels. The morning newspapers said that Pan American's office at the airport had been bombed by the rebel group, martial law had been declared in Guatemala, and the borders were closed for 30 days. We were scheduled to leave in two days. Luckily, we were permitted to leave as scheduled, on a flight to Merida and New Orleans.

We returned to Guatemala City two days after Christmas the following year, 1969. With our sons we took bus no. 6 to downtown, the same hotel. We walked to the downtown pension where we stayed 16 months earlier. The owner was gone. A lady who rented the rooms said the owner had fled to Miami, like many other middle class Guatemalans. Our dinner included peruleras, like potatoes, and fried caibas, with boiled milk and rice pudding. Breakfast included corn flakes with boiled milk, plus fried eggs with tomatoes, ranchero style. We took a bus to Pension Alemaña, where we had first stayed the year before. Our favorite maid had married and quit her job. We decided not to stay longer in Guatemala. After a few hours at the La Aurora Zoo we took a bus to the airport, then flew to Panama, stopping at San Salvador and Managua.

We made an excursion in 1968 some 40 km. (25 mi.) west to ANTIGUA, the Spanish capital of Central America until it was almost destroyed by an earthquake in 1773. Many reinforced concrete or stone buildings are fairly well preserved. The Palace of the Captains General has an arcade supported by many pillars. There is a cathedral, several churches, and two convents. One convent for las Capuchinas ("the hooded ones"), must have been quite comfortable. Each nun's cell had three shelves, a small wardrobe, and a toilet with excrement falling far below. There was also a storage tank for rainwater, a big bathtub, a nice inner court with a fountain, a kitchen with several chimneys and sinks. One had an underground dungeon with 20 cells where nuns were required to do penitence. The original University of San Carlos, oldest in Central America, had only male students. A marimba band played soft music while we ate a nice meal in a restaurant. Antigua, a museum city protected by UNESCO, has laws requiring that the outside of buildings and streets be maintained as in old colonial days.

I returned alone to Guatemala City a few days in 1988. The city had grown, there were more cars, more traffic. It was more modern, it looked prosperous, shops displayed far more imported consumer goods. There were still many street vendors. I saw few soldiers. There were fewer guerrillas. Some had quit under the amnesty program. Many escaped to Mexico, Belize, or the U.S.A. I told the young taxi driver and his assistant that I had visited Guatemala before. They asked when. I said in 1968 and 1969, that conditions were bad, many poor suffered from lack of food. They said in Spanish "It's much worse now. Those were the good old days. Inflation is killing us now. Everything costs more than we can pay." I stayed in a nice downtown hotel. It even had cable TV, with stations from the U.S.A. and Mexico. One evening I ate a "typical" dinner (for a rich family), of beef, rice, beans, avocado, fried banana, tortilla, and fresh fruit. Another evening I had tickets at the Fine Arts Theater to see the Noches del Tropicana, a dance group from Cuba. Four tall, pretty dark girls in bikinis danced several fast Latin dances and the cha cha cha. Men also danced. Some girls sang popular songs. Lighting was colorful, the music was great. I would like for more people in the U.S.A. to see Cuba's artistic talent.

I walked many hours in 1988, looking up familiar places. Central Park, with flowers, the cathedral, and National Palace, looked the same. However, the Central Market was now in a big new underground building. It had an unusually large selection of strange exotic fruits and vegetables, plus baked goods, household equipment, and colorful textiles. Nearby shops still sold everything from piñatas to hardware and automobile parts. Later, while I ate bananas on a bench in Central Park a girl about 16 or 17, dressed in a colorful Indian skirt and blouse, asked if I needed a baby sitter or maid. I told her I lived in North America. She said she would be glad to live there. I said my wife and I had tried to bring in a Guatemalan maid and babysitter years before, but it was impossible because of immigration restrictions. She said she would "do anything a girl can do." I had to disappoint another desperate person. When I left Guatemala early the next morning there was little traffic. The taxi driver saw no need to stop at red lights, he only tapped the brakes, looked, then stepped on the accelerator. He did a good job of swerving just before I thought our taxi would hit another taxi that had the right-of-way.

When my wife and I returned to Guatemala in 1992 we stayed only our first night and our last nights in la Capital, Guatemala City. Street crime, robberies with violence, and random killings were much worse. I changed money at 5.1 Quetzales for a dollar, not the one-for-one of the 1960s or the 2.5 per dollar of 1988. The rich people in Latin America regularly convert local money to dollars or European currency, but the poor and middle class are hurt by inflation. Street vendors of lottery tickets, candy, pop, nuts, newspapers, and shoe shine boys and shoe repair men were still busy on sidewalks. Walking had become more hazardous, some people are killed by buses or other vehicles as they try to get to the other side of the street. My wife, a physician, worked two months in the village of Pochuta, the epicenter of an earthquake four months earlier. I went to a school in Antigua, studying more Spanish grammar.

I returned to Antigua, population 40,000, early in 1992, staying two months in a small hotel, popular with Guatemalan and foreign tourists. At elevation more than 1,500 m. (4,920 ft.) it has an ideal warm climate, cool at night, requiring a blanket. Once we had chipi chipi, a light drizzle. I attended one of the 55 or so schools of Spanish. Each student has a private teacher and can change teachers each week. Tuition costs are low. Electricity was expensive, the lights were rarely turned on. Water from wells was cheap but above a certain amount it cost much more, to discourage waste. I was an advanced student, some others were beginners. Each student and a teacher sat at a little table. In my hotel I was asked not to put toilet paper into the toilet, it may plug it. Used toilet paper is put into the wastebasket in many buildings in Greece and in Lesser-Developed Countries. A maid always wanted to do laundry for guests. I asked how much it cost. She never named a price, but was always pleased with five quetzal (a dollar U.S. A.) for a week's laundry. She ironed everything, even socks.

I negotiated with a taxi driver to take my wife to the distant village of San Miguel de Pochuta, where she would work for two months as a volunteer physician. The shortcut road south of Antigua goes past volcanoes Agua ("Water," because it emits mud and water), elevation 3,760 m. (12,333 ft.), Acatenango, elevation 3,975 m. (13,038 ft.), and Fuego ("Fire," because it usually emits smoke and fire), elevation 3,763 m. (12,343 ft.) The road is often closed because guerrillas control the area, but our driver said it was safe that weekend. We saw men and women carrying bundles of firewood, plus cowboys, goats, fields of sugar cane, and men and women picking coffee beans from the low trees. In the busy town of Esquintla we left the dirt road and turned west on the paved coastal highway. Sugar cane was being cut, the stalks are hauled in trucks to a mill in Esquintla to squeeze out the juice. The Ingenio Pantaleon refines sugar 24 hours daily, seven days weekly, for half the year. The big trucks slowed traffic. We passed trees much like Africa's baobob ("upside down trees"), jacaranda trees with purple flowers, a flowering tree with yellow blossoms and white bark (a kind of rubber tree?), orchards of mangoes and papaya, fence posts stuck into the ground that sprout into bushes, and fields of pineapples. We crossed a "Bailey Bridge," replacing one destroyed by guerrillas 18 months earlier. In COCALES, the crossroads, we stopped for refrescoes (pop). We then rode north through big fields of sugar cane, then bananas and more fruits, and a rubber plantation with Hevea or rubber trees. We saw volcanoes Toliman (elevation 3,120 m.or 10,234 ft.) and Atitlan (elevation 3,535 m. or 11,595 ft.) ahead on our left. A big ceiba tree grows in the middle of the dirt road. It is a rough 19 km. (12 mi.) between PATULUL and Pochuta. We stopped to look at a pizote, something like a squirrel, on a leash. A man caught it the day before, put it on a leash, and gave it to his son for a pet.

In SAN MIGUEL de POCHUTA the main street was paved. Adobe and concrete buildings had been destroyed by the earthquake, four months earlier. Some 2,000 people live in the town, others live on the 37 coffee fincas (plantations) not far away. We were cordially greeted by sisters at the Roman Catholic non-proselytizing mission where my wife would work. Only half of the mission's buildings had been destroyed by the earthquake, they could "get by." After a hearty lunch and a walk around the town the taxi driver and I returned to Antigua. In CIUDAD VIEJO three-fourths of the village people marched in a funeral procession. I stopped to take photographs of the oldest church in Central America, built in 1534, still in fairly good condition. My wife made several weekend trips by bus to Guatemala City, catching another bus at the crossroads to Antigua.

Guatemalans seem to like almost anything if it is loud enough: car horns, barking dogs, music, or firecrackers. On February 2 they celebrated the "day of the virgin candlestick" with firecrackers. Public buses usually play music from a casette tape, turned to maximum volume, to "entertain" passengers. The popular meringue music is a little faster than I like. I prefer the salsa. Each Friday and Saturday evening a dance was held in a hall a block from my hotel. A sound truck blasted the neighborhood with "music." Girls primped outside in the evening before entering the dance floor. No one wanted to be the first to arrive.

I read a local newspaper each day. Stores ran ads suggesting that everyone buy gifts for el dia de San Valentin or Valentine's Day. In 1992 newspapers reported at least one tourist killed each day in Guatemala, often during a robbery. La Prensa had a gruesome photo of a bus driver sitting in his seat without his head. A passenger quarreled with the driver over a trivial matter, then took his machete, made a powerful swing with it, and the driver's head rolled to the floor. The passenger jumped out of the bus and ran away. Another passenger climbed in front of the driver's body, steered and managed to stop the bus. Antigua, with many tourists, especially on weekends, was fairly "safe." There were always many military and police. However, when a 20-year old Dutch girl was stabbed and killed, students and tourists became more cautious. When I left Guatemala in 1992 two Canadians said they were on a big public bus on the northern highway. At the top of a hill bandits had a roadblock. Heavily armed, they ordered the driver to go down a dirt road a few kilometers. All passengers were then ordered to strip. Cash and jewelry was taken, then the bandits left. The newspapers never printed the story, but I was told it often happens. Two other plane passengers said they were robbed at gunpoint on a street near their hotel in Guatemala City. There were many stories about corruption by recent ministers. One had stashed away a fortune in a bank in Miami. Articles described Guatemala's new court system, judges are to be independent from the administration. The reporters hoped it would reduce corruption and result in more convictions of bandits. One newspaper editorial concluded that Guatemala will not have peace until the system of bureaucracy and corruption is transformed into the "market economy." There is corruption at all levels. I noticed that a postal clerk charged me double the price required for postage stamps. He must have pocketed the difference. Guatemala City was plagued by a series of bank robberies. Nine were caught, they included police officers and soldiers.

Antigua has many good restaurants. Some serve only local foods, others serve Italian, French, Japanese, Chinese, Spanish, North American, or other dishes. Antigua has many tourists and students from Europe, Asia, and the Americas. Little Indian girls sometimes come into a restaurant, begging for scraps of food. Sometimes I gave them food, I knew they were hungry. A typical local food is pinchón de lomito (kabob, meat with vegetables, on a skewer). Several restaurants even sold pasteurized ice cream. Doña Luisa's, popular with North Americans and Europeans, even had cereal and pasteurized milk. I once ate pancakes, but bees in the open-air restaurant ate much of the sirup. Antigua's water comes from wells and is purer than water in most Latin American cities. After a few days I drank it from the faucet, without iodine tablets. I often bought fresh fruit at the big public market, near the bus station. Chirimoyas have a flaky green peeling, sweet white inside, and big black seeds. The nisperu is something like a peach. The public market sells rolling pins. Mortars and pestles sold for grinding corn (maize) are made of volcanic rock. Several places in Antigua had VCR casette movies shown on a large TV. The Allianza Francesa had a weekly French movie in a room but the old projector usually malfunctioned before the end of the movie and could not be easily repaired.

Antigua's Central Park or Plaza de Armas was a good place to watch people. On weekends when many tourists from La Capital (Guatemala City) arrived, a marimba band often entertained us in the park. One Sunday afternoon the Cultural Association set up big loudspeakers on the ruins of the cathedral, across the cobblestone street from the park. After un momentito that lasted 30 minutes they repaired their equipment and began to broadcast beauti-ful traditional music. There were string and wind instruments, and soft drums, but no marimbas. Sometimes a group of musicians played folk music. Vendors, mostly Indian women and girls, sold textiles, leather goods, picture post cards, and more. They probably never went to school but had learned to make change fast and accurately. One man attracted a crowd with tricks, a snake, and stories in Spanish about women tourists. Sometimes a clown entertained children of all ages. On Sunday morning a man from an evangelistic church preached in a loud clear voice, waving his Bible in the air to make a point. One Sunday a rival began to preach 50 or 60 meters (164 ft.) away. Each tried to out-shout the other. Friends who are Roman Catholic said they are bothered every weekend by evangelistic groups who come to their home and try to convert them. Many pasted little signs in the window by the entrance Somos Catolicos ("We're Catholics") but they were still bothered. Some 30 percent of Guatemalans are Protestant and 70 percent or less are Roman Catholic. The pope visited Guatemala in February 1996 to try to stop the tide of conversions.

Sometimes cowboys rode horses into Antigua, their hooves clop-clopping on the cobblestone streets. Girls and boys wearing school uniforms usually took a detour through Central Park, to see and be seen. Teenage girls often tore a strip from the bottom of a school uniform dress to look sexier. Public school classes are segregated by sex, but Catholic schools were coed. Cities had six years of primary school, three of intermediate, and three years of secondary school, either academic or vocational. Indian children--nearly half--rarely go to school. It is common to see a five or six year old girl carrying little brother all day long in a shawl, strapped around her back or side. Some of the little Indian girls have learned to spit as well as the most-experienced tobacco-chewing man, some 5 meters (16 ft.).

During Lent (the 40 days between Ash Wednesday and Easter) Antigua had a weekly religious procession. In each parade some 30 men slowly carried through the streets a heavy float showing Jesus on the cross. A band followed. Each float was preceded by men waving smoky buckets of burning incense. One float was la serpiente de Bronce (the bronze snake), plus Jesus on the cross. Sometimes women carried a lighter float with Mary. "Monks" were dressed in white or purple, "soldiers" wore skirts. Sometimes men carried a tall pole vertically, with religious symbols on it. Vendors led and followed each procession, selling sweets or religious artifacts, often carried on a long pole. A boy not over six or seven years old from a rich family carried his smaller sister on a little motorcycle. Each week a church has services for the week during Lent, the churches rotate to serve as the velación church. Paper cutouts are made showing scenes from the New Testament. A special altar was set up and food offerings were brought in: fresh fruits and vegetables, bread and pastries, a plant like barley, plus flowers.

Antigua's Museum of Colonial Art shows a typical classroom of the University of San Carlos some 315 years earlier. Male students sat at benches. A student in the center is being questioned by the professor-priest in a high pulpit. There are many religious figures carved in wood, and old religious paintings. The museum has a library of old books. Also in the former Palace of the Captains-General, the Cultural Center has many dolls wearing clothes of the indigenous Indians, and books by local writers. They include Gabriel Marquez, who won the Nobel Prize in 1981, and Pablo Neruda. The Museo de Santiago has old craftsmans' hand tools, religious and household objects. In the same building, the Museo de Libro Antigua ("Museum of Old Books") has old printing presses, paper making, and similar exhibits. Guatemala received its first printing press in 1660, more than 200 years after Gutenberg invented movable printing. I was pleased one week to see an exhibition of art made by school children on the subjects ecology and health--two important subjects in Guatemala, as everywhere.

Many of the restored Spanish colonial ruins in Antigua are interesting. The Palace of the Captains General on the south side of Central Park has 27 arches on both the upper and lower floors. The cathedral on the east side of Central Park was the largest in Central America. The main nave and two side aisles were 92 m. long, 52 m. (302 & 171 ft.) wide, and the ceiling was 18 m. (59 ft.) high. Don Pedro Alvarado, the conquistador who conquered Central America, was killed in a horse accident in 1541. His young wife Doña Beatriz took over the government. However, the day she took over, Volcan Agua spewed mud and water, destroying the first Spanish capital, killing many people, including Doña Beatriz. Their tombs are in the basement of the cathedral, along with that of Bishop Marroquin. The Church of San José had high soaring ceilings and underground dungeons. It has a famous painting of Jesus. A few blocks southeast are ruins of the big Church and Monastery of San Francisco. A chapel has much gold gilt. Two blocks northwest, the Church and Convent of Santa Clara once housed nuns. The Church of La Merced has a pleasant patio and once housed many monks. Piles of dirt, sand, gravel, and rocks are often left on the "sidewalk" or cobblestone streets during reconstruction of the colonial buildings. They have no warning signs, at night it is better to use a small flashlight.

I visited many private homes in Antigua. Some have been restored to become comfortable palaces, with beautiful tile floors, statues, a nice inner patio, and many flowers. I also visited homes of the poor. Typically rooms are built around a court with a high fence and gate. Heating is not necessary in the mild spring-like climate. The wall facing the inner court is often only curtains.

As in most of Latin America, guests shake hands with the host, hostess, and all other guests, upon entering and leaving. A hug and a kiss on the cheek is also common, for the opposite sex, or women kiss women, but I never saw men kissing men.

Antigua had the Central American Exposition of Orchids. A design was made with colored sawdust along the entrance path. Hundreds of orchids, of many sizes, shapes, and colors, were displayed from the six countries. Guatemala's national flower, the monja blanca, has a "white nun" inside. Long lines of school children, tourists, and business people came to the show. Antigua also has a few factories that cut and polish local jade and nephrite to make jewelry. Much of it is shiny black.

I made an excursion with a group of students and teachers to SAN ANDREAS ITZAPA. In the steep fields men gathered dried stalks of corn, after the harvest, to build fences or building walls. Each dusty village had a shelter with concrete wash tubs. When we approached police checkpoints the driver's assistant asked everyone standing to squat down so the police wouldn't see them, illegally packed liked sardines. The police always waved us on. CHIMALTENANGO has a big Friday market and more than 100,000 residents. Many passengers departed, new passengers entered. Vendors passed down the aisle to sell cookies, ice cream cones carried on a board with a big hole for each cone, and clear plastic sacks filled with a soft drink and a drinking straw. In ITZAPA we walked on hilly streets, past farmers on a burro or horseback, each carrying a machete at the waist. In the famous St. Simone Church we saw several small smoldering or blazing fires on the pavement. Firecrackers were thrown into the fires. In the church a man with a burning bucket of incense waved it before the statue of St. Simone. Nearby a curandero or native healer rubbed alcohol on the back and chest of a shirtless man to cure him of various illnesses. For women patients he didn't rub alcohol but he took several mouthfuls of alcohol and spat into the face, hair, the back, and chest of the patient. Hundreds of candles of different colors were burning. Each color has a purpose. Red is to be successful in love, green is for business success, blue is for success at work and general good luck, black is to defeat enemies, brown is to protect oneself against the vicious, light blue is to get more money and better grades, and yellow is for protection against evil. In the patio curanderos spread out sugar and incense powder in a particular shape, put a ring of small colored candles around it, poured on alcohol, and lighted it. Two raw eggs were moved around the head and bodies of patients, then added to the fire. The curanderos then waved a Bible over the head of the patient. Eggs have meanings in many cultures. Any evil spirits are supposed to leave the mind or body of the patient and find a new home in the egg, which is then burned.

We walked to Itzapa's public market. In a nice concrete building tastefully displayed products included fruits, vegetables, corn meal, corn flour (finer ground), coffee, a strange root plant like sweet potatoes, little green tomatoes with a shell like a nut, avocados, and watermelon. The Indian women wore pretty embroidered huipiles or blouses and refajos or faldas (skirts), and a faja or belt around the waist. They wore a cinta or tocoyale (headband) around the head. A baby is carried in a perraje or shawl. In a small cafe a family's pihihe rested, it is something like a duck.

Leaving, we again passed a small village. The teachers said that seven weeks earlier soldiers came to the town, accused the Indian men of helping the guerrillas, and killed all 21 men in the village. Only women and children remained. The teachers said the women denied that the village ever helped guerrillas. The husband of one teacher was a sergeant in the army. The teacher was well liked, but I noticed that when she was around the other teachers were careful what they said. Early one evening I saw a youth in civilian clothes running fast toward me, then past me on the cobblestone street. A block behind an army truck chased him. My teachers said the truck was recruiting soldiers. When they catch young men they are locked up for a few weeks, then are given army training and uniforms. They are watched carefully to prevent their going AWOL (absent without leave). One teacher often scratched. Another middle class middle-aged teacher said "We like to scratch. We have a saying that 'scratch an itch and a policeman dies,' so we like to scratch."

With teachers and other students I went on a trip by public bus to the village of SAN ANTONIO, some 12 km. (7 mi.) southwest of Antigua. It is known for beautiful textiles, woven on backstrap looms. A woman sits on the ground, the cords of the cloth she is weaving are tied to a tree, the other end is connected to a band around her back, at the waist. The village is at the foot of Volcan Fuego, which nearly always emits smoke, sometimes a lot of smoke, with ashes. Volcan Acetenango is nearby. Two young women operated the public market with many dresses, scarfs, bedspreads, tablecloths, place mats, napkins, and other bright textiles. Red, blue, and green are predominant colors. Some high-quality scarfs with a design, some 65 cm. wide and two m. (26 by 68 in.) long require eight months to make but cost only around Q1,000 (190 dollars U.S.A.). A complete woman's skirt, blouse, belt, headband, and scarf is prettier than Western clothes but costs more than most factory-made clothes sold in stores. The altar in the cathedral had many offerings: fruits, vegetables, flowers, and the barley-like plant with a strong but pleasant odor. In front of a typical home with tile floors, walls made of adobe and cornstalks, a straw roof, hammocks and a table and benches inside, a woman and daughter each had a backstrap loom. The girl was three, she made napkins on her backstrap loom. She may go to school a few months in her life.

I went on another excursion with students and teachers from our school to an orphanage in CHIMALTENANGO. The public bus had two cows' tails attached to a wire, to blow the horn the driver pulled either tail. Drivers usually have a picture of Jesus or Mary in the front of the bus, and bright-color cords, cloths, or paper strung across behind the windshield. Most of the 47 orphans, to age 18, were in schools when we first arrived. Only babies and toddlers were in the orphanage. Many have been adopted by families in the U.S.A. They grow much of their corn (maize), beans, vegetables, and bananas on hilly patches at the orphanage. They returned from school for lunch, most wore uniforms. An older girl used a machine with corn meal dough to crank out flat tortillas, cooked on a big lid of a barrel. Girls are taught how to sew and cook. Every child has at least one regular chore. They live in small rooms with bunk beds.

To make a phone call to my wife in a distant village I went to the office of Guaytel, the telephone company. There was only one telephone in the town of 2,000 or so. The telephone company called the number, the town clerk sent her little daughter to my wife's clinic and asked her to be at the town office's in 30 minutes for a phone call. The system works. My wife caught a ride in the mission's pickup truck to Guatemala City one day. Near Cocales there was a traffic jam and loud noises of rifles and machine guns ahead. They turned the radio on for news. After waiting half an hour they decided that they would be unable to get to the paved coastal highway. They took a narrow dirt road to a dirt and roughly-paved highway leading north through the mountains, past Lake Atitlan. That area is under the control of guerrillas, but, being mission people, the nun wearing a habit, they thought guerrillas would let them pass. After more than two anxious hours on the poor road they were not stopped. They reached the paved east-west highway in the north and dropped off my wife near Antigua. They learned that a guerrilla army had shot out truck tires, blocking the coastal highway. When police and soldiers arrived they were caught in an ambush. The army soon brought several thousand troops, the guerrillas retreated into the forest. La Prensa reported that traffic was blocked up for 7 km. (4 mi.) in each direction.

In Pochuta there were disputes among members of the town council, two liberal members and three conservative, over spending of international aid money for earthquake damage, and where to provide city water. Townspeople locked the three conservative members plus two postal clerks in the town hall, turning it into a jail. After awhile police heard about it and released them. Two other towns, in disputes over irrigation water, locked up the conservative members of the council in jail and kept them there for many weeks.

In the big yard behind Antigua's bus station buses coming from or going to dozens of villages park, awaiting customers. With other students I took a 2nd class bus to SANTA MARIA de JESUS, an Indian village on the slope of Volcan Agua. We left the pavement and wound up a narrow dirt road for half an hour. By the time we got to the village the bus was packed. A large group of soldiers in camouflage uniforms, carrying rifles and machine guns, looked us over carefully. Guerrillas were active just over the next hill. The village of around 1,500 Indians plus soldiers had only one functioning fountain for water. Women and girls each with two colorful plastic jugs, around 10 liters (2.7 gallons) each, put a long rope through a handle on each jug. They could then go play or work an hour or two. Others in line would kick the jugs ahead as they moved up in line. A nice shelter with concrete scrubbing tanks built by the government for washing clothes was not used, it had no water. A funeral procession appeared, the men slowly carried a casket into the cathedral. Most funerals are on weekends. We found a small cafe with coffee and pastries in the patio of a private home. The market was busy, with women and girls selling colorful clothes, blankets, fruits, and vegetables. Fences and walls of many buildings were made of corn stalks, often on top of a low adobe wall. Corn had been harvested from a steep field just outside the village.

We took a bus downhill to SAN JUAN del OBISPO, the "oldest village in Guatemala." We found the palace built in honor of Marroquin, Guatemala's first bishop. A novice let us in. We toured the clean, modern building with carved wood furniture, a church, a chapel with much gold paint, two inner courts, and valuable religious paintings and other objects. It is now a home for retired nuns.

I took a weekend excursion in 1992 to PANAJACHEL, LAKE ATITLAN, and CHICHICASTENANGO. Our van stopped at a roadside restaurant with many wild monkeys and other little animals. Nearby a man plowed with oxen, women and girls carried laundry from a stream on their head, boys with machetes rode horses to work. Fields had green cabbage, onions, other vegetables, and dry corn stalks. Rows sometimes run up and down a steep hill, encouraging erosion when it rains. Some fields are too steep to work with an animal, farmers have to dig holes for planting and chop weeds with a hoe. At miradors or viewpoints we stopped to look at the lake far below, surrounded by hills and several volcanoes. Cute little girls in bright home-woven skirts and blouses posed for tourists' coins. In the resort town we chose one of several hotels, each left our bag in the room, then walked in the picturesque lakeside town. The lake, elevation 1,562 m. (5,123 ft.), up to 318 m. (1,043 ft.) deep, is 26 km. long and 19 km. (16 by 12 mi.) wide. I bought tickets to go around the lake, stopping at five small Cakchiquel Indian villages: STA. CRUZ (with fishermen and a 16th Century colonial church), SAN MARCOS (farmers of tomatoes, citrus fruits, and jocotes), SAN PABLO (farmers, fishermen, and weavers of maguey), STA. CLARA (basket weavers and farmers), and SAN JUAN (fishing, farming, and weaving). Women and girls washed clothes on the rocky shore. Maguey grows on the dry hillside, leaves are cut and soaked in the lake, then the fibers are pulled part to weave into mats, baskets, and other things. Where the shore is somewhat flat onions, carrots, and other vegetables were planted. Girls carry water from the lake for irrigation. Men fished from small homemade boats with a blunt bow and rounded stern. I departed in SAN PEDRO LA LAGUNA, at the foot of San Pedro Volcano, elevation 3,020 m. (9,906 ft.). Two higher volcanoes were nearby. A rough dirt road winds among the hills around the lake but guerrillas control the area, day and night. I walked up steep cobblestone streets, past three evangelistic churches and the Catholic cathedral, then I walked for two hours in the winding unpaved streets. Men wear white calf-length pants with bright designs and a matching shirt, black coat, and straw hat. Women and girls wear brighter red-blue-green long dresses, often a decorated blouse, and hair in two long braids with huge ribbon bows. Several hippies from the U.S.A. and Europe live in the inexpensive town, where drugs are also plentiful and cheap. On the boat returning two boys about eight and ten years old were fascinated with the pictures in my newspaper, naming each item in the ads in the local Mayan dialect. They were bright but spoke no Spanish and could not read Spanish. The next day our group went to Chichicastenango in the van.

  click for larger picture                 

            Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Central Park & cathedral

                                   Guatemala, end of piñata party                                   Havana, models of  Castro & Che Guevaro

                                                            Click for larger picture

San Antonio, Guatemala, little girl using backstrap loom        Itzapa, Guatemala, "curanderos" & patient

CARIBBEAN

[Excerpt, Countries and Cultures, Vol. III, P. 184-189, Martinique]

[Travel] In Fort-de-France the Martinique Prehistory Museum has three floors of pottery, stone, shells, and other local artifacts. In the "First Arawak Period," beginning about the time of Jesus, Indians came to Martinique from South America in dugout canoes. They made arrow and spear heads, stone axes, baked cassava (a manioc cake), ate fish, lizards, and rats. They made manioc beer by putting cassava into a long woven strainer hung from a tree, twisting it to extract juice, and fermented it. Peoples in the South Pacific used a similar strainer to extract juice and make beer. The Arawaks burned incense, made jewelry of shells and clay, and used a rain gauge. A volcanic eruption in 295 A.D. killed most of the people, then the Second Arawak Period began. Around 750 A.D. the more fierce Caribe Indians invaded, killing and inter-marrying with the Arawak. The Caribes scared Columbus on his fourth voyage, but the French defeated them in 1635. The more primitive Caribes made simpler pottery and used little jewelry and few body ornaments. They ate shellfish, used hammocks, and wove cloth. The Arawak can be compared with Athenians of Ancient Greece, they developed a fairly high standard of comfort. The Caribes can be compared with Spartans, they were more interested in fighting, and were less civilized.

We walked to the dances, held several evenings weekly, rotating to a different hotel each evening. Locusts and other insects began to sing before sundown. Mosquitoes, flies, and other insects weren't bad. The 10 or so women dancers wore long colorful dresses and often had flowers in the hair. Men were usually shirtless. Musical instruments included a big steel drum. They began with a half-samba, half-rumba. In the "cane cutters' dance" men with machetes and women wearing straw hats "harvested sugar cane." Later, athletic men danced and jumped over the machete they carried. The beguine, a flirtatious dance, originated in Martinique. Sometimes men danced while squatting (like Central Asian dances) or while lying down. There was a waltz, then a carimba--a sort of African samba. As usual in tourist hotels, the dancers ended by selecting dancers from the audience.

We went on a tour of the southern third of Martinique. All of our guides spoke only French, but my wife and I are fluent in French. Near PAGERIE, Trois Ilets, we visited the plantation home of Josephine Tascher. Napoleon at age 26 took Josephine, age 32, temporarily away from her other man friends. Like many healthy women of Martinique, she had many lovers. Her family had a large sugar cane plantation. We visited ruins of the big stone family home, the building where tapioca was processed, and the place where cane was milled or pressed to get the juice. In the sugar mill juice was heated in vats, usually by a fire burning bagasse, or the stalks after they were pressed. Lime was added to get the sugar to precipitate out of the heated liquid. The juice went into an evaporator and crystallized into raw brown sugar. The plantation had huts for Black slaves, flowering trees, tulips and orchids, a tree used to keep insects away (something like citronella, a grass), and trees producing "golden apples." Our guide said they were like today's Chinese pear-apple. Blacks made paste from the bark or leaves of another tree, using it to lighten their skin color. The museum displays chains used to control unreliable slaves, and a love letter from young Napoleon to Josephine.

Heading southeast on a good concrete road, our bus wound over green forested hills with banana plants, coconut, and flowering trees. Sugar cane grew in valleys. The sea was frequently in view. White humped cattle were followed by white egrets, eating insects. Goats and black pigs were tethered near the road, eating a circle all around. In villages most homes were of reinforced concrete to withstand hurricanes. Roofs were metal or tile; straw or thatch blows away too easily. Windows have only wooden shutters, no glass or screens. Wooden fence posts usually sprout and eventually beome a tree. Near RIVIERE-PILOTE we stopped to tour the La Mauny rum distillery. Trucks, or trailers pulled by tractors, bring in stalks of sugar cane. It is crushed, the juice flows to fermentation tanks, where it stays 48 hours or so. It then goes to tall columns heated by steam, where it is distilled. Old rum is stored in oak casks some three to seven years. It is bottled and sold as white or amber rum, or cognac. After sampling rum, we continued south to Salines Beach. We stayed there several hours, sunning on the beach, and enjoying a barbecue lunch with wine. Apparently many of the French women tourists on the beach are poor, they didn't buy a swim suit, or they bought only the lower part of a bikini. Sometimes the lower part of the bikini was so small I almost needed a magnifying glass to see it. The few who wore a conservative bikini rolled it to make it smaller, to get a tan on a larger area. On the return trip we stopped briefly in several fishing villages: Sainte-Anne, Marin, and Sainte-Luce.

We went on a tour of the northern two-thirds of Martinique. After our bus picked up the last passengers, in Fort-de-France, we wound north over the green hills. The Sacre-Couer Church is patterned after the one in Montmartre, Paris. The dense trees, vines, and other plants included morning glory, breadfruit, mango, cacao, banana, grapefruit, coconut, papaya, guava, cypress, giant bamboo, tree ferns, hibiscus with mostly yellow flowers, red African tulip, and other flowering trees. The poinsettas, red for half of the time (year), are called "menstruating plants." We stopped at the Balata Botanical Garden to see more of the above plants, plus bougainvilea, giant plum, bird of paradise, anthurium, rubber, nutmeg (with yellow walnut-size pods), big mahogany trees with parasitic vines, and travellers palms--leaves "fan out" from the trunk and face the sun. Papaya, like many plants, have both male and female plants, but only the female bears fruit. The toilets were identified with a bow tie for males and a scarf for women.

Climbing higher into the green hills, we passed many huts. Each was usually made of reinforced concrete or wood, with a metal roof, porch, small garden, banana, papaya, and coconut trees, and tethered goats and sheep. A few had coffee trees. Perhaps the tether must be used to keep the animal from falling down the steep hillside? Women carry baskets of things on the head, helping them to develop great posture. Some washed clothes at a mountain stream, near signs that prohibit washing clothes in the stream. It pollutes the water. Can the women read? Schoolkids wear pretty uniforms. Girls have white blouses and blue skirts. Several banana plantations grow the "low" plants, which need a warm, wet climate. In six years they produce the first flowers, which later become stalks of bananas. Every three months a stalk is then produced. When small the stalk is wrapped in a transparent blue plastic sack, partly to protect it from insecticide spray. Crayfish are grown in ponds. Near Morne-Rouge there are pineapple plantations. The rows are close together. Women who cut free the pineapple that has grown on top of the plant for 18 months must wear protective clothing for arms and legs. The sharp, tough leaves are dangerous. A cannery nearby packs the fruit into cans. Mt. Pelée hid its top in clouds, perhaps still ashamed because it killed 30,000 people when it lost its temper and erupted in 1902. Many curves in the hills have a shrine, showing where someone was killed in a traffic accident.

We descended to the Caribbean Coast and ST. PIERRE, now with only 6,000 people. Only stone walls remain of former buildings, destroyed and blackened during the 1902 eruption that lasted for only three minutes. The fort and the theater, like all old masonry buildings, is only a blackened shell. The museum has many objects after heat of 3,000 degrees F (1,649 C) hit them. Glass bottles melted, a bronze bell almost melted, a metal sewing machine and and other machinery and coins fused together. Rice, honey in the comb, cheese, coffee beans, and other foods became carbon but with the same shape. The nearby beach has grey volcanic sand.

Leaving St. Pierre, we climbed back into the hills, with tree ferns seven meters (23 ft.) tall, and thick vines and parasitic plants growing on trees. We passed more pineapple plantations. Near the typical hill town of AJOUPA-BOUILLON, with concrete houses and metal roofs, we stopped at the Leyritz (banana) Plantation. The old rum distillery with thick stone walls has been converted into a restaurant. The big waterwheel no longer turns cane presses, it is only to entertain visitors. A three-star motel and swimming pool are nearby. Our tasty lunch included purple heart of cabbage palm cooked in white flour, a casserole baked in a clam shell, sweet potato, white potato, chicken, and Mayne Cours white wine. Dessert was fresh pineapple, with coffee.

We rode north along the Atlantic Coast to Basse-Pointe, then south along the hilly coast. The Atlantic has "many fish" but is often so rough that villages such as Lorrain and Marigot suffer. The curent is too strong for swimming on most of the Atlantic beaches. The Caribbean coast is more popular. In SAINTE-MARIE we stopped at the Rum Musuem. Exhibits show farm, plantation, and distillery equipment since 1765. They include plows, hoes, a wooden cart for hauling cane, and boilers and distillery equipment. We were given sample drinks of white and brown rum. Leaving, we saw the island's only remaining sugar plant, it makes brown sugar. South of Pont du bout, near Le Diamant, a big rock more than 100 meters (328 ft.) high juts out of the sea. It was formed when lava oozed out of sea and solidified.

We spent a day on a glass-bottom boat, L'Aquarium. With 10 passengers from France we sailed southwest along the shore. The young French women took off their tops as we left the harbor. Stopping in clear, shallow water, we took off the top of the viewing tanks. Small fish, sponges, an eel, a few big fish, fan-like plants waving in the current, sea cucumbers, clams (mostly open vertically to catch food, up to 75 cm. or 30 in. wide), and other sea and plant life greeted us. Like most of the world, there are far fewer fish than there was 30 years earlier. Will all fish be gone in another 30 years? We anchored in a quiet cove surrounded only by coconut trees. We swam, floated, and snorkeled a few hours. We sailed to the village GRANDE ANSE d'ARLET, where we drank guava juice with rum and ate a salad, cod fish balls dipped in a spicy creole sauce, and grilled flying fish that "flew" low enough to get caught, with rice and beans. Dessert was fresh pineapple and coffee. After more swimming and snorkeling, we returned to our hotels on Pont du bout.

We signed up at the tourist office for the first climb of MT. PELÉE after the end of the rainy season. We arranged with our small hotel to unlock the outer doors for us early so we could catch the first morning ferry to Fort-de-France to join the others. At 4:00 A.M. we found the key to unlock one door but not the other. We had to climb over a wall 2.5 meters (8 ft.) high to get out. Our bus again wound through the green hills, eventutally arriving at Le Mourne Rouge, then the parking lot, l'Aileron, in the parc naturel. Starting at elevation 830 m. (2,722 ft.) on a cloudy day, we hiked up a "trail." It wasn't really a trail, but the bed of a stream where water runs during the rainy season. It was so steep that much of it would be a waterfall. Gentler slopes would be rapids. We usually used both hands to climb up and over rocks. We stopped briefly several times to catch our breath, drink water, or eat part of our lunch. We hiked along the rim of the huge volcano, finally reaching the cinder cone that is the summit. No trees grow near the summit, but lichens, mosses, and plants form a damp bed 15 cm. (6 in.) thick. When winds briefly blew away clouds we could see far away from the summit, 1,397 m. (4,582 ft.) high. Le Precheur is a fishing village on the northwest coast, also popular with sailboat owners. We also had views northeast over the Atlantic, and south. Much of the time we hiked inside a cloud, which dumped a heavy shower onto us for five minutes. Two concrete shelters have been built, for protection against the weather and for psychological protection in case Mt. Pelée again erupts. We found no "hot spots" and there are many seismographic monitoring stations, so people should be warned before an eruption. Our group of 25 or so made a 20 km. (12 mi.) circle trip. Our return trip by bus down the west coast took us past cliffs rising a few hundred meters above the Mer (Sea) Antilles. Towns such as Le Courbet, Bellefontaine and Casse-Pilote are built where a ravine meets the sea.

The announcer on local TV news often held up a photograph of France or other distant places that he talked about. Martinique women regularly wore (and sometimes still wear) a madras cap with foulards or sharp knots like feathers that told a lot about their status. One knot indicates that the woman is single, two knots that she is engaged, three knots that she is married, and four knots that she is married but looking for another man. Island women, like Napoleon's Josephine, are said to be quite promiscuous, four knots were common.

We spent parts of many days on beaches, like the French tourists. Most of the women try to get a skin brown like leather all over. Local women and girls try to stay out of the sun, they carry an umbrella, newspaper, or book to shade the face from the sun. They try to lighten their skin, while the French try to darken theirs. Young local women patrol the beaches, carrying a basket of swim suits and other casual clothes to sell. My wife and I rented a pedalo several times to paddle around in the bay. Hundreds of small boats, mostly sailboats, anchor in the bay. They stay a few days or a few months. Women on many of the boats sunbathe in the raw. On the beach women who wear a bikini top usually also speak English. They are often passengers on a cruise ship. Local kids sought shade to play a ring game. They began by singing a song about how brave they are, unafraid of the wolf until it arrived, then they all scattered. The child who is caught then becomes the wolf.

Rural mailboxes are often a cube about 30 cm. (12 in.) square, with a lock. They are grouped together. The postoffice is like those in France: there is a line to buy postcards, and another to buy stamps, since postage is based upon the number of grams' weight and each must be weighed. Another line is for money orders, there is one for telegrams, and one to pay bills. Another source of communications is a bulletin board near the Bora Bora supermarket. Hundreds of notices in French, German, and English were posted by young people who sought any kind of work on a sailboat going anywhere, or they wanted other work, or to sell something. Messages were also posted "from" a named male or female "to" a named male or female. The daily local France-Antille newspaper carried some 15 columns of ads by people looking for work. Each ad describes the person, such as jeune femme (young woman) and her age. Martinique's cats are friendly. They often rub against the leg of patrons in open-air restaurants, particularly if they are eating fish.

[Excerpt, P . 201-215]

REPUBLIC of CUBA

Population 11 million; area 113,300 sq, km. (42,000 sq. mi.)., GDP $13.7 billion; average income $1250; literacy rate 96 %

HISTORY. Arawak Indians had lived on Cuba long before Columbus landed on the northeast coast in October 1492, on his first of four voyages to the Americas. In April 1503, his last voyage, Columbus stopped briefly on the south coast. In 1513 Spanish settled in Havana and Santiago. Most of the local Indians soon died of "White man's diseases." Slaves from Africa were imported to work on the plantations, mostly growing sugar. Forts were built in Havana and other port cities to protect Spanish possessions in the Caribbean against English, French, and other ships. White people in Cuba were worried after slaves in Haiti successfully revolted in 1795 and Haiti became independent of France in 1804. France had its own problems of the Revolution, and Napoleon at the time. Many more Spanish were encouraged to move to Cuba. In the early 1800s Spain lost nearly all of its mainland colonies in the Americas after they revolted and won battles against Spanish troops. The first battle of those who wanted independence for Cuba began the "Ten Years War" in 1868. The rebels were led by Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, who had many supporters in the U.S.A. Prior to the Civil War in the U.S.A., 1861-1865, many Southerners wanted to annex Cuba. Céspedes was deposed as president of the revolutionists on 1873. His son was president of Cuba for a few months in 1933. In 1894 the U.S.A. put a big tariff on sugar imported from Cuba. José Marti Perez, writer born in Cuba in 1853, led a revolt in 1895 but he was killed in a fight with Spanish.

The U.S.A. battleship Maine exploded in Havana's harbor on the night of February 15, 1898. The cause of the explosion is still unknown, but many blamed Spain. In the Phillipines Admiral Dewey on May 1, 1898 attacked the Spanish in Manila Bay. In late June soldiers from the U.S.A. landed in southeast Cuba. Col. Theodore Roosevelt led a group of cavalry, the "Rough Riders," on San Juan Heights. A peace treaty was signed on December 10, 1898, the U.S.A. acquired the Phillipines and paid Spain 20 million dollars. The army of the U.S.A. continued to occupy Cuba until 1902, and it kept the right to retain naval bases on Cuba. In 1903 it acquired the Guantánamo Naval Base in the east, which it still retains.

Cuba was a republic, with the Liberal and Conservative parties each at times in control of the government. Large sugar plantations and processing plants, and much of the entire economy, was owned by corporations in the U.S.A. In 1933 a noncommissioned army officer, Batista, led a revolt and took over the government. Later he served at times as president, other times he controlled the presidency. On July 26, 1953 some 200 men, including the two young Castro brothers, attacked Moncado Barracks near Santiago. They were arrested but released. On December 2, 1956 Fidel Castro landed in the southeast with 82 men on the boat Granma. On March 13, 1957 a group of students led by José Echeverría hijacked a truck and unsuccessfully attacked the presidential palace. Ernesto "Che" Guevara, an Argentine physician, led a large portion of the rebels. Batista's government became more repressive. Castro's guerrillas won more battles. They took over the government on January 1, 1959.

Castro's government, after trials, executed more than 600 "war criminals." Oil companies of the U.S.A. and Great Britain in Cuba, during the "Cold War," refused to refine petroleum from the Soviet Union. Castro seized the refineries. He soon seized other property owned by foreign corporations. The Roman Catholic Church had long been weak in Cuba. Castro seized their schools and sent foreign priests home. The U.S.A. President Eisenhower broke off diplomatic relations with Cuba in January 1961. The C.I.A. of the U.S.A. supported the invasion of Cuba by a group of Cuban refugees. They landed at the Bay of Pigs (Playa Girón) in the southeast, in April, 1961. Most of the invaders were captured or killed. Castro announced that Cuba would support revolutionary activities in many parts of Latin America, although he later limited Cuba's activities to six countries. Che Guevara led guerrillas in other countries of Latin America, and was killed in Bolivia in October 1967. He is apparently buried in a jungle airstrip some 400 km. (248 mi.) southeast of La Paz.

The U.S.A. imposed a trade embargo on Cuba and has tried to punish ships of foreign nations that trade with Cuba. In January 1962 the U.S.A. persuaded the members of the Organization of American States to greatly restrict Cuba's membership in the OAS. In late July 1962 the Soviet Union began to install in Cuba missiles aimed at the U.S.A. Florida is only 144 km. (90 mi.) away. The Soviet Union's Premier Khrushchev denied that they had missiles in Cuba. The U.S.A. United Nations representative Adlai Stevenson produced for the U.N. and world press many detailed photos of the missiles, taken by U2 planes. The U.S. Navy intercepted at sea Soviet ships loaded with missiles for Cuba. On October 28 Khrushchev agreed to remove the missiles, avoiding war between the two superpowers.

Epiphany, or Three Kings Day, January 6, was once the children's favorite holiday, they received toys. The Castro government moved the holiday to July 26 and called it "Childrens Day" or "Revolutionary Day." Each child now gets only a number, which determines what toy the child will get. Christmas and Epiphany are no longer celebrated.

In 1963 the requirement of three years military service for men age 18 was begun. They must remain active in the reserves until age 45. In 1975 Cuban troops, backed by the Soviet Union, invaded Angola in Africa. The next year they won. Many refugees, especially the rich and middle class, fled Cuba, often in small boats, for the U.S.A. In April 1980 many thousands, including prisoners in jail for rape and murder, were at first welcomed by the U.S.A.'s President Jimmy Carter. The Soviet Union agreed to buy huge quantities of sugar from Cuba, paying a price above the world market price for sugar. When the Soviet Union began to have great problems in 1989 and it collapsed in 1991 it could no longer help Cuba's financial problems.

Physicians in 1991 began to see many Cubans with a strange "disease." It was later diagnosed as caused by malnutrition, or starvation. Many Cubans suffered disabilities such as partial blindness and nerve damage. The average number of calories eaten by an adult per day dropped from around 2800 to 1800. Cubans are now given a monthly supply of free vitamins and minerals. Cuba's important sugar crop, its main source of revenue, has been getting smaller. It was slightly over 3 million tons in 1994-1995, and may be smaller for 1995-1996.

A huge majority of the U.N. General assembly has voted for many years to request the U.S.A. to end its trade embargo on Cuba. Relations between Cuba and the U.S.A. have been improving slowly, each agreed to permit a news bureau in the other country. Some travel restrictions were removed in October 1995. Apparently a few exiled Cubans like to cause incidents with Cuba to cause the U.S.A. to use military or other action to oust the Castro government. In March 1996, after Cuban warplanes shot down two Cessnas near Havana, the U.S.A. tightened the law discriminating against countries that trade with Cuba. European countries, Mexico, Canada, the European Union, and many others objected to attempts to control the trading, stating that it is a clear violation of international law.

BACKGROUND. Havana's January average high temperature is 26 degrees C, the average low is 18 C. The July average high temperature is 32 degrees C, the average low is 24 C. July through September are the rainier months.

Castro's government socialized almost all business, industry, and larger farms, the latifundos. Farmers are limited to about 67 hectares (167 acres) each. They are mostly in the hills. Most small farmers belong to an association or cooperative. The system of the Soviet Union was copied. Automobiles are mostly either from the U.S.A. (1940s and 1950s models), or Ladas from the Soviet Union. China has sold or given many bicycles to Cuba. Farmers have a small private plot. They may sell produce from it on the open market, but prices were regulated there. Homes and apartments are usually privately owned. Schools are mandatory for the first nine years but we learned that some poor students don't go to school, they are needed more to work at home. Primary school is six years, secondary school is five years. Schools are free, uniforms have been cheap but are becoming more expensive. The massive campaign to teach everyone to read and write was successful. Universities are free for those who pass entrance exams.

Cuba has done much to improve schools and medical care. Hospitals and medicine for hospital patients is free, but outpatients must pay for medicine. The lifetime expectancy for Cubans has improved greatly, it compares favorably with that in the U.S.A. and Western Europe. The once-high infant mortality rate has been brought down to 8 per 1000 births, the same as in the U.S.A., but higher than 21 countries, including most of Western Europe. The trade embargo or blockade by the U.S.A. has helped to create many shortages and much suffering. There is little modern medicine, but herbal medicines are prescribed. It is difficult to standardize the strength and dosage of herbal medicine. Each family has had ration books for more than 25 years. Beans, grain, rice, meat, lard, and gasoline is rationed. Clothing, shoes, and cigarettes were rationed.

The possession of dollars U.S.A. was illegal until July, 1993. Now every Cuban wants dollars and what they will buy. A convertible peso was created in December 1994, convertible into a U.S. A. dollar. A law passed in December 1995 permits foreigners to own 100 percent of an enterprise in Cuba. Exceptions are for health, education, and defense. However, a foreign employer pays the government, which in turn pays the wages and benefits for workers. The right to repatriate profts outside of Cuba is "guaranteed." Foreigners can also own their home in Cuba.

Some 23 percent of the land is arable. There are 422 people per square km. of arable land.

The U.S.A. has spent 70 million dollars or so each year for TV Marti and Radio Marti propoganda broadcasts to Cuba. I didn't find anyone in Cuba who had seen a TV Marti program, many people do not have access to a TV. Cubans are suffering but there is apparently no major discontent. The outmoded foreign policy of the U.S.A. toward Cuba is determined partly by the efforts of both political parties to get votes of Cuban refugees and by recent neandertal policies of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Most of the 800,000 or so refugees, including their children, live in the Miami area. Many owned property which was confiscated by the Cuban government. An ending of the blockade by the U.S.A. and the negotiation of a settlement should not be any more difficult than was renewed trade and diplomatic relations with Vietnam. Many businesses of the U.S.A., especially hotels and travel agents, would like to normalize relations between the two countries. If the embargo is lifted capital (money) will flow into Cuba quickly from Miami. Socialism will then disappear within a few years.

Cuba is a cheap place for a vacation for Europeans, Canadians, and others. Before 1959 most tourists came from the U.S.A. Cuba has 23,000 hotel rooms, some 3,000 are added yearly.

TRAVELS. The purser on our Air Cubana flight from Toronto to Havana said sometimes the U.S.A. flight control does not let them fly over the U.S.A., they have to detour over the Atlantic. On the Soviet Il 62 we were served dinner and an after-dinner drink. Most of the passengers got off at Veradero, where they will stay in one of the tourist hotels near the beach for one or two weeks in a package deal. My wife and I re-boarded the plane for Havana, landing at 8:30 P.M. one Sunday in December, 1995. Crowds at the José Marti Airport were not so aggressive as in some countries. We had a tourist card for immigration. Carlos from our tour company said our 5-star hotel was full, due to a film festival. He gave us a voucher for the older Hotel Presidente, a 4-star. My wife and I are fluent in Spanish. I negotiated a ride to our hotel with a yellow "government" taxi with a meter, it cost 18 dollars. We passed roughly 30 prostitutes standing along the streets. They can earn 10 dollars or so for an hour, or six weeks pay for an average worker. Leaders of the Revolution criticized capitalists from the U.S.A. who had long made Cuba a playground, converting many señoritas into prostitutes. Now history is repeating itself, but there are few travelers from the U.S.A.

We rode 25 km. (15 mi.), mostly north, to the hotel in Havana's Vedado district. They had no record of our reservations. After the receptionist made a few phone calls we got a nice room. I mixed water in our bottles with an iodine tablet, as I do in all Lesser-Developed Countries. The bellhop replaced a light bulb but broke the glass lamp. Our room had a color TV. With a cable we got three stations in English including CNN, and three in Spanish, including one (TVE) from Spain. The next morning a nearby rooster crowed before 4:00 A.M. Our room was on the north side, looking at the sea two blocks away. The December weather was warm but not hot, with a slight sea breeze. Our buffet breakfast included oranges, grapefruit, coffee, hot milk, pastries, fried eggs, and "raw" bacon. One day our artistically inclined young maid arranged on our chair our two extra towels like two swans facing each other.

We talked with the hotel's publicity director. She warned of purse snatching but said Cubans like people from the U.S.A. I couldn't change for Cuban money at the hotel, only at a bank or on the street. We walked seven blocks to a bank, they change nearly all currency, but not dollars of the U.S.A. Only the Bank of Cuba changes U.S.A. money into Cuban pesos. We walked there, a girl clerk said they can pay only 1 for 1, but we can get 25 for 1 at a government cambio, 13 blocks away. We walked toward the cambio. After 10 more blocks I changed $10 for 250 pesos at a vendor. I learned that nearly everyone uses paper money and coins of the U.S.A., as in Vietnam. Exceptions are for local fruits, vegetables, and a few other things. Why do people in countries that have long been mistreated by the U.S.A. work so hard to get money and products made in the U.S.A.?

Not far from our hotel on the Malecon or Avenue along the sea, a monument is dedicated to help from China on October 10, 1931. Private vehicles have a yellow Particular license plate, government plates are blue or red. Diplomatic plates are black. At the big new Mella Cohiba Hotel we paid for a city tour the next day, and signed up for a Hemingway tour in the afternoon. We paid U.S.A. prices for lunch by the pool at the Cohiba. The Coca Cola came from from Mexico. We tried to find a local newspaper, the clerk said there is only one, the Granma Internacional, in Spanish. We read it every day. An article about the U.S.A. called it an "Ostrich." Another article had some figures wrong, it stated that 17 percent of the people in New York City are "negro" and 60 percent of those are homeless, and police brutality against negroes is "almost always." There is much misinformation in both Cuba and the U.S.A. The hotel lobby has 6 or 8 bronze statues of nude Amerindians.

We left with Veracuba for a Hemingway tour with four tourists from Chile and Argentina. Our guide spoke only Spanish. We saw many Soviet 3-wheel motorcycles, and Lada or U.S.A. 1950s cars, plus many Chinese bicycles. Primary school kids usually wear a red (or maroon) and white uniform, secondary school kids wear white and cream. We rode on the Malecon or marine drive to Old Havana: an old fort, then the presidential palace (now the Musuem of the Revolution), the Parliament building with the Senate, and part of the old city wall. We stopped in the Bar Floridita, a Hemingway favorite. Ernest Hemingway is shown in many photos with Errol Flynn and Fidel Castro. A Santa Claus was inside, musicians played guitars. Waiters wear red coats and white trousers. Kids outside asked for pens and chicle. Many local women wear a bare minimum amount of clothes. We saw the Plaza de la Revolucion and El Municipio (city hall). Havana has 2.5 million residents. The "El Camelo" buses are a trailer with 2 humps, like some camels, pulled by a truck-tractor. They are cheaper to buy than a city bus. We rode through a tunnel, then east toward the Playas del Este. There is a serious housing shortage, an apartment costs $100,000. Most food is rationed: all grains, beans, oil, fish, sugar, and gasoline. Most automobile owners save their gasoline ration of 20 liters (5.2 gallons) per month for an emergency. Rice comes from Vietnam. The average salary is 150 to 200 pesos per mo. On avenues we passed stately royal palms.

The Hemingway estate, now a museum, cost $18,000 in 1941. A local guide showed us around. It has bamboo and palms. Visitors in the guest house included Errol Flynn and Eva Gardner. Hemingway lived there about 6 months per year until 1961. He died a few months later in Idaho, age 62. There are many mounted heads of African smaller animals--gazelle, eland, etc. He shot a buffalo in 1934 and had the head mounted. He had 8,000 books and 950 phonograph records, many were classical or Brazilian music. Mark Twain was his favorite writer. He had four wives plus mistresses, a Masai and a Cubana. He used a Royal typewriter for dialogue, wrote descriptions by hand, working from early morning until noon. His right hand was hurt in an auto accident but it healed. He had 48 pairs of shoes. There is a big bathroom with a bidet and lizards. Most floors have clay tiles. The upper floor looks toward Havanna and the sea. There is a swimming pool, now empty. He fished from his 40 ft. (12 m.) boat, the Pilar of Key West.

Leaving, we saw a few yellow school buses. In many Lesser-Developed Countries schoolkids must use public transportation. We stopped at La Teraza, a restaurant on the sea, where Hemingway often ate and fished. There are many photos of him with Castro. A nearby monument is dedicated to Hemingway. A small 17th Century Spanish fort is nearby on the sea. Fishermen now catch few fish because they don't have gasoline. We passed the site of the 1991 Pan American Games, with a big stadium and hotel. Near Havana bicycles are hauled on a truck for 25 cents (1 cent U.S.A.) through the tunnel, into Havanna. We stopped to see El Morro Fort. At 9:00 P.M. a cannon in a fort in Havanna is fired, it was used to signify opening or closing of city gates. It once was fired at 4:30 A.M. and 8:00 P.M. People objected to the early alarm clock. Arriving back at the Mella Cohiba Hotel at 5:50, we walked a kilometer to our hotel as it got dark. We had been told that it is safe to walk anyplace in Havana, even in the dark. However, there have been a few purse snatchings.

Our hotel's dining room, like most in Latin America, didn't serve until 19:00. The waittress in the outdoor cafe said no hay juice, it was gone. We didn't see any fresh fruit all day. Hotel bars serve rum and Coca Cola. Cans of Coke come from Venezuela or Mexico. Sometimes imported Pepsi Cola or Tropicola is served with rum. Che Guevara, shortly after the embargo by the U.S.A. began, asked local bottlers to develop a soft drink to replace Coke and Pepsi. After some months he tasted their product but pronounced that "it tastes like shit."

During breakfast we regularly watched kids in white and maroon uniforms at the primary school across the street. Most walked to school, sometimes mama or papa brought 1 or 2 on a bicycle, riding in front or behind. At 8:00 they had the flag ceremony, it has blue and white stripes with a blue triangle and a star. Many girls wear a big ribbon in the hair, as in Russia. We went on a city tour, with two young couples from Argentina. Cubans are every color from black to brown to white, there is no noticeable race discrimination. Again, our guide spoke only Spanish. We saw the monument to General Gomez. Few Cubans go to church, but we saw a few nuns, wearing a white habit. We stopped at the big Plaza de la Revolucion, with a statue of José Marti in front of a tall white obelisk-pyramid. Nearby is the National Library, National Theater, Communications building, and the Ministry of Interior with a big picture of Che Guevara and the phrase Hasta la victoria siempre ("Always after the victory"). We saw the university, founded in 1902, and former North American Hospital. The former Hilton Hotel, now the Habana Libre, is nearby. Cuba's confiscation of property of individuals and corporations of the U.S.A., plus property of rich Cubans, and Cubans who fled to the U.S. A., all without payment, is one of the major problems. We rode on 23rd Ave., passing a flea market and the ministries of labor and foreign affairs. The Malecon is 7 km. (4 mi.) long.

In Old Havana we walked, seeing the Spanish Castilo del Moro, and, across the bay, the Castilo de la Punta and the Castila de la Cabana. Vendors sold wood carvings, paintings, leather things, post cards, and dolls made of dough. My wife bought a net purse for six dollars and a green straw hat for a dollar. The hat gradually turned tan. The Calle Emma is the smallest street, only one-half block long. Castila de la Forza is Cuba's oldest fort, with a moat and bridge. Leaving, we saw a big ceiba tree, a temple with columns, then the Plaza de Armas, with a statue of Carlos Manuel de Céspedes. The El Templete castle has columns. In the Floridita we drank a Hemingway Cocktail. Our guide talked about heroes Che Guevara and José Marti but didn't mention Castro. When I asked about Castro he said he is porcino (pig). A street is paved with blocks of wood. There were 25 Spanish captains general who lived in the palace with a covered sidewalk. We saw the Museo de la Cuidad, Plaza de la Catedral, and walked on the narrow street with the La Bodeguita bar that Hemingway liked.

A van hit a man on a bicycle, hurting his foot. A policeman quickly came over to help but said the man wasn't hurt much. People ask in Spanish "Where are you from?" We often say "NEAR Canada." When we said the U.S.A. they were quick to say something like "a great country." There are no shoe shine men, sellers of lottery tickets, and few vendors, unlike most of Latin America. There are lady taxi drivers. There seems to be no discrimination against women, but there is in most of Latin America. The Hotel Plaza was a favorite North American hangout. We saw statues representing "work" and "art," and again saw the National Library and the Museum of Science. We stopped to walk around in Plaza Central, and the Prado or avenue (Paseo de Marti), with 8 statues of Lions. The avenue has 28 planted royal palms. The Gran Teatro de la Habana is next-door to the Hotel Inglaterra. The National Capital is on the other side. The monument to General Máximo Gómez, on a horse, is a few blocks up the avenue.

Our group ate in the private "La Exquisita Cocinita," in Old Havanna, for 10 dollars each. We had lobster, rice and black beans, tomato and cabbage salad, pop, and coffee. Most hotels and businesses had a decorated Christmas tree in December. After the tour we walked to the food market a few blocks from our hotel, buying oranges and grapefruit by the pound, cheap, with local pesos. Many vegetables, and flowers, as well as meat, was sold. Such "free markets" began only a few years ago. Ration coupons apparently are not required, and prices are regulated at not more than 15 percent higher than the official price. The free markets have been a great success, as they were in China and the former Soviet Union. In our hotel, when I paid for an excursion to Los Viñales, the lady clerk had a bad cold. She said only herbal medicines are available in Cuba, there is not even aspirin.

During breakfast we talked with a friendly couple from Vitoria, Spain. They said the people in nearly all countries get along well, the "politicos" are the problem. Upon leaving, she kissed us on both cheeks. We bought cheap tickets (30 cents each) to the Friday evening Folkloric Program. When we arrived for the program the cashier said it had been postponed "for technical reasons." We saw a church being renovated, rare in Cuba. Each afternoon around 5:00 a pretty girl wearing a microskirt almost up to her waist looked for a customer in the lobby of our hotel. Sometimes there were two.

The Museum of the Revolution has exhibits showing the four voyages of Columbus, his fourth was June 1502 to December, 1506. Women in Cuba panned for gold for him, they also gave tobacco and sugar. In 1862 there were 445,860 slaves in Cuba, 594,488 negroes, 601,160 "criollos blanco" (white creoles), 116,114 Spanish, 11,153 other whites, 34,044 Chinese, and 830 Yucatecos (from Yucatan, Mexico). General Maximo Gomez Bass was the leader in the War for Liberty, 1869-1878. José Marti Perez, born January 28, 1853, published his Obras Completas (Complete Works). He was killed by Spanish in 1895 when he fought for independence. Lenin visited Cuba in January 1924. Another local hero, Julio Antonio Mella, born 1903, a student fighting for independence, was assassinated in Mexico City on January 10, 1929, for revolutionary activities. A census showed that in 1953 Cuba had 5.8 million, there were 2.46 million ages 5 to 24 (840,000 in school, 1,620,000 not in school), and 4,376,0000 age 10 and over who could not read and write. Sugar production was 5.8 million tons in 1951, 7.3 million in 1952, but only about 3 million tons in 1994. On July 26, 1953 there was an assault on the government by 165 men, including Fidel Castro (born August 13, 1926), and his brother Raul (born June 3, 1931). Both were captured but later released. On November 30, 1956 the boat Granma, from Cienfuegos, Mexico, landed 82 men at Santiago de Cuba, they marched to the Sierra Maestra. Their 26th of July Movement made few recruits until the N.Y. Times gave the rebels publicity. Batista's men had been trained by the U.S.A. Army in the Panama Canal Zone's School of the Americas. Government instruments of torture included pulling finger and toe nails, brass knuckles, whips, and big pliers to crush genitals. We saw a VCR movie about Castro. Ernesto "Che" Guevara had asthma, he carried an inhaler. He was born June 28, 1928 and was killed by the army on October 8, 1967 in Bolivia. He was buried near the village of Villagrande, Bolivia, but his body was reburied in Cuba late in 1997. "Liberty" was proclaimed in Cuba on January 1, 1959.

The museum's 2nd floor shows that Batista fled to Sto. Domingo. On January 30, 1959 the new government confiscated property of the rich worth 150 million dollars. In 1960 the Soviet Union agreed to buy 5 million tons of sugar in 5 years, giving a credit for 100 million tons. On April 15, 1961 the attack, "Plan Pluto," by the C.I.A. at the Bay of Pigs included 15 bombers (B-26), but they returned to the U.S.A. The attacks were at the Bahia de Cochones, Playa Larga, and Playa Girón. Since then the U.S.A. has had a blockade for 34 years. [The museum made no mention of the Soviet missiles installed in Cuba.] Outside, a tank made from a bulldozer is shown. A British MK11 was used to attack the invaders. A Soviet T34 tank with an 85 mm. cannon was also used to attack them. A rocket, CM6311, was used to shoot down a U.S.A. U2 plane on October 27, 1962, flown by Rudolph Anderson. The Granma boat is displayed. The "Fast Delivery" truck used by students on March 13, 1957 to attack the presidential palace, has many bullet holes.

We waited an hour on the sunny porch for our bus tour some 180 km. (112 mi.) west to the Piñar del Rio area. Several men tried to sell cigars. We rode through neighborhoods with trees and big family homes in poor repair, near the sea. Billboards advertized Omo detergent. Again our guide spoke only Spanish. A wide avenue with royal palms has many embassies. The nice four-lane autopista has a 100 km. (60 MPH) speed limit. We passed bananas, coconuts, big apartment houses under construction, and an abandoned factory. November to April is usually Cuba's dry season, May to October is the rainy season. We passed big fields of sugar cane, cut from December to May, once yearly. It is replanted every five or six years, and produces from 20 to 100 tons per acre (0.40 hectare). Fires are now rarely set in cane fields. Sugar cane has a grey head when it is almost ready for cutting. The 1991 Pan American Games' rowers competed on a lake made by a dam. Some farm buildings have a thatch roof. Small farms are still privately owned, they formed associations or cooperatives. We rode through hills with flowering trees, sugar fields, oxen and a few tractors plowing, and soaring vultures. We passed several people near broken-down cars. A group of Europeans brought bicycles in a truck to a scenic part of the road for a day of cycling.

We entered Piñar del Rio province, with bananas, cane, and vegetables. Farmers plowed with oxen. A farmer spread rice to dry on the edge of the highway's pavement, traffic was light. Some palms are fan, others are coconut. White egrets were plentiful in rice fields. Burros pulling a cart trotted down the highway. Some pulled a sugar cane cart with solid wooden wheels. We passed big cattle sheds. Milk, even for babies, is almost nonexistent. Some fields have a thatch shelter near the edge. Evidence of police or the military were rare. Farm homes have one or two rooms, they are frame, whitewashed, with a thatch roof. Women in Cuba do not carry things on the head.

In PIÑAR del RIO, population 120,000, we passed the Princesa brewery and big apartment houses. Some university students live in a nice hotel. Most buildings have columns and a covered sidewalk. We stopped at the Fabrica de Tabacos Francisco Donatier. Women, and some men, wrap small bits of tobacco inside two big leaves, a machine rolls up the leaves, one end is cut off. Other women pull the spine from a leaf, or put a band around each finished cigar, or around a bundle of about 25 cheaper cigars. Many workers smoke a cigar while they work. Is that a fringe benefit? They asked for soap, candy, and souveneirs. Cuba's health department deplores the tobacco industry but realizes that it does a lot to support the economy. Workers get one hour for lunch. Each toilet, even in a factory, is cleaned and guarded by a lady with a plate for tips.

We stopped at the Gyayabita de Piñar factory. The acorn-size fruit of a cactus-like plant is fermented in big tanks to make liquor. Eventually a liqueur like cognac is produced there, the only place in the world. In bottles it is labelled La Occidental Guayabita del Piñar de L. Garay y Co. We sampled some. It isn't my favorite liqueur. As I returned waves from a group of school kids a lady living nearby asked for "un dollar." Taxi wagons with a roof, pulled by a horse, have a bench along each side for passengers. The gasoline shortage keeps many other taxis out of service.

Leaving, we rode north on a road winding through the hills and pine trees, with little thatch roof frame houses on stilts. We stopped to admire a pretty valley. Big barns have a thatch roof and walls, only a small door for an opening. We stopped at the Restaurant de la Pre-Historia to look at a large mural painted by Leon Gonzales on rock cliffs, 1959-1979. It shows ancient man and dinosaurs of the Juraissac Period on a mural some 80 m. high and 120 m. (262 by 394 ft.) wide. We passed through a big town with house walls of clay tiles plastered and painted, a porch, and red tile roofs. Kids always waved at us. We stopped to look at caves, Las Cuevas de los Viñales, on a cliff. Rice dried on almost-flat roofs. We paid extra to visit Indian caves. We walked a few hundred meters through the cave, with electric lights, stalagtites, and stalagmites. In a small boat we rode on a shallow river to the far end of the cave, then out. Under a roof we ate a prepaid buffet dinner of fresh orange and grapefruit, roast pork, yucca, rice, black beans, coffee, and Coca Cola from Venezuela. Dessert was red guayaba sauce. A local band and singers made music, often so loud we couldn't talk. Leaving, we stopped at the nice Motel Los Jasmines ("La Ermita"), with a swimming pool, for a scenic view of the valley and hills with cliffs. A local tree has red bark. The few roadside shrines with a cross, mark the site of a fatal accident. Cows and goats eat a circle limited by the length of their rope leash. Many girls played with a hula hoop. A surprising number of blondes and brown-hair girls live in villages. A range of forested hills extends north of our entire route that day. We returned on the same autopista. We saw a few windmills, one was pumping water. There are many bicycles, none had a light. We saw almost no military or police--unusual for Latin America, where roadblocks are common. In Havanna, as we dropped off other tourists, I saw a beautiful girl at each hotel, looking for a customer.

We walked north and east, along the Malecon. A monument is dedicated to Calixto Garcia, 1839-1898, a former president. A billboard has a picture of the U.S.A.'s Uncle Sam, with the message: Golpes Imperialistas, ¡No les tenemos absolutamente ningun modo! ("Blows from imperialists, let's don't have them in any manner!") Another monument with two white towers had a plaque with the message: A las victimas de el Maine que fueron sacrificadas por la voraciadad imperialista...de la Isla de Cuba. ("To the victims of the Maine who were sacrificed for the voracious appetite of the imperialists on the Island of Cuba.") It has the dates February 16, 1898 to February 16, 1961. Earlier, the monument had a statue of an eagle, symbol of the U.S.A., on top. It was removed and the plaque was added, after the Revolution. In the bay men in big inflated inner tubes fished, each with a short pole. Near the hotel where we were scheduled to stay, we ignored money changers, cigar sellers, and taxis. We talked with a retired school teacher who cleans the ladies room, getting only tips. She can't live on her pension. She gets only 40 Cubanas ($1.60) per month pension and monthly ration coupons for rice and black beans. Milk and gasoline is too expensive. She has an epileptic son but cannot get the good medicine from the U.S.A. Cubans must pay for medicine except when they are a hospital patient. She said "only people who have access to dollars get enough to eat." We saw only one fat local person, a hostess in a tourist hotel's restaurant.

In the evening a food distribution center a few blocks from our hotel was busy, with lines to buy the food that was available. People brought their ration books, which have the headings (in Spanish): rice, grains (beans), eggs, oil, margarine or butter, sugar, jam, canned fruit, tomato sauce, bath soap, laundry soap, detergent, coffee, packaged cigarettes, tobacco, matches, and toothpaste. Other pages have rare items such as chicken, meat, fish, and gasoline. Other foods, when available and sold, are written on blank lines in ration books. When a shipment of any of the scarce items arrives the word spreads fast and people join the line, with the ration book. Nearly everyone suffers but there is still strong popular support for the government, although some people are disillusioned with Fidel Castro. Rationing distributes the available foods fairly, so even the poor can get some of a scarce item, if it is available. We saw no street people, they must have an address to get a ration coupon and food. I talked with a man who knows some of Cuba's wealthy and higher government officials. He has visited them in their nice homes. He said that some people are still living in luxury, with all they want of scarce foods. I was unable to verify this.

Streets are named on a concrete pyramid on some corners. We walked on busy 23rd Avenue, past the university. We took a private taxi, a 1952 Ford. The driver was proud of it, he said "cars made in the U.S.A. are good quality." We had only told him that we were from NEAR Canada. We negotiated a price of three dollars to go to the home of my wife's lady friend, a judge whom she had stayed with in 1947. We found her house and talked with a neighbor. The friend has lived in Puerto Rico since 1964. We negotiated to pay another two dollars to take us to a busy public market with plentiful fruit and vegetables (not rationed, and cheap), and some meat and fish. We found bananas, oranges, and flowers, paying only 5 pesos (20 cents) for each of the three groups. Men often asked compra dollars? (Dollars for sale?) We walked back, past a secondary school with a few blond girls. The German embassy is nearby. In our room we ate fruit, then bought a ham sandwich below.

We talked several hours on the porch with our hotel's pianist. He likes classical music and can make almost any popular song sound like better classical music. A Canadian friend gave him a suit and shoes, but for a year he could not work because he had neither. He had no pen to sign his name, even ball point pens are rare and expensive. His family was rich, they had several homes. During the Revolution they lost everything but were well-treated because his grandfather was a communist. He said that in 1988 and 1991 when the Soviet Union stopped aid there was much suffering. There "is no meat." Italy gives some cooking oil. There is no aspirin or other common medicine, and soap is rare, even for bad skin. To visit Canada or other countries he must pay 220 dollars plus 120 plus 15 dollars departure tax, and he doesn't get any back when he returns. Canada would not give him a visa to work as a pianist. In a week he would start a new job as a pianist with a cruise ship in the Caribbean. There is no discrimination in Cuba based upon skin color. Apartments are scarce, young people don't marry because they would have to live with a parent.

Cuban men usually do not wear short pants, but young women often do. Like many Latin Americans, Cubans like loud music, or a radio or TV turned on loud. There seems to be no awareness that loud noises can be disagreeable. Music by our hotel's pool was often loud after midnight, though no one was around. The nearby rooster began to crow soon after that.

My wife had a shampoo, set, and hair conditioner for 7.5 pesos (35 cents) plus tip, in a government beauty shop. However, she had to wait a long time, ignored, and they tried to give her a haircut she didn't want. Many local women tint their hair red. We walked a few