A NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCE
Have you ever been in a situation where you experienced that massive sensation of gratitude for being alive after the event took a favorable turn, but could’ve easily been written in the opposite direction?
In any case, read on.
I recently visited Cuba and I absolutely loved it.
Boy, I do not recall the better place so far. Is it the beautiful, not yet intruded land? Is it the isolated system which prohibited corporate entries and maintained the uniqueness at the same time? Is it the joyous narrative spread by the domestic people? Is it the beautiful girls in the streets of Havana and Trinidad? Is it the old way of doing things?
I guess it has to be all of it and much, much more. It is just impossible to describe these in words. You must be there.
Alright, so here I am in Vinnales with my folks; my sister, my cousin and our friend. Vinnales happened to be another stunning place, a village actually, located away from the attractive coastal banks and more towards the internal territory. It rose to fame for its tobacco and coffee fields all across.
We’ve been bombarded about that one place that needs to be visited by all means, and that is Cayo Jutias.
In Spanish, Cayo means key, which is an island, and Jutias are small, fluffy animals occupying the given territory (although I have seen none, not even their turd).
Here it goes. Beautiful sunny day in November, old Chevy from 1958 is taking us to the heavenly spot. As we were coming to a close, there I saw it; on the edge of the bank close to a gravel road lied an excessively old lighthouse. It was a truly remarkable scene. Got me intrigued.
Fast forward to some 20 minutes later, there we are at the famous beach. It really is incredible. No exaggerations. It’s a long stretch of almost white sand, 20-30 people at max, two beach bars that offer 3 drinks. So remote, so ascetic, so minimal…yet so vivid, so abundant and so unique. Unforgettable. Not only this, but the entire area where the place is located. The palms, the drive, the tropical climate. There are no parking spots. No Wifi. No TVs. I don’t think there is electricity either.
After having some mojito in a coconut and handstands on the beach, I recalled „DAMMIT! The lighthouse…how could I forget?“ I left my crew at the beach and went for a 20 minute jog in the direction of the aforementioned construction. Hell, was it good 30 degrees Celsius.
After jogging all the way and reaching the spot, it looked even more impressive. Felt like I was a character in some sort of Hemingway story that was never published; not a living soul, a car, an animal, nobody and nothing except for a cool breeze, warm waters, clear sunny day and mangrove plants in what kind of was a swampy area. And a construction. A big one. And even older one.
Damn, there I go in there; curiosity gets the better of me. As I entered the base room, the main hall, I noticed that the entire skeleton of the building was still pretty solid. Yeah, there were noticeable structural deficiencies caused by test of time, but it all looked quite existent. Cuban architecture? Undeniably sound.
In the center of the base room there happened to be the central entrance to a spiral staircase. The entrance, believe it or not, was blocked by grid door. Same doors you see prisoners behind. Moreover, I was caught off guard even more after figuring the door were literally bended towards the outside. Goddamn. It look like someone (or even more people at once) or something badly wanted to make their way inside the staircase. Whatever and whoever it was, it had to employ a truly tremendous amount of force. Weird…
So, I managed to pull myself through the opening as the grid weren’t the deterring variable and started my very slow ascent towards the top of that rugged construction. As I was approaching to a higher floor, the views were obvious through small openings in the walls. Gets more and more incredible with every step.
Alright, this almost sneak-like moving finished when I got to the pre-final deck which finishes in staircase and extends to iron ladders attached to an opening leading to the very top of the structure. Three, two, one…BAM! WOW! Felt like reaching Mt Everest…Except it’s in Mexican Gulf. On the beach. In Cuba.
The views out there, guys…I was so taken aback by what the scenery right there offers. I just kept circling around the top deck of the lighthouse, taking photos, reels, doing mental snaps and all of a sudden…SSSHHHHHHHHHIIIIIIIT.
As I was circling around the deck, I literally forgot there was a damn opening which allowed me to reach the top deck in the first place. Boy did I forgot, I slammed the entire floor below through and hit the ladder with my left lower leg, which delivered a lucky circumstance as it prevented me from falling harder to the ground. Ahhhhhhhhhhhh.
The adrenaline kicked in a lot and for a sec I thought I have broken something. I recollected myself quickly and headed down the light stairs, pacing as fast as possible. I stepped out of the building and checked on the potential injury…nothing broken. Superficial bleeding and heavy pain.
Lucky as I am, I fell on the inside portion of the deck. If I were to fall on the outside, I’d be falling 30+ metres to the ground hitting the ridge down on the beach…long gone.
I felt so relieved, man – this could’ve gone so much worse. I grabbed the sand around and just thanked for the moment. Here I am. Wow.
My advice to you – be grateful for what you have right now and every single day. For every little thing. Never take anything for granted. Sometimes shit does hit the fan when you least expect it. Explore and risk it all, but be careful.
See you in the next blog. All of all, now or never. Imperative.