November 7th, 2008
Beach Side Condo and Castro
Breakfast
To this point in the story Bruce and Mary have made their escape to México and are settling into their new home, the beachside condo outside Chicxulub, for a month of “decompression”.
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Mary and I are really getting relaxed as we develop our new routines in the vacation mode of our Move to México. Our routines start with the early riser, me, up at sunrise and getting the excellent Mexican coffee going. Then I head to our patio overlooking the ocean to make my daily journal entry and watch the day break. Mary is up a while later and puts together our usual breakfast of fresh, beautiful fruit and bread and I, of course, have my sardines for a chaser. I am so relaxed that my blood pressure is 106/65. The Poet dvd
After breakfast we would often do yoga routines, walk the beach, take dips in the warm ocean and the common pool, do crosswords on the beach, play boggle (for the first time in 20 years) on the deck and start drinking at 3, which we saw nothing wrong with, being on vacation and all.
After a few days of this total relaxation we were running low on supplies and needed to run into Progreso to restock. Our neighbor Justo volunteered to call a combi for us and we chatted in the shade on the steps on our complex. As we were waiting Justo explained that the combis cost 5P to run into Chicxulub and then you have to grab another combi at the stop in the plaza area to get all the way into Progreso. As we talked he became impatient with the combi service and called again.
I had assumed Justo was a local, out of Mérida, and that this was his vacation property but he surely didn’t seem to operate on Mexican time. I asked his background and found that he was a Cuban radical in the days of Castro’s rise. Somehow he was sponsored by some US Senator for a visa and referred to Puerto Rican Immigration. He traveled by way of Harlingen, Tx to Houston, Atlanta, and finally arrived in Puerto Rico. For the US part of his adventure he donned a business suit and tie, bought a Washington Post to put under his arm and not having acquired English yet, pointed to his throat as if he had laryngitis whenever anyone would ask a question or try to make conversation. It worked all the way to Puerto Rico. Next stop was Miami, where he met his Italian born wife, got a job in social services, and made a home in the Fort Lauderdale area, eventually retiring to his vacation home here.
He told me that he still has a son and a brother in Cuba and that in 1990 his brother called him and said democracy was coming soon. In 1997 Justo called and asked his brother how that democracy thing was working out and that has been their last conversation. I asked how Castro’s poor health was impacting the country and Justo told me that it doesn’t matter, that his circle will just take over. And he added that Castro will take longer to die than anyone expects. Not only does he come from a long-lived line, but he also maintains the revolutionary’s attitude that if you die, your enemy wins. Angel
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In my business dealings, I had dealt with many Floridian Cubans and I know that they all hate Castro and unfortunately they have the political influence to maintain what the whole world knows to be ineffective and totally political; the embargo. But I listen politely and just then, thankfully, the combi pulls up, and we took our leave and headed into Progreso via Chicxulub.
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