Economics With A Face

I headed down to tell the lady at the front desk. Once we told her she said we came just in the nick of time, that she was about to give our room to someone else. With the hurricane all flights had been canceled out of Havana and tourists were scrambling to find a place to stay for the night. Immediately it felt like we made the right decision even though it was a bit more expensive.

Over breakfast that decision was reinforced when Raul came into the restaurant and sat down next to us without an invitation. After some small talk about what we were doing for the day the conversation became awkward. He attempted to summon the server, but was ignored, twice. He told us that he couldn´t find us last night…where had we gone to? We reminded him that he had left us. It was obvious to all parties that we didn’t need him to constantly guide us around the city. While we honestly did like this guy, we knew that we were being targeted. The meal was silent. At the end of our meal he spoke in a very low voice and asked if he could have a few dollars for some food. Emily gave him some convertibles and we parted ways. We still see him and a few a his friends several times a day as they live in the neighborhood, but for the most part it’s just a friendly hello and a handshake as we pass. We would like to meet all sorts of people in Havana and that just won’t happen if all we do is treat his group of friends to drinks all week long.

After eating we headed down to Capitolio where we heard that you could access the internet. For three convertible pesos we got a half hour of time. I was surprised to see on the Yahoo news headlines that after the tragic story of the London bombings, “Hurricane Dennis Approaches Cuba” was number two on the list. I really didn’t realize how serious it was until then. Both our parents had written to us about the storm a little worried for our safety. We emailed back that we were fine and were in a good hotel in the center of the city with plenty of other tourists.

But when we got back to the hotel and turned on CNN I started to worry a bit myself about our safety. People were evacuating Florida and Alabama in droves but there didn’t seem to be any urgency in Havana despite the fact that while they were made of concrete, the building were so old they were falling apart. Since we were on the top floor I came downstairs to ask if we should come down when the hurricane hit. The ladies at the front desk laughed and said that we could come downstairs with all the other scared tourists if we would like and have a drink to ride out the storm. “Since you’re on the top floor the roof might shake but you’ll be fine”

Not the most reassuring description so Em and I decided that we would head down once the power went out later in the night. Returning to the room the weather channel had a special on hurricanes that warned “Not to light candles when the electricity goes out for fear of fire” and “That taping windows would do absolutely no good.” It was classic, as although we saw people trying to get whatever wood they could find across the city, for the most part everyone, including our hotel, only had the option to tape their windows and had already done so. In addition, it looked like candles would be the only source of light from the hotel.

We headed across the street and got some sandwiches at a much nicer hotel. Once we got there the wind really started to pick up but after we ate we made our way back through fine through the rain. As the evening approached we flipped back and forth between Cuban news which featured Fidel taking calls from around the country about the hurricane, CNN, and the weather channel. On CNN they showed what level 3 hurricane winds looked like with a reporter in a wind tunnel and it was clearly scary stuff. I was beginning to get even more worried as when Dennis hit the island it was nearly a level 5 hurricane and was headed straight for Havana. While it looked like our building was well constructed, if it was directly over Havana with its crumbling infrastructure, lots of people might die. Luckily, the latest report said over land the hurricane winds were slowing.

Once the power went out we headed downstairs. At 10:30pm it’s still not that bad. Luckily, it doesn’t look like this will be a complete disaster for Havana. Without electricity we had no idea when the storm would hit, but at least the television and satellites provided a fair warning. Technology really does save lives. Without these inventions half of Havana could have been out walking the streets when the storm hit. Eventually, a hotel worker dug out a radio and everyone gathered around to listen to the 50’s style news broadcast.

As the hurricane really began to hit Em and I had a good conversation with the security guard, Paco, who is also 28, and one of the girls who works at the front desk. Once again, it seems everyone has a relative in the U.S. We helped Paco practice his English which he was trying to perfect and we talked about everything from sports to life in Cuba. The story was the same, life was hard, but they just kept on living.

Finally another worker who continued to listen to the radio announced that the storm had passed the island and was out at sea. People let out a quick cheer and we retired to our room. The wind still howled all night long and without electricity our room got so hot that I woke up nearly suffocating at one point. Still, we had survived our first hurricane, in Havana nonetheless.

(All the names of Cubans in these posts have been changed as a precautionary measure)