Bienvenidos, amigos
Bienvenidos, amigos and new readers. I’m Cassie and I spend most of the year hidden away in the countryside of Cuba. Viñales, to be precise. If you can't find me roughing it with the 'guajiros' out in the sticks, I'll be in the south of England stocking up on my yearly intake of sausage and mash.
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In Viñales you’ll find me about a 10 minute drive out of the touristic town. It’s beautiful, actually. So beautiful in fact that we’ve spent the last year or so fighting for a piece of the land and figuring out how to build a house from scratch with not much money and a very not-straightforward construction and legal system. It’s been a ball!
Anyhow, welcome and thanks for joining me. I should’ve started this about 5 years ago when I touched down on the island, but instead I spent my time learning how to navigate it and trying desperately to understand it. I’ve made a lot of headway in this bizarre and complex island, but there’s still a way to go. I still wake up most days wondering how the fuck I got here and what the fuck I should do now.
I’m also currently in a headspace somewhere between the ‘I-quit-my-well-paid-job-in-London-for-THIS?-denial’ stage, and the ‘my-life-is-so-cool-let-me-write-a-book’ stage. I’ve reasoned with these complexities for a while and have determined that starting a blog is one step before the book deal, and probably a great source of therapy too.
So, this is just an introduction post really. If you don’t know my story of how I came to be in Cuba, I’m sure I’ll write about it soon. I have written about relationships with a Cuban which has a few little giveaways about how I got here. Though I’m still undecided on which ‘story’ I’ll give you, as I have quite a few fictitious ones that I’ve created over the years. My made-up tales were an easy way to evade a huge amount of questions, but maybe now is the time to share the real story – it’s quite good.
Anyway, I’ll be in touch. Make sure you subscribe to my newsletter. I’ll use it to drop you an email (probably weekly if I can find the motivation but don’t hold your breath) with my posts/news. I could also do with some new friends, and virtual ones don’t require as much maintenance as physical ones. So please, stick around and share my musings with your other online friends. It would be nice to get this blog off the ground, if for no other reason than to keep me occupied.
Oh if you’re interested in coming to Cuba, get in touch. Also check out our small tour business running excursions through the tobacco fields in Cuba.
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