The Waterstraut Waterspout: Cuba

Sunday, April 2, 2017

Cuba

We're on to our first country in April, Cuba!

Hayden had Cuba as his country for the 2016 Summer Olympics, so the boys were already pretty familiar with much of what Cuba has to offer. Plus the boys are big on current events, and there has been lots in the news over the last year about Americans finally vacationing in Cuba. We have cruise ships (out of Tampa, no less) heading down there, and plenty of flights leaving from TPA.

But long ago I planned Cuba for today, because it's baseball opening day, at least for the Rays (we watched AND they actually won, beating the stupid Yankees 7-2!) And baseball is as big in Cuba as basketball is in Lithuania

Our landmark today was Estadio Latinoamericano, or 'The Latin American Stadium'. The stadium in Havana is primarily used for baseball. You might remember the exhibition game one lucky MLB team got to play against the Cuban National Team last March. President Obama and Raul Castro attended. And that lucky team just happened to be the Tampa Bay Rays (they won then too, 4-1)

Fun fact: When doing my country info sheet I tried to make notes of things I knew the boys would ask, so I wouldn't have to re-look them up later.... and the score of the game was one of those things. (Calib did ask, so I was totally right about that one).

The boys are familiar with the Cuban Missile Crisis, thanks to JFK's birthday celebration. So we touched on that as a refresher and moved on.

We also talked about all the pre-1959 cars cruising around Cuba, since Fidel Castro basically isolated the country after that. (But again, Fidel Castro made the appearance on my presidential time lines, so they knew all that).

We did learn that the island, from above, is alligator shaped, and even has the nickname of 'El Cocodrilo' or 'The Crocodile'. Plus they have the tiniest of hummingbirds there (called the bee hummingbird, it is 1.9 inches long)

Now it just so happened that this weekend in Ybor City, there was the Cuban Sandwich Festival. Perfect timing! Asa had to be in the office today, so we took two cars and went before he had to clock in.

Ok, so Cuban Sandwiches as we know them sort of originated in Tampa, Ybor specifically, kind of. That's what we say here, anyway. You know Cuban Cigars? Well, in the 1880's the cigar making shifted to factories in Ybor and Cuban immigrants flooded the area. The sandwiches came too. Nobody really knows if immigrants made them in Cuba or here first, but either way, that's the story.

And if we were at the Cuban Sandwich Festival, we had to get a Cuban Sandwich!

It was universally loved by all of us, by the way! Maybe the best one I've had.

But there was PLENTY of other food to try too.

We ended up settling on some rice, arepas, and grilled corn with queso. Even though it was early, and the boys moaned and groaned about getting up because 'I'm not going to be hungry that early', they did enjoy quite a bit of Cuban food.

We also got a churro filled with dulce de leche. I don't think I have to tell you that it was delicious!

Anyway, I was pretty excited about the Cuban Sandwich Festival falling on my scheduled Cuba day because of baseball opening day. Sometimes things just fall into place!