Blogs from Oeste, Cuba, Central America Caribbean - page 4

Wednesday - Friday 27-29 June 2 pre-tour days + Day 1 of tour: Arrive Havana We were welcomed to Cuba! Flying via Vancouver (3hr stop over) and Toronto (1 hour stop over) with Air Canada we arrived in Havana at 11.00pm. We didn’t feel too bad and we immediately saw our driver when we exited customs. He took us on the 25-minute drive into Old Town Havana where we checked into Hotel D’Osbe. The Ensuite room was comfy but it was in the old town. Sleep didn’t evade us. The next morning, we had breakfast at 9.30am. The fresh fruit was lovely as was the fried egg and toast. We quickly learned that coffee was pretty good in Cuba. For the next 2 hours we were sifting through the means to get cash and find our ... read more

Havana, Cuba People to People Cars, Art, Canons and Cemeteries Finally, the heart of our cruise, Havana, Cuba. This has been on the bucket list for years. Cuba, so very close, 90 miles to Key West, Florida, and yet unreachable for most Americans. Visa’s and passports in hand we disembark in Old Town Havana. We head down the gangway to the terminal where we go first through a metal detector just like at the airport, then down another hall where we line up in front of a half dozen, small immigration and customs stations. One person at a time, we step forward until it is our turn. Cope goes first. I can’t see the officer as the glass is frosted, but I see Cope, who is seriously answering questions from the officer. I see his passport ... read more

Our plane departure time was 8am, so we were required to be at Baracoa airport at 6am. So we were up to see the sunrise this morning. More importantly we saw the full moon over Baracoa bay, and it was lovely. It weren’t for the powerlines in the way it would have been a perfect view. Our host had organised a taxi for us who turned up around 5.30, put our bags on his roof rack and we were off to the airport. Now why we needed to check in two hours before when there are only two flights in an out of Baracoa a day, I don’t know. There were only about 70 passengers on the flight, but hey…that’s Cuba. To be fair, almost everything is manual. They manually wrote out our boarding passes, they ... read more

Today’s plan was to find Central Parque and the Museo de la Revolution. We had originally thought it was a bit of hike and we would need a taxi but Doug had taken us through the neighbourhood the night before and we realised its actually just a short walk. From Plaza Vieja it involved walking down streets we hadn’t seen before and it was quite entertaining, well for me at least. Jo stopped an turned around about ten times to see me snapping photos of various buildings. The contrast between buildings is quite striking. Some a well-kept, painted and pretty. Standing right next to them are buildings so covered in moss they look like they are rotting away. You do have to be careful where you walk here. Firstly, most of the streets are cobblestoned so ... read more

So today started with the all-important search for breakfast, and most importantly, COFFEE!. We have no food in the apartment and only half a bottle of water that Carmens mum left us. I still had some cash leftover from yesterdays ATM withdrawal (I didn’t take out much) so we could cover breakfast. We went back to where we found the ATM and it was attached to a bank, so we were able to convert our money to convertibles. Yaay! Even though I had to leave Jo to the business end because a) I’d left my passport at home and b) apparently two people can’t approach the counter at the same time. We split the cash and walked back to our apartment to stash some of it because it is quite a lot to be waking around ... read more