Flynn’s Travelog

To all those who have been emailing me, no worries, I´m still alive and no where near becoming a communist.  I´m here in La Isla de la Joventud right now, which is an island south of Cuba.  It´s called Island of the Youth because of all the adolescents around the world brought here to work the farms and learn about Socialism.  I couldn´t work in this heat.

The plane ride here had to be one of my most horrific ever.  I got sketched out coming on the plane to Havana from Cancun, in an ancient airplane with its vintage Soviet-era fire extinguisher on board, but I realize now that was nothing.  We got on a plane the other day in Havana with a total of about 6 windows, the thing was about 110 degrees, and I´m guessing was made in the 70s.  We taxied around for about 15-20 minutes, just baking, when we finally got ready to take off.  The plane began to shake, in what I can only modestly describe as, violently.  I´m familiar with the usual shakes and vibrations that come from turbo-props, like the ones used by United in Durango, but this was something entirely new.  So, we were barreling down the runway at what I´m guessing was 60% of takeoff speed, when the pilot hit the brakes.  After about 10 minutes, we taxied back to the terminal.  Some people were sick, some on the verge of tears, but mostly everybody was just scared.  Anyway, it turns out one of the tires under the wing was losing pressure rapidly, so we are at least happy the thing didn´t take off and then pop the wheel on landing.  Needless to say, I´m not incredibly pumped for the return trip tomorrow.   Oh, I should add, Cubana, the national airline, has the worst safety record in the world.

Other than that, everything´s going well.  I´m havng a hiccup with my money situation.  I forgot to packet one of the five envelopes I split my money between before comeing here, and this portion of the trip has been, by far, the most expensive.  I´m hoping the envelope will make it´s way with the other Fort Lewis College professor who will be here in a week.

Oh, here´s some news: I´ll be back in Mexico sooner than expected.  Turns out, we can only extend our tourist visa here once, for another 30 days, so we´ll have to go back to Cancun on the 27th of June.  We´ll continue classes there until they officially end on the 2nd of July.  To be honest, this was good news for me.  It´ll be nice to have access to good food, money, and the rest of the world again.

As to my adventures from before the Isla, I´m hoping to have some time in Cienfuegos to write about that.

Hope everybody is well.

Hasta,
Austin

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