Blogs from Oeste, Cuba, Central America Caribbean - page 6

All our meals at this all-inclusive resort were buffets. We could handle that for three days. What we didn’t realize is that it was going to be the same exact thing each time. Not just the same type of food, but the actual food from the previous meals (leftovers). Breakfast was eggs made to order. So we had omelets with ham and cheese every day. The fresh fruit was awesome: pineapple, mango and bananas went fast. There were many things we just couldn’t bring ourselves to try. The meat sat out unrefrigerated by the grill and the following meal it was cooked and the third meal it was cut into smaller pieces. The bread would get more stale with every meal. The challenge became finding the 1 or 2 foods items that were new to that ... read more

Today was another travel day. We were up early as our driver arrived at 8 am to take us to Viñales. We have been told it is anywhere from a two to four-hour trip. The good thing was that most of our luggage including backpacks fit in the trunk of our car, but we had no A/C. So everyone had a seat for the trip. The drive was long and slow in the old car. The old cars are nice to look at, but when every trip you take is in an old, uncomfortable car, the novelty wears off. The backseat has springs and cloth to cover them and nothing else. While Chester was sitting high on the hog in the front seat, Megan, Riley and Kirsten had springs up their butt and bounded to the ... read more

First full day in Cuba. With our Air BnB, for a few extra dollars, Lidia will cook us breakfast! Yes. Scrambled eggs, toast and fruit make for a good meal. Kirsten has booked a guide and driver. Edinson is our guide and Michael is our driver. It is a little tight in the back seat, but the four squeeze into a blue Ford from the 50s that Michael found and restored to working condition. In restored we mean make run. The front seats were 2 bucket seats from a late 90’s Toyota. Like every old car in Cuba it definitely had a stereo system. And maybe some added electric windows. There’s no A/C, but we were not in the car that much. Basically, Kirsten and Chester would sit with one cheek on the seat, while Riley ... read more

I finally have the time and opportunity to enter some of my photos from Cuba. I didn't realize it would take so long to sort through the approximately 2000 photos that we all took. Our group leader, Mike, made flash drives for us to upload to our computers. They were all mixed up, not to count the fact that Windows 10 is not great for reviewing photos to put in the blog. But I do now have 'some' photos from our first day and half of our trip. I still have to search for some more important ones from those days. I'm sure I'll get that worked out. We were a group of four persons from Northeastern State University that went to Cuba under the category of "Education, person to person". Mike Wilds who led the ... read more

Wednesday we went to Caya de Juatia, a beautiful beach 2 hours north of Vinales. There were 7 of us in the collectivo taxi, a thoroughly beat up 49 Chevy. Our driver had to stop once to top off the radiator with water, as there was no radiator cap. The roads were awful, with little population along the way. We met a very nice German dentist Lora on the ride. On the way back our driver was constantly playing games with another collectivo taxi, passing each other, racing, etc. We went out that night to the town’s dance club, and sat with Lora and her friend. They both danced with local guys, and were really good salsa dancers. Robin and I stayed firmly rooted in our seats. The music and dance acts were really good, and ... read more