A walk to Jaimanitas, a little town near the marina

We chose to save our first visit to Havana for tomorrow when we had thoroughly recovered from  our trip. Today we thought we would walk to the little town of Jaimanitas which was only about a ten minute walk from the marina. I was happy to see that there were sidewalks along this very busy main thoroughfare. Crumbled and broken in many spots required a vigilant watch by everyone as we walked, gawked and talked our way to town. Cars, buses, motor scooters moved along at a quick pace. Beautiful old cars occasionally honked checking to see if we wanted a taxi. Dozens of people waited along the opposite side of the road at the public bus stop. When the bus arrived it was usually filled to capacity and as it pulled away after squeezing a few more on we wondered just how they could possible move!  We crossed a small bridge, pausing to watch fishermen unload their catch from boats that had been worked hard.
There were police officers standing on the main corner watching for I'm not sure what.  Having just arrived we were not sure what this indicated with regard to safety in the streets. As we spent more time touring we found a pronounced police presence everywhere.
Jaimanitas consisted of two main streets that angled from a point on the main street. The building on the corner actually angled on each side to conform with the angle of the street. Vic swore that the corner was the one in the chase scene from Captain Ron, a movie his wife says he has watched at least a dozen times! Not speaking Spanish it was unlikely that we would be able to prove or disapprove his belief.  Both streets were filled with people walking, visiting and just sitting around in front of their houses. The area was bleak, consisting of two dirty streets and houses in disrepair with a patch of dirt or concrete for a front yard.  I found myself feeling uneasy as I would in the same circumstances in the states and was happy we were in a group. Later as we became more accustomed to the area I felt guilty and even a little embarrassed.  I had instantly assumed that  a neighborhood of this nature was also unsafe. A prejudice in my heart that was definitely far from the truth here. We walked up and down both streets but found not much of anything. No stores, shops, bars, or restaurant's. We did find the Cadeca, which is where you exchange your money. What we did see were people sleeping on mattresses on the floor in a one room house, men filling their gas tanks with diesel they had procured from sources we found later to be bus drivers selling government fuel from their buses to make a little extra money and clothes being washed in buckets and hung out on the line to dry.  Each month the locals are given a food voucher and a pay check that ranges from $15.00 to $30.00 depending on your profession. Doctors and lawyers make the top salary of $30.00 and it goes down from there. The food vouchers are used at the government groceries to obtain their rations of rice, black beans and a few other dry goods. Their paycheck is used to purchase meat and what vegetables that are available.  Education kindergarten through the PHD level is free as is medical care.
We walked back to the marina had a little lunch on the boat then took a bike ride around the marina.
We followed the sound of some lively salsa music and found ourselves at a pool party with lots of dancing young people. We observed for a little while then headed back to the marina.

People in line at the Cadeca to exchange money. It is supposed to open at 9am but we quickly found out that it opened anywhere within an hour of the 9 am scheduled opening. There are no lines. Everyone keeps tabs of who came when and just stand around until it is their turn to go in. The system does work. Can you see that happening in the states? Hah.

This is the corner of the two streets of Jaimanitas. Does it look like the one in Captain Ron?