{"id":4124,"date":"2016-03-24T17:01:36","date_gmt":"2016-03-24T17:01:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.argoknot.com\/?p=4124"},"modified":"2016-03-24T17:01:36","modified_gmt":"2016-03-24T17:01:36","slug":"walking-about-cienfuegos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.argoknot.com\/?p=4124","title":{"rendered":"Walking about Cienfuegos"},"content":{"rendered":"

Boy, my dogs are barking!\u00a0 There is a lot of walking to do in this town.\u00a0 Luckily the harbor where Pandora<\/em> is anchored, called Punta Gorda, is a \u2018short\u2019 walk into Cienfuegos\u2014only about 20 minutes.\u00a0 However, day after day, that really adds up!\u00a0 A couple of days we walked between 4 and 5 miles, and one day we walked over 8 miles.\u00a0 And it\u2019s hot!\u00a0 Have I mentioned it\u2019s hot??\u00a0 Bob keeps asking me if I want a sweater. The answer is still YES!\u00a0 And I want the weather to go with it!<\/p>\n

On the first day we found a small shop along the main street in Cienfuegos, where a woman (younger than I am) sells various items of handwork that include crochet and embroidery.\u00a0 There were embroidered table linens and lots of crocheted sweaters and shawls.\u00a0 There was a rack of sewn clothing, traditional Cuban guayaberra type shirts for men and some lovely women\u2019s tops embellished with machine sewn tucks and hand embroidery.\u00a0 It was a small shop, decorated like a living room in a house.\u00a0 After talking with the owner for a bit we learned it is<\/em> her house and the shop was most likely her living room.\u00a0 At one point her elementary school aged son came out from an interior door, wearing a school uniform.\u00a0 It was late afternoon, she kissed him goodbye, and he was off to some after school activity.\u00a0 Bob happened to see through the door that there was a bed in that room.<\/p>\n

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The owner spoke English quite well and we were able to talk about a number of things.\u00a0 She made some of the crocheted items herself, but many were done by other family members.\u00a0 They were all lightweight pieces made with fine threads for wearing in the hot climate of Cuba.\u00a0 The sweaters were all open work that would be worn over a tank top or camisole.\u00a0 They were really lovely.\u00a0 The owner\u2014silly me!\u00a0 I did not get her name\u2014prefers knitting herself, and that launched us on a great conversation because we\u2019ve both been knitting since we were very young.\u00a0 She can knit carrying the yarn in either hand, as can I, and she can knit in either direction like I can.\u00a0 I think I\u2019d enjoy knowing her.<\/p>\n

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We stopped again the next day, when Bob wasn\u2019t so hot, so he could try on some of the guayaberras. \u00a0We chose one, and I bought a small table square that had pulled thread embroidery in the center and a nice hemstitched edging.\u00a0 I would love to have bought more, but there was no more to buy.\u00a0 I was also hoping to find other handwork shops, but no luck on that!\u00a0 We passed a window (open shutters, no glazing) where a woman was sitting at a sewing machine, sewing a garment out of white fabric.\u00a0 Behind her on the back wall of this tiny room there were some traditional Cuban clothing for men and babies hanging on a rack.\u00a0 She motioned for us to come in, but it felt so cramped in the tiny room that we passed on that.<\/p>\n

One day we had lunch in the Palacio de Jagua that is now a government owned restaurant and tourist spot.\u00a0 Each day I think bus-loads of tourists are brought here for lunch.\u00a0 We managed to find a table for lunch in between two bus tours.\u00a0 A palacio is a large, ornate structure where government offices are on the lower floors and a residence for the higher-ranking government official is on the upper floors.\u00a0 In this palacio the lifestyle was very ornate, Moorish Victorian.\u00a0 It felt very strange to eat a meal in such a luscious Moorish setting. It felt like eating in a mosque, and that felt rather sacrilegious\u2014even though this building had never beena mosque. \u00a0All the lacy cutwork on the walls was plaster.\u00a0 It is a beautiful space.\u00a0 The building is about 3 stories tall and there is a terrazzo bar on the roof.\u00a0 We plan to visit there this evening.<\/p>\n

The Palacio de Jagua<\/p>\n

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This is the entrance to the Palacio<\/p>\n

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The dining room:<\/p>\n

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We have tackled buying some food items in the local shops.\u00a0 We\u2019ve now bought several kinds of bread from a panaderia, and from street vendors on bikes with large boxes of pastries strapped on the back with bungy cords. \u00a0Yesterday we had an interesting experience trying to buy cheese and butter.\u00a0 People kept getting in front of us on the cheese\/butter line\u2014at a counter in the back of the shop where cheese and butter are stored.\u00a0 Finally when there was no one left to get in front of us I asked for \u2018queso y mantequilla.\u2019\u00a0 The man motioned and said in \u2018Spanglish\u2019 that we had to pay for cheese and butter in the checkout line before<\/em> we could get it from him.\u00a0 Okay\u2026.we had waited a long time to get this info, and off we went to wait in the checkout line, where all those people who\u2019d gotten in front of us were now waiting to pay for their cheeses that supposedly they had already paid for.\u00a0 That did not make sense to me, but when I finally got to the cashier I told her that we wanted a kilo of cheese and a \u2018brick\u2019 of butter.\u00a0 She looked at the empty counter \u2013where are the goods?\u00a0 I explained that the cheese counter man had told me to pay first.\u00a0 This started a barrage of angry sounding Spanish between the two\u2014the woman in the front of the store and the cheese man at the back of the store speaking very loudly and forcefully to each other across the space.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Anyway, it turns out that we had to pay for butter before getting it.\u00a0 Who knows why?\u00a0 We think maybe it is rationed from the lines we saw in Santiago of people waiting to get butter.\u00a0 So we payed for the butter, went back to the cheese counter and got the butter and<\/em> cheese and then went back to the cashier line to pay for the cheese.\u00a0 Crazy!<\/p>\n

We also saw a huge line of Cuban women waiting in front of a women\u2019s clothing shop.\u00a0 The glass door had a sign that said it was open (apierto), but the line was forming outside and no one was going in.\u00a0 I think something of great value may have arrived in that shop and they were monitoring how many could enter at one time.\u00a0 If I could communicate better I would have asked about this.<\/p>\n

There is a center park surrounded by a parliament building, a beautiful theater, and church, all dating back to the Victorian era and therefore quite ornate.\u00a0 It\u2019s been a wonderful few days here, even though my feet are tired.<\/p>\n

Here is Bob holding his Essex Yacht Club burgee in the park.<\/p>\n

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Although this photo is really all about the well preserved Buick (??), the theater is in the background.\u00a0 We may try to catch a performance here on Easter Sunday of something we simply cannot fathom from the advertisements at the ticket office.<\/p>\n

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\"OLYMPUS<\/a><\/p>\n

For us, it will be more about being in the space than seeing the performance!<\/p>\n

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Before walking back to the marina we stopped for a cold drink and listened to local musicians.\u00a0 The bongo\/cow bell player, the mariachi player and the flutist were the singers and they were terrific!\u00a0 They did a rendition of \u201cVolare\u201d that was fabulous! You can just barely see the string base player behind the bongo player.<\/p>\n

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We have begun making plans for how to get to Havana by bus or taxi for the Rolling Stones concert.\u00a0 Hopefully it will all work out and both of us will be writing about that early next week.\u00a0 We will certainly be among the oldest people there.\u00a0 If the audience is expected to be around 500,000, I wonder if we will even see the stage.\u00a0 Wish us luck!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Boy, my dogs are barking!\u00a0 There is a lot of walking to do in this town.\u00a0 Luckily the harbor where Pandora is anchored, called Punta Gorda, is a \u2018short\u2019 walk into Cienfuegos\u2014only about 20 minutes.\u00a0 However, day after day, that really adds up!\u00a0 A couple of days we walked between 4 and 5 miles, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fine-craft"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.argoknot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.argoknot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.argoknot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.argoknot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.argoknot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4124"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.argoknot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4124\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4134,"href":"http:\/\/www.argoknot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4124\/revisions\/4134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.argoknot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.argoknot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.argoknot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}