Making a pit stop at a small Cuban farm
Couple opens their home and serves snacks to those on way to Holguin from Santiago de Cuba
NEAR BIRAN, CUBA— Delio and Elda Pacho Cruz spring to action the moment our minibus pulls up outside their pale blue farm house on the highway from Santiago de Cuba to Holguin.
They offer us coffee and cocktails, cheese, guava paste, papaya and coconut candy. They crack open fresh coconuts to drink from and introduce us to their parrot Lara. We add rum to the coconut water for a drink called saoco. They show us where the bathroom is.
There is no menu. There are no set prices. We are here as friends. We may wish to leave a tip. This is what our Cubatur guide Ricardo Zaldivar Rodriguez calls a “farmers’ exchange.”
Cuba has infrastructure challenges and it’s tough to find restrooms on the highway. Rodriguez often knocks on doors to ask for help. This family was happy to help and the gesture bloomed into a relationship.
Now, with the blessing of the govern- ment, the Pacho Cruz family hosts about 50 travellers a day for informal pit stops that let ordinary Cubans meet ordinary tourists.
This family has farmed two hectares here since1972, raising pigs and chickens, and growing crops such as mango, bananas, corn, tomatoes and sweet potatoes.
“Everything is good,” Elda says while preparing coffee and tea. “We are glad to have visitors. They are very nice people.”
The money they have made in tips has helped them decorate, paint their house and make small improvements.
We stay a little longer than most people, since we are full of questions, but not too long.
“Thank you for stopping by,” Delio says. “Thank you for sharing what little I have.” Jennifer Bain was hosted by the Cuba Tourist Board, which didn’t review or approve this story.