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03-05-2021, 11:43 PM #1
"I need you to take this to Cuba" - a memory
Hey guys, been a while but I need to vomit this out of my brain so thanks for indulging me.
It's 2006. The world just found out that Fidel Castro is sick, possibly mortally so, and coincidentally the Non-Aligned Movement (basically the "3rd World") Summit will be in Havana Cuba in 4 weeks. I am the client services cameraman for Reuters and there is a huge interest to go down there to cover the summit to see if Fidel speaks, but getting a TV satellite signal out of Cuba is nearly impossible since the government controls the only (I kid you not) Communications array on the Island that is not on our base in Guantanamo. This satellite dish is on the roof of the Ministry of Information, which just happens to be only 1.5 blocks from the Reuters Cuba Bureau.
The Reuters Washington Bureau was (is?) the center for their TV operations in N. America and the Caribbean. The TV Bureau Chief Victor Antonie decides to send me to Havana with a couple hundred pounds of video and audio cable to help wire our bureau to the state run satellite uplink. Turns out the minister of Information was a buddy of his from their days in Israel, Victor as Jerusalem Bureau Chief and the Minister (name escapes me) was the Cuban Ambassador.
Victor asked me to stop at a liquor store before leaving or Duty free along the way to pick the minister up a bottle of Bourbon as a thank you. I went to my local shop and got one of my personal favorites.
Getting to Cuba before the Obama thaw was surprisingly easy. Direct flight to Cancun. Leave the airport getting an entry stamp, then turning around, walking back in and to the Cubana Airlines desk, and buying a R/T ticket to Havana. They gave you your visa (included) as an insert to your passport, not a stamp. Once in Havana (the flight alone is worth a whole nother post) I got pulled out of the customs line and escorted by some dudes to a separate area where my heavy reels were waiting for me, then they drove me to the Hotel Nacional where I was staying. Nice to have friends in high places in dictatorships, I guess. The Cuba Bureau Chief was there waiting for me, had a flunky take the gear, and smirked at me asking if I'd brought the whiskey. He then told me the Minister would meet me on the veranda in an hour.
I got freshened up and changed into "not shorts and a Hawaiian shirt," then met the minister, nervous as hell (shit, I'm just a camera guy!) and presented him with a bottle of Woodford Reserve. The man, I forgot his name but he was the FUCKING MINISTER OF INFORMATION looked at me long and hard and said "Eso no es Jack Daniels" ... and I started sweating. Why had nobody told me? Did I just ruin everything? Am I gonna get hauled off and questioned? I stammered an apology and something along the lines of "I hope you'll like this as well."
Long story short I ended up smoking cigars and getting hammered with the Cuban Minister and his hot ass translator thanks to Victor Antonie. When I told him the story when I got back to DC he almost fell down laughing.
I found out today that Victor, 56 years old and my friend, died in his hometown of Johannesburg, South Africa from a heart attack.
Coda: That minister gave me a bottle of Havana Club rum as a thank you. This very bottle.
I nursed it for 15 years. I finished it tonight. Rest in peace, you wonderful, quirky, exceptional man. I have and always will miss you. You were a Mensch.Last edited by Tippster; 03-06-2021 at 07:16 AM.
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03-06-2021, 12:15 AM #2
Is this the same trip in which the plane cabin filled with smoke? Good times, Bro!
Friends come and go, and yet sometimes one meets them under the strangest of circumstances, eh?Daniel Ortega eats here.
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03-06-2021, 12:18 AM #3
Amazing story. Perfect timing nursing that bottle so you could then raise a few final toasts.
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03-06-2021, 12:33 AM #4
Yes, great story! Sorry about your friend Tip. He sounded like a mix of equal parts Bond and Bourdain
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03-06-2021, 05:37 AM #5
Great story. RIP to your friend.
I still call it The Jake.
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03-06-2021, 06:46 AM #6
Thanks for a thread that belongs in the PR. Interesting life you lead.
I have been in this State for 30 years and I am willing to admit that I am part of the problem.
"Happiest years of my life were earning < $8.00 and hour, collecting unemployment every spring and fall, no car, no debt and no responsibilities. 1984-1990 Park City UT"
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03-06-2021, 06:52 AM #7
Thanks for sharing. I would have liked to have seen naked pics of the hot Latina. I bet that Havana Club was an outstanding way to commiserate the loss of your friend.
“How does it feel to be the greatest guitarist in the world? I don’t know, go ask Rory Gallagher”. — Jimi Hendrix
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03-06-2021, 07:13 AM #8
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03-06-2021, 07:14 AM #9
So I take it the Minister liked Woodford Reserve too?
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03-06-2021, 07:16 AM #10
I'm sorry for your loss and thanks for sharing the story. Any chance the Minister was this guy?
https://es.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rami..._Men%C3%A9ndez
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03-06-2021, 07:19 AM #11
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03-06-2021, 07:47 AM #12
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03-06-2021, 08:59 AM #13
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03-06-2021, 01:16 PM #14
How does someone get to be bureau chief as young as he was 15 years ago and been one long enough in multiple places to be friends with the Minister???
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03-06-2021, 02:02 PM #15glocal
- Join Date
- May 2002
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- 33,440
Sounds fun, Tipp. I take it you poured one out......into your mouth.
Prolly won't get another bottle of that stuff soon.
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03-06-2021, 08:37 PM #16
Excellent story. DEP Victor. Loved drinking Havana club when I lived in Spain. Hard to drink any other rum after being exposed to that food stuff.
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03-06-2021, 08:44 PM #17
Awesome. RIP.
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03-06-2021, 08:46 PM #18man of ice
- Join Date
- Jun 2020
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- in a freezer in Italy
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RIP Victor. 56, shit. That sucks.
Thanks for sharing Tipp
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03-06-2021, 08:59 PM #19
Being a Bureau Chief sounds way more fun than cia. Really sorry to hear about your friend. Sometimes shit just hits for no reason. The memories we experience together though are what makes this life a true endeavor.
Is it radix panax notoginseng? - splat
This is like hanging yourself but the rope breaks. - DTM
Dude Listen to mtm. He's a marriage counselor at burning man. - subtle plague
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03-06-2021, 09:13 PM #20
Great story and what a fitting way to be able to honour your friend's memory. He sounds like one of the good ones man.
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03-06-2021, 09:15 PM #21
I would agree with Gary, hope to see you sometime this season Tipp.
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03-06-2021, 09:28 PM #22
Great story, thanks for sharing. RIP to your friend.
"fuck off you asshat gaper shit for brains fucktard wanker." - Jesus Christ
"She was tossing her bean salad with the vigor of a Drunken Pop princess so I walked out of the corner and said.... "need a hand?"" - Odin
"everybody's got their hooks into you, fuck em....forge on motherfuckers, drag all those bitches across the goal line with you." - (not so) ill-advised strategy
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03-08-2021, 08:54 PM #23
Thanks guys. Over the years (decades) I have used this silly ski forum of ours to drive the bats out of the attic. You are an amazing sounding board and despite my being far less active these days I still treasure this place.
Doesn't look like the guy I remember. I wasn't allowed to take pictures so ...
He was the Bureau chief for TV, not the whole Bureau, but Reuters has always had a nose for talent (or suckers.) The dude had donated his pound of flesh in Jerusalem and then Baghdad during the lead-up and Shock and Awe so the bosses recognized that.
I'll be there April 9th. This time I'm going to bring my camp chair for the parking spot.
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03-09-2021, 03:47 AM #24skier
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- Dec 2002
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- The Garden State
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Rip Victor. What an experience. Thanks for sharing mang.
A few questions though. Can you expand on the translator? A camera guy with no pics of the smoke show??
Do you even own a non Hawaiian shirt??
Hope you’re well tipp, long time no speak!
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03-09-2021, 06:49 AM #25Not a skibum
- Join Date
- Aug 2002
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- PA
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^^ Ha on the Tip in non Hawaiian shirts. Probably 80% of the time we've hung out he's been wearing one, including as part of mid winter ski attire
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