Empty Nesters: Green Global Trek

Fairy Tales DO come true

2012-01-08T12:34:00.000-08:00

Our decision to launch CO2 Bambu as a "life project" three years ago has reached a key milestone. As many of our blog readers and friends know, the company has had several “near death” experiences on the path from personal eco project to profitable company. Yet we persevered due to our passion and core belief that our commitment to environmental and social impact was worth the hard work and the healthy dose of personal risk.

By mid 2010 we determined that we were at a crossroad and that it was time for us to seek external funding to exit our start up mode and enter a growth phase for CO2 Bambu, making it possible for us to expand on our accomplishments to date in Nicaragua and to replicate our Nicaragua experience in other markets in Latin America.

But those who have pursued investor funding before know that this is easier said than done. When I sought to drag Peta into discussions about business plans, gross margins and the mechanics of future due diligence, she would would insist “be clear about what you want, and it will come”. I occasionally jested “what I want is a knight in shining armor, a Prince on a white horse who shares our vision and will join our environmental crusade.”

Right… DONE!

Enter His Serene Highness Prince Maximillian von und zu Liechtenstein, the current heir of a Princely Family which dates its origins 800 years back and which, recently, 80 years go, started what is now the largest European private asset management bank and more recently, LGT Venture Philanthropy, the LGT Group's impact investment fund.

Avid blog readers may remember earlier entries about Fabio and Juan Carlos, the two investment managers who visited us in Granada and visited our facilities in Rosita to “kick the tires” on CO2 Bambu. What followed was an intense due diligence process, which we managed to execute while running the business and closing out on the Rosita project of 82 houses and 1 school in the indigenous region of the Nicaragua’s Atlantic Coast, to our customer’s satisfaction.

Along with LGT VP’s investment, a side investment by a French impact group called Groupe SOS was orchestrated. Groupe SOS, a collection of dozens of associations and for profit businesses, includes a high impact investment fund, “Comptoir De l’Innovation”, which invested in CO2 Bambu. We look forward to synergies with companies that comprise this group.

We write this entry on a bumpy bus ride from Panama City to Pedasi, which we understand to be a small laid back town near beach communities on the Pacific Coast, where we have been invited to meet HSH Prince Max on vacation at their winter estate in Panama, as Princess Angela is Panamanian.

Certainly an interesting start to the new year.

Extreme contrast - Cuba to Panama!

2012-01-06T13:42:00.000-08:00

The book ends of our Cuba trip was Panama. This part of the trip was bamboo-centric as we wanted to gain a sense of what is the current state of bamboo in Panama. Thanks to Gib, Co2 Bambu's Director of Bamboo Science, and an unexhaustable source of contacts in bamboo world, we were soon meeting with several bambuseros and getting a crash course in Panama bamboo.

Here is what we found out: There are pockets of native bamboo species, but no large scale bamboo forests like those that can be found in Nicaragua. The Smithsonian Institute is running a bamboo conservation effort and we met the botanist in the search and collection of endemic bamboo species. There is one project building bamboo housing for indigenous communities, but it seems to be handicapped by quality and design shortcomings.

A bit about Panama: The Panama Canal is the major driver to the economy, creating the fastest growing economy in Central America, with a slew of services, from logistics to insurance to a strong financial services industry. It was a bit of a culture shock after Cuba, as consumerism is rampant. We visited a couple of malls, enormous and filled with US retail shops and it was a non-stop mass of consumers filling every floor, every shop. The US influence is very strong and it felt like being in the U.S., but Spanish speaking.

Let's talk about the four major take aways from our trip to Panama...

Futuristic skyscrapers: the skyline is chockfull of thin, tall skyscrapers overlooking the bay. The most recent addition to the skyline is a screw-driver, curly fries structure, towering over small sky scrapers.

Historic Casco Viejo: we stayed in the Colonial historic heart of the city, which strangely is only at an early stage of restoration. One might expect that with the wealth of Panama, the restoration of of Casco Viejo would have been further along, but perhaps the delay is related to constraints having to do with its being a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We stayed in Casco Viejo thanks to Peta's organization of a home exchange. Very well located, swanky after Cuba.

The indigenous people of Panama have amongst several attributes a tradition of beading calf-jewelry. The other is having a gold ring in their nose, which Peta wasn't keen to experience, so she opted for the leg bracelet.

Beautiful Isla Iguana: After a five hour bus ride to the tiny town of Pedasi on the Pacific, we found ourselves on a small boat bumping over the ocean like a roller coaster ride towards the little island of Isla Iguana in order to see the nesting grounds of the red-throated frigate bird. As we got closer to the green island which is a protected reserve, we could see scores of black winged frigots hovering above, dotting the blue sky with their pterodaptyl looking shapes. We got off the boat onto a beach that had powder white sand and turquoise waters. We walked across the tiny island (in five minutes) on a path that went through tall ratan plants and had iguanas which darted here and there, to the other side. What a sight! Black rocks, more powder white sand and clear bright turquoise waters. We lay in the sea on our backs and watched as the birds swooped above and around us, some of them with the large red characteristic pouch that these birds exhibit when mating. We walked across the rocks to get closer to the nesting location, the calls of the birds got louder and eventually we could even hear the baby birds crying out. The experience of having these huge birds (which usually in Nicaragua are very high in the sky) fly very low over our heads and get so close to them that we could see them sitting on their nests in the scrub near us, was truly exceptional and unforgettable.

Why Pedasi? because this is near to the winter residence of Prince Max of Liechtenstein (see next blog entry on his investment in CO2 Bambu). As HSH Prince Max was in the region, he suggested we meet, so he could put a face on the investment his bank had recently completed. For reasons of privacy, we won't expand on the experience. It was truly a pleasure (and honor) to meet him and have an opportunity to add depth to his understanding of CO2 Bambu.

Final moments in Cuba – New Year’s Eve - Welcome 2012!

2012-01-02T09:51:00.001-08:00

By now we are immersed in reading multiple books written by Fidel Castro, Che Guevarra, and Jose Marti, the three leading protagonists in the history of the Cuban revolution. We cannot put these books down.

The image that is portrayed of Castro in the U.S. is so incredibly out of synch with our observations and our many, in depth conversations with a wide array of Cubans -- from a farmer to a police officer, a guard at a resort and the head of a CDR (Comite para la Defensa de la Revolucion), a grandmother owner of a bed and breakfast and cab drivers, whites and blacks, young and old, to just name a few -- it is enlightening not only about Cuba, but also about the United States.

The simplest way of expressing this to a U.S. audience who no doubt will have a knee jerk reaction based on the portrayal that we have all been exposed to for years is this: the Africa National Congress and by inference Nelson Mandela were deemed and described for years as “terrorists” by the U.S. Eventually, the U.S. reversed course and we all know how the narrative evolved into Mandela being recognized as a hero of national non violent revolution and in fact Nobel prize winner.

Take a look at this short video showing Mandela, President of US Ally, South Africa, meeting with Cuban President Fidel Castro - old friends, getting together to commemorate their joint struggle. (come on, take 3 minutes and click the link, it's worth it!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSx4v3EcCfI

Mandela, as “revolutionary leader” was an ally and observer of the Cuban revolutionary bedrock concepts. Likewise we observe that this small island has managed to develop, despite a decades old US blockade, a quality of life that has many attractive attributes that still remain elusive goals of the richest and most powerful country in the world, the United States – an unmatched level of education (98% literacy, the highest in the world), a healthcare system that offers free medical services to 100% of the population (and dispatches world class doctors to developing countries and those affected by natural disasters, such as Haiti) and a super low level of crime (as explained in details by the chief of police we met in a neighborhood) and low poverty. The most interesting observation from the chief of police: not ONE single time over the past year, not ONCE, did any of his police officers have to draw their gun, let alone use it, over 2011, in the densest district in Cuba - the downtown Havana metropolitan area, equivalent in size to Houston, Texas.

The following is a USA Today article published when Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice met with South African President, Nelson Mandela. Embarrassingly, Mandela was STILL on the U.S. list of active terrorists, requiring special visa and processing to come to the U.S. The point of all this, is not just that the State Dept lists were outdated, it is merely that America's collective perception of foreign leaders is fickle at best and maddeningly colored by labels and absolute judgement in a black and white scale that is devoid of grey. Mandela yesterday was labelled a terrorist, today is of course revered as a hero, role model and elder statesman. But Mandela did not change, America's perception did. Will the same be said of Cuba's Castro?

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-04-30-watchlist_N.htm

One final set of thought provoking statistics from 2009. See below the result of international comparison of something called the happiness index. When the King of Bhutan a few years ago introduced the concept of a Gross National Happiness factor, to rival the consumption-focused more traditional measuring of Gross National Product (GNP), it was dismissed as a quaint concept from a far corner of Asia. Then, within a few years, international organizations such as the UN and even the World Bank started to take note that, after all, measuring happiness is not such a ridiculous concept at all.

Notice the happiness statistics of Cuba (#7) versus France (#74) versus the U.S. (#114)? How can that be? don't Americans have MORE STUFF? indeed they do, but perhaps, oh just perhaps. consumerism does not equate to happiness?

Is it because "Cubans don't know better, so they THINK they are happy?" (this is a direct quote from a conversation I just had with a European family friend). Hmmm... then what about the other 113 or so countries that rate higher than the U.S.? are they also just "ignorantly happy?"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_Planet_Index

For those interested in this topic, a bit more info about the substance of calculating Gross National Happiness, as defined in Wikipedia:

The survey in Bhutan

First survey started in late 2007 in Bhutan. 950 people across Bhutan were asked 180 questions grouped into the following nine dimensions:

Psychological well-being: Assessed the degree of satisfaction and optimism in individual life. The indicators analyzed self-esteem, sense of competence, stress, spiritual activities, and the prevalence of positive and negative emotions.
Health: Measured the effectiveness of health policies, with criteria such as self-rated health, disability, patterns of risk behavior, exercise, sleep, nutrition, etc.
Use of time: The use of time is one of the most significant factors in quality of life, especially time for recreation and socializing with family and friends. A balanced management of time was evaluated, including time spent in traffic jams, at work, in educational activities, etc.
Community vitality: Focused on relationships and interactions in communities. Examined the level of confidence, the sense of belonging, the vitality of affectionate relationships, safety at home and in the community, and the practice of giving and volunteering.
Education: Took into account several factors such as participation in formal and informal education, development of skills and capabilities, involvement in children's education, values education, environmental education, etc.
Culture: Evaluated local traditions, festivals, core values, participation in cultural events, opportunities to develop artistic skills, and discrimination due to religion, race or gender.
Environment: Measured the perception of citizens about the quality of their water, air, soil, forest cover, biodiversity, etc. The indicators included access to green areas, system of waste management, etc.
Governance: Assessed how the population views the government, the media, the judiciary, the electoral system, and the police, in terms of responsibility, honesty and transparency. It also measured involvement of citizens in community decisions and political processes.
Standard of living: Evaluated individual and family income, financial security, the level of debt, employment security, the quality of housing, etc.

Still, many people we talked with were quick to point out that there are some remnants of the system that are just plain stupid, such as the inability to travel abroad at will, or to have more fluid and cheaper internet access.

But the developments of the past 7 months, following Raul Castro’s access to the Presidency, are being experienced as extremely positive indications that the system is indeed being updated. Most important among these are the right to own a house or car and trade these at will. Individuals can start their own businesses and develop assets as a result.

We take 4 or 5 of our current favorite books we are reading in parallel to a Cubano Jazz club to ring in the new year. The music here and everywhere has been superlative. In fact, not since Kansas City and New Orleans have we experienced so much live music, free, everywhere.

When we get back to the neighborhood where we are staying, which looks initially like a very run down version of Paris, we notice that all the streets are wet, but it’s not raining. The New Year tradition in Havana is to throw buckets of water from the second, third and fourth stories onto the street, and hopefully drench a car or inattentive pedestrians. This is about “throwing out the old” before welcoming the new.

We end the night circa 2:30 am, intellectually awakened by our trip. As we lie on our bed reminiscing about the highlights of our trip, we fall asleep to the sounds of African drums. The Cuban black population retains strong elements of its not so distant African heritage. Peta feels at home.

14% of Cuba as protected national reserves

2012-01-02T09:50:00.001-08:00

Ever since our trip to India a few years ago when we found ourselves in the midst of a huge protected biosphere that was a natural habitat for a mind boggling number of local and migrating birds, we have had a penchant for bird watching. So it was again this trip, as we came tofind out that the Castro regime, soon after it took power in 1959, established a string of reserves to protect Cuba’s habitat. Who knew that Castro was an environmentalist?

The crown jewel of Cuba’s conservation program is the region of La Cienega de Zapata, an enormous, 414,000 hectare mangrove area that is home to 65 types of birds, many of them migrating south from North America during the winter cold season.

Our guide is a veteran at his job, expert ornithologist and erudite black man who delights in sharing his ecosystem, both airborne and socio-political, as he makes it his business to share today’s reality in Cuba with us.

Over a two hour period, we see an amazing number and variety of birds, up close, in their natural habitat. Specifically, we see the majestic bright salmon colored flamingos (flamenco roseado), one of the permanent resident of these parts. We learn that the color for these gorgeous water-born dancers comes from their massive consumption of pink shrimp, which is plentiful in the region. The young birds are white, they get gradually darker to a shade of grey when they are teen agers and they turn a bright pink as adults. We were so close we could see the detail of their scratching the ground with their legs and hooking the shrimp with their crooked beaks.

The other most dramatic sighting was of the rare Sigona Cubana, called Wood Stork. This giant bird (measures up to 1.3m or 4 feet) is much larger than the flamingo and has an almost furry appearance.

Other birds we could see at close distance: magnificent frigates, blue herons, grey herons, brown pelicans, Caribean Coot, large black cormorans, black necked stilts and roseate spoonbills.

It’s not all about birds though. The state also has gone some distance to protect its flora, and in fact has an enterprise formed to manage the Island’s fauna and flora. We walked through a huge botanical garden, the Jardin Botanico de Cienfuegos. We were particularly interested in seeing the 25 types of bamboo recorded in the garden. We were not disappointed. There were beautiful specimens of guadua, the species found in Nicaragua. But there were also larger phylistacus (spelling??) bamboos that were huge and had hairy nodes. Peta’s favorite was a two tone tall and slender bamboo that alternated between a greyish teal tone and protective sheaths of light ochre color. It was not a formal garden, but one that invited a casual stroll with a wide range of palm trees with distinctive trunks, shapes and foliage.

Finally, we saw several Orquideros and stopped at one near Las Terrazas, smaller, more formal gardens intended to feature Cuba’s beautiful orchids.

The Bay of Pigs, Cuba, in 2011

2012-01-02T09:49:00.000-08:00

Anyone with basic US history will remember vaguely an event that was formative in the complicated relationship between the United States and Cuba. Not to overly simplify a complicated multi-decade relationship, but it’s appropriate to start with a US invasion that led to the US controling Cuba at the turn of the century, starting in 1900, putting in place a regime headed by strongman “Batista”, of whom Franklin Delano Roosevelt famously boasted “Batista is a son of a bitch, but he is OUR son of a bitch!”.

When you start to look at the world form the perspective of the invaded, rather than the invader, the patterns become quite consistent -- Batista in Cuba, Somoza in Nicaragua, Reza Pahlavi as Shah in Iran, the house of Saud in Saudi Arabia and the list goes on. These are basically single families put in place and maintained in place, by economic and/or military means, to serve U.S. interest. Back to Cuba: when the US left Cuba in the 1920s, it secured eternal control of a small piece of Cuba now made famous by Bush’s War on Terror – Guantanamo Prison. The next important milestone in US/Cuban history were the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, when President Johnson ordered the invasion of Cuba by CIA trained Cuban exiles. This was a total military fiasco. Just to complete the story, the next milestone in US Cuban history came when President Kennedy had to face the prospect of medium range missiles placed on Cuban territory by the Soviet Union. The show down that ensued, referred to as the Cuban missile crisis brought the US and Soviet Union closest to the point of a nuclear war than any other conflict of the Cold War.

Today, the area is a laid back where a few tourists from Europe and Canada bathe in the warm waters of Playa Giron, aka the Bay of Pigs, while sipping Cuba Libre.

We had one last day to spend on our way back to La Habana and we opted on a whim to stop on the side of the road and enjoy a last stretch of white sand and turquoise waters. As we emerge from the water, a young man plays his guitar to romantic Cuban ballads. Our favorite Chan chan.

Take a minute and click on this link about the Buena Vista Club - Cuban master musicians, playing the omnipresent Chan Chan...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXwLBS3yUkA

AND SPECIAL TREAT! If you clicked this link and listened to the Buena Vista Club's rendition, here is a beautiful video with Buena Vista Club - New Generation, doing Chan Chan over gorgeous pictures of Havana...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiLkcHUuo2U&feature=related

On to the city of Cienfuegos

2012-01-02T09:48:00.002-08:00

We were in Trinidad planning the last leg of our trip, weighing pushing further east toward Remedios, another
Colonial town, known for its bombastic year end fireworks extravaganza, going to Santa Clara, whose main claim to fame revolves around its celebration of adopted hero Che Guevarra, or Cienfuegos, a French influenced provincial capital.

We opt for Cienfuegos based in part on the recommendation of a traveling Italian couple we keep bumping into. Cienfuegos is a complete contrast to Trinidad. Cienfuegos is sophisticated, feels “rich”, has a large square with an 1889 theater that is remindful of Buenos Aires’ grand teatro. More surprisingly, Cienfuegos has a vibrant commercial street with many shopping options and a thriving economy.

A bookstore, selling books in moneda nacional, typically reserved for Cubans, is a window into the intellectual side of Cuba. Perhaps as a result of the high level of literacy, or simply due to the absence of enticing TV offerings and near absence of internet, literature has emerged as a national passion perhaps as great as dancing and music. We return home with a stack of books, in Spanish of course, which we hope to delve into once we are back home. My (Ben) best find: Sandinismo en Nicaragua, a 400 page treatise on what Sandinismo was and is today in Nicaragua. Peta’s find: some easy reading in Spanish to practice with, and a very interesting English summary of the past 100 years that is thought provoking in its distillation of Latin American movements of independence and the recurring and brutal pattern of subjugation by US military troops in Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Cuba, El Salvador, Panama, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Haiti and Colombia.

We toured the city of Cienfuegos by horse cart taxi, as we could not find a Casa Particulares. Not many tourists visible in town, but all of the Casa Particulares seemed full. We ultimately found a room connected to a restaurant overlooking the Prado, the main tree lined boulevard that intersects the town. The large balcony offered an ideal location to have lunch and write our blog. Once again, this was the tale of a successful “permutacion” – the concept of trading one’s house for another, with no cash changing hands, as long as the owners are in agreement. In this case, the young couple had maxed out its newish house and awaiting children, wanted to find a larger place. Conversely, the beautiful 2 storey building, while much larger, needed extensive renovation and had a steep set of stairs, something undesirable to the now aging owners, who wanted something that did not require climbing stairs. The exchange was executed to both parties satisfaction and the deal was formalized 2 years ago, just in time for the young couple to get a loan from their family to renovate the house in time for a change in the law that now allowed them to open a restaurant.

The highlight and surprise of Cienfuegos was a chance walk past a local dance company of youth from 7 to 20 years old. The quality and level of modern dance was exceptionally high. We got to chat with the choreographer and it was a good opportunity to learn about the dancers' regimen. 6 days a week, 3 hours a day of practice, after school. The dancing was extremely sultry, sensuous bordering on strip-tease type moves, done by boys and girls... under the proud eyes of parents and grand parents. Nothing like that would be seen in the U.S. as the US moral brigades would be up in arms about the sexualization of children. Be that as it may, this seemed perfectly normal and culturally consistent with the flirtatious nature of Cubans and affinity for dance and rhythms.

Lest we forget – some gastronomic highlights in Cuba

2012-01-02T09:48:00.001-08:00

Lobster stews are omnipresent. The lobster is hacked into portions, with shell on, and soaked in a parsley or tomato sauce.

Fresh guavas are plentiful. This is a favorite of Peta (memories from South Africa).

Crocodile meat is a favorite around the southern parts of the country. First attempt was bland and chewy, second attempt was a lot more interesting, the meat being tender and juicy.

Something in the banana family, smaller and much sweeter than a regular banana.

Pulled ham sandwiches on the street, which cost just a few local pesos (5 local pesos = $.20)

Deep dish pizza made in saucepans, folded in a piece of brown paper, sold storefront of someone’s home

Cuban coffee with milk, everywhere

Street vendors offer churros, and flaky pastry with guayaba jam

Dulce de leche fudge being sold by a woman with a large bag of these, in the market.

Lamb is also a big local favorite – rivals a good Moroccan tagine.

Waking up in a UNESCO world heritage site

2012-01-02T09:47:00.000-08:00

Trinidad, a UNESCO world heritage site, is much as it was nearly 350 years ago, very much the quintessential Cuban time warp, a living monument to the islands golden age.

The city has been beautifully preserved and is remindful of some parts of Granada in many ways, but has many more cobblestoned streets (in the older section ) and 99.9% of residents are of course Cuban, compared with Granada which has a higher population of foreigners. Trinidad is captivating, especially at dusk when the light is intense yet soft, and brings a golden hue to the pastel colored houses and horse drawn carts. We spend many hours walking away from the center up and down the curving streets – designed to confuse pirates – talking to people who initially are trying to lure us to restaurants or houses but easily progress to non-mercantile conversations.

People ask for soap and pencils and Ben has had a dozen people or so ask him to sell them or give his linen shirt. Why all the interest in the shirt is a bit of a mystery, especially given the city’s extensive trade of beautiful white cotton shirts, but as always, one seems to want what one doesn’t have, so the linen shirt is a big hit. Trinidad has offered us many opportunities to chat with locals. Here are some of the folks who crossed our paths...

The city operates much as it has for hundreds of years and we enjoy looking into many of the houses, many of them grand mansions restored and reflecting a period of economic boom during the years of slaves and the sugar industry. We go into stores to get a sense of what is available for locals to buy -- which for the most part, have limited products. Some are given free to residents, others work according to a system where everyone has a little book that allocates a certain amount of basic items such as cereal, rice, beans, coffee, pencils, soap per month, per family member.

Medical treatment and supplies are all free. In fact, we met a nurse who was doing her rounds in our neighborhood, visiting patients at home, delivering medicine and checking in on individuals who are within her care.

Education is free as well. Cuba in fact has one of the highest literacy rates (98%) in the world. Very much a contrast with Nicaragua where only about 35% of the population progresses beyond grade school. A high level of literacy was established early on as a precept of the Cuban revolution and not only did this become a high standard for the Cuban nation, but Cuba fanned out to allied countries throughout Latin America for literacy drives, on the belief that an educated populace would naturally conclude that the Socialist model is preferable to the capitalist model it sought to combat. Within the population of Nicaraguans we associate with, be it CO2 Bambu’s workers or our own doctor, who is Cuban, there is day to day evidence that Cuban education support has been a valuable contribution to the development of Nicaragua.

It is fascinating being in Cuba and noting the comparisons with Nicaragua of which there are many… The few foreigners we engage with during our trip are quick to warn us not to “romanticize” Cuba. But of course, this is all a matter of perspective. Surely, to a European, Canadian or US audience, there are signs of relative poverty and therefore this triggers a knee-jerk reaction about theoretical differences between the political and economic systems. But, coming from Nicaragua, which also comes from a 20 year history of right of center, democratic governance anchored on free trade, but also happens to be on the bottom of the capitalist food chain, as the second poorest country in the hemisphere, or visiting Cuba after spending some time in 2011 in Haiti, the poorest country in the region even before the earthquake, we have a different perspective. We are simply observing that people have food, roofs over their heads, running water, access to medical services, toilets, kitchens etc.

One of the major downsides is of course the lack of freedom in travel and access to international news, as well as having to contend with various levels of rules and regulations that must be strictly adhered to. Still, when we discuss with local Cubans, we observe that even if there is a theoretical right to travel in Nicaragua, per say, it is only theoretical as the country is so poor that only a small slice of the population actually DOES travel. And of course some in Cuba does travel as well, as we keep running into people telling us about their cousin or uncles working in the US, Canada or Europe, and sending remittances to help the family back home.

We spend a few very enjoyable days in Trinidad. We go in a 1920’s cream colored ford convertible to the nearby little fishing village of La Boca, which has a view across the ocean to the Sierra del Escambray mountain chain. The small beaches are either white or black coral – from huge rocks of coral to small “shells” and pieces of coral which make up the shoreline.

Music is everywhere… clearly a central feature to Cuban life is music, song, dance and rhythm. In this part of the country, we find mostly afro-cuban folkloric music, with a lot of percussion.

Bus ride through the countryside to the colonial city of Trinidad in Central region of Cuba.

2012-01-02T09:46:00.002-08:00

The bus which is very comfy, leaves at 7am for a 7-9 hour drive to Trinidad. It makes a few stops along the way and we meet some of our fellow travellers. Mostly from Europe and in particular many seem to be from France.

Travel through the country side delivers two main findings. One, there is NOTHING in the way of poverty comparable to what we know in Nicaragua. Given our interest in low cost housing, we are particularly attentive to the quality of such home and are amazed to see the high standards of houses, either in villages, urban areas or country side. In all cases we saw homes that had good roofs, no dirt floors, no makeshift rusted zinc panels used to patch broken walls together and no out houses!

The other observation is that there is a healthy dose of road side subliminal (and not so subliminal) propaganda messaging about socialism, imperialism and the duties of hard working Cubans in advancing Che Guevarra’s ideals. Here is a sampling of our favorite billboards which we were able to capture from the bus.

Along the way, we share a bridge with Cuban cowboys and their herd...

When the bus arrives in Trinidad it's a bit of a mob scene with people pushing cards of various houses with rooms for rent, for which they get a commission if they find and send someone. For our first night Ishmael (who drove us to the beach in Vinales), has contacted a family that has a Casa Particular and they have sent a “taxi” which is actually a bicycle with a two seater behind on which we put our bags and off we go. This particular casa turns out to be next to a bus terminal and is rather noisy. Next day we walk around and select the perfect casa – a house which has a lovely room above the house with its own grapevine covered patio and view towards the ancient church for $20. It's a house that houses four generations of a family – whom we see each time we leave or come back as we walk through their sala, kitchen to the stairs to our little room.

Cayo Jutias – where Peta finds paradise

2012-01-02T09:46:00.001-08:00

We make our way through the landscape on a small road that meanders through and past the limestone hills, tall white barked palm trees that are the symbol of Cuba (other than Che Guevarra and Fidel Castro) and red fertile earth with Cuban music playing on the radio, we are in need of sand, sun and ocean. No traffic other than the occasional car, oxen drawn cart, some goats, people on bicycles. We drive onto a stretch of road that juts into the ocean to get us to Cayo Jutias.

The sea is translucent clear shades of turquoise and teal, lined by powder white sand…. The ocean is calm and a perfect temperature. We hike along the beach side which faces the gulf of mexico and find deserted small beach coves, one after the other, lined with natural driftwood scultpures, and I (Peta) am happy to stay here for the next month. This is one of the most beautiful beaches we have ever seen, and I ( being South African) am very picky about beaches!

So we now have our own secluded gorgeous beach where the only decision is to swim, walk, or lie in the sand for hours, when we realize we have a visitor… a local who seems to appear out of the scrub of bushes behind – approaches us with something to show us. Would we maybe like some fresh lobster that he is about to grill and will make extra for us for a few dollars. Hell yeah! Oh maybe he is drawn by my being topless, but either way he certainly adds the final touch to paradise! Within twenty minutes we are eating delicious lobster using my dress as a picnic table cloth on the sand. Whatever else happens, this is a very fitting and tranquil closure to a tumultuous 2011.

Destination Vinales, Cuba – of majestic and distinctive limestone mountains

2012-01-02T09:45:00.001-08:00

“Mogotes” are cavernous cone shaped limestone hills that are distinctive of this region. A mere 2 hours drive from La Habana, Vinales offers an infusion of bucolic splendor.

The valley is dotted with Tobacco farms, with their characteristic tent shaped thatched curing structures. Everyone knows that the world’s finest tobacco is Cuban. Our local guide, Ismael, 21 years old and owner of a beautiful blue vintage 1956 Ford, took us to his aunt’s tobacco farm where we could learn something about the tobacco process, from seed to cigar. The economics of the farm were somewhat opaque, but it was clear from discussions with the farmers that there is a significant fudging factor between the supposed 90%/10% share, whereby the State gets to buy 90% of the farm’s output at fixed national rates, while the farmer gets to increase his personal revenue by selling the remaining 10% as a retailer. Closer to reality is a 50/50% split, as the government does not audit production output and maintains an arms length relationship as long as prior year’s quotas are more or less maintained.

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We stayed at a high price hotel with an incredible view of the valley ($70/night) for the first couple of nights as a treat and then moved to a lower priced Casa Particular ($25), run by a friend of our driver/guide’s family.

We walked to the one-street city center for day time market as well as evening music and a general buzz of activity.

Live music is a consistent feature and focus, allowing us to discover the rhythms of chacha, rumba, salsa and reggaeton. Much of the Latin music that we have grown to love from life in Nicaragua, we discover originates in Cuba. There is of course a friendly relationship between Nicaragua and Cuba and together with Bolivia, Ecuador and Venezuela, comprise ALBA, a regional collection of economies intent on incarnating the socialist economic philosophy espoused by Che Geverra. We have observed that when we tell people we are from Nicaragua, it opens the door to a different level of conversation than if when we say we are from France and South Africa. For me (Peta) its been especially rewarding having many conversations with Cubans as now I can communicate in Spanish, which is something that previous to our life in Nicaragua I did not have the benefit of.

By now it has become perfectly clear that the best approach both for lodging and food is to go to informal casas particulares, which are Cuban private homes which are licensed to host visitors for “bed and breakfast” for about $25 a night.

Nowhere was this more obvious than in Puerto Esperanza, a tiny fishing village near Vinales, where we had the most incredible lobster meal with black beans and yucca at Ismael’s uncle’s house.

He proudly showed off his vegetable garden and Peta quickly requested that the two types of lettuce he was growing, be part of the meal. We had been eating fresh tomatoes from the local market by the bag full, but Peta was on a search for fresh greens. Talk about “live food”, the salad went from ground to plate to mouth within 5mn. A table was set for two, in a room looking out onto the vegetable garden and food was proudly brought and served by both the gardener and his wife, the cook.

Heading West – time to explore the country side – Las Terrazas eco community

2012-01-02T09:44:00.001-08:00

Las Terrazas is described as an ambitious 1950s project to develop a self-sustaining eco-conscious community, at the time when Al Gore was still hitting the books at Harvard, and long before any meaningful awakening of environmental consciousness in the United States or Europe. Organized around coffee and Tabaco plantations, Las Terrazas’ highlight was a walk along the river bank and a swim in river cascades and natural mineral water pools.

It turns out that these cascades were rich with guadua bamboo growing alongside its banks. We are staying true to our “no business” commitment, and of course the political context makes a Cuban bamboo enterprise not currently feasible, but the availability of guadua so close to the Haiti reconstruction market plants a seed for long term possibilities.

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Our agenda is full for the next 5 years at least as we stay committed to Nicaragua as our launch market, Central America and Caribbean (Haiti, Panama...) as our “domestic market” and Brazil as our longer term target opportunity to scale our business.

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Before moving on to our discovery of the island of Cuba, we stop along the way at a local farmer’s house for lunch. Driving by, we see a table and chairs and a small sign flags a casa particulares and home cooked meal. The offering – pork stew (and salad, black beans and fresh orange juice for Peta). As it happens, as we sit down under the shaded tree, we hear loud squealing and before long, an ox-driven platform (no wheels, closer to a rustic wooden snow sled), parks in front of the house and a large adult pig, “hog tied” is delivered… Peta turns white. The juxtaposition of pork stew lunch and pig delivery is rather off-putting and Peta explicitly asks our host if they could postpone the slaughtering of the pig until after we are gone. They look dismayed and quizzical about the concept of “vegetarianism” and assure us that said pig will not meet his fate today.

Cuba – improvising a string of Casas Particulares “on the fly”.

2012-01-02T09:42:00.000-08:00

We always face a trade off when planning a trip, between securing lodging in a foreign land, and staying flexible to shape our trips “on the fly”. We are notoriously bad at advanced planning, but this time, due to CO2 Bambu’s year end constraints and need to stay in Nicaragua until discussions with investors were wrapped up, we really could not plan anything. So our trip to Panama was spontaneous and it was literally days before we left for Panama that we added a Cuban side trip to the journey, seeing as Cuba is a short (and cheap) 2 hour flight from Panama City.

We secured only our first two nights’ lodging in La Havana and reached out to a number of “couch surfers” while still in Nicaragua, although communication was challenging, given the fact that the Cuban government does not allow for private internet and therefore internet access is expensive (and only authorized in rare internet cafes and hotels).Normally, the absence of internet connectivity would be a significant handicap, but this time, we are both in need of some downtime and Peta has been lobbying for an extended period of disconnection as work has been a 24/7 proposition of late.

Casa Arte, run by Ydalgo, a charming Cuban art dealer who had lived for years in Zurich before returning to his home country (after a short stint in South Africa), offers a beautifully decorated casa particular that is chockfull of Cuban contemporary art and made for an unexpected start to our trip.

From his neighborhood of Miramar Playa, we hopped on communal vintage taxi to La Habana’s city center for a slow discovery of Colonial era architectural treasures, by foot and by carbon-free bicycle ride. Havana is grander than Granada, with an old city that has been beautifully refurbished, in parts.

The architectural similarities between 17^th century Colonial cities of Cartagena (Colombia), Antiguas (Guatemala), Panama City’s Casco Viejo (Panama), Granada and Leon (Granada) are inescapable. However, one distinguishing feature of La Habana was the subtle French influence of larger boulevards and wrought iron balconies reminiscent of New Orleans.

The city’s position on the sea adds the benefit of a Malecon – the long ocean front promenade that curves with the bay and is a hang out place for young and old.

The most fun, as seasoned Latin America travellers, is when we stumble upon something uniquely local. The cars of course win the prize as the dominant visual of note. But a close second was the discovery of a locomotive graveyard where antique and dilapidated engines are parked smack in the heart of the old city, awaiting repair.

Cuba Impressions – Flashback to the 1950s

2012-01-02T08:37:00.000-08:00

This is the first of several blog entries that will give some insight on our just completed trip to Cuba. We had a PHENOMENAL time and blew out of the window oh so many misperceptions, inaccuracies due to caricatural media depictions. In short we LOVED it -- it is a hidden jewel (to Americans) and found the ongoing process of updating the Socialist Revolution that was launched 53 years ago positively fascinating.

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Every four years, in the United States, around the time of Presidential elections, a debate resurfaces about the absurdity of the US blockade against Cuba. An inheritance from the Cold War when Cuba’s Fidel Castro grounded his revolutionary regime in a strategic alliance with the Soviet Union, some two decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the United States remains committed to a foreign policy position that is not only antiquated, but has proven to be perfectly ineffective. The US Government has relaxed some of its policies -- in particular with regard to the right of Cuban-Americans to visit their homeland, yet there remains a general set of policies intended to somehow put pressure on the Cuban government. This is the result of America’s retail politics. Historically, rare are Presidential candidates who can win an election without carrying Florida, and Florida cannot be won without Miami, which in turn cannot be won without the support of the Cuban community in Miami. So the U.S., which is perfectly comfortable trading with the People’s Republic of China, a staunchly communist regime, remains entrenched in a failed policy to block trade with minuscule Cuba.

So what does that mean in practical terms? To start with, it means that Cuba wins the prize for Post Peak Oil preparedness in that it has culturally developed into an uber-recycling economy. Nothing is wasted. All is repurposed. And nowhere is this more dramatically exemplified than through Cuba’s living automobile museum.

The US embargo was imposed in the mid 1950’s. And so, the spare parts for then current cars stopped flowing.No matter, Cuba has been repairing and recycling parts ever since, leading to an impressive population of vintage US cars considered elsewhere museum pieces. I (Ben) have always loved the aesthetics of these “old cars” and have often drooled in front of vintage car shows or the rare sighting of a car enthusiast’s prized vehicle. Hence it has been a major highlight to face a smorgasborg of vintage cars on every street, at all times, both in La Havana and in the country side. We of course could not resist and for the time of our short stay, made a point of riding these beauties. For those not interested in these vehicles, this post may seem like overkill. For those, like us, who enjoy the colors, shapes and overall ergonomics of these 1950’s works of arts, consider what follows car porn.

So what is it like to be a passenger in one of these classic 50’s American automobiles? It’s WAY more spacious than modern day cars. You can stretch your legs out, feel as though you are lounging in the back of the car. Some of them are completely stripped and are bare metal. Others need wrenches to roll down the windows. Some are retrofitted with a music system that accepts USB drives filled with the driver’s preferred Cuban songs. But in ALL cases, the relationship between the driver and the car is closer to the relationship between a cowboy and his horse. The driver is attuned to the car’s every squeak and we repeatedly found ourselves stopped at the side of the road, as the driver adjusted a spark plug or axel. It certainly helped us dial back the clock to be more in tune with the 1950’s time period in which we found ourselves.

Travelling by carro antiguo was also a great way to learn a bit about the economic system from the drivers, in very practical ways. What did we find out about the economic system and how people make ends meet?

We learned that one can own one’s car and sell it. The government charges a“patento”, a set fee, for a driver, based on average sales of taxistas. This fee is 40 “CUCs” (Convertible Cuban Units), roughly equal to $40. Beyond that, each taxi driver pays the government 10% of his intake. When a good is sold, say a car, then the seller pays a tax of 4% and the buyer pays a tax of 4%.

We extrapolated this insight to find out about the right to own and buy/sell houses and confirmed that JUST LAST MONTH, the Cuban government changed a decades-old policy of no private ownership. Until now, the way for people to move from one house to another was only through a process of individually organized exchanges. If I liked your house and you liked my house and we both agreed to exchange, we would merely go to a central planning office and change titles. No money exchanged, just an administrative process, as long as both parties agree. This can lead to some extraordinary situations. For instance, we met one woman who “played the system” by building a small “modern house” built to the taste of modern Cuban families – shiny and white – and exchanged it for a much larger, older, house in the historical district of colonial Trinidad and over time, restored it into a magnificent guest house, whose economic value is surely much higher than the previous shiny new house. We did not see any real estate offices or any indication of the frenzied real estate traffic we have seen in similar colonial towns, such as Antiguas in Guatemala, Granada in Nicaragua or Cartagena in Colombia. But we did see a couple of signs “se vende”, of course as of today, only to Cuban residents.

A boost of nature: weekend revitalization starts in Ostional

2011-12-04T16:35:00.000-08:00

DId you ever wonder what it's like having your own private chef?

2011-11-13T13:17:00.000-08:00

When Adam came to Nicaragua a few months ago, to launch his career in the kitchen, we had hoped we might coax some good meals for ourselves when he would come for some rest time in Granada.

Adam started his job at Sushi Q in San Juan Del Sur almost immediately upon arriving in Nicaragua, settled nicely into his SJDS routine punctuated by some week end visits to Granada. It soon became clear that his time in the restaurant was very useful to help mature his organizational skills in the kitchen, but that the nature of the job was more repetitiveness of task than an outlet for his boundless culinary creativity.

So with this in mind, we created the conditions for Adam to try his hand at being a private chef. And try his hand he did, over and over again.

We launched the adventure with a dinner for CO2 Bambu's Director of Bambo Science, Gib Cooper, and his wife, who live in Oregon and visit Nicaragua a few times a year. Gib always has a hellish trip as his task is to go on reconnaissance trips to identify bamboo in Nicaragua. His regimen is typically hours of driving on bumpy roads, a steady diet of rice and beans and little else, bare-bones hotels and cold showers. So the idea here was to launch Gib and his team with a happy stomach. Our private chef delivered a scrumptious meal that got Gib to conclude after his trip "Who cares about doctors and lawyers, you guys have got it right, having a chef in the family is the way to go".

Adam's adventure as a private chef soon took a critical turn as we hosted Fabio and Juan Carlos, two critically important business associates, in fact European investors from the country of Lichtenstein. They came to Nicaragua to perform extensive due diligence and the outcome of their weeklong visit would be fundamental to CO2 Bambu's future, as their recommendations would drive the Lichtenstein bank's decision to invest in Co2 Bambu or not. Seeing as we were going to be immersing ourselves in days of discussions about the business, we felt it was appropriate to cast the business in the context of our personal life stories. And so we decided to host our investors and new found friends at home, rather than go to a restaurant. This proved to be a radically brilliant move, as it humanized us, the entrepreneurs, and they were able to see how complete our family's commitment is to CO2 Bambu and to the lifestyle that this entails.

Adam took on the challenge very professionally and understood the importance of striking the right note of informal authenticity, but with a crowd that enjoys good food and recognizes that shared meals are not just about "refueling" but also about sharing an experience. With that in mind, Adam's challenge was to stay coherent with the theme of a Latin American flavor, seeing as Fabio is Colombian and Juan Carlos lives in Brazil.

Adam hit it "out of the park" on all fronts. His menu was just "spot on" -- he made a cold corn soup that featured one of Latin America's most ubiquitous foods, corn. The main entree was a wink back at CO2 Bambu's launch when we first attended a Bamboo World Congress in Puebla, Mexico. Peta and I came back from Mexico in 2007 raving about the bamboo world, the beauty of Puebla and this amazing dish we had encountered -- Chile en Nogado. This phenomenal dish features Mexican Poblano peppers and an array of original ingredients such as peaches, pomegranates, walnuts and quail. While many foodies tend to default to French, Chinese and Indian cuisine as the world's most varied and sophisticated, we'd very much put Mexican food (not the common burrito and taco shortlist) right up there in terms of culinary sophistication. Adam's goal to create a memorable meal was achieved, and then some! Incidentally the experience of sharing such a delicious meal in the informal context of our home really stayed with our guest and infused our discussions over the next few days with a feeling of goodwill. It didn't hurt that a few days later, we bumped into Adam late in the evening in the street, as he had concocted a "sequel" meal and was delivering it to us as we were working through a late night session.

The "private chef" approach really worked well for us, and we took shameless advantage of Adam's desire to cook. The next opportunity was a dinner with musician friends, guitarists who live in Granada and whom Adam had played guitar with. Playing up on the Southern heritage of his blues-playing audience, Adam served us some unrivaled braised short ribs glazed in red wine and apple juice, mashed potatoes and a mind-blowing crumble of peaches, pears and apples.

Then there was a vegetarian-inspired dinner for our friends and neighbors Warren and April, who own the gym, yoga studio across the street. This yielded a casserole of grains and beet, preceded by an amuse bouche of shrimp with avocado. The side benefit of this evening was that we invited Annette, a vivacious beautiful Norwegian student taking her gap year, as all Norwegians do, to build up her Spanish in Nicaragua (adding to her fluent English and French) - visual rewards for the hard working Chef!

Adam's time in Nicaragua is drawing to a close, as is our window of opportunity to squeeze in more delicious meals from our PC (Private Chef!). We had an awesome culinary time together, remindful as it was of Adam's final high school year when he would rush home and cook for us increasingly sophisticated and creative dishes.

Here is a link to Adam's blog "Tales of an aspiring chef" (if you read it, be sure to sign up as a follower):

http://kitchenonthebeach.blogspot.com/2011/10/my-new-job-private-chef.html?showComment=1321806228081#c7167814403975981390

Daniel Ortega launches third term with landslide victory

2011-11-07T07:50:00.000-08:00

Nicaragua Elections 2011: President Daniel Ortega Headed For Second Term

By FILADELFO ALEMAN 11/ 7/11 04:08 AM ET

MANAGUA, Nicaragua -- President and one-time Sandinista revolutionary Daniel Ortega is headed for a mandate to stay in office in Nicaragua, overcoming a constitutional limit on re-election and reports of voting problems.Ortega had 64 percent of the votes in a count early Monday, compared with 29 percent for his nearest challenger, Fabio Gadea. Conservative Arnoldo Aleman, a former president, was a distant third with 6 percent after national elections on Sunday.Only 16 percent of the votes have been counted, but electoral council President Roberto Rivas said a quick count representative of the entire vote gave Ortega a large advantage as well. The methodology of the quick count was not released.

International election observers reported problems with access to voting stations. One national group of observers, Let's Have Democracy, said it recorded 600 complaints of voting irregularities, a handful of injuries in protests and 30 arrests.

A team from the European Union said it would issue a report Tuesday after investigating all the complaints, which included a polling place set on fire, election officials obstructing voters from opposing parties and protests by those who didn't receive their voting credentials.

The head of the Organization of American States observer mission, Dante Caputo, initially complained that its observers were been denied access to 10 polling stations, but later said in a statement that the issue was resolved, and the head of Gadea's campaign, Eliseo Nunez, said 20 percent of party representatives had been blocked from overseeing polling places "by paramilitary mobs."

He said that the OAS team didn't see "significant irregularities" but urged authorities to investigate all the complaints.

Claims of widespread fraud in the 2008 municipal elections led Washington to cancel $62 million in development aid.

Ortega had yet to acknowledge a victory early Monday, though he had already received congratulations from his leftist allies, Cuban President Raul Castro and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who has given the Ortega government more than $500 million a year in donations and discounted oil.

The ruling Sandinista party declared victory and caravans of thousands of supporters flooded the streets shouting "Daniel! Daniel!" But Nunez said his party would not recognize the results until the last vote had been counted.

Since returning to power in 2007, the 65-year-old Ortega has boosted his popularity in Central America's poorest country with a combination of pork-barrel populism and support for the free-market economy he once opposed.

He was running for a third term – his second consecutive one – after the Sandinista majority on the Supreme Court overruled the term limits set by the Nicaraguan constitution.

His opponents feared that if he wins more than 50 percent of the vote, it would allow him to change the constitution to legitimize the Supreme Court ruling and pave the way to becoming president for life.

Ortega has dismissed such charges as scare tactics from his enemies, and said the results would indicate the Nicaraguans are now voting "without fear."

Ortega had been seeking a clear majority after winning in 2006 with only 38 percent of the vote.

He led the Sandinista movement that overthrew dictator Anastasio Somoza in 1979, and withstood a concerted effort by the U.S. government, which viewed him as a Soviet-backed threat, to oust him through a rebel force called the Contras.

The fiery, mustachioed leftist ruled through a junta, then was elected in 1984 but was defeated after one term in 1990. He lost again in 1996 and 2001 despite garnering more than 40 percent of the vote.

A constitutional move lowering the percentage required to win a presidential election from 45 to 35 helped his victory in 2006, despite a divided vote.