havana nights, a mini series...(parte uno)

cuba.

where do I begin?

if you’ve never traveled to cuba, it is a must see; however, i am not going to mislead anyone into thinking that it’s only full of beautiful beaches, people, and food.

cuba carried its fair share of struggles.

real ones.

hard ass ones.

i honestly haven’t spoken much about my trip since i returned, but i always knew that this space would be where i would reserve my narrative.

while hosting one of my sister circle’s back in 2016, a sister-friend of mine mentioned that her and a few friends purchased tickets to visit the island and when i expressed interest in visiting myself, she mentioned that deals were popping up and i should look out for the next one.

duly noted.

fast-forward a few short weeks and an amazing deal appears. me not being one to let a good deal pass me by, i quickly hit a few of my friends up and we bought our flights.

“finally….it’s happening,” i thought.

i’d spend the following weeks researching, planning, packing, unpacking, repacking, so on and so forth. i was hella excited. things seemed to be working out for the best. i was going to make it to my dream country while we still had one of the dopest presidents in office and we secured our airbnb for the low low.

perfect wasn’t the word.

our departure date approaches and three out of four of us leave from the same airport. our other friend was scheduled to arrive in havana not too long after us, so no biggie. our layover takes us to atlanta and the part i had been dreading the most had made its way to me. the damn visa.

i wasn’t worried about the category under which i entered the country. my journalism background and work would provide me enough credibility to enter. it was the idea of messing up on the actual document. focus too hard and make one mistake and you are forced to purchase another one. at the time i was working a contracting position that was not the most lucrative, so yours truly was nervous as hell.

i arrived to the counter ready to pay the most attention that i have ever paid. as soon as i approached, another girl who was filling out her visa greeted me with a slight smile. the airline rep handed me my visa and began to explain the process to me. as soon as the girl next to me finished, she proudly handed over her visa.

the airline rep took a close look and let out a hesitant “uhhh….”

i immediately froze.

“you filled it out wrong. you will have to purchase another visa.”

“can’t i just scratch that part out?” the girl asked.

“no, i’m sorry. we are not allowed to let you do that. let me know if you want to purchase another and i will grab it for you.”

“oh, shit.” i thought.

“ma’am! can you assist me?”

“like, stay right here and tell me where everything goes?”

“sure.” she said.

needless to say, the girl decided to purchase another visa and followed closely. i have always been one to learn from others experiences in life. if you tell me something was a hard lesson, i take your word for it.

why the hell do i always need to learn for myself?

we successfully navigated this portion of the trip and boarded our flight. my anxiety subsided and my breathing normalized. i turned on a horror movie and zoned out. a few hours later we landed, and were ready to take cuba by storm.

as we stood in what seemed like a never-ending customs line, we began to grow impatient. i saw when one of my friends finally made it through, then the other. me, being the final one to make it out, i met up with them so that we could wait the arrival of our last friend. the realization kicked in that we were exactly where we asked to be when we glanced at our phones and their was no service in sight.

no wifi… nothing.

we knew this before arriving, but it’s something about seeing “no service” on your phone that sinks your heart a little bit.

out of touch with the world, we grabbed our bags from baggage claim. i took a hard look around the tiny airport and noticed how far back in time we’d traveled.

filled with excitement, we stood in a small circle and continued waiting. about 30 minutes passed and we saw a familiar face.

eager to greet her, we walked toward her and embraced her with hugs.

having checked her bags as well, she mentioned that she needed to retrieve them and then we would be able to head out.

standing in our tightly locked circle, we caught up as we waited for the bags to be loaded.

“let me check to see if my bag is on the belt.”

she eagerly walked toward baggage claim.

as we stood there continuing our conversation about our plans for the trip, without warning, darkness surrounds us.

the entire airport lost all of its power and was pitch black.

we heard loud screams and gasps throughout the airport and the three of us immediately interlocked hands.

“amber! where are you?!” tannie yells out.

“what the hell is going on?” sam asks.

“f*ck. what did we get ourselves into?” i thought.