Thursday, November 7, 2013

October 21th: Cuba here we come

After a ten hour drive from Blumenau to Sao Paolo (thanks again Mr. Joel for all the driving!!!) we had just enough time to grab our stuff at Wellington's house before we went to our last show in Brasil. Altough it was a sunday night there were quite a lot people gathering and is was really nice to see some familiar faces from that we got to know in Sao Paulo a week earlier. Before we started the show we all felt a bit sad because we knew we had to leave straight after the show...but as soon as we played the first tune we just enjoyed this last brasilian gig. After the show there was only little time to hang out and say goodbye to everyone but still it was kind of a sad moment. But before we knew it we were rushing to the airport. Then it happened: on a turn that was leading us to the highway, one of our cars got a flat tire from a big rock on the street. It was a really dark and kind of a sketchy part of the city. And the cars that were overtaking us didn't slow down at all. So everyone got a little nervous. But there was no other option than to unload the car get the spare wheel out and get the flat tire fixed on site. Luckily we made it to the airport on time and about 2 am we were on our way to Bogota. We got there at about 6 am with a five hour layover ahead of us. Another 3 hours later we finally made it to Cuba. Our first expirience was not the best: At the immigration they immediatly spotted us as first timers in Cuba and made us buy some wierd insurance for travellers. No one we asked later in Cuba had ever heard of that kind of insurance...but at least we made it past the border. Outside the Airport we met our good friend Marlon. He accompanies us whenever he can to our gigs back home and flew in from Switzerland for the Cuban leg of our tour. And he truly is a good times ambassador!
Also, David Chapet our local prommoter was already waiting for us. He runs the Cuban metal label Brutal Beatdown and organises the Brutal Fest twice a year. For us, he put together six gigs in Havana, Santa Clara and Holguin. He's a really great guy, always relaxed and never averse to a brew. That we noticed only minutes after we checked in to the Hotel Bruzon and bought our first beers for a stroll through the neighbourhood with David.
We had a couple of days off which we really enjoyed after the last ten days with almost no sleep but a lot of party. So the next day we took one of Cuba's really nice oldtimer taxis to get to Santa Maria Beach. I've never been to a more beautiful beach: almost white sand, turqois water and palm trees as far as you could see! And you could get really cheap fresh coconuts that were filled to the top with fresh coconut water - and after a fiew sips were refilled with rum! We had definitively arrived...







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