Vinyl Record Shopping in Havana, Cuba [Steemit Music League S2:R8]

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Between the time Obama opened travel to Cuba and the time Trump revoked access, me and my lovely girlfriend (@ljanelle) took a trip down to Havana to visit the area. At this point it is definitely our most historic vacation, and it's especially my favorite because I bought a nice stack of records while visiting.

Unlike the United States, wi-fi in public areas is not standard for Cuba. We had the option of buying a calling/internet phone card, but we choose not to as it did not seem 100% reliable. In the days leading up to the trip, I had a record store in mind I wanted to visit but we had a bit of trouble finding it.

During our voyages, there were little various little shops with few having vinyl records. I was constantly on the prowl, popping in and out of each shop along various streets to see if that had the magic black disks. We ultimately stumbled upon a pawn shop in Habana Vieja who replied to my call of "Tienes discos?" with a favorable response. After my girlfriend spoke to the individual and communicated the quest, we left for the day to return tomorrow at high noon to meet their friend of a friend with a large collection of records! Extremely excited, we jotted down the address, hopped in a taxi and proceeded with the rest of our day.

My arm enjoying a beer, 2017

That dream was unfortunately crushed. The individual we met the previous day was nowhere to be found and we were left there standing outside the pawn shop the next day for an hour.

My girlfriend is an artist, while I was interested in collecting records, she was interested in collecting Cuban art. She bought two pieces of artwork, but I'll let her tell that story one day when she's more familiar with Steemit (@ljanelle). The art shop we visited ultimately pointed us in the right direction, but it lead us down a bit of a scary path. The location was within walking distance, so we took to the streets once again!

My shoulder in Cuba, 2017

We walked up a small smog filled alley, and hung a right based on the art shop's directions and found an office with a few records in the window. We opened the door and walked in. It was a looong room with various sellers offering their wares. I don't remember what any of them were selling, wish I had pictures of the location, but toward the back left, there were stacks and stacks and stacks of vinyl records.

Record shopping with Fidel, 2017

Mountains of unorganized, horizontally stacked (yuck, for safest storage they should be kept vertical), dusty, dirty records. The vast majority of them were from Cuban owned labels such as Egrem and Arieto, but a few were international records from Guatemala, Venezuela, and other Central/South American countries. I ended up buying 30+ records for approximately $100.00, a fantastic price for such an experience. If only my local record shops could offer the same rarities at a similar price. The record shop is called Tienda Seriosha and it's located at Neptuno No. 408 incase you ever find yourself in Cuba.

My fingers, holding Cuban Record Store's Business Card, alongside my Jose Marti stamped passport, taken April 21, 2018

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Anywho, I made an instrumental sampling one of the records from Cuba. I plan on creating a beat tape from the 30+ so stay tuned! The record had natural triplet high hats, so I boosted it and added some drums.

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Per usual, click the penguin to play my submission, La Eternidad!

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