Miranda July meets J.D. Salinger. This book is absolutely wonderful. Narrated by two fiercely curious and intelligent women, the reader explores art, love, friendship, and meaning in their multi-chapter, short-encounter observations. Some quotes:

‘People aim for the stars, and they end up like goldfish in a bowl. I wonder if it wouldn’t be simpler just to teach children right from the start that life is absurd. That might deprive you of a few good moments in your childhood but it would save you a considerable amount of time as an adult - not to mention the fact that you’d be spared at least one traumatic experience, i.e. the goldfish bowl.’

‘When tea becomes ritual, it takes its place at the heart of our ability to see greatness in small things. Where is beauty to be found? In great things that, like everything else, are doomed to die, or in small things that aspire to nothing, yet know how to set a jewel of infinity in a single moment?’

‘The tea ritual: such a precise repetition of the same gestures and the same tastes; accesion to simple, authentic and refined sensations, a license given to all, at little cost, to become aristocrats of taste, because tea is the beverage of the wealthy and of the poor; the tea ritual, therefore, has the extraordinary virtue of introducing into the absurdity of our lives an aperture of serene harmony.’

‘Thus we use up a considerable amount of our energy in intimidation and seduction, and these two strategies alone ensure the quest for territory, hierarchy and sex that gives life to our conatus. But none of this touches our consciousness.’

‘At times like this you desperately need Art. You seek to reconnect with your spiritual illusions, and you wish fervently that something might rescue you from your biological destiny, so that all poetry and grandeur will not be cast out from the world.’

‘So we mustn’t forget any of this, absolutely not. We have to live with certainty that we’ll get old and that it won’t look nice or be good or feel happy. And tell ourselves that it’s now that matters: to build something, now, at any price, using all our strength. Always remember that there’s a retirement home waiting somewhere and so we have to surpass ourselves every day, make every day undying. Climb our own personal Everest and do it in such a way that every step is a little bit of eternity. That’s what the future is for: to build the present, with real plans, made by living people.’

‘Madame Michel has the elegance of the hedgehog: on the outside, she’s covered in quills, a real fortress, but my gut feeling is that on the inside, she has the same simple refinement as the hedgehog: a deceptively indolent little creature, fiercely solitary - and terribly elegant.’

‘As for me, I implore fate to give me the chance to see beyond myself and truly meet someone.’

‘When movement has been banished from a nature that seeks its continuity, when it becomes renegade and remarkable by virtue of its very discontinuity, it attains the level of esthetic creation. Because art is life, playing to other rhythms.’

‘Children help us to defer the painful task of confronting ourselves, and grandchildren take over from them. Television distracts us from the onerous necessity of finding projects to construct in the vacuity of our frivolous lives: by beguiling our eyes, television releases our mind from the great work of making meaning. Finally, God appeases our animal fears and the unbearable prospect that someday all our pleasures will cease. ‘

‘And I felt extraordinarily happy. It’s the first time in my life that I’ve met someone whose fate is not predictable, someone whose paths in life still remain open, someone who is fresh and full of possibility.’ 

‘We need not search, our eye locates the form that will elicit a feeling of consonance, the one particular thing in which everyone can find the very essence of beauty, without variations or reservations, context or effort.’

‘It (Art) gives shape to our emotions, makes them visible, and in so doing, places a seal of eternity upon them, a seal representing all those works that, by means of a particular form, have incarnated the universal nature of human emotions.’

‘Entrusting one’s life is not the same as opening up one’s soul, and although I love Manuela like a sister, I cannot share with her the things that constitute the tiny portion of meaning and emotion that my incongruous existence has stolen from the universe.’

‘We know that we are beasts who have this weapon for survival, and that we are not gods creating a world with our own thoughts, and something has to make our own wisdom bearable, something has to save us from the woeful eternal fever of biological destiny. Therefore, we have invented art.’  

‘The eye recognizes a shared form to which both belong, and that is Beauty.’

‘Should you devote your time to teaching, to producing a body of work, to research, to Culture? It makes no difference. The only thing that matters is your intention: are you elevating thought and contributing to the common good, or rather joining the ranks in a field of study whose only purpose is its own perpetuation, and only function the self-reproduction of a sterile elite - for this turns the university into a sect.’

‘If you have but one friend, make sure you choose her well.’

‘Because beauty consists of its own passing, just as we reach for it. It’s the ephemeral configuration of things in the moment, when you can see both their beauty and their death.’

‘Oh my gosh, I thought, does this mean that this is how we must live our lives? Constantly poised between beauty and death, between moment and its disappearance? Maybe that’s what being alive is all about: so we can track down those moments that are dying.’ 

‘When did I first experience the exquisite sense of surrender that is possible only with another person? The peace of mind one experiences on one’s own, one’s certainty of self in the serenity of solitude, are nothing in comparison to the release and openness and fluency one shares with another, in close companionship.’

‘This morning I understand what it means to die: when we disappear, it is the others who die for us, for here I am, lying on the cold pavement and it is not the dying I care about; it has no more meaning this morning than it did yesterday. But never again will I see those I love, and if that is what dying is about, then it really is the tragedy they say it is.’

‘Thinking back on it, this evening, with my heart and my stomache all like jelly, I have finally concluded, maybe that’s what life is about: there’s a lot of despair, but also the odd moment of beauty, where time is no longer the same. It’s as if those strains of music created a sort of interlude in time, something suspended, an elsewhere that had come to us, an always within never.’

FYI, I am currently serving as Sophia Urista’s music manager. She’s the answer. Check her out now!

Wow. What a fantastic fantastic book. Eire writes about Havana pre and during the Castro revolution. He writes about his childhood - simple things such as swimming in pools, and frames it all with a lens of a world ‘before and after it changed.’ One learns much about Havana, the revolution, the 14,000 Cuban kids orphaned to the US, and more. Eire’s sensual descriptions of the Havana of his childhood was especially enjoyed by me who read this as I traced his tracks and explored a many of the same places, in a many different ways. I LOVED this book and would recommend to any and all. Some quotes:

‘Memory is the most potent truth. Show me history untouched by memories and you show me lies.’

‘All grown-ups looked the same age until they turned into old people.’

‘At the time I didn’t know that desperation and bravery are usually one and the same thing.’

‘Loss and gain are Siamese twins, joined at the heart. So are death and life, hell and paradise. I struggled to deny this axiom as a child, and strain against it still on bad days.’

‘And we didn’t like that combination of frequency and unpredictability.’

‘Knowing that your future is sealed is an awful thing when you’re a child.’

‘He didn’t so much read my mind as reveal to me what was there already.’

‘It has taken me such a long time to realize that few things in life are simple, that so many things are mixed. A bit of this alongside a bit of that. Good and evil dancing with each other so tightly, only one subatomic particle between them, while indifference looks on, as a chaperone, with her two lazy eyes, neither one of them capable of focusing.’

‘Don’t think for a minute that just because it was a dream it was an illusion.’

‘Really good things don’t need words. No. The best thing about really good things is that you can just sit there with someone else and not say a word. And you both know.’

‘The miracle was not just for me, for sure. That made it even nicer.’

‘La madrugada, that magic time before sunrise when the entire worlds seems asleep and you think you are the only one who’s truly awake. The best time in the world. The only time that truth appears, uninvited.’ 

Written in Cuba about an old fisherman and his love of fishing, baseball, and Cuba, this story was a beautiful way to ease into Havana. I love the simplicity of this story - an old man fights to catch a fish on the 85th-day of having not caught any. He speaks and thinks to himself for the majority of the read. After drinking and writing in plenty of Hemingway’s Havana haunts, I decided it was only appropriate to read this book at La Bodeguita for an afternoon. What a great respite it was. Just so simple. And pure.

‘They were as old as erosions in a fishless desert.’

‘He was too simple to wonder when he had attained humility.’

‘First you borrow. Then you beg.’

‘Age is my alarm clock.’

‘Why do old men wake so early? Is it to have one longer day?’

‘Why did they make birds so delicate and fine as those sea swallows when the ocean can be so cruel? She is kind and very beautiful. But she can be so cruel and it comes so suddenly and such birds that fly, dipping and hunting, with their small sad voices are made too delicately for the sea.’

‘He always thought of the sea as la mar which is what people call her in Spanish when they love her.’

‘Most people are heartless about turtles because a turtle’s heart will beat for hours after he has been cut up and butchered. But the old man thought, I have such a heart too and my feet and hands are like theirs.’

‘It was considered a virtue not to talk unnecessarily at sea and the old man had always considered it so and respected it.’

‘and tried not to think but only to endure.’

‘Perhaps I should not have been a fisherman, he thought. But that was the thing that I was born for.’

‘The clouds were building up now for the trade wind and he looked ahead and saw a flight of wild ducks etching themselves against the sky over the water, then blurring, then etching again and he knew no man was ever alone on the sea.’

‘The thousand times that he had proved it meant nothing. Now he was proving it again. Each time was a new time and he never thought about the past when he was doing it.’

‘I am glad we do not have to try to kill the stars. Imagine if each day a man must try to kill the moon, he thought. The moon runs away. But imagine if a man each day should have to try to kill the sun? We were born lucky, he thought.’

‘A man can be destroyed but not defeated.’

‘But I must think, he thought. Because it is all I have left. That and baseball.’

‘Besides, he thought, everything kills everything else in some way. Fishing kills me exactly as it keeps me alive.’

PHOTOS CLICK HERE

About 10-days in Havana, 1-day in Vinales, and 1.5 in Veradero.

A late-night conversation in Patagonia urged me to delay my visit to Colombia, and instead rush to Cuba. Due to the warming relations between the US and Cuba (Obama just went for a landmark visit) and talk of 100-flights/day from the US, I wanted to get there ‘before it changes’ and I am so so happy that I did. You must RUN to Cuba (Havana) immediately. Do it.

Cuba is hands-down the most different place that I went to. I don’t care how developed or developing a place is, it is not as culturally different as a communist country that has experienced a blockade since the ‘60s. Save for North Korea, I suspect that Cuba is the most ‘different’ place in the world. Everything operates, looks, sounds, tastes, and functions differently. Simple things such as getting a snack, or using money, or finding accommodation, are all a hysterical challenge. Take for example my flight from Mexico City, which took me forever to check-in for given that each person traveling to Cuba brings with him/her ~20-30 bags filled with food (for the private restaurants), clothes, soaps, etc.

A quick 5-minutes in Havana:

‘Pig head on the corner in a bucket for santaria. Three old ladies painting nails and gabbing yelling at the kids playing soccer trying to impress the old fat shirtless men fixing the car next to the little girls dancing on the street to the music down at the end an old man lights his cigar reward for the day. A lady hangs off a balcony hanging clothes talking cross street to the other lady doing the same thing and holding her baby. A group of young hang outside a wifi hotspot heads down to it all. An old car kicks exhaust. A rickshaw driver struggles but smiles. A must be 8-yr old girl picks up a pack of old cigarettes and fishes for any leftovers. A chicken walks around in the restaurant that I’m dining at.’ 

I spent the vast majority of my time in Havana which is heaven. I feel extremely connected to the city and believe it will become a big part of my ongoing life. Music floods the streets, everyone dances, and my favourite is that there is no indoor/outdoor separation. Everyone keeps their doors and windows open and hangs out in these spaces. The colors are vibrant, the cars are old American classics, and the architecture is beautiful. Art is everywhere, and people just love to hang out and chat.   

It is hard to list/explain everything I did while in Havana, but a few highlights were:

- Jazz at la zorra cuervo

- Lobster at Chef Ivan Justo’s restaurant (Fidel Castro’s former chef)

- Art tour at KCHO’s studio

- Cigar factory tour and daily smoking

- Driving an old Classic 

- Malecon and Hotel Saratoga sunsets

- Nights at Fabrica d’arte

- Fusterlandia 

- Bazeball playing

Check the vlog and photos for a more visual account and pls let me know if you intend to go to Cuba and I would love to be much more specific. It is phenomenal and was the perfect, and saddest, way to end my journey. Which, by the way, I did in fashion - surprising my parents and family at a big dinner from which they are still shocked :-)

Home for now. What’s next?

PHOTOS CLICK HERE

In true Deb fashion, I arrived in Mexico City after a sleepless and dancing night in Quito, Ecuador, pumped to see my old roommate Erika, who is there on a Fullbright. While I was only in Mexico City for 4 days, I got a great sense of the pace of the place and was able to eat, drink, and explore mucho.

Mexico City is massive and dangerous. Relying on Ubers exclusively, I whizzed around the city from my home base in Condesa (very hip and perfect area). I went to the Frieda Kahlo House, Trotsky House, Teohuatican Pyramids, Mexico Central for Diego Rivera murals, and a many markets. I paused each afternoon, and evening, to drink all the tequila and mezcal possible - my favourite drinks. 

We dined fabulously, listened to awesome music, danced danced danced, and caught up with one another! It was an awesome few days in Mexico City, a place I liken to a cross of New York and LA, and a place i look forward to returning to shortly.

PHOTOS CLICK HERE

Spent two-weeks in Ecuador and was pleasantly surprised. 50% of my reason for going was to get some dope Panama hats (contrary to name and popular belief, they are all made in Ecuador, specifically, woven in Pilli and pressed in Montecristi. They are a beautiful art.) This pilgrimage was definitely worth it and had me enjoy many other experiences. 

First first I met up in Quito (after an all nighter and sleepless flight) with an Italian girl who I met in Hampi and who lives in Quito. As she explained, being at the center of the world has some sort of crazy energy to it that is evident in the people and rhythms of the place. I definitely felt it and didn’t want to leave. She, Sarah, showed me some awesome local spots, and we spent a few nights cruising the car (doors locked, don’t stop at reds - everyone gets robbed in Quito - she even asked me ‘have you been robbed yet?’), listening to Nicola Cruz Andean electronic music, and navigating artsy La Floresta, Gaupulo, and the old city. Quito is unbelievably beautiful, colonial streets and mountain and volcano backdrops, with an edgy pace. 

My old roommate Miki joined for a week which was awesome! So nice to have a flavor of home, and Miki is a jam so we goofed and explored a great deal. We went rainy biking in Banos, rough rafting, futbol-watching, and hot baths soaking. We missioned to one of the best markets in South America - Otavalo, for great food and wool hats, and watched a crazy Easter procession of 'sinners’ walk miles in Quito with chains, masks, and bare feet to repent. We danced at salsateca lavoe, and ate a delicious dinner overlooking the Quito night. After a failed Cotopaxi run, some backwards hitchhiking, and a many buses later, we made it to beautiful Laguna Quilotoa for hiking, kayaking, and mule-riding. 

When Mik left I kept south to Alausi for the devil’s nose train ride (touristy but beautiful), a sweaty/humid day in Guayaqil, and then days of beaching and nights of partying in Ecuador’s 'sin city,’ - Montanita. One of the best sound systems in the world is at Lost Beach and is a must party spot. Great fun. I then made the mission to Montecristi’s Freddy Pachay, a famous hat presser with no address (backpack and bags on I asked the whole town of Montanita where I could find him) to hook my dad and I up with grade 25 and 26 gorgeous custom Panama hats, then back to Quito! I toured the presidential palace, basked in the gold of the church de la compania, and stood at the center of the world - mitad de la mundo, before another sleepless and salsa party night with Sarah before my 5am flight to Mexico City. 

While I don’t speak Spanish, I am learning more everyday and am finding it easier and easier to navigate and comprehend. South Americans love to laugh and I have a great couple of stock jokes that give them a good time. Always remember - tranquilo! 

Ecaudor is definitely a place to which I’ll return. I must go to Galápagos, and I’m desperate to summit volcano Chimborazo, which due to the earth’s gravitational pull, is actually (at ~6800m), closer to the sun than Everest. At the end of my trip now I didn’t feel the strength in me and am looking forward to a chance to return! But for now: Mexico City!