Matanzas, Cuba
Hayagriva and I did our beach walk and made it to
the beach's end before turning around. In some way it is a pleasant experience
even though a brizzle sprayed us wet and clean before entering the Atlantic
waters. There we conducted, while fighting waves, our sadhana, singing in
honour of guru, sadhu and God. Beach walking isn't always a treat. If you go
long enough walking its acute angle, it definitely disturbs the skeleton
somehow. That's why the turn around. It's necessary to balance yourself by
reversing directions in order that the leg that stretched itself extra on the
angle now gets the chance to shorten itself on the return journey.
The Cuban beach is not unique to this dynamic. It
appears to be a reality at every seashore.
What we do find unique about Cubans is their
generous nature. Alex was our cab driver from Varadero to Matanzas, a mere 50
minutes, and he really opened up to us. He is a part-time engineer professor at
the university. Driving tourists to and fro between resorts and the airport
consumes the rest of his time. He has his share of passengers ranging from what
you might say are decent folks to drunks and prostitutes. He really got a
charge from hauling a monk and his friends around. It doesn't happen every day.
He has familiarized himself with the Bhagavad-Gita and has explored
self-realization. He mentioned that he has his mother-in-law, a difficult
person at times, but because "she is the mother of my wife I see her as my
own mother."
Alex did not charge us for the lengthy ride. He
has a heart. He also came to our opening of the first Krishna centre in Cuba.
Our female crew from Canada got behind the cooking showing the local females
how to use Indian spices while the male counterpart assisted the organization
of this milestone event.
Here's what we did: Kirtan, a talk, more kirtan
and then a feast. We got the okay from authorities to conduct the event which
filled the room of warm and lovely people.
Cuba is a cool place!
7 KM
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