Cuba Day 6, January 15, 2024

A few days ago I was walking by the Rock House. It is a small fifteen table octagonal open air bar. Occasionally bands play there, sometimes full acoustic and sometimes with an electric bass. This day, a musician was taking a break on a bench seat. I stopped to chat, but he couldn’t speak English so he waved over the main man. I asked if he would like a tuner as I had heard that Cuban musicians are in need of tuners and respective batteries. I brought three with me and packs of batteries. I went to our room and brought them down along with a set of strings. He was very appreciative. He took me over to meet the band as they were taking a break at the back of the Rock House. I asked the bass player if he would like some strings as I also brought a few packs with me. I told them that I had a carbon fibre travel guitar. When I retrieved the strings for him, I also brought down my guitar. They were in awe. They asked me to play a song so I played Cupcake which mentions Cuban cigars and Old Havana. The guitar player really got into playing along with me as they crowded around me. They loved it. What a highlight this was. 

This morning the buffet didn’t have any coffee. A Japanese man was complaining loudly so that everyone could hear. He forgot he was in Cuba lol. After breakfast we went to the lobby bar and had an espresso. Coffee was also available at the Rock House. 

Today was Port Royal party day at the pavilion. The band never showed up but the recorded music was playing at a steady 80 decibels. Lunch was ok. We left and headed to our favourite hang-out, Rock House. We spent the afternoon drinking rose wine and listening to another great Cuban band, they were awesome - trumpet, percussionist, bassist, keyboards and singer/shaker. At the break, I gave the singer one of the tuners and battery packs. I told him about my carbon fibre travel guitar and brought it down to show him. He asked me to play a song for him and the band. We were at the back of the Rock House. Again I played Cupcake. He loved the song and the guitar and asked if he could buy it to give to his 9 year old son. At the end of the day, I gifted it to him for his son.