Bus driver

by Iva Lekic (Serbia)

Making a local connection Cuba

I am not sure if feeling of unmeasurable tiredness can be described by words. Try to imagine waiting for hours for your luggage on reeky airport in Havana after 18 hours long trip, till lane stops and every hope that your luggage is there is lost. To be worse, there are 11 people traveling with me who I couldn’t look in the eyes considering that i already have heard regret about this trip in their voice. Hearing sentence “This adventure has to be something gorgeous to make up for this agony” made me feel sick. I would officially forbid phrase “Could this get any worse?” during travels. Why? At the moment we have arrived at our resort in Varadero we found out that tropical storm will be hitting that part of the island while we are there. Only thing that we could do is stay at our resort whole time. Varadero is that kind of place that you can describe easily - stunning beaches with white sand, ocean, not to mention modern fancy resorts and beach bars with best drinks and cocktails in the world. Stepping out of your comfort zone isn’t something that can be done here obviously. Out of the blue a chance to go on two days excursion showed up and that was our only way to avoid bad weather. But, there was a trap. The price of this getaway was giving up on everything that we took with us because our luggage couldn’t arrive in time. That meant stepping out of our comfort zone in every possible way and going there - where is 30 degrees in winter clothes. The fact that the whole group agreed to go i have to ascribe to a few piña coladas and daiquiris. In less than 10 hours we found ourselves in bus on our way to Trinidad. I can’t tell if excitement or fear was more present. In the meantime we had visited Santa Clara, a town that is really important for Cuban history where Che Guevara is buried. However, story that bus driver has told me left bigger impression on me. He was talking about his life and how he studied abroad and about his wife and children. In the end this job was better paid than anything country had to offer him but there was something that completely changed my perspective of seeing life. He described how his wife is a physician and she has to hitchhike every day on her way to work. They don’t even have to eat every day but their way of seeing it is “If we don’t have to eat today, we will have tomorrow and that is something that can’t make us unhappy”. In the flesh he made me feel bad for every time i thought that i need something or that i can’t live without any pair of shoes or new phone. At the same time he helped me to find life purpose. It was the best feeling in my life. Maybe someone finds this as a cliché which i would also think of if i read it ,but take this as one more reason to visit Cuba. To experience this feeling yourself. What this man has told me, crosses my mind every dan since. We had an honor to be part of Cuban family for one day in their famous “casas particulares” where they made us traditional breakfast and welcomed us as their family. Even dogs are friendly as much as people there, they are reflection of harmony in their way of living. For Cuba i can say - that is for sure the farthest place from my home that felt like home. In my opinion nobody can tell you different thing if he had experienced Cuba in real way. Because this isn’t just my story, it is from 11 people who were traveling with me as well. They had same impression like me. In this material world you should find a way to resist influence of heavy marketing and constant pressure on your lifestyle. I can’t think of better place to do that than Cuba.