La perla del sur

With another beautiful casa particular to stay in, we spent a few days in Cienfuegos. Its nickname is "la perla del sur" - the pearl of the South. It is one of the few in Cuba that was founded by French colonists.  The city overlooks a bay, also named Cienfuegos. With just 150,000 residents, it's a lot smaller than Havana and we could see most of the town while wandering.

In both Havana and Cienfuegos, I liked walking around in the evening. With all the lights on, it was easy to peek into peoples' houses. In many of them, even though the stucco was crumbling and the gates were rusted, inside I saw brightly painted walls, beautiful sofas and blinking Christmas trees. People had put their money into the parts of the house they used rather than the parts that people passing by could see. On the night before New Year's Eve, it seemed like the TV was on in every house we passed. The more I peeked in, the more I could tell that everyone in Cienfuegos was watching the same TV show. There are only five stations in Cuba, so this must happen often. DVD players are allowed, but cable and satellite channels are not. Few people have internet access - about 25% can use government-approved websites via slow and expensive connections, and only 5% have totally open internet access. We got back to the house and found that Lourdes and Jose, the owners of our house, were watching the same channel also. It was the new year episode of a goofy variety show, which is probably very funny. I wouldn't know; with all of the characters talking in funny voices, I could barely understand any of the dialog. We did see them roasting a pig and burning a scarecrow, which I will explain later.

Customs house (aduana) at the port in Cienfuegos

On the way, we went to Estadio 5 de septiembre, the baseball stadium. It is named for the battle that occured on September 5, 1957, between the armed forces of Batista's government and revolutionaries loyal to Fidel Castro. The revolutionaries won, making Cienfuegos the first "free" Cuban city under their control.

The stadium is home to the Cienfuegos Elefantes. Even though there were no games because of the all-star break, we wanted to take a look. That was easier than I expected - a security guard waved us over and asked if we wanted to go inside and take some photos. Sí, señor. The stadium seats 20,000 fans and tickets cost 1 peso for Cubans, which is about 4 cents. Foreigners pay a little more (like 5 pesos). MLB stars Yasiel Puig (LA Dodgers) and José Abreu (White Sox) got their start as Elefantes in Cienfuegos. When the security guard took us down to the dugout (yes, we got to stand in the dugout), an Elefante pitcher who had been throwing a ball around with some kids came over to say hello to us. And I learned that the Spanish word for dugout is... dugout.

Me with the giant elefante

Outside of the stadium, we saw a donkey eating some grass outside. I asked the security guard if we could give him something for his help. He smiled and shrugged bashfully. We gave him a tip - enough to buy tickets to several baseball games - and we had given him something to do besides watch a donkey munch on the lawn.