Sabrosura

The Making of My Seductive Cuba's Website

noreply@blogger.com (Chen Lizra) — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 21:58:00 +0000

About half a year ago I’ve started working on a new concept for My Seductive Cuba’s website. I’ve wanted to create a one stop destination that offered the lifestyle of Cuba, full of fun, excitement and totally ground breaking. I like pushing the envelope.

I decided to take this project overseas because it was a mega project in size. Producing it in North America was too expensive. It was the only way to go. During that time I’ve launched my book and hit bestseller status on Amazon in the US and Canada. I created such a buzz that people came looking for me.

One day I got a message from Rene Quijada, an art director I have already heard about, who owns a company that specializes in brand, design and web development. Rene predicted that soon I will be in need of a new website. I was only too happy to say that it was already under development overseas. Rene’s response was:"Yes, these are all the people that come to me afterwards when things fall apart." He said it with a smile; we both laughed and went on about our daily activities.

At the time I was also planning a mega launch event with a big sponsor which eventually did not happen. And due to this I got connected to Alfonso Quijada whom I was told would be the perfect MC for the event. Alfonso lived in Havana for eight years and was an actor on X-Men United. He was the ideal person for the job. Very shortly after the dots connected and I found out that Alfonso and Rene were actually brothers.

A few weeks went by and Rene got a call from me almost crying. Things fell apart overseas and as he had predicted. I’ve needed someone to save me. We’ve set up an appointment to go over things at his office with his team, and off I was.

As I walked into his beautiful office in Gastown, the historic part of Vancouver, I‘ve noticed Alfonso in front of me. "What are you doing here? ”I said to him, staring him straight in the eyes. He started laughing really hard. I got really confused. "I am Rene the identical twin brother of Alfonso," he said, then added:"I knew you’d get confused. People always do." We were both smiling from ear to ear.

A short conversation revealed that the scene where you see Alfonso’s character as two of him in X-Men United, was not in fact a special effect. They used both brothers in the film. How cool is that!

Rene runs Kihada Kreative which specializes amongst other things, in web design and development. Rene and his team pulled up the sleeves and zoomed in on what needed to get done to get this site up and running. He suggested to revamp the whole look since he knew Cuba well and believed his team could make the site even more authentic. I gave him the liberty to run with it. Shortly after, the beautiful designs started flowing in and the site was looking ten times better.

They’ve worked around the clock to get my site up and running and to help me realize my vision. On the morning of February 10th, while I was being interviewed by Fanny Kiefer at Studio 4, the site went live. I believe that the results speak for themselves.

I was very grateful that Rene found me. I think that it brought back for him many memories from his time growing up in Havana. I should probably mention that his father was the ambassador of Salvador in Havana and that’s how he ended up there. The website could not have landed in better hands, not just creatively, but the back end that they have customized for me is like the Rolls Royce of websites.

Thank you Rene, Joey and Michael for putting your heart and passion into this site, and allowing me to inspire others through it. Your work is sensational!

Exclusive Interview with Eric Turro Martinez

noreply@blogger.com (Chen Lizra) — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 23:57:00 +0000

Eric Turro Martinez is the dancer on the cover of My Seductive Cuba. See what he had to say about the project, the day of shooting, and find out about his life - past, present and future.

How did you meet Sven, the photographer of the cover of My Seductive Cuba?

I have met Sven during the shooting of the promotional video for the Bar of Buena Vista show, through the artistic director and the producer of the Bar, Toby Gough and Jon Lee, respectively.

Why did you decide to participate in this photography project?

This was the main photo shoot of the promo video for the show, I am part of the Bar so I had to be there to represent Cuban traditional dance. It was my duty as a performer but also my privilege to be there with all my fellow performers.

How was the day of shooting? Any interesting stories?

It was a sunny day, full of energy, and a nervous day. We were at the "Guarida" place where the shooting was taking place; the location was full of performers, rum, ballet dancers, and musicians from the Afro Cuba All Stars and the Buena Vista Social Club.

There were old Soneros and myself, the Sonero from "La Havana Vieja" [Old Havana], from the Ignacio Pineiro Company.

What was interesting for me on that day was the speed at which Sven decided on the best positions for the shots, Sven's confidence in his work towards all performers and knowing how to choose the best spaces, light and angles.

I remember we all thought we were not good enough for the photos. Yet time has proven this was one of the greatest photo shoots and video recording sessions for a Cuban International production. Even today these photos and the video travel the world every time the Bar at Buena Vista is touring and I feel transported back in time to that particular day...a dream that I will never forget.

How was it working with Sven?

Interesting, demanding, educating, a great time to work with a real professional of photography.

What did you like about the creative process?

The vision and the way of using the natural resources and a high level of improvisation, the lack of technical resources compared to the final product, considering this was done 10 years ago, and yet it’s still moving people and making them feel "Cuba."

Where do you live now and how long have you lived there?

I have lived for seven years in Hamburg, Germany and for the past two years I am living at the Gold Coast of Australia.

What projects are you involved with these days?

These days the stars are the limit! I need to work very hard to maintain where I am now. My days have been filled with a lot of work - dancing, teaching, and leading the artistic direction:

I am still the choreographer and primary dancer of the Bar at Buena Vista show. Next year we will be touring Europe again.
With my wife, Chantal Turro Martinez, we have a registered company: "Buena Vista Turro Martinez - Cuban international Entertainment Company”- our mission is to promote and enhance Cuban culture around the globe.
Here in Australia I have had the opportunity to get back into the role of "Artistic Director." In the past two years I have directed three Cuban shows: "Destinacion Cuba," "Buena Vista Extravaganza," and "Havana de Noche."
Our dance school is growing and we have been conducting workshops and master classes in Australia and Singapore.
We are part of the most prestigious Latin American festival in Australia.
I am looking forward to breaking my record on the "Spin Around the Music." My last mark was recorded in 2007 and it was 1 hour, 17 minutes and 42 seconds.
I am the Vice President and Technical Director, for Australia and Asia, of the new "Fundacion International Casino para todos" – an internationally registered body backed up with the most prestigious Cuban masters of the traditional dance forms. Our mission is to maintain Cuban dance as original, authentic and close to the source as possible

What is next for you?

Past, present, future - dance! To represent my Cuban culture till the end of my days....

Is there anything else you'd like people to know?

I am Cuban and I will always be Cuban wherever I am, with great respect for the country where I currently live and truly makes me feel welcome.

How did you hear about My Seductive Cuba?

Thanks to the best website of the planet: Friends, Facebook and one of friends - Jorge Flores from Mexico.

What do you think of the project?

I think that the project is great and important. It goes very deep into the real Cuban culture. It provides a new window, a different way for the world to know Cuba.

ERIC TURRO - 25 years of dance experience

• Artistic Director, Choreographer, Performer, Dance Instructor

• Lead dancer of “Buena Vista Social club” and “Bar at Buena Vista” shows.

• Co-Founder of Buena Vista TM

Born in Cuba, Eric is one of Cuba's undisputed top talents. His unique style of dance of the traditional “Son Cubano” makes him one of Cuba’s most admired and respected dancers around the world.

Eric is passionate about his art; all of Cuba’s traditional dances. He is the man who has brought the real traditional Cuban dance to the world stage through the Buena Vista Social Club and the Bar at Buena Vista.

Performing with the Buena Vista Social Club from 2001 – 2005 at the National Hotel in Cuba had given Eric the opportunity to demonstrate his art. This was followed with international tours around the globe with the Bar at Buena Vista and has positioned him at the top of the world as one of the greatest Cuban exponents of our era.

Eric’s role at the Bar at Buena Vista has been pivotal to the success of the show. It is undoubted that the charisma and dancing is an essential ingredient of Cuban music, his choreography is definitely geared towards highlighting the feats of balance and dexterity of the male dancers. Eric still today remains the choreographer and lead dancer of the show after all these years.

Living Life Passionately by Chen Lizra

noreply@blogger.com (Chen Lizra) — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 21:15:00 +0000

In 2010 I was leading another unique tour in Cuba; visitors came from three different continents to participate. We had quite the mix. One of the evenings we went out and had dinner at Chinatown - a tiny little street with a few restaurants to choose from. Dinner was yummy and the company even better. We sat and chatted for a few hours about Cuba, Cuban life, and the Cuban people. They had many questions. I was explaining everything in English and then repeating it in Hebrew to make sure everyone got it and was included in the conversation. It brought up many interesting questions and got the conversation going. At the end of it Ray looked at me and said:”You know, I think that you can’t define one system as better than the other.” That’s exactly the conclusion that I got to years ago. It’s just that when you spend lots of time in Cuba you start to notice that they got certain things very right – their sense of family, community and solidarity, not to mention playfulness and fun. It truly is fascinating to see Cuba from the inside. I find that people that travel with me fall in love with Cuba as I have and it makes them live more passionately. Cuba wakes you up.

As we sat there and digested our food, Keren, one of the girls, handed over the camera to the waiter and requested he’d take a picture of all of us. He took it but instead of looking through the view finder he looked by mistake through the lens, flashing himself in the eye. By the time we realized what was going on it was too late to stop him. He ended up with a picture of his own eye! He simply didn’t know how to use a camera. We could not help but laugh so hard. It was so adorable. Thankfully he thought that it was funny too. He laughed with us and then took another picture the right way. Cubans are just not always exposed to advanced technology.

For me Cuba represents passion because it’s a place that operates a 100% from the heart. Every year that I visit, little anecdotes like this one remind me of how much we take things for granted – how much we have and how much it isn’t ever enough. Cuba shifts it for me. It makes it enough.

Writing My Seductive Cuba is my way of shifting this perception for you and inspiring you to live passionately so that it is enough. I honestly could not imagine myself doing anything else in life. I feel blessed because what I do is the expression of who I am. And everything that I am choosing to create from here on has to do with spreading this message. And I can tell you what my biggest lesson about passion has been – it all starts with believing that you can have what you want, and then letting go of the fear and going after your dream.

My Seductive Cuba – A Unique Travel Guide.

Next Cuban Tour - January 18-27, 2012.

Overcoming Your Biggest Fears

noreply@blogger.com (Chen Lizra) — Sun, 01 May 2011 21:43:00 +0000

It's been a while since I've written anything in my blog. I've been so busy with the book that there was no time. But I want to tell you about this crazy and amazing process, because truly I thought that I was just writing a book, but the process is so much more than that. And maybe along the way it will inspire you to go beyond your comfort zone, after what is important to you.

This weekend I spent time in the Women & Words conference. My good friend Alexei told me about it two seconds before it started. Alexei, a million thanX for watching out for me. I didn't know what to expect but since I was looking for answers I figured that I had nothing to lose.

I have to tell you that this was one of the most inspiring weekends I have been to in years. Pamela Chatry, who organized it, is a woman with a vision. Not only did she bring the best of the best, she even thought of how to start the conference in a way that grounded everybody. She invited an elder native woman who chanted a prayer; I felt in the presence of my late grandmother. My grandmother was one of the most inspiring people I have ever met in my life. Everyone always knew that they could come to her house, arrive messed up, leave in an amazing shape. And she did it with simple love and great cooking. Who says that you can only reach a man through his stomach?

The first speaker was bestselling author Charmaine Hammond. She wrote a book called On Toby's Terms. The book is being turned into a feature film as we speak. And you know what? The best gift was hearing her story and meeting this amazing and authentic woman who is all about making a difference. You want to know about true love? Charmaine and her husband, Chris, adopted Toby from the compound, but a few months later he started wrecking the house, destroying everything. Instead of kicking him out, they decided to find out what was affecting him so deeply. They found out that he lost his best friend and companion, the old man he belonged to before, and Toby was grieving. Toby simply had no purpose in life. So Charmaine gave him purpose by volunteering with him in a hospital every week. As Toby found purpose, his attitude changed. The beauty about Charmaine's book is that she talks about how Toby saved them by teaching them how to love. I was in tears hearing this. How many people do you know would have made this choice and not kicked him out? Aren't we quick to judge, snap and bail out...

I had the honour of spending time chatting with Charmaine and getting to know her a bit. Truly a special person. I have attended different workshops all weekend long, and found all the missing information for launching my book at the conference. In it I found all the professionals I need to hire who have already done it.Another truly inspirational woman writer was Carla Rieger and her book The Change Artist. She talked about the resistance that comes up when you go after your goal - in this case - of writing a book. This point hit home. I think that my biggest lesson over the weekend is how much our biggest fears come up when we go after what we really truly want to fulfill. The last three months my emotions have been all over the map. It feels like a magnet that was placed next to a dial, and the dial jumps up and down non stop, just going nuts. Normally my life is fairly stable, calm, and fun. The last three months have been dramatic, emotional and like a roller coaster ride.

I loved finding out that this is a normal process because all the resistance in you comes up, and every possible thing from the past comes back like a behaviour pattern to stop you. Funny isn't it. And all I wanted was to write a book and share with everyone why Cuba is so amazing. So what I learned this weekend is that you just have to identify the pattern and not listen to it. And it works really well. I feel ten times more focused now and suddenly my emotional balance is back. It was Olga Sheean who described it so well in her workshop. She wrote this great book called Fit for Love which is a sort of a workbook. I am loving it.

So to summarize this weekend, I feel blessed to have gone, and thankful for all the amazing and powerful woman I have met. I now know who I want to add to my team in order to launch this book. And special thank you to everyone that offered their help and mentor-ship, especially to my new sales coach Terry. I am honoured to know you. All my past mentors have been men, and finally I have a female mentor. And I have to admit that there is something really great about that because women have their own special way of doing things. :)

So I say, if you have a dream - don't let your fears stop you. They will come up, but just smile and keep walking forward. If I can do it, so can you!

Till next time Havana

noreply@blogger.com (Chen Lizra) — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 00:19:00 +0000

August 18 2010

As I looked at the Malecon in the morning, the sea was calm, the sun was out, and it was another gorgeous day outside, Havana style. As usual, no traffic jams here because there are not enough cars to create traffic jams. The only time I’ve ever seen the city a little jammed is when they close the Malecon for Carnaval. The hardship! ha ha ha. On the Malecon you can see old cars passing by, mixed with new ones, with many and colourful chapas (license plates). Everything is always calm, there is no reason to rush anywhere – where to? What for? That is the lifestyle of a socialist country and part of the beauty of this place.

The past week has been strange and difficult. My health has been up and down in a strange way. One minute I was doing well in classes, next I slept 12 hours straight and woke up feeling exhausted and sick. I have never in my life been in this kind of a situation that I’ve started thinking that maybe it is something serious. But I had to shake this horrible thought and think positive, it must be the serious infection I had and that I haven’t fully recovered. It’s made things very difficult in dance classes. The last few days I have had major cravings for dance, it’s been a while, but I get sick when I try, sadly. When I don’t dance, something is missing in life. I am looking forward to seeing a doctor this week in Canada. I want my energy back. I want me back.

I am surprised that I have managed to learn as much as I did inside of this situation. It will make for an interesting term at Latidos because there are a lot of sensual, soft and playful things. I always try to turn every lemon into a lemonade. Try. But it has been difficult making it happen.

Besides that, Orly, Yos and I went to see Giordano perform which was cool – Orisha and Rumba stuff. By the end of it Giordano was disappointed and told me:”No baile bien” (I didn’t dance well). I told him:”No te preocupes, hay dias cuando yo bailo tambien y me dicen que estuvo muy lindo, pero yo no me siento bien” (Don’t worry, there are days when I dance as well and they tell me it was beautiful, but I don’t feel good). He smiled his Giordano sweet smile and said:”Ya, tu sabes” (Yeah, you know it). I do but I also know that he didn’t dance with his heart that afternoon but I preferred not to say anything because he was feeling bad. Next day when I saw him in classes he said that he had no motivation to dance, that the director did not let him dance with the machete when he danced Oggun and he had the whole choreography in his body with the machete ready to perform. Dancing Oggun with no machete is hard. It's like losing your arm. The reason was a smaller space, but honestly it was doable and it just frustrated him. He found out about it five minutes before the show started. Now, try to make it happen in a complete different way when you were locked on to it a certain way. Hard.

I wonder what motivates the dancers to work so hard here – they barely make any money in shows. Where does their drive come from? He worked that afternoon and then went to the usual place where he performs five nights a week, a two hour show. Very hard. On the other hand, the woman who danced Yemaya was so powerful that I have never in the years that I have come here felt it so deep inside my heart. I got up and got closer to watch, she was phenomenal.

Giordano dancing Rumba with the group

Next day Giordano showed up to class with a little boy, turns out his four year old son. This sweet little black boy named Aron (Not Aaron). The little one had quite the spirit and was running around doing his thing, while we were trying to run the class. And it just seemed normal that Giordano would have a son, most Cubans do – from one woman, or a few, or they were married or are married. Like I said, boundaries here are kind of loose and it is no big deal for them to have babies, sometimes even when they are really young. Giordano is 29 which meant that he had Aron when he was 25.

Classes with Yusimi have been great, besides the up and down of my health which has affected things a lot. I had to give up things that usually I take in easily, and to just simplify. It was hard to give up but my body feels unstable. Yusi has been great about it and just changed things as needed, helping me get through. I’ve learned some really cool female foot work and arm work that has so much presence and flow. I look forward to teaching it all.

Orly, Yos and I have been hanging together as much as we could. Orly was telling me about some of the complexities of bridging between the cultures and mentalities. Not an easy task, I can tell you that. I am happy to see them both happy together. All my respect to both for making it work. All three of us have become good friends and I think that it’s been great for Orly to have such a close foreign friend who understands how she thinks and feels. We are very alike in many ways. She has this cute little French accent in every language she speaks (six of them in total).

Orly and me in La Habana

Orly and Yos and their great love

On a complete different note, Yos and I have been teaching Orly how to eat with her hands, just chicken. It was a funny one, and Yos was so pleased when we got through. ha ha ha. I told them what my dad used to say to me when I was a kid:”If the queen of England can eat chicken with her hands, and only chicken is allowed, so can you.” I told Yos that I didn’t know if this was true but that I followed my dad’s lead. He was so convinced that my dad was right, accepting his authority like a Cuban dad. It was so cute and sweet that I wanted to give him a hug, but I figured that would create a weird moment for him. Yos was pleased with this and even more so that I was helping with what he calls “Orly’s therapy.” Ha ha ha. Little by little she is turning more Cuban. So cute.

Orly - La Cubanita!

Avi left for Israel to see his family and we managed to squeeze in one more dinner before he left. I was joking that he should have coordinated his travel to Israel according to my plan to leave Havana. Yes, as if. Ha ha ha. He will be coming back after my departure. It’s been such a pleasure hearing all of his stories from the past fifteen years, living and working here. He has such a wide perspective. I will miss him. I will miss our conversations. He is so much fun to hang out with.

Yeri and Israel – I haven’t seen much of. Yeri has been going crazy with things and her grandmother had a serious operation. She’s needed a lot of help and Yeri and Israel were taking turns at helping Yeri’s mom. This is besides work and besides teaching and besides her Santeria obligations. She’s been so overloaded that she hurt her foot in classes, which never happens to her. On Saturday at last the Conjunto performed and there was Sabado de la Rumba. I went to see the show and hung out with Yeri. And at last Orly met Yeri and Yusi. It was great for Yeri and I to have some time together. We hung out as in every year, and the only thing that did not work was that I could not dance.

Yeri singing in the show

Orly, Yeri and myself with the chiquitita

Yusi asked me what I thought of the show when it was over, I knew why she asked – the show was not as good as usual. They are getting ready for a month’s tour in the USA – for the first time! The show felt like it’s been slapped together to show the choreographic work of last year while their focus was on the tour. I barely recognized any of the dancers – so many new young faces. When they danced Oggun, William, who has been there for a while, was giving directions to one f the dancers telling him which direction to turn to while dancing. Yusi told me later that the poor guy found out he was performing for the first time with the Conjunto (first time ever) the night before. He stayed till midnight to try and learn the choreography. This is what they call a lo Cubano! ha ha ha

Wiliam dancing leading the Oggun choreography

She added to all of this that she did not dance well that day. When the Mambo part went on Yusi could barely work out her Sabor, the guy dancing with her was killing it and his body was stiff. I told Yusi that I didn’t think that many people got it. Many people there were just having fun, and lots of foreigners. There was no way that she could have made it work with this guy leading. She told me she didn’t like her Oya either. I told her she had problems with her hands. I could feel it. There was no flow. She confirmed that yes, her body was tired and it wasn’t flowing well. I looked at Yusi and said:”Yusi, a great teacher once told me something very important. He told me that as an artist sometimes I have 100% to give, sometimes 30% and sometimes 120%." He added that there was no way that I could always give my full 100%. The important part was to give all I had in that moment. If I had 50% and I gave it all, then I should feel good because that day it was my 100%.” Yusi liked the advice I gave her and smiled. She said:”It’s so true isn’t it.” I said:”Yes, and when you will have a child one day, you will give her/him the same advice and pass on this knowledge.” She felt good about her work that day after this talk because she really gave it all she had.

Yusi dancing Oya

Yusi dancing Salsa

It was good to see some of the Conjunto’s dancers, yet many were not there. When I asked Yeri where Israel was, she said that he was taking the turn in helping with the grandmother and that he gave her time to come and see me. How sweet. I miss my little brother Israel, but it was also good to hang with my little sister, Yeri. Yeri said to a friend of hers “Identical, right?” squeezing her face to mine (white and black). Inside we almost are! I love these two. They are special to me. We have become very close over the years and ever since that first year when I got them together. I am proud that they are together as a couple because of me. We always joke about it. When I came back the following year I made them a binned book of the story, they still have it at home. We have a special place in each other’s heart because of what happened, and because of who they are as people. They are unique here.

The book I made them about how they fell in love

Oh yes and Friday Yos, Orly, I and a whole lot of their friends – a mix of Cuban and foreigners met and had a nice dinner. We then went out to see Manolito in Casa de la Musica. It was the first time I was out in weeks to see any show. The music was amazing. I love his music. I sat most of the night on a chair and watched like some old person. I managed to dance two songs and next day paid the price when I woke up sick again and with inflammation behind my ear. I don’t know what is going on but every time I dance I get sick. At this point I got really frustrated with the situation. A dancer that can’t dance is ridiculous. But what was left for me to do was to do the least, finish the last classes and head back to Canada to see a doc.

Manolito concert with one of his greatest hit songs

Even though I got sick, the evening with Yos, Orly and their friends was really cool. Very interesting people. Next day Yos had to leave for work as a tour guide and travel the country for fifteen days. When Yos is away for too long and he cannot be with Orly, he kind of falls apart. Super sweet. Before leaving, Yos and I had our chance to say goodbye. Yos said:”Don’t worry, I have a feeling that we will see each other very soon again.” And it did feel like it. I smiled and gave him a big hug, till next time.

Oh yes and Orly introduced me to Anita, her friend, who lives very close to Melba and Alberto. Another interesting person. Her husband specializes in martial arts. I didn’t even know they had martial arts in Cuba. Turns out they do!

I spent most of Sunday in the pool or in bed sleeping. The amount of hours I am sleeping is not normal. Woke up Monday ready to do my classes, hoping it will all go well. Classes went ok; I just lacked “fuego” (fire). I could not do it all the way; it was more like marking it. Orly came to see the classes and she told me afterward:”Yes, it showed when you danced – in your face, your body was stiff…” When Yusi told me to relax my upper body I could not. It wasn’t the kind of tension that comes from fear of entering into the movement/sentiment; it was the kind of stiffness that you get when you are sick, when the body tries to conserve energy. After just one song which was super slow I was panting as if I ran a marathon. It frustrated me, but seriously what can I do. At least we finished all the Sueltas we worked on and hand/arms styling and their connection to the body + the Reggaeton moves which are really cool. I could not do more than this even if I tried really hard, and I do feel proud that I managed to pull it through in all of this craziness. I look forward to perfecting it in Canada, and I will.

On the way to classes, by the Barrio Chino

Orly and I had our last lunch together and had another great talk about Cuba, life here, life in general, and about the differences in mentalities. I will miss our conversations. It’s been great for both of us to share so much. I will miss meeting her every other day and sharing our lives on such a deep level. At the end of our lunch, Orly took off to see Maykel Blanco. He got back from his tour the night before. His Paris part of the tour was the most successful part of a successful tour. Orly was the one who organized it all for him in Paris. They had bigger plans to make, and many things to talk about. She was off on her little quest and projects, helping him make his dreams come true while she was trying to make her singing dreams a reality in Cuba. Orly used to perform for three years in the Lion King in Germany in one of the main roles. Super talented woman. A little dare devil, if you will. ha ha ha

My little daredevil sister

Both of us together - the two sisters

Monday afternoon the heat broke again with tropical rain. I like how the heat breaks and you get rain, yet it’s warm outside. It’s something that we never ever get in Israel. The chances of getting rain in the middle of the desert heat summer is close to impossible or as possible as a miracle. Yet we have the same heat and the same humidity in the centre, where I am from. I was sitting and waiting for the tropical rain to be tropical – meaning start and end quickly – so I could go to class. I could not leave my hotel as long as it was raining so hard.

Eventually the rain became so soft that I decided to go for it hoping that it will remain quiet till I got there. As long as the rain started again after I arrived, it would work. And I got lucky enough and that is exactly how it went.

Giordano was up to his usual seduction tricks but my mind was somewhere else trying to grasp some of the guys’ stuff that I did not get earlier and what I forgot in the days that I did not practice. My energy was low. I just wasn’t in a playful mode. He was bugging me and bugging me, till Zuyima got mad at me and said:”You are Israeli, you can answer him”, hoping I would kick his ass into shape and set him straight. I just could care less. I needed to focus. We did good work over the hour of class. I told him and Zuyima that I decided to end classes with them after this class because there was no point in trying to shove more info into such a tired body and I got what I needed.

When I arrived to class Giordano told me that he was going to Armenia at the end of the month. I answered:”So you got the contract after all, did you? For how long?” And he answered, for one year. I asked him about Aron, what he will do about him. And he said that he will remain with his mother. I said that it must be hard to leave him for a whole year at such a young age. He said yes but it is a good opportunity. I then asked him:”Why are you not with his mother?” and he replied:”Who said I am not.” Welcome to Cuba! I laughed. I should have known, so typical and predictable. This is part of why I don’t get involved with Cubans. It’s a way of life for them. Hard to trust most of them. Avi likes to joke and say that the heat and the humidity got them all crazy. ha ha ha. Javier once asked me:”How do you manage to reject all of these Cuban men and still work with all of them.” Well, I guess this is my little secret, but he was right, this is exactly what I do, and with a smile.

Seduction works both ways

Seduction is mesmerizing. It is a beautiful life energy. But you cannot assume that seduction will get you love. Seduction can bring fire into a relationship, and this is why I teach couples seduction secrets - how to push each other’s buttons. But I refuse to teach people who want seduction tools in order to play with someone’s heart. For me it’s not what it is about. When someone tries to seduce me, I have ways of stripping them of the game to see what is real. If I cannot, I walk away. A pure heart cannot be forged, and if someone can, they deserve an Oscar! Most people sadly use seduction the wrong way.

I am amazed by how many women come here and they fall prey to the seduction. They don’t stop to ask for one second who the person is, what they do, whom they are with. They just can’t believe that they feel what they feel and they let go into it, feeling amazing, for a short lived experience, and usually burn out at the end. This is how powerful seduction can be. I have seen things here in Cuba that I do not want to describe or repeat. In Cuba it is all out in the open. No secrets. Everyone knows what you’re doing. You are being watched all the time. Maybe I have seen too much. When you study seduction, when you live inside of it, you can see it for what it is. I enjoy the energy, but I don’t get sucked into it. This is part of why I enjoy Cuba so much.

So seduction war with Giordano was a cute thing but I have managed to move him into being my friend. Because he is a friend, he exposed his personal life to me and this is how I like it. I can come back and enjoy classes with him in the future or hang out as friends. I am happy for the great moments we shared which made me laugh and enjoy my classes. Classes in Cuba with seduction make for interesting and fun classes. I am grateful for the fact that I do not get involved with anyone here. I do not expect Cubans to be what they are not, nor do I want to change to live life like them.

I must add that Yos and Israel are part of the unique ones that are hard to find. Once in a while you see a couple that is together for the right reasons, like Yeri and Israel, like Orly and Yos. Yos and Israel are both extremely loyal, and because of this I am happy for both Orly and Yeri. They deserve the best!

The happy couple - true love!

When it comes to me, I can’t tell you how many times people confuse my alter-ego that performs with who I really am. Dancing seductively doesn’t mean that I am a player; on the contrary I am an extremely loyal person. My alter ego does what I will never dare do. She is fearless! I am not! As Yos and Avi joked:”You mean that when you mess up on stage, you blame her for it?” Ha ha ha.. Good one!

My alter-ego performing!

Ok so to wrap it up, Tuesday I did classes in the morning only. I had a bit more energy but it was hard to get through. I filmed Yusi doing it all so that I could practice with the right body intention. She has the best and sexiest body intention. It feels good to dance like her. But I could not sustain the intention, it takes so much energy. Not to worry, soon I will be back full on with all my energy, better than ever.

In the evening Israel and Yeri came by to say goodbye at the hotel after work. It was so good to have time with them before my departure. I really missed them on this trip. Yeri made me promise that next time we will spend more time together. I said that yes. Orly got there a bit before them and we managed to catch up, I mean, we only saw each other the day before. There was so much to talk about. No, really! Ha ha ha. She was telling me of her meeting with Maikel Blanco and their plans and about some other meetings that might make things happen for her here. When Yeri and Israel arrived, Orly met Israel for the first time. I’ve been telling her that Israel and Yos might make for good friends. I really think that they will connect if they've met each other. After about an hour she started seeing what I meant. We hung out, drank, then went to the Malecon and chatted some more a lo Cubano. Orly was telling more of her Telanovela life story. My god Orly, you are such a good story teller; I am always captivated as if it is a dramatic movie or something. The stories are so heartfelt.

Israel tired after a day of training

Beautiful Yeri

Yeri and Orly

The girls

The whole gang without Yos and Avi

Malecon at sunset, people just hang out

Stunning last sunset, saying goodbye to La Habana

We all had a good laugh and a pretty good evening. Lots of hugs and kisses over and over with my two little brother and sisters. When it was time to say goodbye it was hard. Yeri told me, like in past years, that I was leaving for “Santiago.” She says this when it is very hard to say goodbye again. I told her that this time I was going to “Baracoa” because now that I have really been to Santiago, I didn’t like it so much. Yeri looked at me and said:”You are going even further away” and I just cracked up. Considering that going to “Baracoa” was going back to Canada, what did it matter if it was Santiago or Baracoa. Yeri, there is no one like you on this planet! ha ha ha

We said our goodbyes, another huge long hug for both, and another one, and another one.. Was so hard to let go. And they were off on their way home. I told Orly that I was happy that she met all my friends in Cuba, she now has a wider circle of friends. It’s hard to find people in Cuba with no necessity which gives you as a foreigner an opportunity to form a real deep friendship. I have been lucky over time to find some amazing people here, and now they are also part of Orly’s life, who will find it easier to live here with people that understand what she is feeling and thinking. There is common ground.

Orly and I went on to meet Rolo and discuss some more project ideas that could pan out. Rolo was telling me more about the character that he was creating for me in his film. It was funny because he used a lot of my characteristics to create the character and make it authentic, yet the story has nothing to do with my life. I got excited. My own first role in a Cuban film. Sweet! I can’t wait!

Then Orly and I walked back to my hotel and talked some more, we grabbed a quick bite on the way. By the time we got to the hotel, it was really really hard to say goodbye. So many hugs, I just could not let go. We stood there; I looked at Orly and said:”Orly where am I going to? I live here, no?” and I laughed. It did feel strange to leave. It’s always so hard to leave home, be it Israel or be it Cuba. Meeting Orly this time even made it harder because we have become so close and we shared so much of our personal life together. Eventually my eyes were shutting down. We gave each other one more heartfelt hug and I was off to bed.

I was in bed, eyes shut trying to fall asleep. I was so emotional that it was hard to sleep even though I was exhausted. Close to 1 AM I heard an SMS come in, I knew who it was. I opened my eyes all tired, rolled over heavily and read it. It was Orly saying one more goodbye and how much all of this meant to her. I sent her a message back, saying the same. My eyes were all watery, the best kind when you love people. I flipped over and fell asleep in seconds.

In the morning I woke up way too early. I was way too emotional to be able to sleep. The Malecon was so calm and dawn was beautiful. I took some pictures. I am never awake at this time to see it with these colours. The lights of the cars and the street lamps still reflecting in the water, yet there was enough light to see the sea with its beautiful colours. So calm, so peaceful. I packed my last things, and went to say good bye to Melba and Alberto It was time!

When they opened the door they said:”We were just talking about you.” They said it with such enthusiasm as if they just finished the sentence as I walked in. I asked them what about, and Melba responded:”That you could not leave without saying goodbye.” I looked at Melba with a big smile and said:”Is that how you know me? Would I leave without saying goodbye?” We sat outside on the balcony, Melba was completely sick, and we chatted for an hour. At one point Alberto said to me:”:You did good when you connected us all.” He was referring to the fact that I connected them, Orly and Yos, Yerilu and Israel, and Avi, or as I call it, the first Israeli Kibbutz in Cuba. Ha ha ha. I don’t remember the exact words he used but he pretty much said that I am a really good person and that I did them all good by bringing them all together. He made me glow with happiness. I was so happy that I could give them that.

Cuba is difficult for those that have a different financial situation where the necessity doesn’t enter the friendship. And out of these people there are those who are humble and there are those that have an ego about it, and treat other Cubans as if they are better than them. All the people that I keep around me are gold. It took me a long time to find each and every one of them and to develop the kind of friendship I have with them. Because of this I want them all to have a wider circle. I said to Yeri one day:”Yeri, no hay como ustedes” (Yeri, there is nobody like you guys.) She looked at me with a puppy look, humble and almost discouraged, and said:”Sometimes I think that we are the only ones.” She didn’t say it with an ego, trying to make them sound better than everybody else. She meant it, because it’s hard to find people in Cuba that have chosen the path that they all have chosen. But they exist and I slowly find them one by one and bring them together. I try to make them see that there are others and help them make the circle wider, so life feels more comfortable. Sometimes it takes me a bit of time to bring down their guard to make them see what I see about these people. They are my little family in Cuba, I watch out for them as they do for me.

I left their home glowing from what Alberto said to me. He said such nice things that really made me feel special, and made me feel like I really made a difference for all of my friends. I hugged them both and went out to the street for the last time to walk and take it all in. I was dressed like a Cuban and walked like one, and looked in people’s eyes like one. It was good to feel Havana one last time and say my personal Cuban goodbye.

Cubans get confused when I look like a Cuban; sometimes it creates the strangest situations. For example: It happens that taxis do not stop for me thinking I don’t have money. This time around, when I was already at the airport and they scanned my bags after passport control, the guy asked to see my passport. When he opened it and saw Canada, he said:”Se parece Cubana” (You look like a Cuban). I smiled and said:”Casi Cubana despues de cinco anos, pero no” (Almost Cuban after 5 years, but not.) He laughed with me. I realized that as a Cuban it seemed strange that I would have so much electronic equipment and video tapes – I filmed my dance classes. But for a foreigner it made sense.

That’s it, at the airport now, it‘s been hard to say goodbye to everyone once again. I will miss this place and my great family like friends, till next year… I will miss you Havana, I will miss you Cuba, I will miss everyone. Orly, you are special to me. Thank you for the amazing time we shared together in Cuba. Till next time, sis. I am waiting with anticipation to get your news.

Signing off from La Habana

La Cubanita de Israel

Getting a part in a Cuban film

noreply@blogger.com (Chen Lizra) — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 21:40:00 +0000

August 8 2010

It’s almost midnight on Sunday and I am back in the hotel. Outside the Havana Carnival is about to end after a week of celebrations in which the Malecon was closed. It’s always after the 26th of July. I love it that I can say always, after so many years. I love Havana as a city. I love Cuba as a place to visit and live in for the summer.

Today I woke up slowly and took my time feeling like I have a day off. Since yesterday I’ve spent most of my day in the pool and was still a little red, I decided to give it a rest today and to come back to working on my tan next weekend. I love being so brown, it makes the contrast of the light colours of my clothing on my skin so yummy.

So I made plans with Orly, Yos and Avi to come with me to meet Rolo. Rolo is a famous producer/ director here. By Cuban standard he is a celebrity. He has his own TV show which he hosts and he works on many great projects internationally. He told me that he wanted to show me this project that he is working on with a contemporary group in Camaguey. I figured that our little gang will enjoy meeting him as well and dragged them all along.

We arrived in his apartment which is close to the Spanish embassy, his view is unreal. For a Cuban he lives in luxury. He’s done well in life out of hard work and pure talent. Rolo worked, lived and studied in many places in the world. He is very interesting to get to know and talk to. His mom joined us for lunch as well, a classy lady. She lived here before the revolution and after. She was here when Batista ruled the country. Interesting to talk to.

Before lunch, Orly, he and I went to his studio. He showed us his latest work – the film which he filmed and is now in the process of editing. My jaw just dropped. The guy is mega talented. But when I say talented, it’s hard to give him full credit with words. I’d love for people to see his work to get it. He filmed a theatre show in such a way which is like filming a drama that tells the story better than if I watched it as an audience in the theatre. The intro of his film grabbed me so strong emotionally that I could not help but watch the whole thing over an hour. I was completely blown away by his work and incredible artistic vision.

We watched the film, Rolo negotiated with the guys the lunch time for us. Welcome to Cuba – Cuban time! Orly and I were just in awe. Wow! This DVD which is high definition is something else. And Rolo is refreshing. So nice to meet such a talented person. And one of the things that I love about Cuba is the lack of ego. He did not have even one drop of it in him, which made him stand out as unique. Rolo could have lived anywhere in the world but Cuba is where his heart is. He loves the place and even says that he would be miserable living anywhere else. So he works with the limitations and he makes it work. He could be making a lot more money outside of Cuba, but his heart is here. I admire him for his courageous choice and pure heart.

So we saw the video and talked about his project. Orly showed him the video clip of one of her songs which was filmed in Cuba, and I showed him the concept of my TV show. He loved both. We then took a break for food which was AMAZING! We had paella and wine. I was almost licking my fingers with delight.

After the lunch and some great conversations I showed Rolo the choreographic work I did this year and all of my performances. He was blown away that I could portray Cuban dance in such an authentic way that I looked Cuban. He got so excited that I was honoured. Coming from a talented director like him and even more so, someone who films professional Cuban dancers, and this is his culture – he knows what is good and what is not. Wow! What can I say? I am humbled. I was truly honoured. His compliment hit me ten times harder than anyone else’s.

Rolo then turned to me and said:”I am working on a film and I want to create a small part for you. It’s a love story about a guy.... and your roll will be..” He is at the financing stage and hopes to make it happen in the next half a year to a year. I looked at him with eyes wide open and said:”of course I am interested.” It’s been my dream to do something in Cuba, some cool project, and film – yes!. Wow again! I can’t wait to read the script which he promised to send me.

So I think that I might have to come back in the future to be in his film and it will be even a bigger honour if it really happens. Rolo creating a character for me in his film.. I’d be in heaven! I’d be only so lucky to work with such a talented person on such a cool project, and of all places in Cuba.

We then hung out some more in his apartment and studio. Orly talked to him about what she wants to do here and so on. I put my IPOD on and started dancing – my energy is at last coming back. Not being able to go through one than 2-3 hours without dancing is the way it usually is. Ha ha ha. Hopefully all will go well tomorrow in classes.

Yos and Avi were enjoying themselves on the balcony. They both learn from each other so much – Avi has an interesting perspective on Cuba as a foreigner who has been here for so many years. Yos knows his country and history inside out as a tour guide. And with a breath taking view of the port and part of the old city, what could they ask for more. They did not care while the Israeli girls – one singer, one dancer - were getting all excited about another artist’s talent. Orly and I keep joking that we just need a few musicians and she and I could start a touring group. Ha ha ha

Eventually after about 4 or 5 hours there, it was time to go. Originally Avi and I were supposed to go to Itsel’s Tambor to see a Santeria ceremony. I like going to them, people usually get possessed and you experience some things that are unreal. But it didn’t seem to fit; we were in a complete different head space. So instead we stopped at Melba and Alberto’s house. I’ve been meaning to introduce Avi to them. Alberto was in heaven, he really wanted to meet Avi for a while now. And now I have them all connected, our little created community inside of Havana, or as I call it the first Israeli Kibbutz in Havana.. ha ha ha

Oh yes and Rolo promised Orly and I to organize a surprise evening with dancers and musicians just for us to meet. Wow again! He is connected to such amazing people. Orly will get to go to the premier of his film and the performance in Havana. I so wish I could be here for that. There is a “red carpet” event (Cuban red carpet) and an opportunity to meet more amazing and talented people here. But that’s ok, Orly will go and will report and hopefully by the time I’ll be back Orly will manage to expand the “Israeli Kibbutz” and I’ll get to meet others through her.

So after Alberto and Melba’s place we headed to Havana Vieja to sit, chill and drink something. It was steaming hot today and we needed a cooler. Yos and Avi hit it off with a good conversation. Later on Avi realized that an Israeli couple was sitting right beside us and we all had a long conversation. Orly and I got into this very personal conversation the way that only women can develop. It feels like there is such sister trust building between us that the conversations are getting deeper and deeper, and more personal.

I was sitting at one point attached to the edge of my seat. Orly’s life has been such a Telanovela that in about an hour I managed to cry twice, laugh, and get excited for her. A child star in Paris named the Shirley Temple of France, who lost her stardom just to recapture it again years later in the Lion King in Germany. There is a lot more to this story but it’s too personal to write. What a life story she has! Wow!

Then it was getting late and I had to call it quits and like Cinderella get to bed before midnight. Dance classes require me to focus completely and my body cannot be tired. This is what I call a perfect day – the company, the experiences, the food.. All of it. Loved it!

Weekend and dance classes

noreply@blogger.com (Chen Lizra) — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 23:25:00 +0000

August 2 2010

Today I was supposed to start my dance classes. I prepared myself for Yusimi’s class because she kills me in classes. She works me so hard that I think I will actually lose weight here. I went to sleep early, ate well in the morning. At 8:30 AM I was at the lobby ready for the drilling. But she never showed up. Welcome to Cuba! So I tracked down Yeri and Israel to try and figure out what was going on. Yusimi was not to be found. So hopefully tomorrow we can start.

I went instead all around and got some things that I needed done. I also went to get some vegetables and ate in one of the hotels tomatoes. Oh the glory, no, you cannot understand the happiness of seeing a tomato – a fresh one, and other vegetables that have other colour other than green. I sat there in pure bliss and chewed each tomato piece as many times as I could to enjoy every bite to the max. Whenever I come out of Cuba I crave for red sweet tomatoes. Oh yes, and sushi. But tomatoes... tomatoes... red... not green... tomatoes. One can dream of the little things in life that make you go emmmm.

Cuba really makes you rethink life. We take tomatoes for granted. At this time of the year it will be hard for you to find any in the markets here. Cuba grows tomatoes but some go for export and others, at this time a year when it rains, cost too much because they come from greenhouses. Due to all of this, summer time in Cuba means you have to pay a high price in the hotels to get a salad. My salad consisted of tomatoes, carrots and something that looked like a carrot but was yellow, and shrimps. I asked the waiter if they had pepinos (cucumbers). That would send me off the roof with joy, being able to have fresh cucumbers and tomatoes together. He said :”necesitamos buscar pepinos” (we need to look for cucumbers), and about 10 minutes later I had them in my plate. I really didn’t need to know how and what “we need to LOOK for tomatoes” meant. I was just in heaven. A real salad with variety! Wow!

It’s hard to explain how simple Cuba is. How you start to take life much lighter when this is your reality every day. In Cuba, you just laugh about it all, or else you will find life to be too heavy to bare. But this is also what makes life so joyful here; the simplest things come to you with the power of thunder and hit your heart. If you have the right attitude, a positive one, you will find Cuba charming. If not, you will find Cuba annoying and maybe even too much for you. I find that it is about meeting expectations.

Today I ran into Orly and Yos in the lobby of my hotel. Orly came to do some internet. I came back from classes with Zuyima and Giordano. I wasn’t feeling good. One hour and my body was shot. It’s not like me, but my body is not recovering well yet and it has turned into a major problem considering that I have to train now very intensely. Zuyima kept bugging me:”Dale, porque no bailas con todo tu cuerpo?” (let’s go, why aren’t you dancing with your whole body?). And I responded:”estoy marcando” (I am marking it). I was trying to conserve energy. After one hour I could not do more. I was run down. Zuyima could tell the difference, she has seen me do hours and hours of training last year. I have to see how the next couple of days will go.

In the meantime they taught me some really cool combinations which I showed Yos afterwords. He was super happy about it. And Giordano started teaching me how to play as a guy in Salsa. I really like his style of dancing. He has a way of playing which makes it fun for the woman. He cracks me up when he leads. Cubans say that the man’s job is to entertain the woman when they lead. I love this concept. And they do! He also hits on me all the time with seduction and Zuyima makes fun of him for being such a Cuban. It adds spice to the dancing and all together is fun. I just don’t respond beyond that. I’ve been ignoring him so far and just telling him to “focus” on teaching me. But if he will keep hitting my heart, I will declare war and will use on him whatever seduction secrets I have. Hey, what is fair is fair. Don’t play with fire if you do not want to get burned.

Seduction in Cuban dancing is fun because it adds a spark to the dancing. When I dance in Canada men don’t know these secrets and so the dancing becomes very technical and boring. In Cuba seduction is always present in the dancing and outside of it. It is a way of life for the Cubans. If you take it out of the dancing, what is left? I’ve been studying female seduction for 5 years, now I want to add to it male seduction in order to get the guys going. This way when I teach them, I can give both men and women tools to make the game more fun. Seduction for me is an art form, not a way of turning people into players. It’s a way to bring fire to your relationships. I refuse to teach people or in places that try to play with people’s hearts. It’s not what it is about. It’s about adding spice to your life. I just wish I could feel better already so that I could focus on picking up as much of it as I can.

Yos and Orly and I went to grab a drink and to sit and just chat. After an hour I took them to see Melba and Alberto. I figured they would really enjoy knowing each other and so it was. At first Melba and Alberto were a little hesitant. Because they rent rooms in their home they get to meet so many people – sometimes it’s comfortable sometimes not. So they take their time to figure out if they would like to really connect. But after about 20 minutes, they were all enjoying the funny stories that Orly was telling about wanting to make French crepes in Cuba, and how by the time she managed to get eggs the milk got gets spoiled. Welcome to Cuba! It's so real that you just have to laugh. And as everyone says about her: “Ella, casi Cubana!”( She is half Cuban!) She was talking about how she and Yos planned their wedding in 3 days and stood out on the street by hotel Nacional talking in two phone booths to try and book everything. Phone booths because they could, not for the life of them, get a Cuban line at home. Bienvenidos a Cuba! The lineup to get one is so long and has no specific time line. They will get one when a line will get available, pretty much. That’s why so many lines are shared between apartments and when you call they tell you “call again, we won’t pick up.”

In Cuba with no help of your friends, you won’t be able to make it one day. People have to help each other. As Orly’s friend said one night: “I get messages on my phone – Get me eggs!- not, can you please, or would you. get me!” In Cuba if you don’t ask for help, you won’t be able to manage life. Today you ask for eggs and tomorrow they need oil, as a friend put it plain and simple. That’s why there is such strong solidarity here, and such a strong sense of community. People have to lean on each other.

It reminds me of Israel in the 70s. You can still find these values in Israel, Israel has a very strong sense of community and is very family which is similar to Cuba. But with time things have become more comfortable and as the rest of the world, things have changed. People lean more on money and their own ability. But you cannot even start to compare Israel to North America where there is no sense of community. Israel is closer to Cuba in that sense. And that’s why I love Israel and Cuba so much. Growing up in Israel has given me the best values I could have hoped for. Israel is a great place to have a family and a sense of family. It is a special place.

So as we were sitting and chatting on the terrace of Alberto and Melba, I was translating for Danine and Tracey what was going on roughly, so they could keep up. It was a fun evening. I eventually had to call it quits and go back to bed. Not feeling great again, god damn it. This has never happened to me before. Getting so sick and not recovering quickly.

On the weekend I should add that Avi and I went exploring. I was feeling better and figured it would be a good break to be in the countryside. Doing it in a 4X4 car was amazing and traveling with Avi even more so. He’s been to all these places a million times and he knows where all the good stuff is, not to mention all the little interesting secrets to be found. We were in Pinar del Rio the whole weekend and I have seen more in one weekend than in all of my trips combined.

At one point in Las Terarzas he asked me if I wanted to go to the mirador (look out). I said that yes and we drove up the mountain. When we got to the little hotel at the top, Avi asked and the lady said that it was impossible to drive past that point because there were big bushes and trees that blocked the path and other obstacles. Avi looked at me and I looked at him and we both said: ”let’s go” and drove right in. Big bushes – check. Other obstacles – check. Big tree that fell down that we couldn’t cross - check a couple of meters before the top. Ok, so now the adrenaline started pumping and we climbed a few meters to the top. Avi looked at me and laughed: “now you are excited.” I started laughing. He was on to me. I love adventures. Part of the way back we had to actually drive backwards and Avi was trying to navigate us to prevent us from falling off the cliff. I had the feeling that this is not the first time that he had done this. So this was a great little adventure and we were off to the next one.

We went around to so many cool places and it was super cool to see the life in the country side. The real Cuban life as Avi calls it because Havana is not. Havana is a city of business and entertainment where all the Cubans want to come to in order to have more opportunities. When you get to Pinar del Rio you see what real Cuba is like – how simple Cubans are – what most of the country is like. It’s slow and underdeveloped. Having Avi to teach me many things about Cuba was a blessing, my knowledge of Cuba and Cuban life just grows and grows, and I love it!

Eventually we got to Vinales and checked into the hotel, we then went into town to try and find a paladar (a restaurant in someone’s house) which is the best food you’ll find. After wondering the streets and talking to people from Vinales, the bakery guy took us to his friend’s house. We ate so well that night while the grandmother in the nightgown with the big white underwear underneath cooked for us. She reminded me of my late grandmother in how she was dressed, and how she cooked in a pressure cooker.(BTW, I don’t think they make these nightgowns anymore.) She steam cooked lobsters for us which were delicious. Avi pointed out to me how authentic this whole experience was. It was! She didn’t even have a clue that it might seem strange to cook in your nightgown or serve food this way to a stranger. Really, these are the things that make Cuba so unique and so simple. These are some of the things that I just love about the place.

We then went to Polo Montanez Centre for the evening and watched the live show. Vinales has just one place to go out to and the whole town and all the tourists were there. The dancing show was cool, followed by a stand-up comedy that would just not end. I checked out. Their slang was too much and even Avi checked out after a while, it was too long to keep following. Welcome to Cuba! Anything that has to do with productivity here is nonexistent. Although the top shows in Havana are nothing like this. They are sharp.

Eventually we headed back to the hotel and planned our next day of exploring. Next day was precious and I saw so many places and things in the two days that we were away. By the time we got to Havana it felt as if a week has gone by, but it was just two days. It got me completely into the simple countryside lifestyle and all relaxed. It felt like I was in a complete different country. Best break ever! When we got to Havana at 20:00 it was hard to switch to the intensity of the city. The countryside was so soft and relaxed. It was super nice. And every experience turned into a little adventure. In general just about every experience in Cuba is an adventure that you wish you could tell the whole world about all f them. It’s exciting living here. It’s never boring that’s for sure.

In Havana the Havana Carnival was on but I was too tired after the weekend and did not go. Besides, I have seen it a few times over the years and just got back from the Santiago one – try to top that. The Carnaval is running from one weekend to the next with the whole week full of activities and the Malecon is closed for cars. So no biggy.

Ok, time to call it quits for the night!

Cuban Fashion show

noreply@blogger.com (Chen Lizra) — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 23:22:00 +0000

July 30 2010

So a few days of being in bed did me good and now I am so slow that I can’t even imagine going back to multitasking. Life is so nice when it is so slow; I wish it was the reality outside of Cuba. I wish!

Two nights ago Avi picked me up and we went to grab a drink on the terrace of Hotel Nacional. The breeze was really nice and Avi was telling me stories from Cuba. I was laughing so hard that people were constantly looking over. I was in tears because the stories were so funny. People that come to Cuba either love it or hate it. Avi and I love Cuba and because of that we look at Cuba the same way, in a lighthearted way. Anyone coming here and taking the messiness too seriously will suffer. So hearing his experiences over the years just kept me on the edge of my seat. Avi also has a dry sense of humour which is so typical of Israelis, but with now an added Cuban twist to it. I was thinking to myself that if anyone from another culture entered the conversation, it would have changed it completely; They might have not gotten the humour. So I was content with my funny night out. And sitting watching the Malecon with the nice breeze was super.

Eventually he was fading out with his jet leg, just coming back from Israel. And I was looking like I was about to collapse. We decided to call it quits. It wasn’t even midnight. That’s considered early for Cuba.

Since my days have been all in bed doing nothing, I’ve been looking forward to the evenings to get out to get some fresh air. So last night I was planning at last to meet Orly, she came back from Paris. She is a singer who lives in Cuba and travels to Paris for work, so that she could afford to live here with her husband. They have a complicated situation because no passport that they have combined can help them be anywhere else other than Cuba at the moment. They are a great couple and it's so good to see for a change a couple, of a foreigner and a Cuban, that’s together for the right reasons. Not that common here.

Orly and I have been talking for a while by e-mail and we really wanted to meet in person. And at last the opportunity presented itself. So I figured Avi would enjoy this too and called him to see if we could all get together. It worked out perfectly. Now, since I am still a tiny bit sick I am not going to any places that have super strong air conditioning, we thought of an outdoor place. Last year I was in this place and came to see Yoruba Andabo, but the show got canceled. Welcome to Cuba! So, La Maison this time it was.

Avi, Orly and Yos

We got there and turned out that there was a fashion show. Cuban fashion show I have never seen before. I was excited. Beautiful bodies and clothing but no smiles! Orly laughed and said that it was almost forbidden here, as a joke of course. But the reality of it spoke for itself. They simply didn't smile.

I was looking at our table - a Cuban tour guide, a singer who was born in Israel and moved to France when she was one year old now living in Cuba, an Israeli businessman from the agriculture field who worked in just about every Latin country before deciding to pick Cuba as his main location, and me – a dancer/entrepreneur from Israel living in Canada learning seduction in Cuba. What a mix! When Orly said: “I have a complicated life” I turned to her and said “Why? Because you don’t live a 9 to 17 kind of a life?” If you looked at our table, none of us did. In Cuba those who are “different” than what society dictates life to be, feel normal. We had in common a few things – we all live according to the way life worked for us, we all love Cuba, we all met in one common language – Spanish.

Orly and Yos, her husband, were a delight. And Avi and I were fascinated by Orly’s super cool accent – a mix of Spanish and sexy French. It was a real fun evening getting to know them and hearing their funny Cuban stories. Avi as usual was cracking us up with his dry humour. We were laughing so hard from his easy going and fun personality. What can I say? New great friends!

Orly told us that her birthday was coming up this week and invited us, how could we refuse. Sounded like more good times. I am sure she has pretty amazing friends here. I got back to my hotel and crashed with a big smile on.

Will I make it back alive?

noreply@blogger.com (Chen Lizra) — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 16:19:00 +0000

July 29 2010

OK, so this crazy story started the night before everyone left. Paty saw me at the lobby and told me that I looked really run down. My eyes were really red and I was so tired. The air just came out of my sails. It’s been 6 months without a stop, everything possible had gone wrong this year and made it really hard to keep the business floating. A world economic crisis, then the winter Olympics which hurt so many businesses, then a European financial crisis and it goes on. When you own a business, it all affects you in all sorts of ways, which many times you cannot even predict. I could not take time off in April as I always do. I worked ten times harder to compensate. At times it felt like full gas neutral.

Before arriving in Cuba I was scheduled to have a 5 day break of just rest but that didn’t happen either. Some other crisis came up last minute that required my attention. I had to resolve it before leaving. I ended up arriving with my tongue hanging to the side, and running around for two weeks. By the end of it I sat at the lobby the last night and there was nothing left in me.

Since I arrived back in Cuba I haven’t been dancing – not in classes, not in parties. Very little here and there. I just feel that my body needs rest and I am trying to give it what it needs to recover.

So the time came when all my guests left their own way and I was scheduled to travel and rest. I woke up on the 22nd and had breakfast, packed it all and at 12 had to check out of the hotel. I left my things with Melba and Alberto and had to kill time till 17:30 – the time the taxi would wait downstairs to take me to the airport – domestic flight to Santiago. The heat was intense and I was really tired. I really wished I could put my head down somewhere and sleep for a while but I had no room and I booked my flight in the evening to make sure that if Ashley still needed anything I’d be around. So I was wondering the streets trying to kill time and escape the difficult heat.

About an hour and a half before the flight I felt that I have had enough, I had to rest somewhere for real. I came back to Melba and Alberto’s house and crashed on their sofa for a bit. Danine and Tracey had already arrived and they hit the streets right away.

About half an hour before I left Ashley came back and it was good to see her before leaving. She was doing great. And that was it, my taxi arrived and off I was. A short drive and I was for the first time in the domestic airport. I checked a small bag in and went upstairs to wait for my flight. The air-conditioning was intense and I had nothing extra on me. But I managed to find a spot that was not too bad and waited.

Eventually the boarding started and we got on the bus – old style – driving you to the plane. No sleeves. I got on the plane and sat down in my seat. I right away noticed that not only that the plane was really old but that it had writings in Russian. This meant that this plane has been around at least for 20 or 30 years, before the USSR fell down. Melba later on corrected me and told me that some have been around for 50 years. If you could only see the washrooms – they belong in a museum. I am serious!

The woman next to me and her daughter were obviously middle class from the way she was dressed, to the way she talked, and to their belongings. Yes, I know, it is a strange thing to say middle class in a socialist country, but Cuba is not equal to all, this is the reality of it. And there is a lower, middle and upper class – the gaps are just much smaller. And the upper is not rich or anything like that, at least not by the standard that we mean it.

She turned to me at one point and said something like “can you believe this? How can this man be so well kept and his woman is looking so ugly?” Oh then, a gossipy one. I just laughed; this was probably the weirdest way to start a conversation with a stranger. There was noting that I felt I could add to this "deep" conversation.

A few minutes gone by and a man working for the airline came by and talked to her, held her hand which was full of golden rings on each finger and caressed one specifically. Their hands were stuck right in front of my face since she was to my right and her daughter by the window. She turned all giggly like her heart was racing fast. They talked about him being in this port and that port and that they had to meet. I could not help but feel that this was her lover. Eventually, later on in the flight, she and I chatted a bit and turns out she is a doctor and she flies around. She started telling me about Santiago as a Santiaguera and told me what was good about the city and where to look for things. She also told me how much the taxi should cost. Santiago is smaller and much cheaper than Havana, so this information was very valuable. I was getting the first feel for it.

On my left and just across the aisle there was a 15 year old boy, he got assigned to get on the plane and they needed a signature to get him off. He looked at me for ten minutes staring me in the eyes as if he wanted me. No really, this was ridiculous. I don’t think he noticed he still had milk on his lips. This is when things, in my opinion, become messed up in Cuba. When a boy who could be my son thinks that he can seduce me and he thinks that it is normal. It made me sick to my stomach.

In the meantime the cold in the airplane had become unbearable and I was shaking from the cold , as everywhere else was. I guess in such an old plane there is just on and off – there is no way to control the amount. My throat started bugging me and I felt that I could easily get sick in this situation. Switching from intense air-conditioning to the extreme heat of Cuba was not an easy thing. As we were about to land, the flight attendant was walking spraying something which was strange. I turned back and the whole bloody plane was in smoke. I was sure we were on fire and was ready to freak out, but all the Cubans were as calm as a little pond. The boy was still staring at me so I tried to change it by talking to him like a boy and asking him if this was normal. He laughed trying to act like a man watching out for a woman and said that it was normal. His behaviour was even more ridiculous now.

At last we got off the plane and it was good to be back in the heat and to defrost. When I say defrost, I mean defrost. I was an icicle and I was starting to feel bad. I waited for my bag, the little girl and I were joking. When my bags arrived – almost last – I passed the security check. They check that you are taking your own bag and not anyone else’s. I went and got a taxi and headed to the hotel. It was close to 23:00. Orlando called me that day and told me that he’d come and get me from the hotel and we’d hang for one evening before heading out to Baracoa next day. The original hotel I booked was in the centre, at the heart of it all, a boutique hotel full of character. Three days before the trip, Javier told me that the hotel got changed and that we were being offered a different hotel to substitute it. Considering that I booked it for Keren, Paty and myself about 2-3 months ahead, I asked why. Javier explained that some important delegation came for the carnival and the hotel changed it. That tells you how much reservation means something in Cuba. There was nothing that he could do. When I arrived at the hotel, I had to figure out the taxi for next day – I realized pretty quickly that this hotel was not in the centre and that getting a taxi to come there was a nightmare. I was thinking of Paty and Keren and figured I’d talk to Javier next day to see what could be done. I was also scheduled to come back to the same hotel. There was no solution to the taxi but they told me they’d resolve it. Orlando never showed up, but I was so tired and run down that it wasn’t the end of the world. I was just disappointed that he didn’t live up to the expectation he set up himself. The hotel itself was fine but the air conditioning was moist, like the filter didn’t get cleaned in a long time and that did not contribute to my health.

I went for a quick walk and saw that there was a pool. I ran into the security guard there. He asked me a thing or two and then I headed back to my room. I heard him call behind me in Spanish ”come here.” It sounded like he was calling a dog. I turned my head just a tiny bit to make sure he was talking to me. He was. So I looked straight and just kept going with determination, and ignored him. He called after me with a forceful voice and repeated it a few times, getting upset he was not getting the results he wanted. I was told before I left Havana to watch out for the Santiagueros, that they were more aggressive than the Habaneros. He was the second aggressive person, after the taxi driver that dropped me off and was trying to sell me a night in a house, even though I was booked at the hotel. From my experience in Cuba, when people get this pushy here it's when their window of opportunity is very small. I walked back to my room, took a shower, the rain started pouring and I just crashed till 6:20 when I heard a knock on my door.

One of the guys working there was trying to figure out a solution for me for the taxi and he told me where to come to once I was ready at 7. 6:30 my alarm went off. I was exhausted. I dressed up, packed my small bag (I love traveling this light) and went to where he told me to go. And.. nada. Not a person, no taxi, no nothing. Eventually he showed up and said that there was no taxi driver but one of the workers could drive me. He asked me where I was from, then asked me if I was Jewish, then asked me if Jewish people could marry non Jewish, then told me that if he would have been younger he would have married me. Yeah well, good morning to you too. Santiagueros are more aggressive. I was not even awake yet to think of anything smart to say, and seduction was starting to get on my nerves in the Oriente.

The guy at reception who was supposed to drive me kept pushing the time back and I was getting nervous. In Cuba nothing ever works according to plan and arriving last minute to anything can lead to bad choices; it doesn’t give me enough time to read the situation well. And eventually I did pay the price by sitting right by the washrooms at the end of the bus which was bloody stinky.

I finally made it to the bus and was on my way to Baracoa. The drive was beautiful through the famous Sierra Maesrta, and the whole area is so green and Caribbean like. Santiago is a whole other game ball and a place that has to either grow on you or not. I like Havana’s vibe better personally. On the way to Baracoa I already let Javier know that there was a problem with the hotel trying to figure out what can be done. Javier is really great; he really does the best he can to make it all work. Sadly, nothing could be done since Santiago’s hotels were all sold out due to the carnival. What was left was just casas.

On the bus I met a driver who wasn’t working on that route but was part f the company. He was explaining a lot to me about the trip, Baracoa and the area. Eventually he started “working on me.” How typical. I also met Arianne and Richard – a couple from England with their two cute daughters – 7 and 8 years old. British and Cuban is an interesting mix! and hearing Arianne speak with a British accent, saying “brilliant” and “lovely” made me crack up.

When we got to Baracoa I managed to shake off the driver who was trying to make plans with me for the evening and made plans to meet Arianne, Richard and the girls. They come here every year and know the place inside out. I went and checked into the hotel, then met them and went with them for a quick lunch. After a quick lunch and some great stories, I went exploring on my own. We said we’d meet for dinner at their casa, now that’s the way to eat!

So I went around and explored. Baracoa is amazing. It is tiny like Trinidad but sitting right on the sea. It is super slow and relaxed. Just what I needed. I walked to the top, to the fortress which was now turned into a hotel and discovered the bay on the other side. I then walked down to the bay and checked the local beach. Young kids were coming on to me, one of them was so aggressive that I told him “puedo ser tu mama” (I can be your mom) and him and his friends giggled about it. Seduction was seriously getting on my nerves here. I just needed a break and to be left alone for five minutes. But seduction doesn’t take a break in Cuba, it’s full on all the time. I walked back and all around to the bus terminal and back through the Malecon (seawall).

As I walked back on the Malecon, this guy popped out of nowhere and asked me if I wanted to rent a bike for next day. I said no. He asked me where I was from and I said from Israel. He said that his cousin was living in Israel. I asked him what his name was and he told me Pipo. Now that’s funny! Patricia wanted to connect me to him the last time I had to perform on TV in Israel. Eventually I found somebody else to work with. But when Paty and I went to a Latin party he was there so I asked him to dance. He didn't know who I was. He told me he preferred to drink his beer. I told this to his cousin and told him that five years outside of Cuba changed him. His jaw almost dropped while he heard this story. He could not believe that he preferred the beer over me. By Cuban standard, that’s like a national sin. He told me he’d give him shit for it the next time he’d talk to him. But now Renato, the cousin, has attached himself to me. Welcome to Cuba! So I told him that I needed to go and see Arianne and that maybe I’ll see him tonight when I’ll go dancing. Bye bye. Cubans on this side of the island are intense!

I went back to my room and refreshed. It took just a bit longer and it was time for dinner. I was really tired and run down, for two nights I did not sleep much or well, my body was tired and all the bad air conditions were not helping my health. I had a wonderful dinner with Arianne and Richard and he girls. I then went to change and we went out to see what was going on (minus the girls). We went to Casa de la Trova.

Almost as soon as we arrived Rentao realized that I was there, and even though we sat down and he was not invited, he stood beside me as if he owned me. One conversation on the street and he was treating me as if I was his girlfriend, taking ownership. I sat down and talked to Arianne and Richard ignoring him. He didn’t give up and gave a good fight by starting to talk to me. I answered his questions, turning only my head towards him. My body language was clear. At the first gasp of air I turned back to Richard and Arianne as if to end the conversation. He let it go and went inside. Round one of the battle to stay alone was over. Cuban men can be sometimes exhausting. After a song or two the music got really good and I went in to see what was going on and to dance a song or two. I haven’t been dancing at all. I stood there dancing to myself knowing that someone would ask me to dance. Renato did. I wanted to dance so I said yes, although I would have preferred it not to be him. We danced one song and he got excited with “you dance really well, like a Cuban.” I could see his "potential girlfriend thoughts" coming up again. He then asked me to dance another dance. I refused. By his standard he was moving in, next would be to meet the whole family. I am not joking, this is how fast they move. To him, if I danced with him two songs in a row it would mean that I am with him. I refused and he got disappointed again; the guy would just not let go. I walked out and joined my friends. Since he marked me and this is a tiny village, good chance no one would ask me to dance leaving it open for him to make another move. I thought to myself that this is like playing chess, you have to consider your every move, and all I wanted to do was simply dance!!

Richard and Arianne suggested we’d go to the Malecon to check some of the other parties and I thought it was a great idea. So we got up and left. There were so many people and kids playing on the streets. It's beautiful to watch. As we got closer to the parties it started raining. We got into the lobby of my hotel and waited. Eventually they were so tired and so was I, that we called it quits. I went back up to my room and tried to go to sleep. But the hotel was right on the corner and the noise from the parties would not stop till late at night. It also started all over again right at 8 in the morning. In between, drunk Cubans were all over the 10 rooms in the hotel and I woke up at 2, then at 3, then at 4. I got up and called out of my room in Spanish that it was impossible to sleep and to keep it down twice. It was a rough night. The air conditioning was really bad and there was that kind of moist feeling that makes you sick, which is unhealthy. I was feeling bad but I was so tired that I could not tell if I was getting sick or just exhausted.

During the day I have managed to eventually speak to Javier and realized that I could not change anything about the hotel in Santiago, not for me nor for Paty and Keren. But since I had two vouchers, I could cancel my voucher and change my plan. So I did. I was in no condition to travel the next day as planned and I liked Baracoa way more than Santiago. So when morning arrived, I had a quick breakfast which was horrible, and then packed my little bag and started looking for a new place. The casa where Ari and Richard were staying had two rooms but one of them was only getting cleared later in the afternoon, I needed a place to at last put my head down. I stopped by the house and talked to them, then told them I’d see them in the evening for dinner. I climbed to the top of Baracoa to the fortress hotel, got myself a room, and then had a nice swim in the pool. I was on top of Baracoa surrounded by water and mountains, with beautiful palm trees and a great Caribbean feel to it. Stunning!

But in all of this I was feeling very bad, my head was pounding and I needed sleep. Three nights with no sleep, bad air conditions and bad food, and general fatigue were getting to me. I went to my room which had another type of air condition that felt like the filter had not been cleaned in years and was not healthy for me. I put my head on the pillow and passed out. Next thing I know I was shaking for five hours in my room, shaking like I have never shaken before. All I could think about what four things: I should travel next time with a goodbye letter on me to the people I love in case anything happens to me, you just never know. I’d hate to think that they would be left with not even one word of finality telling them how much I loved them. I didn’t have any plans of saying goodbye any time soon but the way I got sick, I did not know if I would make it. The second thing was that there was no way I could make it for dinner and Arianne, Richard and the owners would think I was some stupid tourist that worked them. The third thing was that my dad always says “as long as you have your health nothing else matters.” But I didn’t have my health now, so it meant that nothing was ok right now. The forth thing was that I think my body went into a shock from everything. I was in such bad shape that I could not even pick up the phone to call reception. I was losing liquids by the second and nothing to drink in my room. I just hoped I’d make it. Five hours went by before the shaking and fever calmed down. My head was pounding so hard that I could not even think straight.

After five hours I managed to gather some energy and called reception. I asked them to bring me some drinks to the room. It took every drop of energy in my body. I then passed out again till I heard the knock on my door. I dragged myself out of bed, everything felt so heavy. I opened the door and there was the security guard with my drinks. He asked me if I was sick and I confirmed with a nod. That explained to him the odd request of bringing things to my room. I don’t think that there was room service in this small hotel. I paid and passed out on the bed again. I was trying to gather energy to open the can. After a while I had a bit of energy and I managed to open the can. Then I had to gather energy to sit up just enough to be able to drink it. I had to keep my eyes shut to keep it together. I eventually managed to drink the can. Same effort and process and I managed to drink the Malta too. Some juices and sugar were going in mixed with some medication for fever I had in my bag. I then passed out again for a few hours.

When I woke up again under a million blankets I could not breath the air of this bad air condition. I felt that it was making me sicker by the minute. When we get sick, we look for a comfortable space to crawl into and I was so uncomfortable that it was not helping me get better. I turned the air condition off despite the intense heat and tried to go and take a shower. I sweated like a pig for hours. I was so weak. This is Cuba so I was hoping for hot water but you never know, and thank god there was hot water. But the part that transfers the water from the lower part to the upper part did not work. Welcome to Cuba! So I had to crouch to shower. My head was spinning so hard that I had to lean on the side of the shower to keep from falling. The shower made me feel better and gave me some energy to get out of my room. I went for a short walk and sat outside by the pool. It was night time already. I bought some water and took some more medication.

As I was sitting there trying to gather myself, I was haunted by the thought that I bailed on dinner and had no way of letting them know. When I gathered some more energy I went to reception and asked if they could call my old hotel which was two blocks away and ask them to walk to the neighbour's house and let them know. This is how you do it in Cuba. They said they will (which they never did). I climbed back to my room and this time opened the windows and left the door open. There was a great breeze and fresh air from the sea. I felt that I was at last getting on the right track. I passed out on my bed till the parties started then I had to close the windows. I was so jealous. There was great music playing from the bottom. I wished I could join, but I just surrendered to life. Do as you please with me life. Obviously you have another plan for me while I am down here. Rest! Life has a funny way of working itself out. You can plan and plan and plan, but at the end of the day, life happens as it does.

I woke up next morning feeling a little better but still sick. I went for breakfast which was horrible but I did not eat for a whole day and needed to get some energy in my body. You know the food is disgusting when you are in a location where they grow pineapples, and you see them grow outside your window, yet you get served pineapple from a can. Breakfast was truly disgusting but I got some energy in my body which was important. I then felt I had to go and see Ari and Richard. I climbed down all the way from the fortress and walked to the house. They were having breakfast. I apologized to the house owner and offered to pay for my dinner. He refused. I insisted. He refused. I offered partial payment. He accepted. Ari told me that she thought I was partying. I said that it wasn’t like me to bail with no message for a party. I would have had dinner and then gone partying. Just comes to show they don’t know me yet. So I sat down with them and they were having an amazing breakfast with real fruits and yummy stuff. I just had a thing or two.

In the meantime in their house, they moved to their old room and some British woman took over the second room. She joined us for breakfast and heard the horror stories I was telling about being so sick to the point that I thought I would not make it. Next thing you know she asked me where I was from and started pounding on the whole Israeli Palestinian issue. Now when I am so sick and with so little energy + first thing in the morning, the last thing I want to do is have a “discussion” about Israeli politics. That being said, what was more annoying was that she had no sense in her. She started talking about how we should all become one country. When I challenged the thought saying that there was no way you can form one government for both nations and that this will NEVER happen. She got upset and told me ”what bothers me is that you say NEVER. We are all human beings, we should all be able to become enlightened and to learn to become one and love each other. Your thought about NEVER should change..” Oh god! Not an airy fairy one! Oh yes! And little patience I had left in me. I tried to get out of this conversation which was not leading anywhere logical as soon as I could. The first opportunity I had I was out of there and on my way back to my hotel which was so many stairs from the bottom of the village. I figured, all I needed to do is get there then pass out. I told Ari and Richard that this time I was not making plans for dinner as before. I did not know how I would feel.

I went and got big bottles of water and juice and used the last energy to climb back up. I then rested on my bed for a while. When I felt a little better I went out to the swimming pool. Everyone staying in the hotel left in the meantime and this was my private stunning pool. If to fall apart like this then at least in a stunning location like this. Only more comfort was missing but I was slowly finding my way to it learning to work the system. I swam for a while and rested by the pool, but an hour later I was feeling horrible again and went back to bed leaving the door and windows open. I had fever again but this time I had drinks by my bed side and I was taking medication.

All through the day I was bursting into uncontrolled tears. I was feeling like I was going through an emotional melt down. Well life, if you need to take what you need, do it all now and let’s get it all over with. It felt like a good house cleaning to my tubes. My body was falling apart, my emotions were all over the place. Oh well, I surrender. Let it all be. I was hyper sensitive. I turned on the TV which was supposed to have satellite. It’s Cuba so it was flashing every couple of seconds and anything emotional made me cry. I turned it off and rested some more.

A few hours later the cleaning lady arrived and since the door was open she asked me if she could come in. I told her yes, I mean, where was I going? The room had to be cleaned and the sheets changed. She asked me if I was sick and I said that yes. She was stretching the sheets back on the single bed while I was in the other one. I told her that it needed to be changed since I was sick. She said she had no sheets right now because the other woman had to wash them. I told her she could change them later. She then told me that I needed to drink honey with lemon and hot water. I asked her if she could get me some. She said yes. Half an hour later she showed up in my room with the honey and lemon. When I asked her how much I needed to pay, she refused to take money. I looked at her and said “una mama Cubana” she smiled at me with pride. She told me to squeeze the lemons into the honey. She didn’t bring water but she told me to mix them. No spoon either so I mixed it with my finger and drank it, a lo Cubano! It burned my throat. She instructed me to keep half for evening. She said I’d need it. I told her that she reminded me of my grandmother who always had these little secrets on how to make you special natural remedies. She smiled with pride and left my room. I passed out on my bed again. But the breeze in my room and fresh air were doing me good.

In the afternoon I got a call from reception, Ari and Richard came to check on me and Ari asked me if I wanted her to come back with a soup in the evening. I said yes. Besides breakfast I did not eat anything. I could not swallow anything and the food at the hotel was horrible. We sat at the side of the pool and drank some cold drinks. After a while they left and I went back to bed. I was slowly gathering energy. That evening Ari came back with the British lady and left me some soup. It was so good to be able to drink my food and it gave me some energy. The soup was delicious. At night I heard the parties and my heart went out. This time there was some super cool show on the Artex roof with professional dancers. It was the weekend and of all things the weekend before the 26 de Julio (a national holiday). Everything was building up. And me, I was just slowly picking up the pieces. Oh well. I eventually fell asleep.

Next morning was the 26 of July, and Ari and I were supposed to take the bus back to Santiago at 14:15. I woke up and had a shity breakfast again, but at least it was food. I then used the time to gather energy. I had a five hour bus trip back and very little energy in my body. So I rested till 12:00 passed out on my bed, watching a movie which was in so many languages that I could not believe that I got it by reading the Spanish subtitles. At 12:00 I checked out, took my little bag and went to the casa where Ari was staying.

All through the past three days as I walked down to tell them I was sick and walked back up, when I went to get the water in the shop and now walking to Air’s casa, men were coming on to me. Seduction doesn’t take a break here when you get sick, and I was getting annoyed. I just wanted everyone to leave me alone and to return to an environment where everyone knew me so that they would not harass me. The pushiness combined with the little energy that I had to fight them off made me impatient.

I got to Ari’s casa, and we slowly got ready for our long trip. This was the first time that she left the girls behind with Richard. She never left them before, not even for one night. There were so many tears going around that it made me very sentimental. We eventually left and walked to the bus stop. About two minutes into our walk the girls found an excuse to run to her again and ask for something, an excuse to stay together for a couple of more minutes. More hugs and kisses, more emotional goodbyes. Ari was crying as we walked together to the bus station and had to smoke to calm herself down.

Before you know it we were on the bus and on the way to Santiago, the annoying British woman sitting in the seat in front of us. Ari and I were listening to my iPod and I was DJing music for us while she was all happy with my Cuban music. I was teaching her what she didn’t know. Kind of funny considering she is the Cuban. But I am involved with the dancing and more up to date than her, and she's been outside of Cuba for ten years. The bus was stopping on every corner where the drivers knew people that sold stuff to get the tourists to spend, while they were getting free stuff in the house for doing this. The tourists did not notice this part. We were watching the English woman as an easy prey since she was doing the silliest things and getting carried away by nothing. We both agreed that they would "eat her up alive" in Cuba. Way too naive and airy fairy.

She got back on the bus all happy about the things she bought. Ari got the cucurucho stuff which the Cubans love. The wrapping are just super cool with some coconut leaf. Inside they stuff cooked orange and coconut. Looks cool. I cannot stand coconut so it’s not for me. The English woman turned to me and said: "aren’t you going to eat some?" and I said “no, I hate coconut.” And this is when she started all over again: “Well do you ever revise that? You know that every couple of years your taste changes and you should keep trying.. “ blah blah blah.. I said that I didn’t like the coconut taste or smell. But she kept preaching about how wrong this is and how I should change my way of thinking and on and on.. And this is when I snapped. I have hated the smell and taste of coconut my whole life and I have had a great and happy life without it, I didn’t need someone to come and tell me how I should be changing for the sake of what? I turned to her and forcefully said : “I hate coconuts. I will NEVER eat coconuts and if you have a problem with this, I suggest you start dealing with the word NEVER. It isn’t going to happen.” Grand finale - back off. She looked at me and said: “well, I thought I was the most stubborn person I have ever met, till I met you.” So she is not just trying to change me, but also insulting me. I turned to her one last time and just said:”Well, you have now!”, sealing it off. There was nothing else she could add. I just wanted her to leave me alone. I did not feel any urge to become friends, nor to share a conversation with her. Had she not come on this bus or we did not have Ari in common, we would have never even spoken, let alone continued on with this annoying interaction. She was fuming. No one, I think, has ever been so rude to her before. I really could care less. She was out of line.

It’s hard traveling when you are sick.

So from this point on we did not exchange even one word and the wall of existence was built between us and this new status-qua was fine by me. Ari and I kept joking and listening to music all the way to Santiago. The air condition was strong and I was trying to keep as warm as I could to not get any sicker. Next morning I had a flight back to Havana, where I knew I could get better for sure and get medical help.

We got to the station and Ari said goodbye to the British woman. We took a taxi and went close to Ari’s home where she arranged a casa for me. In the last four days I had gotten these wounds in my mouth, the kind you get when you don’t eat enough vegetables. I was craving for vegetables which usually you could get in a casa. But in Baracoa I was pinned to bed and in Santiago the night of the carnaval there was no way I could get them in the casa. Ari told me where to go and eat. I went in and asked if they had a salad, they said yes. I asked if they had tomatoes and they said no. Asked if they had cabbage and they said no. So I asked what vegetables they did have and they said – cucumbers. So there was no salad, there were just cucumbers. Welcome to Cuba! Well, better than nothing.

I wasn’t feeling very well so I went back to the house to take a shower and rest. Ari told me that she’d come by at 22:00 with friends and we’d go to see the paseos (parades) in Avenida Garcon. A week of carnaval went by but the biggest night was my last night. I had to go and see it. Not only that but my room was humid again in an unhealthy way and I could not imagine that being in it for many hours would be good for my health. So I went back and rested for a bit and an hour later Ari came to get me.

On the way back from Baracoa I got phone calls from numbers I did not know in the Santiago area. I could not figure out who it was. I sent a text message and it turned out to be Damaris’s cousin who came back from Venezuela. He wanted to connect that evening in the Avenida to come and say hi and introduce himself. I said, sure.

So we went on the street and my throat was itching and my ears were getting the kind of pressure that throbs all the way to your head. But carnaval is a special time and I was happy to be there even if sick to the ground. Danay, Ari’s friend, managed to flirt my way to the actual street and on to the place where the performers went in and I got some very cool videos. We stood there for at least an hour and a half watching. It was super cool. The whole city was a carnival.

At one point we were trying to find Damaris’s cousin and I was starting to fade out. Eventually after a million tries we found him and his brother. I didn’t realize that I have met his brother in Bauta the year before. So Carols was all happy to see me but I had no energy to connect and it felt like he wanted my whole and devoted attention rather than hanging out with all of us. I was empty, all I could offer was my blood. I don’t know what his expectation was, if it was just friendly, or he hoped for more, but he found me to be cold and after a few minutes he left. I was just simply empty and did not even have energy to try and explain. We went on to another part to see the parties in the streets around Sueno. We hung out there and they were drinking heavily. I was getting sicker by the minute, and only drank mineral water. It was super cool to feel the spirit of carnaval on the streets of Santiago. When Danay asked me how I was feeling I said that despite being so sick, I was super happy to be present. Then they all bugged me about not dancing, but I was too sick to dance. They kept pushing for it that eventually at 1 in the morning, I called it quits and said I needed to get myself to bed. They argued a bit but eventually Ari walked me back and I crashed, waking up about every hour to check I did not miss the time.

At 7:00 I was ready to travel again, sick and feeling bad, but last part of the trip. I knew I could stop in Havana and take good care of myself with the help of Melba and her great cooking. I paid the casa, and got the taxi they arranged for me to the airport. The air conditioning was blasting again and I could not breath in the smoke. I waited and waited dreaming of the bed in my hotel in Havana. I figured I just needed to make it back. Two hours went by and eventually we got into another ridiculous flight and the whole thing with the smoke happened again. It was so cold on the plane that even though I was prepared, I came out an icicle again. The plane has these controls that usually you should be able to turn off – the individual thing at the top which directs the air conditioning to you. But they could not be sealed as in new airplanes and the range that they could turn would bother someone else on the plane. So there was a flipping war going on all through the hour and a half where everyone was trying to avoid the direct cold of the air conditioning.

Next to me was sitting the wanna be Daddy Yankee. He had on a white jeans suit with a dark purple shirt, shades on, crystal earrings, PURPLE shoes and a huge buckle. His mom, or wife.. god knows, it’s Cuba, was all in yellow like Ochun. Seriously comic. I felt like in some bad video clip with a funny story to it.

Eventually we landed, the air condition made me sicker. I got off the plane as soon as I could. The waiting area for the luggage was full of smoke and I was dying. I could not breath. Of course my bag arrived almost last. I took a taxi and thought of my bed in the hotel, the comfort, being able to just chill my room a bit with the air-condition rather than blast. I got to the hotel and had to wait three hours before I got a room. People were checking out late and it took time to clean them. But also they take care of me and make sure to give me the best room in the hotel, so I had to wait with patience for them to work their magic. And a great room I got with the best view to the Malecon. Eventually I got to bed and called Melba to let her know what was going on. She told me to come for dinner that night and that they will bring me my luggage.

Two days later and after a visit to the clinic for foreigners, which is a whole other adventure by itself, and a lot of Melba’s cooking, and rest, I was doing better and on my way to recovery. I need a few more days. I had to cancel the best part of the vacation – going to virgin beaches. I wanted to cry when I made the call to Javier to tell him to cancel. But life has decided for me and I am following what I am supposed to do to get healthy and ready for my dance classes which will start on Monday.

People ask me why I like coming here if it is so broken and messy. The answer is simple, Cuba puts things in perspective for you. I come back and look at my life and everyone else around me, and I wonder why we are so unhappy and upset about stupid things. Cuba is full of life, the kind that happens to you as you are living. I like comfort and wish for comfort but I also think that we need to remember what is important in life and for that Cuba is great. Come to Cuba for a week and you will appreciate the health system you have, the great service you get even if not perfect, a system you can count on to always work the same, the vegetables you eat every day, being able to develop friendships that do not have necessity in them, buying the things you want, having the freedom to travel and so on. At the same time, Cuba has no advertising in it. For the past five days I did not see internet where I was. There are no ads on the streets and no ads on TV. There are no magazines and stores to buy newspapers. And people get creative, so creative, in finding ways to make money, in finding ways to solve problems – from things that break, to getting what they are missing, to anything really. Cuba has its good sides and bad sides like any place. Some sides are really ugly. But one thing for sure, Cuba has a beating heart full of the good stuff – full of life. I love Cuba for that and I forgive all the discomfort for that. That’s why I keep coming back. That’s why I think that people need to come here and see it for themselves and experience it, let it get to their heart and change them forever.

I am glad I went to the “Oriente.” I got what I needed out of it, the answers I needed for the project that Avi and I are considering. I understand better the country all across now. And more to come..

I really invite you to leave me comments. I love reading them.

Nearing the end of the trip

noreply@blogger.com (Chen Lizra) — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 14:10:00 +0000

July 20 and 21 2010

It’s Tuesday and we are nearing the end. Yesterday everyone was so tired after partying the day before at Casa de La Musica with the hottest band in Havana right now. They did dance classes and then we met for lunch. Everyone was tired and we decided to take it easy for the evening and to take the afternoon to do some things that we planned on doing – buying CDs, shoes, visiting the museum of chocolate and eating some chocolate. We took the afternoon and walked in Old Havana. The heat was intense and the humidity just insane. The shoe store was closed for counting inventory but it looked like it was being shut down. It was strange. We went to the second store and they told me that it was being painted.

So we had a nice afternoon and we just walked around and discovered hotel Raquel which was formed by the Jewish organization and there were all these things in Hebrew. It was interesting. The guy working there took us upstairs and showed us the look out. It was very cool. We found a little dance company and turns out they will have some free shows on the 23rd and 24th, and Ashley was so happy about it cause she will be here on her own exploring.

As we walked around, we kept mentioning what Ray would have said and what Ray would have done if he was here. It was obvious that we all missed him – Angostura! Actually I call him Baloogy. When we were at the reef swimming and exploring it, Ray said to me at one point “Did you see the Australian whale?” I thought to myself “there are no whales here” before it clicked in and I started laughing so hard. Actually the way he swims reminds me more of a Balooga whale, Ray is cute that way. So Ray got a second nick name Baloogy. For Keren we knew what it had to be but we could not find a name in Spanish to match it. We asked Cubans what they would call a shopaholic but none made sense or sounded right. Eventually we decided that a phenomena like Keren no one has seen in Cuba (or maybe even outside of it) so we decided to call her shop-phenomi, or in short phenomi. Patricia turned out to be the hardest one to name, mainly because she is so great that nothing about her pops out. She doesn’t upset anyone, she is easy going, she gets along with everyone so perfectly. All suave and sweet and calm. So eventually I came up with Dulcita, coming from Dulce which means sweet. She loved it and it got accepted. Mission completed!

While we walked around, the heat broke and it started to rain again. We were stuck at first in a store but eventually we decided to go for it and to get out of there. As soon as we could, we grabbed a taxi and went back. It was around 19:00 and we took the night off. They were planning on taking a nap and going to see the Flamenco show in Old Havana which is powerful and captivating.

When we were in Obispo walking I saw this guy walk past me and I recognized the hair. I said “Orlando” and he turned to me. In second, kisses and hugs and such joy. Orlando told me he and his wife will be flying in from Edmonton and we were trying to figure out how to meet. He told me when he saw me “you see, when it is meant to be, it happens.” It was so good to see him after so long. We are planned to work together in Budapest in March, I hooked him up, so we are both so excited. He is a fantastic dancer. Orlando’s energy is over the top, and him and I together is like an atomic explosion. Exciting! After catching up for a fee minutes and so many words in such a short time, he said to me “tienes swing, mami” (you have swing, mami). This is what Cubans say to people when they have sabor and also how they dress. I laughed and put on my Cuban seduction walk. Orlando laughed, gave me a big hug and said, I got to run, my wife is waiting over there. He didn’t want her to wait in a Cuban line up so he had her waiting in a coffee shop. And he was off.

After I left the girls, I came back to the hotel and sorted out my things. I was so tired that I put my head on the pillow and thought I’d rest here for a second. I passed out and woke up about 3 hours later when my cell phone rang. I knew that it had to be Orlando, we were trying to meet that evening to talk about some things. I got up and called the number back but it did not work. I passed out again and woke up in the morning about 12 hours later. I think that my fatigue just accumulated. I also didn’t sleep at night in Trinidad since the dog was barking all the time. So two nights in a row and no sleep. I haven’t had a real slow vacation over 6 months. So 12 hours later I woke up and my sleep was so sweet. But I’ve missed Orlando. I will try to catch him in Santiago the night I land. We have just one evening that overlaps before I go traveling. I will be back in Santiago but he and his wife will be gone already. So we’ll see. I hope we all get to meet at least one evening

So that’s it. I need to connect with the girls at lunch. Today everyone will have a relaxed evening and I am hoping to take them to see the cabaret – the small one. I got them all the info and they will decide at lunch. If so we will go to do a tour at the hospital (Baloogy, we know you so wanted to do it, we wish you were with us). So this should be a full day. Tomorrow is really the last final full day so we might go to Vedado to do the last things that we wanted to do. And we were thinking of going out to a matinee of Salsa after that. Thursday Keren and Paty will leave for Santiago in the morning, and I will be in Havana till the evening to make sure all is good with Ashley. In the evening I will take off to Santiago. End of trip as a group, they all spread out to do their own thing. Danine and Tracey are coming back to Cuba arriving Thursday. I will probably see them before I take off. Talked to Yeri today to work out all the details.

I will be heading out to discover more parts of Cuba. At the beginning of August I will be back and will be starting my dance training. Starting Thursday I have another month to go.. yes!

It’s around 19:00 and we had an interesting day. We went to the hospital and it didn’t happen. As expected we got the wrong information the other day. Welcome to Cuba! So Ashley decided to stay and try. Keren decided not to join us because it might make her sad and she wanted to go shopping instead. I thought it was a good day for everyone to do their own thing. It’s been fun, but it feels after almost two weeks together like everyone just needs a day to do what they love. I suggested it before but everyone just wanted to keep going. Today it happened by itself. So Paty and I decided to walk the streets and look for adventures. We walked and got to the University of Havana, it’s so old and beautiful (and run down). One day when they will be able to fully renovate it, it will be one of the most beautiful universities in the world. So amazing to see it. Havana is going to be stunning one day when the whole city will be renovated and painted. It’s one of the only cities in the world that still has all of the old buildings without building new ones instead. The architecture is unreal.

We eventually found ourselves in Vedado and Paty found two pairs of shoes that she just loved. Since the day before didn’t happen, she was in heaven. It was a calm afternoon where everyone did what they liked. We walked back on the Malecon and each went home to get ready for the Parisien show – cabaret baby! I love seeing various shows here. Very different things. It’s exciting and I am hoping they will really enjoy it. Parisien is more intimate compared to the famous Tropicana. But both are beautiful shows. The last time I saw it was when Damaris danced in it, when my friend from Israel came here for her honeymoon. Ok, time to get ready and meet the girls.

The Cabaret was a real treat and as Ashley puts it well:”I am in.. Heeeeeeeaven!” I think it was the general theme. Another highlight for them to see and experience more of the variety of Cuba. Nacional compared to Tropicana is small and intimate with red carpets and velvet curtains. We got there nice and early and I got us some of the best seats in the house. I mean the sweat was practically dripping on us (just as a figure of speech of course). We were thinking of Baloogy and getting nostalgic again saying that he would have loved all the naked butts. It was a great evening and one before the last. Or as Yeri told Paty, tomorrow will be the one before the last (penultimo). When Paty asked how it can be, Yeri explained that the last one is when you die so it is always the one before last. Paty loved it and so did we. So our “penultimo” day has arrived and I can’t believe that two weeks went by so fast. We walked on the Malecon back to Galiano and everyone went to sleep. Let’s see what adventures we can get ourselves into in our “one before last day” to end it on a big bang.

Ashley is planned to stay here till the 24th. Paty and Keren are flying to Santiago and will leave Cuba on the 26th – the national holiday. I am traveling all over the island in the next week to discover more of Cuba. How exciting.

Oh yes, tonight we ended it with a big bang with Adalberto Alvarez! In Cuba it isn’t where you go out to, it is which band is playing that matter most. When you know the bands, you call around and find out in each place who is playing for matinee and night show. You then go for the best show. There are about ten bands that are at the top, in the summer many of them are touring, but Cuba always makes sure to keep at least 2-3 groups locally during the summer. And so Adalberto for me is a big treat. I personally love his music which has Son motives. I know most of his CDs and songs. We were all so excited to finish the trip with his concert. (Baloogy, I wish you were with us. You would have loved it.)

Shanynay, saw your comment and loved it, I hope Chini is reading too. I am not logging into Facebook.. too slow.. so your answers is right here. Hugs

And I am starting to feel how hard it will be to say goodbye to Yeri and Israel. The last two weeks I got to see them fairly a lot. Israel was working close by and I’d stop each day to see him. I managed to catch Yeri on the phone a few times, I’ve been hearing all the stories through Paty. We went out for dinner once, hung out at the party, they came to see me at the hotel. Suddenly I am going traveling and I feel the end nearing, especially that this year I won’t be dancing with them one on one. I will have to figure out how to see them more when I am back. At least when I am alone here I’ll have time to call at night. The last two weeks I was with the gang and I was barely at the hotel. My little "brothers and sister" with a golden heart. There is truly no one like Yeri and Israel.

Adalberto Alvarez y Su Son was a rip off, only the “Su Son” part showed up without Adalberto. The music was crap. Casa de la Musica in Miramar had no air-conditioning and we were just dying with all the smoke and no ventilation. After about 3 songs which did not sound like anything, even though two were big known hits, we all looked at each other and said TIME TO GO!

Everyone was very sentimental. I think that I was thinking of saying goodbye again to Yeri and Israel because they are all leaving for a tour soon. It’s always hard to say goodbye and I was kind of melancholic all day. So we said our last goodbyes, there were some tearful moments and it was time to go to sleep. One chapter closes another one opens.

I will be off the radar for a bit.... Yuppi!

Trinidad, the a magical reef and Habana d.1

noreply@blogger.com (Chen Lizra) — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 16:12:00 +0000

July 19 2010

So I didn’t get a chance to write about what happened at the private party. It was such a fun party, smaller than usual because of the rain. The storm was so intense that day and lasted so long that there weren’t maquinas going around and many of the Cubans had no way of coming. So compared to other parties it was way smaller, but it was so much fun. Yeri’s mom and Yudi’s mom cooked for us all day, Yeri was running and was organizing for us all that we needed, such as alcohol and such. It was beautifully done as Yeri does from her heart each time. There is nobody like Yeri and Israel. Really, in a place where there are people who sold out their golden hearts shine and they are all about real friendship. And I love them for it. We always watch out for each other and I provide them with many contacts that can help them as well. We are like family. So we ate and the food was so good and then we danced, goofed and cracked jokes all evening. It was a fun evening. Yeri and I talked about their coming tour to the USA, first time ever. They are super excited. I am so happy for them for this opportunity.

And by the way, I just walked Ray off to his taxi and he left. He came for shorter time than the girls. It was sad to see him leave. It was great to have him with us. He is such an easy person to travel with. He was sad to leave too but we said that we’ll end his trip on a big bang and so we did. So here are the adventures:

We woke up early in the morning and left Havana. We drove through a scenic path which was very interesting to see. After a few hours we stopped at a reef which is just heavenly. We hung out there for about an hour and just snorkeled. They were just in heaven, all of them. It seemed to have been the highlight of their trip. We just watched the fish and discovered many great corals. It was magical. Light Caribbean blue with not even one wave which made the visibility easy and it was all breath taking. I took my new underwater goggles/camera for a test run and tried to figure out how to take pictures and videos underwater while I was swimming. Later on when I downloaded the pics, it turned out that I didn’t figure out the frame yet – so I have many great pictures of fish and a few pictures of Ray, Patricia and Ashley cut off. Ray and I laughed about it so much.

After about an hour of enjoying ourselves in total bliss, it was time to go eat. We had great food which completed the experience. We then went swimming again to refresh and enjoy the wonderful water. It was time to move on and go to Trinidad. Stunning water.. bye bye. See you again soon. We left with huge smiles.

We drove for a while and as we were getting closer to Trinidad we saw many ambulances passing us. It was not a good sign. After about 15 minutes we ended up in a long car lineup, there was an accident. Ashley is a doctor and she wanted to see if anyone needed medical help. We both hopped out of the car and walked towards the old guagua (bus). Ashley and I are like firefighters. When there is danger and action, we kick in and are suddenly on. I got right away where she was operating from. We got to the bus area which was flipped on the side of the road. I asked them if they needed help and they said that no, no need. I think that Ashley was disappointed, she really wanted to get involved and help. You can tell that she likes to help and save people.

So we went back to our car and I was signaling the cars to start bypassing the standing ambulances, because they allowed people to drive again. We jumped into our car and started driving. Jesus, the driver, told us that 4 people died – two of which were a little girl and her mom. Ashley’s spirit just sunk right in. Not saving anyone is one thing, losing them was another. She was deeply sad.

As we continued driving towards Trinidad we saw people standing outside each little village waiting for news. It could be one of their loved ones. The bus is so old and thin and people stand in it that if it flips the chances of survival are very slim. Life is hard in Cuba, even more so in the small villages.

We eventually got to the Trinidad and there was a bit of drama with the houses, a lot of mis-communication. It’s really hard to make things work perfectly in Cuba, so much doesn’t happen as it does in a normal system. So I ran around for about an hour trying to figure out how to make it all work. The guy who was handling things in Trinidad eventually said something to me - so intense and he spoke so fast - that I did not understand even one word. I turned to Heidi, the Cuban travel guide, and asked her to translate for me. Turns out that the woman and the child who died were the wife and daughter of his cousin. News traveled fast to the village and caught up with us. He was deeply sad and very upset.

So we finalized everything and let them go back to their lives to deal with their loss. We settled in and I booked a table for us for the evening to see the Afro-Cuban show.

We met about an hour later and sat down to see the show. And I have to take a moment here and say something. Cuba is different this year. In comparison to the last 5 years, and I am always here around the same time of year, the Palenque that evening was half empty. The places we go out dancing to (besides the great shows in Casa de la Musica) were half empty too. There are barely any clothing in the stores. The situation is different this year and you can feel in some people the change, that they are more aggressive for opportunities, for money. It doesn’t look like a situation that can sustain itself.The situation is boiling.

Not only that but it seems that Cuba has decided to release some political prisoners that were kept behind bars for 7 years. I am not sure if they have been or will be released but they will cause waves of media coverage in the world. Something new is happening here and it will be interesting to see what happens this year. There might be big changes in Cuba.

So being in the Palenque this evening, the place looked very slow compared to past years. The show was amazing. At last after the last two years, they changed the show. It was exciting to see something new. Their Rumba show was so beautiful. I have for the first time seen a performance of Yambu in Cuba. They also performed Orishas and Haitiano. It was so so beautiful. We were all in heaven.

After the show we walked over to Casa de la Musica. There was a live band. It is an outdoor place. I stayed with them for another hour and then left them to enjoy the night. They continued later to a disco.

Next morning we met after breakfast and had a tour of Trinidad with the guide, then each person went exploring on their own. We then drove to Ancon beach and hung out there for an hour. Then it was time to head back. We stopped at a restaurant in the middle of nowhere. Jesus told them the previous day that we will pass by so they waited for us and brought fresh fish and sea food. This place always has one of the best meals in Cuba – at least for me, that is. You really need to know how to work the system to get the authentic experience.

We then headed for about 4 hours back to Havana and got back around 19:30. At night we were planned to celebrate with Ray his last night in Havana, so Israel found out for me that Habana d.1 was playing and we were in heaven. This is the hottest and most awesome band in the city right now. And we all so wanted to see them play live. We got lucky and they were on. So we went!

The show was amazing and we all danced and had a great time till about 3 or 4 in the morning. It was truly heavenly. Keren was running around getting free music from the DJ. Paty was dancing her ass off. Ashley was just glowing saying “this is amazing.” And Ray was getting lap dances from some hot Cuban young woman. Yes, that’s the way to do a farewell party. I clicked with this guy who had the same style of dancing like me and I was in heaven dancing with him every other song. It’s nice when that happens, suddenly it is a complete playground of self expression.

When it was time to go, we hopped in the taxi and headed back with a huge smile on our faces. It was an amazing show, a great ending for Ray and a great way to end a wonderful weekend full of great things. It made it ten times harder for Ray to leave, and for us to say goodbye.

Oh yes, and I ran into Alberto from Clave Negra. I met him in the Cubamemucho in Edmonton and haven’t seen him in about a year. Was cool to connect in Cuba. And Ray ran into a guy from Lady Salsa who lives in Australia. Good dancer. All in all a really great weekend. Cuba at its best. I love you Cuba!

Chasing the parties – Cuban style

noreply@blogger.com (Chen Lizra) — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 14:34:00 +0000

July 15 2010

It’s 1 AM and I am back in the hotel. I am so tired. I really want to go to sleep but I haven’t written in two days so I have to get back to it and just do it!

Yesterday they did dance classes and then we met for lunch which was amazing . In the afternoon we went to see the Museum of Revolution which is the old Batista Palace and it was super interesting for them to learn more about how the revolution happened. They were saying that it is ironic that it is in the old Batista palace.

When we got out Ashley, Ray and Paty went back home to take a nap. They are all exhausted from the dance classes. They need to recharge. I went with Keren to try and get her camera empty from pics cause she ran out of space. She was very tired and she tends to run too much rather than take the time to rest when they have a break. But I have to admit that I tempted her with shopping and she could not refuse. The payback came later as she was falling asleep all over the place. And here is the thing, something is going on in Cuba this year which is new. There is just simply barely anything to buy from shopping for clothes to buying food. In the 5 years that I have been coming and going I have never seen anything like this.

We got back just in time to take a shower and get dressed and we jointed the others. We went for a nice dinner in a place that they have not been to yet. It was a nice dinner and then we headed to a great place that has Casino dancing. When we got there, it seemed dead. Someone told me that the party moved to a new place. Just like Cubans not to even announce a change and then wonder why no one showed up to help make the new night successful. So we decided to go on an adventure and follow the “rabbit” and went to the new location. How bad could it be? It would lead to a new adventure. We arrived at the new location and it was still too early so we sat and waited to see if it would pick up. It didn’t seem to and the professional dancers were trying to get us to go in so it would pick up. After about an hour it looked very empty with a few foreigners and the professional dancers from the group. We decided that it wasn’t for us and took another taxi to the old city to another place which is always packed and has great dancers. But it was half empty as well. It’s very strange. The city feels half empty compared to past years. But going around from place to place trying to figure out what works was fun because they could see how things work and see different parts of the city on the way.

They ended up having fun, dancing and drinking. It lasted till about 1 AM and we were having a blast. I found one guy that could really dance well and that was great. At one point we took over the dance floor and I was in heaven. He asked me after where I learned to dance like this and I explained to him in the Conjunto. Ashley was floating on air and everyone seemed to have a great time. Good ending for a great day. So we got back at around 1:30 AM and everyone crashed with a big smile. Good adventure.

And we figured Ray’s nickname – Angostura. We came up with it when we were waiting to see if the new place would pick up. Ray has this personality of a person who is quiet quiet quiet and then suddenly he comes out with something brilliantly funny, like a spice being added to the mix. To make a mojito you have a special way of mixing things but what many don’t know is that there is a special ingredient that is added at the end – Angosura. Just a few drops and that’s the thing that is usually missing when people try to mix it. So two more left – Paty and Keren – for nicknames. Everyone was just laughing so hard because it fits Ray so much.

Ok, next day I wake up and go downstairs and Israel is looking for me. Ray didn’t show up and we go to try and figure out what happened. I figured that he passed out after a long night. So we go to the house and buzz downstairs and he is not answering. I see Luis and he opens the building door for me. Good to see him. We go upstairs and pound on the door and he doesn’t hear us. So we decide to call him. We call from my cell and it is a shared line, so the other home picks up. They tell me to call again. I do and wait and wait and they pick up. I give up. Cell phone is not the way to do it here because it is so expansive. So we go back to the hotel to figure it out and call from there. We call again and the guy tells me to call again and he will not pick up. But the woman at reception takes her time and by the time we call again, the guy thinks it is a different call and picks up. So we decide to go to Porras' house and call from there. We get there and Ray is waiting saying “where the hell have you guys been?” Turns out that when we went to his house, he went to the hotel. When we got back to the hotel – he went to Porras’s house. Seriously funny. So it worked out.

Today was the first time that I got to really relax. So I went to the pool for two hours and worked on my tan. It was nice to finally chill.

So we met for a great lunch again which was amazing. We were all licking the remains off our fingers. It rained like crazy outside. Then there was time for a short afternoon nap and then we said we will meet and go out to a local place that has an interesting matinee. When we got together Ray didn’t show up. We waited for a short break from the rain and went to check on him. He was asleep, recharging. So we all took a taxi and went to that place. I invited two friends to meet us. They were all having fun again. It used to be more an afternoon Casino, this time it was more a mix of Reggaeton, a bit of Casino and lots of 80s danced sexy by Cubans. It was cute. We were just having fun, dancing. This is a place that many locals like to go to and we enjoyed the experience and danced lots. Ashley was floating on air, when she has fun, she is like a glowing star.

When we got out it was still light and there were a few options. They all decided what they wanted to do and Ashley seemed to want to go on a different direction, she made some Cuban friends and wanted to go where they were going. She already took off the day before to do her thing and she seemed to be ok now holding her own. She went for it and we continued.

We went to hotel nacional and ate something light, then sat on the terrace to have drinks in front of the Malecon which has a loving view. When we were done, we walked back on the Malecon and got back to Galiano. We had about half an hour to get ready and shower and head out. Keren stayed to catch up to some sleep and we headed back to the same place we went to the night before for some more dancing. Again, it wasn’t packed, the Cuban dancers were not there which was strange. The city is slow and I have never seen it so slow. Avi joined us for a bit. We hung out. Then he needed to go, he had a flight next day to Israel and we headed back to Galiano. Ray and Patricia stayed to dance some more. Avi and I had another great talk – always so interesting to hear his great perspective. Then it was time to pass out.

So two days trying to figure out where to go and what to do. Things here change rapidly but it is always, but always, an adventure.

Orishas, Beach in the Rain and Shopping

noreply@blogger.com (Chen Lizra) — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 15:18:00 +0000

July 13 2010

On Sunday Keren and I woke up really early and we went to get her a cell phone. It all panned out and eventually we got it. I then took her to in a Coco taxi back and she was in heaven about the experience. I told her before we got to the Coco taxi “station” to not say even one word in a different language. When we got there, as I expected the price went up by 2 CUC. After a short negotiation it went back down to a normal price. It’s not the price, it’s the principal. I know what the prices are and I don’t intend to pay higher because I am with a foreigner or am a foreigner. Keren was smiling from ear to ear enjoying the experience, watching what was going on. She writes scripts. I won’t be surprised if I am inspiring a character in her mind right now. ha ha ha

We got to the hotel and grabbed the rest of them. We went to see a mid day Orishas and Rumba show, actually it was two different groups one after the other. They saw Guaguanco and a tiny bit of Columbia and also the Orishas – Eleggua, Yemaya, Obatala, Oggun and Ochun. It was a really unique experience for them to see, and Ashley kept repeating “yes, now that is it, that’s what I mean. Yes.” She was seriously floating on air. So so cute.

My back was dripping of sweat. This one guy came from behind me and moved his finger slowly up my back as if he was making love to me, and said “estas sudando” (you are sweating). Yes, hit it straight deep into my heart. Very smooth. Cubans are masters of making you feel and seducing you. I turned only my head to see who it was and turned back facing front after answering “si.” He then asked me what my name was and I told him, and turned my head back again. He said his and forced an introduction. I turned my head to face the front again after shaking his hand (cold sign on purpose). Then he asked me while my back was turned to him “no quieres tomar una cervecita conmigo?” (don’t you want to drink a little beer with me?” and I turned back and said “no, gracias” and turned my back to him again. He said “seguro?” (are you sure?) and I said “seguro” not even turning back. He then asked “seguro?” and I answered “seguro.” And then he said “seguro?” A persistent bugger! I just turned to him and said “dale papi, ya mi vida, dejame, esta seguro.” Sweet and yet firm and final. And I kept looking at him till he accepted it. He smiled a sweet smile like he even wanted me more now, and let it go, it was done. He made me smile. Smooth. Very smooth. Very Cuban!

This is too pushy for me but the fact that men tell me every morning, afternoon, and evening how beautiful I am, is something that I could live with for the rest of my life. No seriously, how simple is it to make a woman feel good. Men in Cuba, no matter what, check you out all the time, look at you with desire, flirt with you, tell you sweet things. I love it. Not only that, but they feel and notice changes. A woman would dress up nicely and everyone will notice and compliment her. Makes me feel like investing in myself. It's worth making an effort here. One look of desire and I’d love to go shopping for some sexy clothing. Million messages of advertising and it won’t do the same trick. And it’s so nice that there is no advertising here. What a refreshing change. It’s always overwhelming to come back to Canada and the world. In the airport as I land I get bombarded by a million advertising messages. It takes time to decompress.

Anyway, we spent about two hours there, it was so hot that we were all drenched with sweat, and when I say this, I mean it! The guys in the group kind of had a crush on all of us, so they invited us to the back to meet the group, and tried to convince us to come and see another show of Rumba which was right after in a different location.

We decided that since it was so so so hot we should go and hang out at the pool. Ray went to watch the final FIFA game with Avi in some fancy hotel, and later on came back with very exciting stories of his experiences. He was in some super lux hotel (not like mine) that was just like a palace.

Us girls went to the pool and enjoyed the cooling off of the water and the sun. We ate, drank and I told them stories on how things work and what to watch out for. I like the pool at Deauville since so many Cubans come there, especially on weekends, and you can watch their lives and how they operate – how their love relationships work, and what they teach their kids. We met this woman in the pool and started talking to her. It was interesting to observe what was unfolding and I was waiting for her to build enough “friendship” to ask for something. She seemed like the opportunist type. It didn’t take long before she did. And Patricia was getting it now and seeing it as it was unfolding. She came to me excited and described what was going on, one for one, on the spot!

Spain won and the Cubans were in heaven because out of the two they prefer Spain. Later on they had a great march with Spanish flags on the Malecon which I taped. They were celebrating the victory. It was really cool to watch.

At night we met Avi and they got to hear many great stories from someone that has been living here for 15 years. Avi has such an interesting take on Cuba as a foreigner who lives here, we were all fascinated with him and his stories. We had an amazing dinner on the Malecon in some beautiful place which is owned by a foreigner (which is not very common).

Then we called it quits for the night and they had to get ready for their dance classes next day. Their bodies need to adjust to the major physical change – dancing like a professional every day and the heat. They were about to start working very hard with their bodies and needed rest.

On Monday morning they started learning how to dance, each something different. By noon they were kind of smashed. We met and went for lunch where we had dinner. It was so good that we all wanted to repeat the experience. Keren was the only one who wasn’t there before because the previous night she was just so tired that she went back to the Casa.

We then took our bathing suits and went to take the bus to the beach, about a half hour ride. When we got on the bus the woman said that it cost 3 CUC round trip and that the last bus was at 18:30. By the time we got there, it changed to 18:00 since some bus was broken. She also recommended to come and stand in line early since the lineup gets really packed and it is a small bus – everyone wants to come back on the last bus!

The beach was stunning and we were all smiling from ear to ear. We bought some drinks – I mean mojito on the beach, how bad is that? We settled in and next thing you know we were in the water swimming and enjoying the amazing Caribbean Sea and beautiful blue warm water. Yes, this is what I call heaven. This is what life should be like every day.

Ashely’s nick name has improved and it is not Astro-Cat. Astro for unplugging from situations even though she could be standing right in it. Cat because like a cat she comes and goes – one minute she is with the group and part of it all giggly, next second she is gone without a word and just does her thing. Then she appears back and plugs back. So Astro-Cat was adopted by everyone. Actually yesterday Ashley was all ecstatic because she declared “war” by saying that she will find me a nickname. ha ha ha. And she and Paty came up with a really good one. She said that I am like a firecracker (how many times in life have I heard this so far?). She asked Paty what that meant in Spanish which led nowhere. Then they discussed a little longer and decided that I was like a dynamite – explosive! And hence the name Dinamita was born. Ha ha ha. Good one.

Ok, so back to the beach story. I am trying to catch up to three days of writing here, and I am so tired late at night in my room in my hotel, so bare with me. There was just no time. So we were on the beach and about maybe an hour into it we saw this menacing cloud coming our way – rain was coming for sure! Not long after it started pouring. I told them that it was amazing to be inside the sea while it rained – a magical experience which I had in Cuba long ago. So they tried it. Then we all ran to the cafeteria and stood there with everyone hiding from the rain. It was so warm outside while it rained that Keren and I started dancing in the rain. I was copying what this little Cuban girl was doing. Usually when I follow the Cubans in these kind of situations, it leads to good places.

Alright so, here we were stuck in the rain and we started to think of the last bus. It was just time for the one before. So we decided to reposition to a shelter closer to the stop and ran like mad people to get to it. It was dripping. We were laughing because it was this cool adventure, which is what every day in Cuba sort of is. A few minutes later it was getting closer to 17:30, the bus before the last, and we were looking and trying to figure out if any of the tourist buses coming were one of them. I am not sure if we missed it or it never came, but we decided to go and stand in line for the next one to make sure we didn’t miss it. We were dripping of rain all wet to the bone. Ray and Ashley were hiding under a palm tree. Keren and I were standing watching out for the bus. I wasn’t confident it would come and that it would not be full due to the stops before us, so when Keren saw a free taxi and the price was ok, we grabbed the opportunity and took it. We were on the way back to Havana again.

We got back and we decided to meet about an hour and a half later. There was enough time to shower, rest and get ready. We then walked through Havana in Centro and Vieja to see things that they have not seen yet as we were heading to a special place for dinner. It was interesting for them to see parts of Havana and things that the Cuban tour guide didn’t show them. So we walked and talked and enjoyed the experience.

On the way to the restaurant we passed by the Flamenco place and stood outside and saw a beautiful Flamenco performance. Ashley wanted to see more and Ray was dying of hunger, so I told Astro-Cat to take her time and we settled in. Flamenco in Cuba is as good as in Spain and I can understand why she was blown away and really wanted to see it.

Dinner was nice and the local band was amazing, as they always are in this location. Everyone loved having live music while enjoying the food. The Cuban singer went around to each table and asked them where they were from and then invented another part of the song with the country. Ha ha ha. Nice one. Dinner led to some really intimate conversations and it felt like the ice broke. At one point it got so emotional that Ray was sitting there going, "you guys make me look bad," as we were all with tears in our eyes. Well, put four women in an emotional talk and count on tears coming out. We were all laughing about it. Seriously it was cute.

Next thing you know we are walking back through a different route. It’s nice to take a different route back each time. I was wearing my yellow dress from last year and the red Via Uno shoes with the red necklace, red hand bag and hair band. We were walking and suddenly I heard ”hey, Chen.” I turn toward this car and tried to figure out who it was. And guess what, it was Fraudy – the X- dance partner of Damaris who lives in Sydney, Australia. No seriously, how lucky is that. He just arrived and was in a jet lag on the way to his aunt’s house. He was known as one of the best professional dancers in Havana before he got married and moved away to Sydney. He now works with another professional dancer in Sydney named Yarima who used to work in the Cabaret in Havana. Great team.

It was so good to meet Fraudy since we talked many times by e-mail but haven’t had the chance to meet yet in person. When I was last in Sydney, he was touring in NZ. So it was all hugs and kisses and happy sounds. I invited him to a private party that we were going to on Friday night, and was waiting to see if he would come since he had to go to his cousin’s for a party and he hasn’t been back in Cuba in a while. So happy to connect with Fraudy at last, especially as I needed to head back to Australia in Dec. Hopefully we could connect again in Sydney.

So we kept walking till we got back to the Casa. Everyone went to sleep content. They were all tired after a full day. They understood why they need to bring down the energy a bit in order to keep up. Just for a few days.

It’s getting late so let me try and sum up today a little quicker. Today, Tuesday, none of the places that offer matinees had anything interesting. They were supposed to have this hottest new band but for some reason they didn’t play. I heard rumours that possibly because the air-condition broke at Casa de la Musica in Miramar. Don’t know but since we have to see a matinee, we couldn’t go and see any interesting shows. They were training in the morning and then we met for lunch which was delicious. Previous day we decided to go shopping instead. Ray and Ashley decided to bail out last minute. Ray was seriously in need of some recharging and Ashley needed some rest.

So Keren, Paty and I went for a tour around the city for some shopping. For about 3 hours we went around most of the places and I really could not find more than one pair of pants to buy. It was strange. I’ve been buying things in these stores for years and there was nothing to buy. After 3 hours we came back and I had one pair of short pants (stunning I must add), Paty got one pair of Via Una shoes and Keren some gifts and such but nothing major. I was lost for words. This has never happened to me before in Havana and I was now curious to know what caused these strange changes. When I got back to the hotel I asked one of the women working there. She told me that she did not know why there is nothing to buy but that I am right, there is a difficult situation right now. So I looked at her and told her “so it’s not me, I am not going crazy or anything.” and she said “no, there is nothing to buy.” I don’t know if it is the economic situation or what but I have never seen anything like this in Cuba. I usually come back with beautiful things. Not that you can just go and buy whatever you want in Havana, you have to know where to go. But I always find sexy, unique clothing that cost me about a third of what it would cost me in Canada. This year I could not spend any money even if I really wanted to.

After that everyone had time for a rest. I was making phone calls. I had to try and call everyone that I needed to call that I did not have time to call before. I also called to find out what was going on in the city. We met later for dinner – Ray, Keren, Paty and myself - and went to eat somewhere in Old Havana a calm and nice dinner while a local band was playing. We took a different route back again through the main entrance of Chinatown. They are all tired but they are also learning to take afternoon naps. Both Paty and Ray used the opportunity. Ray crashed for about 2 hours, just wiped out. Keren was the only one who didn’t use the time to rest, she just has to go and do internet all the time, and because of that her body is having a harder time. But she managed to keep it together for a bit longer and they all went to bed.

I think that by tomorrow they should have the process nailed down and have a good groove. Ok, it’s really time to pass out. Tomorrow is a new day full of great things. Good night.

Cuban countryside is a nice break from the city life

noreply@blogger.com (Chen Lizra) — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 14:46:00 +0000

July 10 2010
Today we got up super early and went to Vinales. I got them to bed nice and early so that they will not be smashed the whole day. They were starting to itch for dancing, but they will be doing so much of it starting tonight and Monday. It gave them lots of energy for the day and made for a fun day.

The group dynamics are really cool and everyone is really comfortable with each other which is great. I named Ashley Astro, this comes from what we call people like her in Israel. Someone who unplugs and everyone once in a while doesn’t notice what goes on around her. You talk to her and she is in a wonderful other world. We call them astronauts, hence Astro. Ashley was so happy with her nickname feeling it felt very suitable and so she is officially named Astro from this point on.

Ray is getting funnier and funnier as he unleashes. I swear to god that Paty is starting to understand better English and Keren has the warmest most caring heart. She is also the one who like a kid can’t hold a question for one second and she needs her answers now. What can I say, seriously a good group of people that I am really enjoying traveling with in Cuba.

We saw some very interesting things in Vinales and Pinar del Rio, some were my first time ever which was also interesting. I gave them some options to add some things if they wanted – some they wanted and some they did not. It made for a good day full of fun things and I think that we were able to satisfy the requests of everyone more or less. Our personal Cuban tour guide was great, she explained everything in English and Spanish all through the tour and seriously that’s not easy to do. She tells interesting stories and has fun with us.

We ate at the Palenque where we saw a small and cute Afro-Cuban show of the Orishas. Nothing fancy, just sweet and cute. they remembered me from the previous year and would not give up till they got me up to dance Yambu. Then they were pleased. They like showing me off. It’s sweet. We had another little restaurant issue, did not see that coming, but we figured it out. Paty and I were talking afterwords to understand the dynamics and were already analyzing how to prevent it in the future. Everything that happens that is not predictable has a reason in Cuban thinking, you just needed to understand how they think. I’ve been coming and going and they still don’t seize to amaze me. We were done with the food and left.

Ray and I were sharing a headset and I was DJing for him Israeli and Latin music. All through the trip there were very interesting stories going around. They are understanding more and more how things work and how to think. Every day that goes by they see more and understand more. They are eating well and meeting really nice Cubans. Their experience of Cuba is very different than most people who come here. And I am picking for them the best experiences possible. When things get complicated due to the Cuban way of life and difficulties here, I explain to them how things work so that they will understand what Cuba is like. As they said to me yesterday that it is fascinating. It is nothing like any country or system they have ever seen. They are barely two days here and it feels like weeks have gone by.

We were laughing all through the day today cracking jokes, sharing stories and just enjoying ourselves. It was a really special day. They all seemed content when we got back. It also gives them a better perspective on Cuba. Havana to Cuba is like NYC to the USA. I can’t wait for them to see Trinidad.

When we got back, I left them at the lobby and went upstairs to call Yeri and Israel an could not get through. I got a text with the info about the place that they said was good. They said the night was 30 CUC but I didn’t know who was playing. I wasn’t even sure it was Salsa which is what they are all itching for. I wasn’t sure if it would be worth going or not, so I called Maikel Blanco. A friend who works with him gave me his number and I called to find out when he was performing. Maikel Blanco is a very famous singer here. I truly love his music. I got lucky and he was home. He told me that he was playing in Casa de la Musica. I was still blown away that I just spoke to Maikel Blanco. He told me he’d reserve a table for me and off I was to tell them the good news. I told them what the options were and we decided to go. I then called Avi to catch up and invite him, he told me that he heard that the other place does have an amazing band playing but could not tell me whom it was, he decided to come with us tonight to CDLM.

So it’s time for me to get ready for a sassy fun night of dancing. Life is good in Havana. I love this place. Today was just a perfect day in its great flow and simplicity and great people.

Oh yes and I forgot to say that after 2-3 days of trying, Yeri, Pirri and I reunited at last! Ray was with me and it was a happy happy meeting full of hugs and kisses, and Yeri and I screaming every once in a while from happiness. Ray was saying that it would have been good to have a camera in that moment. Yeri and Israel saw my videos from the past year – all of my performances and really liked what I did. Yeri critiqued what worked well and what needed improving and this gave me a good idea of what I need to do next. I felt very proud showing them my work and hearing what they had to say. Yeri especially liked the Reggaeton piece and said that truly this captures “La Puteria” which is considered a compliment. I just smiled from ear to ear.I am glad I did justice to their work.

3 AM and I am back from Maikel Blanco’s concert. Wow what a show, great energy! They were all in heaven and could not even imagine what the live shows can be like in Cuba or Havana for that matter. They were all glowing. First we had a VIP entrance where we bypassed everyone in line and got one of the best tables on the floor right in front of the stage. Then they got to dance and watch a Maikel Blanco show live with his Salsa Mayor group. Wow factor for sure included. I prepared them well for the experience so they knew what was going on and what kind of people would be there all before we left. They were getting it all, more or less.

Before the show started we were dancing to DJ music and at one point I felt like the music took over. I love it when it happens. It’s when my body performs moves, some very intricate, that I have never learned. It’s like I am dancing things that I don’t know. It comes out of the heart and music. They call it here Despelote. It almost never happens to me outside of Cuba, especially not in Vancouver, because the environment doesn’t inspire me as much. But here I am in heaven. It’s the kind of transformation which is true bliss.

It was so good to dance to live music again and I personally love Maikel’s music. I ran into Serena and Nick, Philip from Boogalu and three dancers from the Conjunto, one of them was Dayana. She spotted me in seconds when I went to the washroom. I ran into Kelly on his last night and saw all the Italian gang that comes here every summer. There weren’t that many great dancers through the night. The obnoxious woman who used to work at the Palenque and then worked with Los Van Van found me there. I can’t stand her. She tried again to get me to pay for her drinks. When she asked me why I won’t buy her a drink, I simply said that I have great friends here who want nothing, why do I need a “friend” who wants money? She could not respond to that!

The girl I didn’t know who was with the Conjunto gang was making me copy her moves and was all over it when I could copy her one for one. She just loved it- she switched on me from Son to Salsa, to Rumba, to Reggaeton, to Afro-Cuban and eventually gave me this look of – you can do all of it. It was fun.

Avi came and joined us and stayed most of the night. He and Ray will watch tomorrow the FIFA final together. They both must!

It was a great night. They were all having fun, I was just watching out for them to make sure they were not in any situation they did not wish to get into. At one point I wasn’t sure about Ashley and I just signaled for her – thumb up or down. It was up, so I knew she was ok.

After the show I sent Maikel a message telling him I was looking for him. One of the PMM guys came to get me and directed me to him. It was great to meet him in person. He treated us like true VIP tonight and I thanked him for making us feel special. It was all him!

I then had to take Keren back, she was fading out and even though there was more fun to be had, I had to wake up with Keren super early to try and figure out if the cell phone company is open in the morning or not. I checked with Ray, Paty and Ashley and they all wanted to stay longer and felt safe. So I left them to have fun and went with Keren.

It’s time to crash. Great ending for a great day and evening. I am so glad they are experiencing so much of the magical things that Cuba can offer and are enjoying themselves so much. Ray said to me today that it feels like he’s been here for weeks. I told him that this is because he is inside the culture and not as most tourists are here. It’s a really special experience that he will only really understand once he is back, and especially when he will talk to others that visited like tourists.

Ok.. time for bed. I really need to shut these eyes. Good night.

PS
Feel free to leave comments. I love reading the comments.

Everyone arrives

noreply@blogger.com (Chen Lizra) — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 14:40:00 +0000

It’s July 8 and most of the guests arrived today. Ray arrived from Australia. Keren and Paty from Israel. And Ashley will arrive from Mexico where she currently lives. We had two more people that were supposed to arrive (from Israel and Sweden) but personal things happened and they had to cancel. So a small and intimate group of friends. Should be fun.

Yesterday was a very annoying day, I had to chase around Havana in hope of getting a SIM card. The rules have changed again, welcome to Cuba! The cost of getting a temporary line leads to it being better to use my Canadian one, or taking up a mortgage. The Cubans said that it is better to find a Cuban friend who will sign for me. And so Avi was calling the various Cuban friends to see who doesn’t have a Cuban cell, because Cubans can only have one line under their name. The word “cola” (lineup) came back to my vocabulary and I remembered why I try to avoid anything that has to do with line ups here. And “el ultimo” (who is last in line) as well. Very typical expressions. But since Avi’s work is in Miramar, I went there and seriously it’s a different Havana. No lineups, no pressure like in old Havana, the good life. So I think that from now on I will go to Miramar when I need things that have to do with service.

So cell phone got resolved today and at last I should have a local number which will be good for 2 months – my trip.

Cold shower yesterday – check. Yes, I am back. Hot water probably gets tired climbing to the 14th floor. ha ha ha. You have to laugh at what doesn’t work here or you won’t survive 5 days in Cuba. I actually heard that they didn’t have any water in old Havana for three days and people were stopping by at a friend’s house for a shower due to the crazy humidity. I am grateful that I have air conditioning to sleep well at night and water. At least one of the two elevators are working, so far I didn’t have to climb up or down 14 floors. The summer is young though. It’s Cuba, it can happen. I am preparing myself emotionally. The hardest is if it happens during the time when I train 5 hours a day in dance. Trust me, that’s when I want to die. My legs just shake when I arrive at the top. Mind you, the light that shows which floor the elevator is on is not working downstairs, so it’s impossible to know when the elevator is arriving. Welcome to Cuba! And I am in a 3 start hotel – 4 and 5 stars here are way better, not that this couldn't happen in any f them. They do their best with what is possible. But hey, we have new sofas in the hotel this year. Wow, for Cuba, that’s exciting. Yes, no doubt I am back. In Cuba you just have to surrender to the situation cause you can’t win it anyway. No point of getting mad about these things. They are just part of daily life. As Avi told me, when his car breaks he flies in with parts from outside the country and goes to see his private mechanic. Why a private one? So parts won't go missing! I started laughing so hard. Seriously, welcome to Cuba. In my opinion it is charming.

Of course it is charming when you come in with the money, but for Cubans it is a different story. They are not in a “comfortable” hotel and they won’t have water to shower in. Cuba, to some degree, is magical because we come here like tourists but also because of the solidarity of people. You just have to lean on each other when there isn't much material. Where ever you will see difficulty in the world, you will also see so many things that come out of the heart – Israel, Brazil, Cuba, India and more.

Oh yes and how could I forget the phone. I was supposed to see Yeri and Israel yesterday but they did not arrive at the hotel. I called Yeri’s cell and no answer all through the evening. First thought, something didn’t work according to plan, welcome to Cuba! When does it ever work here according to plan. Around 9:30 PM one of the workers in the hotel knocked on my door. I open it and she told me that someone was waiting for me downstairs. So I went to see who it was and found out that I had lots of messages from Yeri and Israel. I asked the woman at reception how it could be, I was in my room the whole time. She says, I suspect your phone is broken. You can only dial out but cannot get phone calls in. Welcome to Cuba! So today I will try to resolve this because everyone is arriving and I don’t have my cell yet.

I was so pissed off yesterday, a Cuban friend, or I should say X-friend, had a talk with me and was trying to convince me that I need to have him as a “special friend.” Did I mention I know his wife really well. So that rubbed against me the wrong way especially that I told him that it didn’t sit well with me, and he kept at it and kept at it and kept at it. That might fit with Cuban values but not with mine. I was really angry for hours. What got me angry was not that he tried, it happens here about every day, but that he pushed so hard even though it was clear that it wasn’t going to happen. It’s like he crossed my red lines forcefully and now he is getting the cold shoulder. Cuban seduction can be very powerful but I have been in it for 5 years and I know how it works, they can’t get to me if I don’t want them to. The tricks don’t work on me. I don’t want them to work on me. I am not here for that.

Long long talk with Yeri and Israel yesterday and they are doing great. They are two very unique people. They always blow me away with their values. In a place like Cuba where everyone has to find a way to survive and many people round corners, they don’t. I love them for it. They are as they say here “lo maximo!”

A friend gave me Maikel Blanco’s number, she is working with him. I want to check when he is performing and see if I can drag the group. His music is amazing. Yeri was getting me updated and turns out there is this new hot band in Havana. There is possibly a matinee with them next week and I will see if we can go. Yeri and Israel might join us. We have so many exciting and new things planned to do. Very calm day. Tomorrow we are planning a day tour in Havana to check out the city, hear some history and see some important monuments. And that’s when we’ll shift gear to the dance and music scene aspect of Cuba. We have a busy weekend planned with a day trip outside the city and a fun Sunday with some cultural things to see. Hopefully Yeri and Israel can join us on Sunday. Yeri told me that there is a Santeria ceremony this Saturday but we are planning to travel outside the city. Looking to see if we can fit another one in. It would be fascinating for them to see. I am crossing my fingers. There is also a new place which is the hottest location in Havana. There is a show coming up in a few days with a special band. It’s the place to be in Havana these days. I am looking into the where and when, to see if we can make it happen.

Ray arrived and it all went great. First thing that happened is that we couldn’t get the elevator to work in the casa and climbed up 8 floors. He was drenched by the time we got to the top. But Melba took good care of us both with a delicious mango juice. She knows I am addicted to this stuff. We sat down and explained a few things to him on how things work, a few stories from the last few days, and off we were to the casa where he is staying. Helped sort out all of the logistics and left him to refresh while I went back to the hotel to try and resolve the phone situation. They told me that they replaced the actual phone and said they will call my room to see if it works. I went upstairs to check and no go. Welcome to Cuba! Phone problem in the room will take longer. Hopefully I would get my cell phone today and this will resolve some of the difficulty. This is normal here. So it was time to go meet Ray again and take him for lunch. The girls will arrive later on today.

Lunch was great. Ray is sharp; he picks up things at the speed of lightning. He just cracks me up the way he immerses himself into things which creates hilarious situations. After lunch he went back to the casa for a short nap. I went to try and resolve the phone situation. Try means that you hope that what you would do would get it resolved, and it doesn’t always. Welcome to Cuba! You just know there is a very good chance it won’t. And so the phone didn’t work and I needed to change rooms. The right elevator worked before, then both worked, but the only the left one worked. At least we had one elevator working. So getting up and down was slow, especially when you are on the 14th floor. I went to figure out the phone and after about half an hour they found me a room on the 11th floor. It meant that someone had to go to a few rooms and check that the phone was actually working. So I moved and it is half the size of the room I had, but has a better view. Now I can see the sunsets which are stunning! Little problem, the closet stinks as if the doors were closed or 5 years and the water is almost attempting to be warm, pretty damn close to it, and notice I didn’t say hot. But hey, you can’t ask for everything in Cuba – I have a phone and a great view in a half size room than before with almost warm water. Yes, I am doing very well for Cuba. Seriously a charming place. I have to just laugh.

So after all of this it was almost time to go downstairs and wait for the girls from Israel, and Yeri and Israel who were supposed to stop at the hotel. I went down at 7 PM and waited. Around 10 to 8 PM Ray showed up on Cuban time. I told him “no worries” – we do certain things on Cuban time and certain things on Canadian time. When we need to go around with a local tour guide – no Cuban time. When we are in the city doing certain things we can meet on Cuban time. So all relaxed, Ray marched in and we chatted. After a while I got worried about Yeri and Israel not showing up. I called and no answer, I send a text and no answer. At around 8:30 PM they showed up. Things as usual didn’t go according to plan and they arrived as soon as they could. Cubans many times don’t pick up the phone or text because it costs so much.

So we sat down and planned together all that we wanted to do this week and the following. Then I showed Yeri what I wanted to learn. Yeri said that it is called “La Puteria” – it’s the energy that you put when you dance which is super sexy. I asked her who will be the right person for this. She said with no doubt YUSIMI! Done! So for me in August I will have to be very focused and will need to train 3 hours in the morning super intense. This means that in the afternoon when I’ll do 2 more hours, I will need to do them super slow and relaxed. I really want to have this style in my body. I’ve been dying to do this for a while. It is stunning. I have a very short time and I need my body, mind and heart to focus. Focus is what it takes, and reducing any distractions during this time. Going to sleep early, letting my body rest, eating right and only partying hard on weekends. Done! I want this!

So we were done with all of our planning, everything was set in motion. Then I looked at the time and was getting very worried – Keren and Paty were 2 hours late. So I tried to figure out how I could find out what was going on with them. I asked at reception if they could call the airport. About 5 numbers later, which did not get picked up, I decided to try to text Paty. She texted me back that they were on the way to the hotel. Turned out the flight got delayed in Madrid and came in two hours late. 10 minutes later they arrived. So good to see Paty after so long, so good to meet Keren after so many talks on the phone. She is a sweety.

We went to the casa to meet Melba and Alberto. I also introduced them to Yeri and Pirri. We took care of the casa registration as required by law and the rest hung out on the balcony chatting. Melba was in heaven, as Yeri was before, to at last get someone who speaks Spanish and got a kick out of Paty’s attitude cause she is a proud Uruguayan.

I go out to the balcony and found Israel translating between Ray and Yeri. Now Ray doesn’t speak Spanish and Yeri speaks about 20 words of English and Israel probably 50. Hilarious. And he was so proud of himself, my little "brother." Love his energy.

We finished everything and went to get some food, we dragged with us Yeri and Pirri. It was so much fun, all of us together. Paty doesn’t speak English. Keren and Ray don’t speak Spanish. Yeri and Israel only speak Spanish and Keren and Paty both speak Hebrew. It was interesting maneuvering between all the languages to get everyone to be part of it. Tomorrow Ashley arrives and we’ll see how the dynamics will change again.

So in the meantime we were having a very international Cuban dinner and enjoying ourselves. Paty was losing it slowly fading out on me, Ray was getting tired too, Keren slowly too. You could tell that it was a great ending for the day of arrival but that it was time to end the night and go to sleep. We walked back, I got into the hotel and Yeri and Israel walked the three of them back to their casa. So that’s it, a full day. Time to go to sleep and tomorrow we have a great day planned full of fun things. Good night.

Coming back home

noreply@blogger.com (Chen Lizra) — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 14:36:00 +0000

It’s July 6th at night and I am in Havana. I used to come back here and I’d be all hyped. Now I come here and there isn’t this crazy happy energy, instead I feel calm like coming home. It’s all so familiar. I know the system pretty well and each time I come back I go deeper. Cuba has become my second home after Israel. It’s so familiar and warm. Just the way I love it.

I took off from Vancouver at around midnight and had a flight over night to Toronto, then a connecting flight to Havana. As soon as I landed I started sweating. It’s hot and humid. I love it.

The first thing I noticed was that now they had cameras in the passport control booths. They took my picture and stored it. Go Cuba go! Talk about becoming modern. ha ha ha. Then past the passport control (I am already in their system with all the million of entries that I have had so it didn’t take long) there was a health control check point. This started last year but this year they got more organized. And it was a section of the carousel that I have never seen open before.

Avi waited for me outside. He is an Israeli businessman living in Cuba for the past 15 years. I got connected with him through someone else in Israel and we are talking about potentially starting a project together. He does a lot of business with the Cuban government, so his take on Cuba is extremely interesting. He knows how things work; he knows the city inside out.

We stood there for a second, my bags beside me. A little puppy walked and sat between them, gave me a grin as if to say, I am with you. I’ve been adopted by a Cuban dog again. This has happened before. And yes, inside the airport! Welcome to Cuba! I looked at Avi and said:” I came here with my bags, now I have my two bags and a dog.” And we both started to laugh. I love how unpredictable and wild Cuba is.

We walked towards Avi’s car. When I looked at his license plate it was orange – for foreign workers. Avi suggested we’d go for a quick lunch and then I could get settled in the hotel. Sounded good to me. Before I knew it we were right in front of the sea, steaming hot, and my feet in the water. I had this big smile on my face from ear to ear. Yes, I am back!

We had a great lunch which was delicious. We could not get even one smile out of the waitress but the guys were all smiles talking to me. Ha ha ha. Considering the fact that I looked like shit… Yes, I am back in Cuba.

Avi told me many great stories as we drove around, very interesting things. For me it is an anthropological journey inside the culture. It’s a journey that fascinates me. I love going in and becoming one till I get it. I feel like I am seeing history in the making. Their way of thinking and the history is so deep, so rich with tradition, so messy and full of life. Avi has a complete different take on the city because he lives a different life than the dancers I usually hang out with. And for me, I want to know everything that I can about Havana and Cuba, so I look forward to exploring and seeing more through his eyes.

We finished lunch and drove to my hotel. They were so happy to see me. They know me here as if I lived here my whole life. The manager told me:”Has it been a whole year already?” and I replied “yes.” It was great to see her. She always gives me the best room – one of the biggest facing the Malecon with a nice balcony on the top floor. They always reserve it for me when they see my name.

Avi left and we made plans to go check out some places that I haven’t seen yet later on in the evening. I turned around to head to the elevator and here comes Javier with my voucher for the hotel. All smiles, great to see him after a year. He is the travel agent that organizes everything for me. We sat down and discussed the trip to make sure everything was ready. All good.

I then went on my quest to get a local cell number. So here goes another adventure in Havana. I asked at the hotel and they gave me rough directions on Galiano to Cubacel. I walked to the area and I couldn’t find it. So I started asking around. Three different people gave me three different directions, and they all seemed convincing. They were actually pretty specific, turn left and go five blocks etc. I realized, after asking three times, that people had no clue. They won’t tell you they don’t know either. Welcome to Cuba! So after a long walk that led nowhere, I decided to call it quits for the day. I was so tired after the overnight flight. I walked back and decided to try again tomorrow. Yes, nothing ever works here according to plan but honestly it is part of the charm of the place. So much happens here when you are not planning.

I walked back to the hotel and stopped to tell Porras I was back. He was really happy to see me. I then went back to the hotel and asked again about the Cubacel, turns out it is close to Chinatown. Forget about Chinatown being anything that resembles a Chinatown you know. Very different. I asked another person and they told me the same. I concluded, two people said the same thing - it must be close to Chinatown. The second store is on Obispo street which is a bit far. So the plan was to go on another quest the following day.

I got upstairs and wanted to start calling everyone letting them know that I was back. I was so tired that I put my head down for two seconds and woke up 3 hours later, or something like that. Who knows, there is no sense of time here anyway.

I got up and called Yeri and Israel to let them know that I was here. Yeri was so happy to hear my voice, and same for me. It’s been a year and I so missed them. I could feel that we were both glowing from the call. We talked briefly and decided that they would pass by the hotel the following day in the evening after work. Woohoo. Couldn’t wait to get a Yeri hug and give her one. My two best friends. There is no one like them here that I know. I tried, prior to calling Yeri, to call Ana but could not get through. So I told Yeri to call her and tell her that I was there. I can’t call Bauta from Havana, the hotel blocks the call because it is outside Havana.

I unpacked my things and settled into my room. Ok, things were grooving along. I finished unpacking and thought to myself, ok it’s seriously time for a shower. And just then the phone rang and it was Zuyima. She was downstairs. I went downstairs to catch up with her. We talked for a while and she asked me a million questions trying to catch up to the whole year. I then realized that Avi would be there soon and I haven’t even showered. I said goodbye to Zuyima and went upstairs. Shower, got dressed and after a while Avi arrived.

We drove to the fortress. I’ve never been there at night. It was a cool view of the city. Avi was telling me many great stories and adventures in Cuba. We talked about the history of Cuba and what happened here before the revolution. We talked about the things that are so similar between Israel and Cuba – both started with socialist values. He has a wider perspective because he is older than me and has more experience. He has seen more. It’s fascinating.

We then drove to a place where I have never been to. Upstairs is dinner and downstairs are late live shows of Son and Bolero. Food was good and the shows are really fun. Everything is live. We were cracking jokes that only Israelis crack. Oh yes and the format of the show is always the same – ask where people came from, stretch the Buena Vista song for 5 minutes and so on. Hilarious.

I love how authentic Cuba is in the sense of - what is ugly is ugly and what is beautiful is beautiful - for example: when we arrived, Avi asked the doorman who was performing; the guy said the name and Avi asked him “la gorda y vieja?” (the fat and old one?). The doorman laughed and confirmed that yes. It’s very typical to speak this way in Cuba. It’s not insulting unless it was said to the person’s face. You don’t try to make things pretty. You let them be what they are. And fat and old she was! I just smiled to myself as she went on stage and sang. Cuba! Cuba! Cuba!

So we hung out till late, drank, chatted and enjoyed the show. I even got up one time to dance. It wasn’t the kind of place where people dance. But at one point people did and this Cuban guy and I danced Salsa and a bit of Rumba. He loved the fact that I could really dance and gave me a big hug to say “cool” at the end. The guys behind us were from Spain, and even though I said out loud to the singer two seconds before where I was from, they asked me if I was Cuban. I said no, that I train professionally in dance here. They said:”You dance like a Cuban.” I smiled. It made me feel good.

Ok, end of day one, so good to be back. Life here feels so natural and warm. Loving it.

Half a year of adventures and getting ready for Cuba

noreply@blogger.com (Chen Lizra) — Mon, 24 May 2010 17:56:00 +0000

I've been asked lately why I haven't written in my blog for months and months. Good question, I answered. I love writing in my blog. I love writing. But I have had to put it on the back burner since my focus has been my TV show. There are things that I can delegate and then there are things that I cannot. Nor would I want someone to write for me. I love writing.

So here is a recap of the past half a year. I graduated from business school after six very challenging years of building Latidos Productions and studying full time. It's been rough but also fascinating.

When I came out of school I had the feeling like I needed to explode to the world, to leave the cage that trapped me inside - school. So I took all the many miles that I accumulated and blew them all on just about every Cuban festival that existed in North America. I was in Cuba all of July and August for work. In Sept I was in Edmonton for the Cubamemucho. In Oct I taught in Seattle for a weekend. Nov was my first time in Miami - I performed after years off the stage. It was a precious feeling. It was great to also extend my vacation a bit and have a little vacation in Miami.

Dec I flew to Atlanta and performed the same choreography and taught. Dec-Jan I was in Israel - taught, had a TV appearance (which you can find in my MYSPACE page), spent time with family and friends, and escaped for a little short vacation down south. I unplugged. Feb I was in San Fran for the annual Rueda event and performed a new choreography of Yambu. A very vulnerable piece.

It was amazing to fly all around, see what was going on, what other artists do, meet many great and talented people, explore.. have fun..

That's it. I got it out of my system at this point. I feel calm again and no more miles to burn... ha ha ha

In April I performed a new choreography in Vancouver in the Rueda festival but this time with two girls from my performance team. I feel very proud of them. They have worked very hard for us to create what we did.

Just did another demo for TV. We filmed a demo about Reggaeton for Couples. It's all about bringing passion and teasing into the relationship. People think that I am "bad" because of all of the seduction. They could not be more wrong. I use seduction to bring passion to relationships. I refuse to teach people how to play with other people's feelings for the sake of pushing buttons. But teach a couple how to push each others buttons and you will see passion and love flourish. I am very family oriented and loyal by nature. Seduction brings passion to my life too and lights me up. I love the energy. But seducing a man for the sake of seduction has never been my thing. And this demo thanX to Erin Shaw, who got all of her editors to compete on who will be more racy, turned out real! Erin has become a Cuba addict. Or as she said when she came back from Cuba:" It's so boring here.. bring it on.." A culture can be limiting. I try to open people's mind. To take them on a journey. I bring the sexual energy from Cuba the way it is. Erin helped create a piece that's very authentic.

I feel happy because I can create and invent my dreams which inspire others. I really love what I do. I feel blessed. And the more I fulfill my dreams, the more energy I have to create.

Someone asked me lately if I miss my 20s. I might miss a thing or two, but generally speaking I like better who I am today. I feel solid. In my 20s I was confused and tried to figure out who I was. I know who I am now and what I do is an expression of who I am.

Now, to a complete different subject. Something happened to me when I was in Israel. A friend gave me a strong mirror to look into. It kicked my ass into shape. ha ha ha. I got back and re-focused my goals, chose two major things to go after. One of them is my TV show. It's been one of my dreams for many years. I came up with the specific concept about seven years ago, tried to write it and pitch it at the time but I was not ready. So I shelved it. Suddenly it was time. I brushed the dust off it and started working on it, giving it all it takes. Five months later and I have a 3.5 minutes demo and a beautiful write up to present. Many thanX to Jim Gordon who mentored me and guided me all through it, and JJ who did such a great job with the editing. It looks polished. I am ready to make it happen and I have all the pieces now - business, dance, production.

It always blows me away how much our mind and fears are what stops us in life. Five months ago it seemed insane to even assume that I could ever have my own TV show. It seemed far fetched. Now every person that sees what I look like when I host says that I am a natural and that the concept is fresh and magical. I believe that we have a voice and we need to use it to do good in life. I am finding my own.

When I want to make something happen and it seems big, it feels like walking in the fog. I can walk but I can't see where I am going and where I am stepping. There is always the fear of falling. So I start to walk forward one step at a time trying to ground each step. The interesting thing is that as I take one step I can see where I can put the next foot down. And after a meter or so some of the fog clears and I can walk a little further and faster. Eventually the fog clears out and the gate is right in front of me. Fear always comes up when I need to do things that I have never done. Fear just doesn't stop me. And at one point the fear turns into excitement. I read once that biologically fear and excitement are the same for the body.

So I know what I need to do next.

Besides that I am counting the days till I am back "home" in Cuba. Cuba has become my second home after Israel. And this year I will spend all of July there and most of August. I am leading an exclusive tour to Cuba for two weeks, then going scouting for new locations and adventures for new tours. Then 2.5 weeks of training in dance, five hours a day - new material for the academy.

As in every year, I will share my stories from Cuba. I'll upload stories every couple of days so you can all follow and feel like you are in Cuba with me.I hope that Cuba will inspire you to live from the heart.

Performing in the Salsa Rueda Congress of the Americas in Miami

noreply@blogger.com (Chen Lizra) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 06:01:00 +0000

I haven't written in a long time. I've been very busy flying around making new goals happen. This year I am getting back to performing after a 6 years break due to business school. I can't express how happy I am to be back on stage and under the spotlight, but most importantly to create and choreograph my own unique pieces.

One of the goals for this year is to create a much wider international reputation. So I got back from almost 2 months in Cuba in August. In September I was in Edmonton for the Cubamemucho. In October I was teaching in Seattle and in November I attended the Salsa Rueda Congress of the Americas and performed in it my solo.

I am booking a lot of travels this year to many locations. You can follow my page on MySpace for updates on where I am in the world - where I am teaching and performing.I am accepting travel invitations and open to go to many more places around the world. I love traveling. The further South the better, but I am seriously open to almost any place - I don't want to just travel but to keep sharing the unique knowledge that I gain from professional Cuban dancers in Cuba.

But what I want to write about today is my latest choreography and the process of creation. Many ask me about this piece because it is different and unique. I've decided to create something that not everyone would create. Something that is a mix of styles but a unique combination - an Afro-Cuban Contemporary Cha Cha Cha. Mostly in these events you see a Salsa extravaganza of flips and tricks. They are fun to watch and they have their own value, but I love the traditional in Cuba.

When I started working on this, I already had a rough idea of the kind of look that I was looking for. Studying Cha Cha Cha this year in Cuba really transformed my life with its softness and vulnerability bringing me to that safe space that feels like home inside. I have always appreciated the fact that an artist can create that kind of a space and make the audience feel that when on stage, and I've wanted to do it myself. I've also wanted to challenge myself but to also pick something that would be considered in Cuba as a higher ability - not one of the "street" dances, but more traditional. Lastly, I watched some videos to look for a combination of styles that spoke to me and inspired me. So, decision wise I was clear what I wanted. I wasn't looking for a complex choreography - Cha Cha Cha is simple and emotional more than anything. I was looking for story, staging and creating that traditional feel.

I got started by looking for a song to inspire me. I wanted something that both moved me music and energy wise but also lyrics. I took one of my CDs that has a collection of old Cuban music - very traditional stuff - and started listening to songs. I picked a few and out of which just 3 seemed to really fit. I then looked for the one that really made me see a story before I even paid attention to the lyrics. El Bodeguero was the pick. It's a classic song and every Cuban knows it. As I was told by some of them later, it makes some of them feel a little homesick.

Next, I sat down and translated the whole song to get the full story. It was such a beautiful story that I realized right away why it made me so emotional when I felt the energy. But the story is about a winemaker and I am a woman so I didn't know if it will work. But I just fell in love with the song that I was looking for a creative solution. Then it hit me, I can be the woman in the story that they are singing to and act her. It was a fit!

I had to edit the song down from 3 to 2 minutes since I was asked to do that and 2 minutes is a perfect time for a solo. Editing was easy because there was a part that just repeated itself and it was seamless.

I then sat down and broke down the song into lines I could act on, music instruments that I could use to connect to body parts/steps and accents I could hit with a pose. I opened my choreography notebook and started writing down all of the elements that I wanted such as movements from Ochun and Oya for the Afro-Cuban, transitions of Contemporary and specific pasos basicos of Cha Cha Cha which I really liked and thought that would fit here.

First I choreographed about 30 seconds and practiced it till it worked with the music. Interestingly, it was in the 2/3 part of the song. A few days later I choreographed another minute and worked on it till it fit the other part. And lastly, I choreographed the last half a minute right when the deadline for choreographing came up. When I do any kind of production, I always set schedules - great habit from working in animation production - makes you produce and on time!

Once the piece was done, I worked on it till it was flowing. Then Shannon, my friend, came over and gave me some tips on how to improve the Contemporary parts because it is her specialty and her advice was excellent, it made everything sit better! Thank you Shannon!

Then it was time to practice it while creating the look - costume and make up. I knew I needed a skirt which will work like my folklore skirt and I needed a very soft and romantic kind of a look. I went to see Zuzana, my friend, about advice about the make up - it is her specialty.

Creating the costume was hard because Vancouver doesn't offer many options, but I managed it and found some things and took it to someone who fixed it for me. It turned out great with the perfect look. And the makeup that Zuzana recommended was fantastic.

Then came the point where it was time to practice in a studio where I had mirrors and I could dance it freely and express it emotionally all the way - no limits. It really pulled it together for me but something was still not perfect which was that I had to let my emotions take over and when I do that I can't see what it looks like. So to really make it shine I taped myself and worked in the studio till I worked out the rough spots. I could see where I was using my emotions too much or not enough and adjusted it in order to balance the movements all through.

The really last thing was to perform it in my costume to both get used to the outfit and moving in it so that there would not be any surprises and also to let it affect my emotions. When I am in costume I get into my character better.

All the hard work has paid off and the piece got amazing reviews. I am very proud and pleased with it. I feel like it touched and many people and it helps me show my range of styles.

Here, you can see the results here, and I hope that you will enjoy it. More to come soon - from January I will work on two new choreographies for two different festivals.. the fun begins..

And if you don't know what traditional Cha Cha Cha looks like check out

Cuban Trip Testimonials

noreply@blogger.com (Chen Lizra) — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 19:42:00 +0000

To find out more about the Cuban tours, please visit the Latidos Productions site

Leanne, Shannon and Alexei

Having fun in Havana

The tours are over and here are some testimonials from those that loved the tour:

"My trip to Cuba was truly a unique and memorable experience. When I first signed up for the trip, my intention was to focus on dance and music, but in the end, I got so much more out of this trip than anticipated. Thanks to Chen's social network in Cuba, we were able to immerse ourselves in the culture and connect with the locals. Chen found us the most beautiful casa, the best shows and the most amazing dance instructors. Although we spent a great portion of our trip in Havana, we also had the opportunity to experience the culture outside of Havana as we ventured into Trinidad and Vinales, which were one of many highlights of this trip. Cuba was a trip of a lifetime and I cannot wait to go back!"

Leanne (Female, Canada)

To find out more about the Cuban tours, please visit the Latidos Productions site

"I had such a great time on this trip! I didn't feel like a "tourist" at all but like I was experiencing the culture by being submerged in it. Cuba is so rich, beautiful and multi-faceted and Chen organized the tour in such a way so that it was malleable enough to meet each person at the depth they were comfortable and desired. We all agreed that the central theme was transformation...and transform me it did! I was left with heartwarming memories and definitely more enriched as a person!"

Shannon (Female, Canada)

To find out more about the Cuban tours, please visit the Latidos Productions site

“I am feeling almost as good as new. I did not really have any expectations about the trip – hopes maybe, but expectations none. I think that I took away from the trip much more than I could imagine. Have I transformed into a whole new person? No. The changes are mostly internal. It’s interesting for me how much of the dance is internal. Indeed, I see more and more the steps I need to improve in dance that are, in reality, the things I should focus on in my life. It’s doable. My highlights were going out to dance where locals do, Trinidad, the reef, the Los Van Van concert, the ability to control my schedule and my life in Havana. The other has been the opportunity to spend time with 4 great and beautiful women and learn from it about the daily life of a woman. I will be more generous with compliments now. I am playing with the idea of following my heart more, which is not easy for an analytical guy like me. The tour has shown me that opening the heart more makes for a more enjoyable life. I am left intrigued; a country of paradoxes: poor but with happy people, little opportunity to get nice clothing, but everyone is dressed to the nine.. I am leaving with a strong temptation to come back. Overall the trip for me was a huge success and I feel the journey is only beginning now. Would I recommend this trip to others? Absolutely! You have made the tour a very special experience for me and for that I am forever grateful. Hasta pronto.”

Alexei (Male, Canada)

To find out more about the Cuban tours, please visit the Latidos Productions site

Natalie having fun on the tour

“It’s a hot and humid morning in Havana. I’m walking on Galiano Street, the locals’ busy “shopping” street, on my way to dancing class. I love this city - The beautiful colorful buildings, the amazing architecture, the welcoming people, the dirt, the noise, the old and the new. Havana is so unique. My red short mini skirt turns on the Cuban men… they give me “psssssssss” every 2 seconds, and call after me: “hey beautiful…”, I smile and keep on walking, enjoy the constant flirting. Cuban men are very very sexy and they have no shame. They adore women and do not hide it. On the contrary, they say it to you, with words, in the way they look, all the time... I love it. I feel so sexy and free here.

Today is my third salsa class and it’s amazing how fast I’ve improved. It’s only my third class and I can already dance!!! Salsa makes me so happy, the music, the rotations, such a happy dance. After one hour I start my Reaggeton class – the sexiest dance ever that looks like having sex on the dance floor… Zuyima, my instructor, teaches me some temptation moves, and we laughed that if I’ll dance like this with a guy, he immediately will get an erection… she also teaches me how to walk seductively ... I realized how stiff I am when I walk… Unlike all these sexy Cuban women who have this natural sensual cat-walk when they walk on the streets with an attitude of “I know I’m hot…”

After dance class, I hurry to my room to shower and get ready for the afternoon party, 5 pm at “Casa de la Musica”, the best place for music & dancing in Havana. I meet with Chen and the group and we get inside. It looks like a discothèque from the seventies, big dark hall with tables all around and a dance floor in the middle. We drink “mojitos.” Los Van Van - the best salsa group in Cuba – plays on stage, I dance with amazing black Cuban dancers…God how they move their pelvis… especially the last one I danced with, he cast a spell on me with his moves… I’m in women’s heaven… we start kissing passionately and dance in the middle of the dance floor, like no one is watching…”

Visiting Cuba was always a dream for me. Chen Lizra made it come true, and for that I’ll be grateful forever. I could never experience Cuba the way I did without her guidance. Chen got us into the “guts of Havana”, the locals’ life, so much different from the ordinary touristic experience. Havana is mysterious and an unusual place and without her guidance we would miss it…she gave us this unique opportunity to learn dancing from the most professional dancers in Cuba, she took us to the best locals parties no one heard of… she showed us the most worthily shopping places, and taught us how to handle the “Jiniteros” (Cuban cheaters who fool the tourists). Her vivid energy carries you away to let go of your stiffness and just open up your heart, dance, and allow yourself to be sexy and shameless.

2 weeks in Havana with Chen – changed my life. I came back home love sick. Cuba got into my blood… I’m not the same person… I feel sexier and my self-confidence is higher. It reflects by feeling much more comfortable with my body, in the way I walk, in the way I dance, in the way I look and treat men… My perspective on life changed. Witnessing the Cubans, full of joy and happiness, even though their life circumstances are not easy, made me realize that life shouldn’t be taken so heavily and serious. We should celebrate our lives. And as Chen always says: “the way you dance, is the way you live your life. Dance like a Cuban and then live like one”.

Natalie Ginat (Female, Israel)

To find out more about the Cuban tours, please visit the Latidos Productions site

Cuban song and Reggaeton move of the year

noreply@blogger.com (Chen Lizra) — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 00:49:00 +0000

Whenever I come here there is Cuban song of the year… The song that is most popular that year and is played all the time everywhere. Last year is was “Chapeando” from Los Van Van.

The year before it was “Loco Por Mi Habana” from Maolito Simonet and his group.

The year before it was “Para Bailar Casino” from Adalberto Alvarez.

The year before that I really can’t remember, but I was here..

This year, the song of the year is from Charanga Habanera together with El Chacal, famous for Reggaeton. El Chacal released a CD last year that broke all records, together with Baby Lorens. The CD, for the first time since I started coming here played a full year. No CD took its place. As far as I know, this never happened before. In the meantime the duo split and are working on different projects. The new song with Charanga Habanera is the best hit of the year and it is played over and over everywhere.. the name of the song is “Le Falta la Habana.”

And here comes the second video clip that actually tells the story of the song.. not just a sexy video..

What is really cool about this song, besides the sound, that makes everyone love it? It's the story!
The song talks about this girl who decides to leave Cuba - she wants to succeed and fullfill her dream - win a grammy, have money etc. She leaves and he stays in Havana. He is asking her in the song:"Tell me, how are you? Did you find happiness? Tell me, how are things? I am here, very good and you over there, how are you?"
Bottom line the songs says that she is missing Havana and all that Havana offers. He is having a blast in Havana and she is crying in Mimai. It tells the story of many Cubans that leave and find that what they had in Cuba cannot be replaced - the Sabor, the magic, the shameless sexiness. Miami and the rest of the world that has money is not Cuba!

Now for those of you who are not deep inside Cuban culture and the dance scene.. Cuba also has the move of the year. The move is always a Reggaeton move and is the most popular move that everyone knows. One time I came back from Cuba to Canada and one of the Cuban girls asked me:”What is the new move of the year?” Luckily enough I learned it. Each year it is something different and it usually has a female and male version. Like the song of the year, it is very easy to tell because you see it everywhere and it keeps repeating itself..

Honestly, this is what life should be about.. moves and songs of the year.. wouldn’t life be great if we were concerned more with this rather than with problems about money, war, love, family etc..? Problems might seems smaller than as they do in Cuba.

Cuba doesn’t have a lot when it comes to material, but one thing that Cuba has is a deep and open heart. Not only that, but people here are happy with the very little that they have and it is intoxicating. And you know what? It’s simple.. you simply need to worry less and make more choices with the heart. If everyone did a little more of that, the world would be a better place.

Don't forget that you can comment here on the blog. I love reading comments and hearing what people from around the world, that I know and don't know, think about what they are reading.

Being spoiled by my Cuban mom in Bauta

noreply@blogger.com (Chen Lizra) — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 00:47:00 +0000

August 16 – after all the hosting and running around and being in just about every party possible in Havana, I was fed up with parties. I told Ana-Maria, my Cuban mom, that I missed the feeling of home. She told me that I had to come to her home for the weekend. And that was it for me. how could I refuse such an amazing offer to be loved.

My Cuban mom - Ana-Maria

People ask me what makes her my Cuban mom and Cubans who meet me and hear me speak of her, ask me if she is my real mom. She is not. What makes her my Cuban mom is her amazing love and support. She is there for me at any time of the day or night. I can call her 3 AM if I need to. I can call her every day and talk to her about things and ask for her advice. She is always there for me, whatever I need she is there, and she loves me like her own daughter, my friend, Damaris.

Damaris - the most beautiful dancer in Parisien

I met Damaris years ago when I was looking for a female instructor who could teach me, who was super sexy and spoke English. Damaris was the most beautiful woman in Cabaret Parisien. All she needed to do was to flash her eye lashes and all the men would fall at her feet. She was a gorgeous dancer and she stood out in the show. She was simply mesmerizing. I was lucky enough to see her perform there before she got married and moved to Italy.

Damaris and me in Cuba - 2006

Funny enough, the following year when I arrived and looked for her, I found out she was in Israel performing! Yes yes yes, in my own country. She was invited by a production company to work with them. The producer, 3 years later, told me that they still haven’t found any dancer with the kind of energy that Damaris has in order to replace her.. Damaris is unique!

Damaris was chosen for the poster of the show

Today at the house, Ana-Maria reminded me how it all started, how Damaris once came to teach me a class with a lot on her heart, and for some reason our hearts connected and she told me what she was going through, matters of the heart of course. That day we started becoming real friends. I gave her the best advice I had for her. She followed her heart..

Damaris and me in Havana - 2006

The friendship didn’t form in one day but proved itself over time with little deeds. One day I asked for her help when I needed to reach people in Cuba. I didn’t know how to go about it and Damaris and her mom helped me. Then something else and another thing. Eventually we became like family. They helped me and I helped them. Damaris turned into my little sister and her mom, my own mom. Or as Damaris says “nuestra mama” (our mom).

Ana-Maria cooking in the backyard

So with this great luck on my side, I headed to Bauta which is in the province of Habana for a family day and pampering. When I arrived not only "my mom” was there but "my aunt” too. I have already met her before. She came to hang out and cook. I love Ana-Maria’s cooking, it gets to my stomach the same way that my grandma used to cook. It just melts you from the inside. And "my aunt” cooks the same…yummm

The three of us before cooking

So it all started with Ana-Maria getting a kick out of taking pictures of me working in the house. She really did all the work, but she took pictures with me and the broom, with me and the machete.. ha ha ha..

Me and the machete

Me cleaning

Me doing more cleaning

I just helped clean the rice and she taught me how. Cooking took hours. By 3 PM my stomach "was stuck to my back" and I was starving. Everything smelled so good that I kept going back to the table and stealing food. I couldn’t help it, and Ana-Maria was chasing me telling me I am a Mickey Mouse. ha ha ha

Cleaning rice

At 3 PM at last we ate and I was so hungry that I almost ate the plate too. The food was amazing. The company even better. We cracked jokes all day and hung out. It was just what I needed, a day to decompress and be home with no preoccupations or stress.. no dancing.. just resting.. perfect!

What a meal

A table full of goods

Yumm

After lunch, I had a great nap and when I woke up it was raining again. So I had to wait for a while. Ana-Maria made me some juice from real fruits. It was delicious and was just what my stomach needed after a nice nap. She was making fun of me that I will end up being super fat if I’ll keep saying yes to all that she offers. ha ha ha. As we say in Israel, I will gain weight from "being so happy."

Full tummy, full heart

After the rain stopped we headed back to the city and she took me with her car so that I wouldn’t have to travel with public transportation over so many hours. "My Aunt” said that next time she will invite me to her house and cook fish for me. I told her I’d be there tomorrow and we all laughed so hard that it took us ten minutes to calm down. We kept cracking jokes on the way to her house. She invited me in quickly to see where she lives and meet my “cousins.”And then we headed back to my hotel. I enjoyed another hour or two on the Malecon with friends just hanging out and enjoying the music, dancing, and drinking Ron.

A perfect day with a perfect ending. Couldn’t have asked for anything better. Thank you Ana-Maria for spoiling me so bad and your amazing and beautiful energy. Thank you Damaris for sharing your mom with me, she is amazing, there is no one like her.. el maximo! Truly! I love you both. I am so lucky to have you both as my family.

PS
Damaris, do not to worry.. I took pictures for you of every dish that was cooked including the process of making them, in case you've missed your aunt’s cooking and the food back home. yummmm… I’ll post it when back.

YWCA Women of Distinction Awards 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Chen Lizra) — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 22:28:00 +0000

Last night was the special gala night of the Women of Distinction Awards. The event took place at the Bayshore Inn - a beautiful hotel.

The reception

There were about 1000 people there, TV crews etc..

This is what it looked like

My whole day was booked for getting ready for the event - hair, makeup, nails... All professional. For an event like this, you got to be prepared. Hair and makeup alone took 3 and a half hours, almost 4. What can I say, I have tons of hair.. ha ha ha

So much hair

The back look - all stylized

Around 4 PM I got home and started getting dressed - a new dress from Australia and the accessories from Israel. It took some serious planning to prepare for this kind of an event... It's like attending a red carpet event. I love doing this every once in a while.. It's fun..

Full look from the front

Full look from the front

Full look from the back

And a closer look

My good friend Katie was nominated for the young women award - women who are under 25 and already achieved so much!

Katie and me at the reception

And her friend Caroline was nominated for community building. All women of great power yet sexy.. (We were all happy to be nominated in different categories... can you imagine if we had to go against each other...)

Caroline and me at the reception

And this is Todd Newfield who was my business mentor for about two years and taught me a great deal about thinking big.

Todd and me at the reception

Todd was joined by Peter Holden - it was so great to have both of them with me.. Here we are a second before we all have to go into the big room..

Todd, Peter and me at the reception

Here we are on stage - all 60 nominees in all 10 categories. This was the rehearsal before everyone got on stage.

I am front row, third from the left..

Then Dale and Stefano joined - my good friends were there for support.. Love you guys!

Dale, you are such a poser...

I didn't win the award, there were people who have been contributing for 10-15 years, but just being nominated and the recognition for the hard work was a huge honour. I am doing what I am doing and creating what I am creating because I want to affect what is around me and give something to the people around. I just feel that it is such an honour to be recognized if I win or not. It's like someone noticed how much of myself I have given during the past few years and how many compromises it takes to give something to people, and said thank you.

For me the usual recognition is seeing people attending classes, coming on trips and seeing their lives being transformed... It's a daily gift.. One that I wished so much to feel when I was working for years in front of a computer creating animations. So, thank you all, for taking part of this big project called Latidos Productions and helping bring this energy together...

Nominated in the Arts and Culture Category

The good news is that Katie won the award and I am just so proud of her because she deserves it.. Katie, you rock!

Katie - the recipient of the young women award

So, that's it.. the end of a great night and a very moving experience for all of us, all ThanX to the YWCA who recognizes women and their achievements...

Chen Lizra in Make It Business Magazine

noreply@blogger.com (Chen Lizra) — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 17:16:00 +0000

Last month I have sent my questions to Brian Scudamore's column in Make It Business Magazine. As the founder of 1-800-GOT-JUNK Brian answers the questions of business owners and shares his knowledge in the local and international markets. Brian himself is one of the few Canadians who have been featured on Oprah's and his company won awards as best employer. As such, I saw it as a privilage to ask him to share with me some of his insights.

I actually wrote about 10 questions in total, but obviously they couldn't use them all. Here are the ones that got picked for the article. I found his answers to be very interesting... I hope you will too...

Latidos Productions being blogged about

noreply@blogger.com (Chen Lizra) — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 20:21:00 +0000

I am very happy to see that Latidos is being blogged about as Latidos gains momentum and recognition both in Vancouver and worldwide...

The first one is Modern Mix and here is the blog about Latidos

And the second one is about the classes and Cuban Trips

The best thing I could hear lately is that people are seeing Latidos everywhere. It tells me that we are doing something right..

The next thing is June 3rd as the ceremony of Women of Distinction will take place. I was nominated as one of the women who stood out this year and on June 3rd I will find out if I won or not. Needless to say that I am excited and nervous at the same time.. It is such a great honour to be recognized for all the hard work.

Next week all the nominees need to attend a photo shoot and I hear that the actual event is amazing. I've never been to one so I am really looking forward to that... wish me luck..

Latidos Productions on City TV - Breakfast TV

noreply@blogger.com (Chen Lizra) — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 23:48:00 +0000

This one just came out.. we had a full morning with BTV just about Latidos.. The night before I was teaching a class and one of the girls took a big step bakc and stepped on my ankle with a high heel. I was in so much pain - blue, swolen, ice... But it happens, it's part of the life of a dancer..

Next thing I know, it's 5 AM and the alarm clock went off.. I dragged myself out of bed and in s much pain. The foot didn't look too good. I showered, got dressed and put make up on which seems to me the most un-natural thing to do 5:30 AM.. but hey, got to look good for TV, right? Ha ha ha

I too a taxi and by 6 Am I already opened the studio. Greg Harper and the City TV Breakfast TV met me there and came in with great energies. We started setting up and planning.

For these kind of things, I have a generic plan which I work on ahead of time. Then I follow it to the degree that it's possible and flow with the rest on the go.. things just never happen exactly the same. This is also part of the fun..

6:45 - the Latidos students started arriving and so many of them could make it which was great. We had about 20 in total - at different levels, ages and body shapes. I love it when there is a mix because seduction, flirting and sexiness si not about a type cast.. it is for everyone! I hate seeing demos when everyone has a perfect body...

Anyway, we were on at 7:15, 7:45, 8:15, 8:45 and 9:15. Then turned out that they wanted to film another one and shoe it later around 12.

Each segement was different and Greg Harper was a blast - it was just so much fun playing with him like kids. He is so great to bounce things off because he is so open and playful. The morning was a blast and we were cracking jokes all morning.

The Latidos students were amazing, each and every one of them were there to help and support and give from their great energy. The beauty of it all is that you can see now how many of them got closer and more bonded due to the experience, which is part of creating a community here.. so great to see...

Besides that my foot was holding up but I was in so much pain and mostly icing between filming. You don't see it because I was smiling on top of it all and was on two advils.. but trust me, I was ready to scream if I could. But the show must go on... It happens..

So special thank you to everyone that was there and for Vida, Theo and Samantha for their great interviews.. Greg just pulled them out and they gave what was in their hearts which is great

And here is the result.. enjoy...