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Cuba '18
1 month of backpacking

         Someone selling their Cuban visa on eBay and the annual winter depression that everyone in middle or northern Europe suffers from gave the idea to backpack in Cuba for one month after the end of the winter semester.

This article will feature my travel photography, the backpacking experience in Cuba, travel tips and precautions for the island and recommendations for locations to go to. I will also go in depth about how I perceived Cubas people and society.

Let's start this off with a videographic summary of the trip in form of a music video for a track that I made right after coming home from this trip.


heartily arrival

The journey began at the airport near Varadero. It was early night. After the taxis tried to charge me $40 for a 20km ride to the next town I decided to start my exploration of this island with a 10km walk to the beach to sleep there.

My meditative 2h loading screen for the beach: The road from airport to beach.


When the road ended I found a fisher village called Carbonera that I would need to cross before reaching the beach. The village was already asleep. Almost. I could hear someone shouting repetitively from afar: PANAEEERRO. I kept on walking. But soon enough the shouting guy and another guy came saw me white as a toast and with a big backpack. Of course they approached me. Two guys each carrying a huge plastic bag. One of them overenthusiastically talked to me with big smile and big eyes. I could not understand much as this was my first spanish encounter. But they had good energy & spirit.

They introduced themselves as Danielo & Roberto. With something like Porque hablas forte? and some gestures I managed to ask him why he was shouting like a maniac in the middle of the night. Daniel energetically open his plastic bag seemingly happy that I asked. Full of bread. He pointed at the bread saying Esto es PAAAN, emphasizing pan so that I understood clearly that it means bread. Then he pointed at himself and shouted with a huge content smile like before waaaay to loud so that the whole village could here: PANADEEEEERO.
I understood. He is the baker or at least responsible for distributing the bread. Unfortunately I was not confident enough with my Spanish to ask why he does this in the middle of the night.

From there on the two brothers did not let me go. At my idea to sleep at the beach they just laughed. Muchos mosquitos they said jokingly. They invited me to distribute some bread, have some bread and crash at their house after selling a few more rolls and loafs,
People actually came out of their houses half sleepy to buy bread. Almost half of the time Danielo and Roberto gave the breads away without payment I noticed. They knew all their customers and everybody knew them. Village vibes. With every bread alone some friendly smalltalk went along as well a introducing me - the newcomer from abroad - to their village. Soon we went home and to sleep.

The next morning I was introduced to the family. Namely to the mom. Mom was a teacher in school.

Meet Mama: In her hands are some of the medals she received from the socialist party for working 20 - 30 - 40 years continuously in the duty of Cuba.


Then there was little Antonio. The boy of a friend from the village, whom the family has taken care of today. Danielo went to town to get more bread. It turned out they were not bakers but their job was to distribute bread in their village of Carbonera. What a job. So it was up to Roberto & me to take care of little Antonio. Beach time.

The Beauty of Carbonera

On the way home we met Danielo. And went to the small harbour of the village. Some fishers were there wrapping up their equipment. They would sell their fish in town usually. After a friendly conversation between them and the brothers they gave two fish to us for lunch.

Looking forward to lunch: Two men and their colourful fish.


And then mom did some magic at home...

Pescado con Arroz: Fish with rice, after chicken with rice, the dish I encountered the most throughout my stay in Cuba.

In the afternoon Daniel took me for a tour through the village. With everybody we came across he had a small chat with. He explained everybody's occupation and their role in the village to me. After meeting around 12 people I realized how naturally self-sufficient this village is with their workforce. There are the fishers, the carpenters, the butcher, the shopkeepers, the drivers, the school teachers etc. I could feel how the human connection between them was very strong, how they all got each others back. Also whenever I witnessed a small transaction in the village money was rarely involved. They rather exchanged smiles. It felt to me like people acted to a large extent independent of Cubas greater broken economy. Nobody would have excessive amounts of Pesos anyways. Being a nice, reliable, fair person was more more of a currency than the Peso. It made me wonder why it is so different in capitalist countries.

Poor people in 1st world countries go all-in on exchanging their goods using the currency set by the government as a mean of exchange. By keeping on using that currency they silently agree to the economic system at hand. And they do this although - being poor - they clearly don't benefit of the system. Cryptocurrencies are a (probably too volatile) option to detach from that reality but that does not seem to succeed. What keeps people attached to paying in Euro, in Rupee, in Dollar, in Pound? Currencies are successful because people trust them. Why do people who feel betrayed and exploited by the system still use these currencies? I assume it is the lack of alternatives. Alternatives can hardly be created by the poor just because of the sheer structural and technically complexity of such an endeavour as well as the high amount of seed cost involved. The second big reason is the monopoly of force of the governments. They force you to pay your taxes in the currency they pick. And if you don't pay taxes you ultimately go to jail. Ergo, even if you would use different currencies, at some point you would need to convert your money anyways in the governmental currency to pay taxes, if not you are on the illegal side.
In Cuba people aren't taxed with a certain percentage of how much they earn but by being equally underpaid. People don't care too much about how much they earn, because they barely earn anyways. Opportunities are extremely limited. Payment is extremely limited. As they are a socialist equal-outcome society the economic-egoistic motivation for performance is 0. This is not fertile soil for egoism. Ergo in small villages like Carbonera your motivation to work is the well-being of your family and the people around you. Being well-connecting to the village and being able to share work by skill is the same in Carbonera as being able to pay for all the bills, goods and services you require in 1st-World-Metropolitan-Area.

This is a life-lesson that I learned in Carbonera. Being well-connecting to your social environment and bringing positivity in this space is as valuable as money. Not just in Carbonera but everywhere. Even if you live in the 1st world and you need money to survive, being a nice altruistic person and nourishing your social environment feeds back to you. The more money is involved in your life and your social circles the harder it is to feel this truth because money is a universal and comfortable, yet cold and hollow replacement for such human interdependent connections. The only condition for your social environment to work is, that you have good people in your environment. No parasites.
Being aware of that you can unify the dualism of altruism and egoism. If you help others, it feeds you. So you help yourself by helping others. So if you give you are also indirectly giving to yourself.
At this point it does not make sense anymore to question if you are altruistic because you are egoistic or if you are actually egoistic because you are altruistic, because if you fully live this concept the resulting behavior will be the same.
It is basically like the Buddhist Concept of Karma. I don't believe in a universal spiritual Karma, but in Carbonera I could witness how this concept of Karma is a observable sociopsychological reality. Do good and you'll receive good. Do bad and you'll receive bad. Maybe Karma does not stretch beyond life-cycles and rebirths or whatnot believers claim, but it clearly applies on your real social surrounding right here right now.

So go out there and share some good Karma in any way with people who can nourish you back in any way. There are infinite ways beyond money, so don't be superficial but creative, diverse and clear with how you pick your people. In my opinion, this is one of the most important aspects of life.

Amerika ist Wunderbar


There were certain moments when I was reminded of being on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.
Compared to ancient culture in Europa everything in Cuba - and probably as well in most places of the Americas - has this peculiar taste of being recent & modern. Being a colony. The cultural roots are not deep. Nothing is really old.

This sense of freedom from cultural roots made it clear to me how the egocentric culture of capitalism could blossom in North-America. Not being reminded by old cities, old cultural heritage of ancient human values, just starting from scratch in an accelerating and industrializing world makes it quite easy to push capitalism to an extreme like it happened in the US.
This is important to be understood also for talking about Cuba: Before the socialist revolution, Authoritarianism fueled by economic interests of the US divided the socioeconomic layers of Cuba. Out of the resulting dissatisfaction of the large amount of impoverished people Castros socialist revolution found such fertile soil. BTW quite similar to what happened in Iran where extreme inequality under the US-supported Shah sparked the Islamic revolution that people suffer from now.

Faces of Cuba

What now? Although not being Homo Sapiens, the faces of these dogs depict a underlying mood and condition of the people in Cuba pretty well.

Sadly from a certain point of view the island is a prison for the poorer 90% of its population. Given many peoples job situation and responsibilities or economic condition very few can actually travel on their own island. The boy with the gecko in the pictures below shocked me with this.

Magic: Sometimes you meet kids who have an unabashed natural connection to animals.


I was still in Carbonera when I met him, of course Danielo knew his parents. I wanted to visit the beach of Varadero the day after. A mere 30km bus ride that costed about 0.25€. I agreed to take the boy with me for this day-trip. Fun time playing table soccer and all. In the middle of the day the boy managed to shock me to the bone marrow:
Varadero was the perfect place to just get out of the the small Carbonera bubble for once. Bigger town, each, good to hang out. Perfect for a small trip on Sundays or something similar and in fact one of the only such option for people from Carbonera. Suddenly this 13 year old boy told me that he is here for only the 2nd time in his life. So I asked him where he goes if he is not in the village. It turned out he never really leaves the village! School, helping parents, not enough money for the bus. Wow.

Freedom: The boy enjoying his Varadero sunset.

So Cuban life tends to be quite monotonous. People have an idea that the world outside their village and Cuba goes haywire in all possible ways, that there are opportunities for people from somewhere else to work internationally, to travel, to explore high-end technical fields, to shape the future.
But most people born in Cuba are denied from this. Denied from the uniqueness of the 21st century. Miami only being 200km away from the northern coast of Cuba makes it even more absurd.
How weird it feels to be at the beach of Carbonera - this peaceful quiet pure untouched friendly but stagnant impoverished simple village - and then look north in the haze visualizing to be in to nearby Florida. Personally I imagined freedom of speech, proper universities, passports that allow you to actually travel, people from different cultures living together, yachts, SUVs, MacBooks & McDonalds, supersized beef stakes, Coca-Cola, legal weapons and gang shootings, cocaine, fentanyl, racist white cops, people taking out a loan to get plastic surgery and a fucking Disney Land to exist right now just 6 horizons further north. It felt like decades in the postmodern future when you stand in Carbonera which does not even have internet. But it all rolls off simultaneously right now in this moment. All these different realities all at the same time. Too weird to wrap your head around.

At least Cubans have the best cigars and rum for the most affordable prices to numb any thoughts in such direction. Numb their thoughts about possibilities that they are denied from in life because of their poor economy, their government as well as the unwillingness and incompatibleness of global society to integrate Cuba.
But to be fair, many Cubans - mostly above a certain age - manage to find their peace with this situation and focus on the life that they have at hand.

The people have good connection to their family and social circles. Besides politics, it is a liberal country. There are barely restrictions regarding art, science, religion, sexuality etc. People are rarely overworked. They have a naturally beautiful island with the best weather all year around. The music is amazing. Everybody benefits from decent education and public health care. And some families even have a child in the US pushing over some Dollars every month. I cannot quite judge for the men but Cuban women are just gorgeous. For many Cubans it is a viable option to focus on the bright side of life.

The last picture shows the inside of an 50s-oldtimer as they drive all over Cuba because of the absence of newly imported cars. Many cars have no more seats due to wear and tear, the lack of replacement parts and the general lack of money to invest in maintenance.

Summer, Sun & Socialism


At that time - besides the good weather - the main reason for choosing Cuba as my travel destination was the confrontation with socialism. Growing up in East Germany although socialism ceased to reign there in 1989, there are still some remnants of socialism echoing there through the thoughts, speech and habits of the older generations who grew up before the Berlin Wall fell.
Personally, I could feel when growing up that me and kids around me were psychologically exposed to certain socialist aspects that remained within our parents, grand parents etc.
Therefore it was important for me to get a glimpse of what socialism actually feels and looks like when experienced live and in colour. Here are key points of what I took away for me:

• Education is free and available BUT the control that people have over their biography is shockingly limited. Regardless of their educational career.

• Above in the Carbonera chapter I already explored the excellent social bonds among the local communities especially in smaller villages. It was not just Carbonera. I found this phenomena numerous times in different villages during my travel.

• The daily Cuban diet seemed to be rather unhealthy. Additionally a lot of sugar, rum and tobacco is consumed as these are cheap and readily available local goods.

• Material conditions are devastating. Few peoples nutrition for the last days of the month until fresh rations are given is water with sugar.

• The vast majority of people are trapped on this island by political reasons or even trapped in their village by practical reasons and will never get a chance to leave.

• In spite of the material misery Cuba is extremely save. People are friendly to each other and in a good mood. I did not witness a single aggressive or criminal event during my stay among Cubans or against me.

• The propaganda is powerful. There are only very few TV Channels that are of course all under full control of the government.

• Internet access is limited. There was no mobile data and on a public WiFi router the access costed 1$/hour which is a huge amount for locals. I never saw people reading news in the WiFi areas. They would mostly use their internet time for video calls to relatives in foreign countries.

• In towns or cities girls offered me prostitution services almost on daily basis for undignified prices like $5. What makes it even more sad is that the very most of them were not regular prostitutes but ordinary young women. They just asked me because white people bring the extremely valuable foreign money that they feel is worth selling their bodies for. I never experienced this remotely in any other country. Usually when it comes to payed sex, you'd only be harassed by real prostitutes. Normal girls going this way must be a product of the poverty in combo with sexual liberty and the lack of religion or spirituality. It is cracks like this through where one can get a glimpse behind the facade. And in Cuba even facades are pretty brittle.

On point: A homeless person surrounded by tourists in Havanna. Not gonna lie, his shirt hit me pretty hard after taking this photo.

en la naturaleza


Walking in Cuba feels different. For the first time in my life I felt like this is the kind of natural environment that my homo sapiens body is actually designed for. I realized how much fear is created by living in Europe just because of the 6 months of harsh weather and climate as well as the anticipation of it.

Viñales

One spot that was totally worth to have visited was certainly Viñales. Gentle rocky steep hills leave spaced out wave-shaped valleys for you to roam through and for the best tobacco in the world to grow in.

Also Viñales and its birds inspired me for this Drum & Bass production:

A remarkably smoky episode occurred when I got lost in the bushes of Viñales only to suddenly find myself on a tobacco farm. The farmer was welcoming me with an open heart.
He was just feeding the pigs with the biggest papayas that I ever saw upto today. Then he was eager to show me his tobacco barns. In the barn he was quick to take two leaves and roll two huge cigars for us. After rolling and cutting the end he dipped the end of the cigars in honey, so it would be some sweet relish to puff the smoke.

Once you are in the north of Cuba, Viñales is definitely not to be missed. It is also extremely reachable from Havana by taxi and bus. Besides enjoying the nature of Viñales it is also it is a no-brainer to buy 32 cigars there (32 is the maximum duty free import quantity for cigars in the EU) for about $3-5 per piece and sell them in Europe for up to €35. Natural product, easy transport, good margin. Easily finances your flights.

Horse for scale: The hills are not incredibly huge, what the wave-like curvature of the entire landscape of Viñales makes it a pleasure to wander there. Good trip spot.

Topes de Collantes


Cuba has certain spots that offer an extremely deep immersion in nature. One of them is the National Park of Topes de Collantes near Cienfuegos.

Morning routine after sleeping in an abandoned open-air cinema.

This kind family from a forest village saved me one night from being devoured by mosquitoes. These kids were the purest and inspiring I've ever met.

Boca de Yumuri

My favorite small canyon is in the very south of Cuba not far away from Haiti. It inspired me for the melodic tribal Drum & Bass song that is featured in the music video above.

how I traveled

Cuba invites for a deep experience. With only 3 rainy days per month and the temperature constantly between 20° to 35°C the weather is as good as it gets.
Therefore I often slept outside at a safe, quiet spot. There are also no poisonous or dangerous animals on the entire island. Only mosquitoes attack. That allowed me to feel very comfortable just sleeping at some abandoned hut in the middle of the jungle or under a bridge with my isolation matrass and my sleeping bag.

Under the bridge: Me with my headlamp before going to sleep under the bridge in the background. Cuba has plenty bridges of this kind, the tubes were big enough to comfortably sleep in, also no bad smell at all. I ❤️ it.
Sleeping at construction sites: Somewhere around Viñales. Waking up to such a sunrise after comfortably sleeping in a perfectly sized concrete tube makes me question the concept of hotels.

Hard to Sleep

There where interesting encounters were the natural human desire to help and the desperate material situation of the people would overlap:

Once I was in a very small town near Sancti Spiritus. I love playing this game of finding a save place to sleep outside when backpacking. It is like acting homeless. And over the years I became quite good at it, always finding a decent undisturbed spot to sleep in more or less public spaces. But that night... damn. It was the most unlucky night I ever had when playing this homeless game. This town offered nothing. No back alleys, no bridges, no construction sites, no balconies. The town was not too big. I thought of sleeping outside the town but as soon as I left the last houses behind me I would be max level eaten alive by mosquitoes so that was also off the menu. At this point I started to look for hotels but there where non. Nobody was in the street anymore. After having run every street twice or thrice I started to figure that I might need to sleep sitting or not sleep at all that night. But damn was I tired already.

I ended up falling asleep on a bench in the middle of a road lying on my rucksack. It was a very bad spot. I knew. But any other spot would have been equally bad or worse. Maybe 2 hours after falling asleep I woke up. Someone was pouring cold water over my face. A group of people was laughing around me. It was some kids. 10 to 15 years old. Roaming around in the middle of the night. At that time I got super infuriated if people willingly disturb my sleep. I jumped up and chased them away from my close proximity. When they calmed their laughter they asked me what I am doing here in the middle of the road. I told tham in my anger of tiredness that their stupid town offers no place and that there are too many mosquitoes outside of town and that everybody sent me away so now I am stuck in the road.
Immediately they became quite compassionate with my situation. 3 young boys who were brothers offered me to sleep at their home. Despite still being mad at them for waking me up with cold water I was quick to say yes. Beggars can't be choosers.
Their home was a iron hut in the end of a back alley. In the hut I realized that it is very small and that their are no parents around.
When I asked about the whereabouts of the parents they told me that they are passed away. When they said this my anger turned into compassion. These three boys aged somewhere between 10 and 15 where hustling hard through life without proper parental guidance. Of course they would do some mischief in the night like pouring water over some stranger.
With these thoughts I fell asleep at a corner of their hut. When I woke up the first thing I realized was that my rucksack was moved and open. Especially while backpacking it is quite an adrenaline rush when you become aware that you have been robbed. I was jumping up calling for the boys. In the next room I saw them with my items. Instead of going for valuable items like the camera or the field recorder they were interested in other things. One was playing around with my scissors while wearing a headband of mine. The other one had a considerable amount of my sun cream in his face. The third one was drinking his cola while closely investigating my sun glasses. The plastic of the few chocolate bars that I had left in my bag of surviving in the jungle the previous days was lying wildly torn on the floor.
When I came in the room the boys looked at me without the slightest trace of guilt in their eyes before continuing to curiously play with my travel equipment.
Quite startled I checked my rucksack if anything else would be missing. But indeed they boys only took said items.
I wrapped up my things, took my items away from the boys without them resisting, gave them all my food and left wishing the boys all the best. What to make of such encounter?

The hardships of getting a pullover in Cuba

After sleeping outside for some nights it became clear to me that - despite being on a Caribbean island - not having packed a pullover might have been a bit overenthusiastic. It actually gets a bit too cold in the hours from 3am to sunrise. So I was hunting for a pullover in Cuba.
Whenever I was in a bigger city I asked around. It turned out to be a much harder task then expected. Sancti Spitirus. Camagüey. Holguín. Santiago de Cuba. Non of then had a clothing shop with pullovers or jackets. Being a spoiled European having traveled only in Asia before I took it for too granted that some 2nd hand garments or cheap child-laboured clothes would fluctuate accessibly on and on around me if I would only reach out for it. But no. This is Cuba. Many shops told me that pullovers and jackets would reach Cuba in the months of october and november as this is the beginning of the winter and that by some point they would be sold out for the rest of the year. I was far too late in the month of March.
Wow. I am really not a friend of consumerism and the fashion industry. But being able to buy pullovers and jackets for only one or two months of the year seems quite extreme to me. Socialist supply situation. Especially in Santiago de Cuba - the 2nd biggest city in Cuba - I just could not believe that it is impossible to score any pullover or jacket.

I ended up asking people wearing jackets in the streets if they sell their jacket but that was seemingly a even harder task than going to the shops. People really were not in the mood of giving them away, probably because the only have one piece and because they know that they won't get a new one for another 8 months. One rastafari that I asked though had in a cousin of his in mind who might have a spare pullover. It took 2h of phone calls and driving around in the city until I finally got the piece of cloth.

On the hunt: Driving through the suburbs of Santiago with two latino hustlers for getting me some clothes.

Finally I got it. It was not a pullover but a long sleeved shirt. But beggars can't be choosers. Luckily it was enough to not feel to cold anymore when sleeping outside.

Tripping into a tree

Once I was tripping really hard walking through a forest next to the beach. I fully crashed my forehead into a outwards sticking branch. Stupid story but the pictures where too funny to not put them here.

Oops: Did not really hurt so much but but I could feel some liquid gently rinsing down my forehead. Took this photo to see what the f is actually going on.
Trippy first aid: Use your headlamp to fix a tissue on top of the open wound. Apply pressure for 5 minutes to stop the bleeding.

Finance your travels with overbooked flights

At the airport in Havana I had a flight to catch back to Berlin. The queue at the check-in was quite long. I preferred to sit down on by rucksack and read the book Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi until the queue had fully dissolved. Noooo rush. I queued up when there was only one man left. After he gave his luggage and was allowed to proceed to immigration, it was my turn. But the ground staff denied me. They spoke Spanish. I did not get what they were talking about except that they denied my boarding. My Visa runs out in 2 hours and I paid for this flight. It is the right flight number on the right date and I have a valid ticket printed. So I made a scene there. I thought the incompetence of the staff must be off the charts.
After few minutes a English speaking charismatic man came and he knew exactly what to say.

Sir, don't worry. Please calm down. Can I please see your ticket ... Ok, to Germany, huh? I am sorry for the inconvenience but you won't be able to board this flight. It is not your fault! Don't worry you'll be alright. You will fly home as soon as possible without issues.
Yeah, but I have a ticket for THIS flight. What is the issue?
See, your flight is overbooked. You came too late to the check-in.
How on earth am I too late? Departure is in more than 2 hours?
No you are not too late like this. But too many people have been here before you. The flight is full now.
The queue was full senior German tourists. These specimen have a notorious reputation of arriving at airports up to 7h prior to departure.
But how? How can it be full if I have a ticket?
Have you ever heard of airlines overbooking their flights. They sell more tickets than there actually are seats because statistically some people won't show up. So they can maximize the profit of the flight.
But that's like super fucked up now?
You'll receive a replacement flight as soon as possible, a hotel for the night and an inconvenience compensation. Haha you fly to Europe, more than 3500km. That means you'll receive a compensation of 600€. Feeling lucky now?
Oh. (Suddenly I was not angry anymore.) And my visa? It runs out in a few minutes.
Immigration will see your flight was overbooked.
Oh ok. lol...
Please sit down here, a taxi will come soon to pick you up to Havana. I'll get you your flight details for tomorrow at once.


600€? For the entire trip I paid 450€ for the flights and 300€ for surviving one month in Cuba. So the inconvenience fee cuts my expenses down to 150€. Wow. If you don't have a tight schedule when flying I highly recommend to take your sweet time at the check in. Read more details about your rights for overbooked flights to & in the EU here.

I would receive a wholesome round-off to my trip. One day in capitalist excess. After sleeping in forests, corrugated iron shacks, construction sites and $5 rooms for a month, I was put now in the 4 star hotel El Presidente in the center of Havana. The ideal place for Western seniors who want to experience authentic Cuba from afar while being properly safely walled-in with a swimming-pool, champagne, cigars and fancy buffets. They even served sushi. Grotesque. When I was in the country-side all there was to eat for days was literally bread, mayonnaise, eggs, fish or chicken, rice, salad and sugar. And here they have Avocados.
At my room I had a bathtub and a TV that could receive ABC, Fox and whatnot. And such a big fresh bed. Oh, and free WiFi.
Altogether it was the weirdest day of the journey. Nobody I met over the last month will ever live a single day with such a material standard. It feels obscene. The scene around the pool was utterly depressing. White old people talking about where else they travel or will travel, what they ate yesterday at what restaurant, what is the best rum to take home... Everybody was just lying on sun loungers around it to get some tan for whatever reason. I had to smile once I realized that nobody swam in the pool. The pool was a sort of place holder. A point to put the sun loungers around. When I realized this I tried to imagine the scene without the pool:
Some old white people lying on deck chairs in an empty backyard in the middle of Havana. There is significant traffic noise in the background. Besides that - because of the 3m high walls - the city or country would not even matter. Everybody lying in a empty yard half naked, having some darker coloured people bringing them drinks.

I found this scene rather questionable and soon enough also boring. I used my extra day to go out and made all the Havana photos that you saw up in the article.

I wonder what 60 year old me will think of these lines when reading it in a few decades. Once during the trip I met a 70 year old Belgian photographer in a local bus. Of course he would not sleep under bridges and stuff but I could feel that we had the same spirit. He was a beautiful reassurance that we can consciously decide how we age.