So there I was. I made it. Thousands of miles across the planet to this beautiful island called Cuba. I could hardly believe that I was finally there after all those months of planning and organizing and preparing. Finally I’m there in a homely little hotel at INIFAT in Santiago de Las Vegas and I felt… well… tired. It had been a long, long day to say the least!
I started off early that morning at a slightly weird hotel outside London, eating fruit and croissants and drinking tea and wondering what the day was going to hold. Of course I had some ideas and expectations but I was still nervous about what the day was actually going to hold in reality. Then it was time to leave the hotel and go on to the Gatwick Airport. And there I was in the crazy horrible place that airports are just wanting to get on the plane and go and not wanting to wait for the adventure to start anymore. Next it was onto the plane where all we seemed to do was eat and drink and watch films and where everyone who asked what I was doing and why I was going to Cuba on my own said “ooo, aren’t you brave” when they learnt about what I was going to be doing in the coming weeks. And that was it for the next nine hours. Nine hours! That’s a long time on a plane but it was all worth it to see beautiful green and red (rich, ruddy red) Cuba appear below us surrounded by the dark, blue sea.
And that was it. That was the place that I had been waiting for and that I would be free to explore, as soon as I was reunited with my visa at the airport. An experience that took twenty seemingly never ending minutes as the long queues from my flight melted away and I was left as the only person waiting in a big, empty, immigration hall. It was such a relief to finally have my visa in my hands and be able to pass through the doors into arrivals, pick up my bag and head through the doors into the foyer of the airport to meet Maritza and Raul from INIFAT who had kindly come to meet me. Now is probably a suitable time to explain what INIFAT is.
INIFAT stands for Instituto de Investigaciones Fundamentales en Agricultura Tropical “Alejandro de Humboldt” and it was founded in 1974, as a development of the Centre for Experimental Agronomy that had existed on the site since 1904. It is now an organization that is known nationally and internationally for the support that it has given to the development of Urban and Sub-urban Agriculture in Cuba. Its main aim, as part of the Cuban Ministry of Agriculture, is to support the strengthening and development of sustainable agriculture with a specific focus on Urban and Sub-urban contexts. Since October 2009 INIFAT had also become home to the National School of Urban and Sub-Urban Agriculture and this was who would be hosting me for my first two weeks in Cuba.
INIFAT is based in Santiago de las Vegas which is sleepy little town about 30 km outside Havana, and 3km from the airport. This short journey was made in a little, black Lada with leatherette seats and Playboy stickers on the back windows, where I got to speak my first Cuban Spanish as I ate the peanuts that Maritza had brought along for me, and caught my first glimpses of Cuba in the dusky light of the evening. It only took about ten minutes to get to INIFAT and to the little hotel they have on site and where I would be staying during my time there.
After having my first (huge!) meal at the hotel I was happy to settle down in my comfortable little room and get some sleep in anticipation of my first full day in Cuba. When I would be able to get a proper feeling for INIFAT and Santiago de las Vegas in the warm and sunny light of day.
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