CUBA 2019 -Leaving Cuba

Posted on March 20, 2019 by Valeria

Hello Everyone!

Here we are, our last day in Cuba. Our departure day.

Our flight was scheduled for 5:30PM. Varadero was about a two and a half hour drive from the airport in Havana. We had reserved a vintage taxi to pick us up before leaving for this trip. And, our last driver, Lester, told us at this Varadero drop off that he would be the one picking us up for this trip to the airport.

We all had a restful night’s sleep, and woke up to cheery sunshine glowing into our rooms. The windows in this casa, did not have glass on them, nor did it have a screen, just shutters to shield the light. They weren’t closed tight, so you could feel a breeze coming through with the light.

We packed up all of our things, then made our way down to breakfast. Our taxi was going to pick us up by noon for the trek back to the airport, so we had some time here. You have to always factor that a meal is going to take at least an hour and a half, but most likely more. This morning we were greeted by both Iris and Ana. It was very nice. We had a similar type of breakfast today. We were given the same savory mini cakes with butterfly confetti on them, which was special for the girls. The random plate of mayonnaise and queso fresco along with the cakes. Then a bowl of fruits were served. My husband was happy to see it was all bananas, as he loves those; he always eats the mini ones we get at home. Next to the fruit bowl was a platter with salads, that were beautiful but tasted odd. A cored pineapple showed up, then a buckwheat pancake was served while an order of eggs was taken with bread.

me and our youngest

Me and our oldest.. who got burned from yesterday. (she didn’t reapply sunscreen like I asked of her!!)

Café con leche

The girls’ mugs .. my daughter had to take a photo of it.. for her phone smh

The savory cakes w confetti

cored pinapple

Fruits

big man with little bananas. hahah

Pretending to be daddy

another photo my daughter HAD to take for her phone’s wallpaper

The bill for all of our breakfasts…

We had some time to spare so we took our time eating breakfast. As we were sitting here the elderly woman who lived in the apartment (as a resident) came by to say hello. We had talked to her and her husband for a brief second on our first day as they helped me maneuver the outdoor shower for our sandy feet, and, then again we exchanged quick greetings when we were off to the beach yesterday morning.

She only spoke Spanish, but again, with my knowledge of Spanish and fluency in Italian we communicated. Using the offline mobile dictionary was a great help! Actually, the woman and I ended up having a great compassionate conversation. She was detailing about growing up in the area. It was pretty difficult, but her family got by. I pieced together a lot of her emotional journey. She seemed very happy to have my ear for the short moment we talked. We greeted each other good-bye, then a few minutes later her husband came by to say hello. He didn’t stop to chitchat, I think he was just being nosey haha.

We then made our way back up to the room to make sure we packed everything and to wait on our taxi. With some time to spare my husband and oldest daughter wanted to make one last run to the souvenir market by the beach. They went to do their thing, and my youngest daughter and I sat on our porch enjoying some last-minute sunshine in the salty air.

Weird.The photo I took below with a dog on the roof.  
The sky looks so grey, but it was NOT a cloudy morning!

Leaving our casa I noticed a dog on their roof!!

On our way to the airport!

On the road to Havana

Small homes in Matanzas

Apartments in Matanzas

Military walking to bus stop

My cute girls! I gave them my old sunglasses for this trip, which cracked me up because look at them! haha they’re little me

The turquoise water was spectacular

Love all the original works in the cars.. wooden handles!!

People waiting on rides

Propaganda about the anniversary of the revolution

Horse n buggy on the highway

Small houses in Matanzas

can you see the factory flames?

A random cow along a rotary!

Havana Rum!

The factory where Havana Rum is made.. it smelled like rum in the AIR!!

Propaganda (reminds me of fascist stuff of Mussolini!)

Driving the La Habana 500- Sights of Havana, Cuba

Going into the underwater tunnel to the main part of Havana

Sights of Havana, Cuba

Another one… Propaganda, Sights of Havana, Cuba

Sights of Havana, Cuba- propaganda of Fidel Castro

Sights of Havana, Cuba

Sights of Havana, Cuba- outside the Revolution Museum, tanks and airplanes

Sights of Havana, Cuba

The amount of people waiting for the bus is crazy!!Sights of Havana, Cuba

Propaganda- Sights of Havana, Cuba

Sights of Havana, Cuba

Lester arrived right on time. He drove the same blue vintage Plymouth from two days ago for this trip. We packed up our things, handed the keys to Iris and went off on our way to the airport. It was bittersweet leaving the peninsula. I had finally started to enjoy the relaxation that Varadero brought me. But, we all know, vacation isn’t supposed to last for life.

While driving to the airport, we talked a lot to Lester. He was such a nice guy. He told us all about his girlfriend, showing us her photos on his phone of her, and his plans to propose to her some day soon. He asked us how we met, and how long it took to get married. He was surprised to hear how young we were when we met, but more so how we had dated for five years before getting married, then waited four years to start a family. Is that surprising? hmm..

Before hopping in the car, we had asked Lester if we could make one stop along the way, to he Revolution Square. We never got to officially see it, or stand on it, so I wanted to go pretty badly. Lester didn’t give a definitive answer, for timing reasons. Once we got to the outskirts of Havana, he said there was more than enough time to make a stop to the square. YES!!

We pulled into the lot adjacent to the square. It was packed with the coolest vintage cars!! It is kind of a funny coincidence that the red convertible here below was the very same one we saw on our first day walking in La Habana Vieja! THE SAME ONE! It is so beautiful in person I can’t even tell you how much the photo does it zero justice.

We walked over to the square, and it was empty.. just us and another family. The square faces a lot where we were standing, that was flanked by these enormous buildings that had the infamous metal structure statues of Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos. Each structure has a statement signature underneath. Che’s said,”Hasta la Victoria Siempre” (Until the Victory, Always). Camilo’s said, “Vas bien, Fidel” (You’re doing fine, Fidel).

View of the Plaza de la Revolucion

Super cool purple vintage Pontiac convertible

The same convertible car from our first day in Havana!!

Revolution Plaza, Havana, Cuba

Ministries of the Interior and Communications, Cuban Revolution: Che Guevara, with the quotation “Hasta la Victoria Siempre” (Until the Everlasting Victory, Always)

Ministries of the Interior and Communications,- Camilo Cienfuegos – “Vas bien, Fidel” (You’re doing fine, Fidel)

Ministries of the Interior and Communications, Cuban Revolution: Che Guevara, with the quotation “Hasta la Victoria Siempre” (Until the Everlasting Victory, Always)

Ministries of the Interior and Communications,- Camilo Cienfuegos – “Vas bien, Fidel” (You’re doing fine, Fidel)

My family at the Revolution Plaza

Soccer stadium

All these crazy political signs.. I have no idea what this one means, I looked it up on the plane and it didn’t make sense.

After the walk around the Revolution Square, we took off for the airport. It was just a quick twenty-minute ride through Havana. Along the ride I had seen a lot of local propaganda on walls and billboards. Not one Cuban billboard this whole trip dedicated to anything but the socialist agenda. It was all so fascinating to me.

We greeted Lester with hugs and kisses of good-bye at the airport. He was such a nice guy. The airport was a breeze to go through. We checked in fairly easy. Went through immigration just as we did when we arrived. One child per adult with the Immigration Officer. A stamp your passport after a few questions, a snapshot of each traveler, and you are on your way to go through security. Which in Cuba may be easier than at home. We got to our gate within a half hour of saying bye to Lester! We ended up waiting for our departure longer than that. While waiting, we grabbed a few more bottles of rum for ourselves at duty-free, and, a few bites for the ride home.

We left 85F Havana for 30F Boston! We got home to find an immense amount of snow on the ground, and a storm on its way. But you know what? I actually did not care. I missed home so much!

Saying goodbye to Lester! 😦

Funniest thing ever… when the man dressed up as a Mexican wrestler in the airport for pictures with his normally dressed wife!!

I mean, this can’t only be funny to me!!

On our way back to Boston…

Flying at night…

**My review of our trip.**

Never has a place left me with such complexity in my soul. I walk away from this trip emotional.

The poverty. The social and economic issues and history. The constant propaganda. The oppression. The buildings all in ruins. The trash collection not constant. Yet, the people were kind. From the moment we stepped foot into the country to the moment we left we always knew that the kindness from the people would be a constant in our day. Where we had mostly visited had such immense poverty, Cuba still shined like a diamond. Albeit in the rough, but still shining.

Through its people.

We started seeing a trend after our first day. Everyone we met was highly educated, college/university graduates, and they were all proud to tell us that they had free education and free healthcare. Funny how familiar this sounds as our own country is at odds with those pro and con in this area of politics. I am not discussing politics, merely stating the obvious. It’s also interesting to walk around in a city of millions where we never saw one child acting up, and we saw thousands of families on this trip. We saw no parents yelling at their children. Not saying it doesn’t happen, it’s just we never saw it in front of our eyes. Also, we never saw anyone belligerent in the streets. No one strung out on drugs. No homeless. Not a person who smelled offensively -dirty or of body odor; everyone was dressed nicely, smelling of detergent. The houses we could see inside of were neat and clean. I mean. Do you guys know how rare this is on that scale?

I guess what I have been saying all along is the reason I am emotional from this visit. The people in Cuba are truly exceptional people. I am so glad I had this opportunity to see this country. A country I had always figured would be off-limits to me forever. I am so glad that I got to see the beautiful sights, historical and special to Cuba, even if at times they were depressing. I feel like this country is on a rebound to being great again. I hope so too.

I am also so glad to have met Maria and her husband Juan Carlos with their daughter of Vistalmorro. Ernesto and Lester who drove us around great distances and always had a smile. Julia and Silvio who own La Rosa de Ortega; with Jose Carlos and the staff. The elderly lady at the school. The antiques dealers. The bartender with the glasses at El Floridita. Our waiter at Varadero60. Iris and Ana of the Casa Cubana de la Familia, and the elderly couple downstairs. The random guy at the artist market who called me beautiful. Our taxi driver on Valentine’s Day Eve. The Afro-Cuban artist who walked me personally around her gallery. The waiter from La Fondita Heredia. The group of colorfully dressed women in the park. The multiple taxi drivers in the city who drove us home after a long day. It is all due to their generosity, kind watchful eyes, soft words and open heart that made me love Cuba.

“Havana, ooh na-na

Half of my heart is in Havana, ooh-na-na (oh, yeah)”

Thank you for reading along! Hope you all enjoyed my point of view of Cuba.

My Travels

CUBA 2019- Varadero Beach, our last full day

Posted on March 19, 2019March 20, 2019 by Valeria

Hey Everyone,

Ok, well, after all this time, I am finally typing out our last full day on the island of Cuba! After this is our departure back home. 😦

We woke up to beautiful bright skies on our first morning in Varadero. Our only plan for the day was to hang out at the beach then buy souvenirs! Finally one day of not running around.

We went down to breakfast to eat at 9AM. They had a table set up for us under a canopy out back attached to a garage. The garage was set up as a kitchen and the windows facing our table housed aquariums with fish swimming. On this day we were greeted by another woman, Ana, who works with Iris managing the house. She was in charge of cooking us breakfast.

The breakfast of this casa was served in courses just like the previous casa. We started off with coffee, hot milk and juice. JUICE. This casa offered orange juice. Also, I asked for an extra-large bottle of water (to take to the beach). The best part of a casa particular is that the people running the breakfasts would cook everything from scratch. It was pretty amazing. We were served hot homemade savory mini muffins sprinkled with sesame to start. They were really good! But Ana also put out a dish of mayonnaise with queso fresco, we were not sure why. Then we were served fruit; there was a fully cored pineapple, which was just ok, and a platter of local fruit, which was not so good. Even at this location, hours away from Havana, the local fruits tasted strange. We followed this with an order of eggs and toast. Following the eggs was a buckwheat pancake drizzled with local honey. The girls really enjoyed that. Then came a plate of bananas covered in chocolate with sprinkles special for the kids. It all ended with individual jello molded in different shapes. You can’t make it out in the photo below, but the adults dish of jello had a flower shape on it, but our girls had Minnie Mouse! Is this not an insane amount of food?

Window of our living room

Down at breakfast

Homemade savory muffins

Cored pineapple

Fruits

Mayo and queso fresco

Buckwheat pancakes with honey

bananas with chocolate

jello

After this two and a half hour breakfast, we got into our swimsuits as quick as possible and made a mad dash for the beach. The beach, again, did not disappoint.

We got to the beach right before noon to find the ocean much smoother, and the waves coming to surf at a normal pace. The water was even more crystal clear than yesterday, didn’t think that could be possible. Once we found a spot, we were greeted by a very young man dressed in an official lifeguard scuba suit. He introduced himself as Martinez. He was a jack of all trades hired to guard the beach during peak hours, and, on the side for extra money, he offered rental umbrellas to beachgoers and run for drinks.

Then a cute group of girls set up camp under an umbrella they rented from Martinez at the edge of the beach, but sat directly on the sand right next to us. No towels, just a bluetooth speaker. There was a whole beach around us, but they set up five feet away. Almost right away Martinez walked over with a drink delivery for the girls. We were impressed, not about the girls, but Martinez’s drink caddy! He was able to deliver glasses on the beach!

The girls started playing Spanish pop songs and fluttered around us taking selfies. I offered to take a group shot of them. They were so happy, and already tipsy somehow! They started to get personal real fast after that picture. They understood I spoke English, so they just started spewing information at me. Within a few seconds I learned that they were two sisters with a best friend hanging in Varadero for a day trip to the beach. They were on vacation from Mexico, though one of the girls recently moved to Texas to marry. They jumped right into asking me how old I was, what state I lived in, who I was with, why I was in Cuba, how long I was married, and what I did for a job. It was like they were on speed with how fast these questions came out. I am pretty stoked though, they thought I was 33yo..jussayin I am 42! 🙂

I still may have it.. whatever it is… eh whatevz.

Then around 2PM after sweating in the sunshine, I got antsy for a drink. My husband did too. He offered to run for drinks since the guy was busy, which was awesome. He surprised me with huge mojitos for us and sodas for our girls. They didn’t come in glass cups, but they were pretty frickin’ amazing nonetheless. The rum in Cuba is truly special. After we had our drinks, which went down waYYyy too easily, we got in the water for a little fun with the kids. While in the water we could see humongous fish swimming by, super cool! The vistas of the water in the distance felt like they could go on forever. The crystal clear aqua-colored water was dreamy. After a few minutes, I decided it was time to get back to the towels, I felt the mojito catching up.

My husband then came back to the towels, and the girls near us were now pretty drunk. Martinez dropped off another round of drinks, and headed over to us, clearly making eye signals like these women were a handful. We talked to him for about twenty minutes about the job, as his friend left the girls behind him. He told us how he took his job hyper seriously, and how he had a family to take care of. The girls were behind him calling him over again. Before he left he asked us if we wanted another drink, which we said yes to! We ordered another round of mojitos and virgin pina coladas for our girls, and he happily ran to go get them.

He came back with our drinks a few minutes later in glass cups in his cool caddy! Yes, I am super happy to have glass cups on a beach! It does make a big difference. He let us hold on to the caddy to keep all the cups together and out of the sand, which was super nice.

Right outside our bedroom window

Purple.. I love it.

Sieze the Day !!

Varadero Beach Path to the beach.. gosh is it not beautiful?

Varadero Beach, Cuba

Varadero Beach, Cuba

Always representing…

Varadero Beach, Cuba

I couldn’t of been happier

Varadero Beach, Cuba

Beach love

The stylish bubbly girls on the beach all of a sudden turned into belligerent drunk girls. Martinez was called over to them once again to help them get a taxi. They shouted their goodbyes to me as I made sure they grabbed their things. They walked along to the exit with Martinez ahead. The walk for them up the beach was sad, however. One of the girls just kept falling down. Face first. In the sand. And struggled to get up each time. It sounds funny, but it was just sad. Martinez shuffled them along into a taxi. And came over to us to apologize and assure us they should be safe. I hope they got to Havana all right.

After the women left we basically had the beach to ourselves. The tides don’t shift much on this beach so we dragged our towels closer to the girls playing in the sand. My husband started chasing the girls then jumped in the water with them. Then I.. guess what? I PASSED OUT! I am not sure how long I fell asleep for but I woke myself up with a snore. Yes, I did! 🙂 And it felt so good!

We hung out on the beach until the sun was starting coming down. We all started to become hungry and decided it was the right time to go freshen up for dinner. On our walk back to the house, we saw the most spectacular start to a sunset we had ever seen. The colors in the sky were neon pink, yellow and blue, just spectacularly glowing. It lasted so long, as it was still setting when we went out for dinner.

The view was spectacular

From the top of our stairs of the house

Cuba Sunset over houses

I did not feel like wearing anything dressy, so I did not. 🙂

The view of the sunset from the end of our street

Walking the main road.. this sunset was still setting

Time to eat!

My last daiquiris of the trip

La Vicaria, Varadero, Cuba- chicken

La Vicaria, Varadero, Cuba- fish

La Vicaria, Varadero, Cuba- Pork tips

La Vicaria, Varadero, Cuba- fried chicken

look closely to my elbow

Oh look chickens running around

Our bill… food is inexpensive

After dinner we went to buy some stuff

We walked the main street of Varadero for a while trying to decide where we were going to eat. We had planned to go to two places, both were packed with long waits; one place had a two-hour wait! Luckily, we had the offline mobile map that had listings of all the restaurants in the area. We looked up a few spots to check out. We walked by a lot of restaurants along the boulevard that were not on the map though. But unluckily, every spot we wanted to check out was booked solid. So we stopped in to a place we walked by that looked nice, and had seating, La Vicaria. It ended up being a super fun place and the food was so good!!

We started off with daiquiris and pina coladas, of course. The restaurant was open air under a thatched cabana. Which made it interesting as while seated we saw chickens and cats walking along the restaurant. My kids enjoyed that part. We got fried and grilled chicken platters, a grilled fish plate and a pork tips plate, and, a side of fries because my kids saw them on the menu and freaked out. It was all really good. We ended up staying there enjoying our dinner for about two hours or so. Then we took a nice walk back to our casa particular, but not before buying some rum.. and soap! The house we were in had this deliciously scented banana soap in the bathrooms that I saw in the pharmacy and had to have! Can’t wait to use it!

My review of the day.

There really was no profound introspection during this day at the beach. I had a lot of fun in the sun, while catching the show that was the gaggle of girls on vacation.

Next Cuba post will be our last day– departing Cuba, but first we check out a few sights.

My Travels

CUBA 2019- RAIN DAY

Posted on March 13, 2019March 20, 2019 by Valeria

Hey Everyone!
Well, as you can tell from the title, the rain we had the day before barely let up overnight and washed out this day.

Our plan for the day was to head back to the center of Havana to check out some shops and continue on our historic tour around. Well, we never made it because the universe had other plans for us.

We woke up to gloomy skies. The first morning without sunshine on this trip. We had a morning plan to swim again till noon, but with the skies so grumpy we thought otherwise. ‘We’ meaning my husband and I, as our girls did not care to skip swimming. Their mindset to swim is strong.

Breakfast this day was basically the same, with some minor differences from yesterday. We were served a traditional Cuban juice to start this time, which of course, I took a smell of but did not taste. Everyone tried a sip and gave the “why did I drink that?” face. I watched it immediately settle in front of my eyes into a murky brown drink, so no way was that going down my throat. Following were crispy fruit turnovers served with pineapple marmalade and our coffees and milk. The marmalade and pastry were beautiful. My husband requested no fruit on this morning. For my husband, a fruit junky, wanting no part of them… they must’ve tasted horrible. Next to make a breakfast appearance was the yummy basket of toast, where they asked about cooking our individual eggs. Then we were given a platter of tomatoes with hotdogs. Hotdogs. Yes, I said hotdogs. They were more like a würstel, a Vienna sausage. I only know what würstels look and taste like because in Sicily, where I have been many times growing up, it is liked as toppings on pizza.

This terrarium was super cool!! Even under the grey skies it was showered in light.

Thesole orchid in the top left hand corner.. so pretty!

Me without much makeup on ..

and my trusty hat!

Our pool view of the hotel was so pretty.

Brenda!! She was ten years old. 🙂

The koi fountain next to the eating area

an image of the other apartment near ours.

blerg..clouds

icy lemonades alllllll day

The kids flew up to the pool right after eating. They swam gleefully for a long time. They were having fun diving, calling for us, and screaming for the dog, Brenda, to join them. That girl was not having it, she was old. Then the rain started to fall. The girls did not care, so they continued on swimming. My husband at this point went to talk to the manager about what things we could explore locally before heading to Havana later. She gave him a map with a few fun spots on it. When we looked at it together, we made the decision to check out a local antiques dealer. Thinking the rain was either going to pass.

The girls swam for two hours! We grabbed them from the pool for a snack and drink, before getting dressed. The shop was about a fifteen minute walk away from our casa particular. As we exited our room we saw that two large golf umbrellas were left for us. Score! We had packed ponchos for this trip, but figured the rain would be compliant.

The place was only down the street right?!

We went on our way. The street our casa was on was interesting to say the least. Geez, the neighborhood, at this point is safe to say, was interesting, too. Our casa and the villa across the street were these exquisite mansions on top of this steep hill. Beautiful in every detail imaginable. As you would leave the homes to go to the street it was like you were in a war-torn country. The roads were ripped up. Trash collection areas were overflowing with what looked like a month’s worth of trash, with cats hanging out all over them. Which on the bright side, we NEVER saw a mouse or rat, or cockroach, or anything of the like! There was an explanation for the roads, but still it was pretty crazy to see. The streets were all ripped up because there was a neighborhood wide water pipe replacement in process. But a week prior to our arrival, a tornado hit the other part of Havana. The workers were instructed to the tornado torn areas to get them back in shape before returning to work on the water pipes. Crazy right?!

Starting our walk from La Rosa Ortega, this was the plant I talked about when we arrived. So pretty!

This was the villa across the street, it was very similar to ours.

Along the walk I saw a great opportunity to take a photo of the girls. 🙂

The view of the streets

The streets were all ripped up

Along our walk we saw a lot of run down houses and businesses

A university in a neighborhood

As we were dodging potholes and the like, the skies remained gloomy but hopeful; there seemed to be a spark of light behind the clouds trying to break through. Just as we made it down a pretty steep hill, like five minutes from our casa, that hopeful thinking sank. The skies grew dark then opened up to a heavy rain with an extreme gusting wind. We walked as much as we could. The winds were just whipping too much. We thought to take some refuse under a tree with the umbrella. While there it was tolerable to stand. As soon as we thought it wasn’t terribly bad to keep walking, the rain changed from heavy drops to literal sheets! Trying to figure where we were within the distance to the shop on the map under all the wind and rain was hard. It was so noisy, blustery and wet that I couldn’t hold my wits together.

Yes! The rain and winds picked up so much at that moment that concentrating was difficult! I looked up from where we were to see a large house like building with a porch and a plaque on the fence with the word escuela faintly printed on it. Ahh, a school! So I grabbed the girls by the hand, yelled to everyone to head up onto the top of the stairs of the school where there was better shelter. We made it. Standing there, we were all hopeful that the rain would scatter soon as it did the night before.

Nope. It didn’t!

The rain turned to a literal tropical storm two minutes after we got on top of the stairs (when I shot that small snap video). The water that was falling flooded the street in seconds, we couldn’t believe our eyes. Some cars had to turn around because the flooding was so bad along the corners of the road! We were huddled in the doorway of the school behind the umbrella getting drenched by the rain being whipped around as we were watching this storm unfold before us. Each gust of wind moved us around to try to find dryer spots. My husband and I were at a loss because what were we to do with the amount of water on the streets and sidewalks. Not only could we not walk, but the idea to find a taxi fleeted fast.

The storm was crazy!

We were there battling the storm for about twenty minutes when all of a sudden the door behind us gave way, and we heard this sweet voice. A small elderly woman, who we think was a teacher passing by in the lobby, welcomed us inside the lobby in Spanish. What I could understand was she was asking us to come in from the storm then directed us to take shelter till the storm passed on. She even said a prayer for us. What a sweet woman. We shook her hand a million times saying thank you. Seriously, we were so thankful.

We were in an Elementary School! The lobby door was flanked by vintage glass panels, giving us a wobbly view of the storm outside from the inside. Every few minutes a parent would come to the door to pick up their child. These people were soaking wet as they must have walked to the school for pick up. Each opening of the door was harder and harder for the person, as the wind was blowing at a great strength. We watched every child walking to the door with their parents being blown from the stairs then rained upon through the window.

The start of the rain

We stood here for what felt like forever before someone let us in

The lobby

with my girl waiting out the storm. we are a mess.

Random Native mural unfinished on the wall in front of us.

We were safe in the lobby. We sat around there for an hour or so trying to figure out our plans. My husband grew restless. Surprisingly, not the girls who were happily distracted playing; one on my phone playing Wood Block puzzle and our oldest playing old snap videos on her phone. I was just happy to be inside! My husband started roaming the lobby, it was open to a semi covered outdoor courtyard. By this point, sitting around for an hour and a half now, seeing that my husband was not up to waiting this storm out, I told him to take the umbrella to head down to see how far the shop was compared to where we were waiting. Take a browse and come back. The wind seemed better to trek through, and it looked as if MAYBE the storm was moving past. Us girls stayed behind as he went along.

After 20 minutes of being on our own, I grew nervous, naturally. Where was he? The storm died down a tremendous amount as we watched child after child being picked up. We all felt like the school was emptying out fast and we would probably be asked to leave at some point soon. Hesitantly, I took the girls off for a fast walk towards the shop address I memorized. I was fearful of getting caught in this storm without my husband, without an umbrella or without shelter. The roads were no longer flooded, and lots of people were walking by us. Just as we were crossing to the other side of the street, we bumped into my husband! He was safe and so happy to give us the umbrella. He did find the shop, browsed a bit and was heading back to grab us.

He walked us to the shop, which was someone’s home. That is how it is in a lot of family run businesses. They are out of their homes, which are set up like stores, just with a full kitchen at the end. This place was impressive. I only took these three pictures below, but the place was not only beautiful and colorful, but filled to the brim!! It was all so fascinating!

Once we went through this house, the antiques dealer’s assistant walked us across the yard, through the rain, to another house they owned that was also filled to the ceilings! Just wow. They had themed rooms throughout, too. There was a room of vintage kitchen jars. A room of glassware. A room of cookie jars. A room of propaganda. A room of metal statues. A room of local artists.. I can definitely go on and on!

Their hallways were also full. This is a view of the front door.

Aww, they had the cutest dog who walked us around too.

Their kitchen was also set up with items to sell

Look at all this! You guys out there cookie jar collectors, because I know some of these are rare!!

We had a great opportunity to buy some antiques, so we did. Just a few unique items that you just can’t find here in the States. The dealer was a quiet man but friendly. He went out of his way to take us to the depths of the house looking at antiques. He sort of reminded me of my best friend Tony. The shop’s owner, house owner, however, was a more talkative man. He was real concerned during our purchase that we were walking back to where we were staying. He kept asking if we wanted a ride, but we kept declining. It was a super nice gesture.

We left the shop talking about all the cool stuff we just saw and bought. It was still raining, much more tolerable drops, but we now had heavy bags. There was a big tree out front of the shop which was perfect to help shelter the girls with the umbrella, as we flagged a cab. The streets were not flooded, but we were having the darnedest time hailing a taxi. The whole city of Havana is chockers with taxis, but the one time we would welcome some harassment from a taxi driver we find none! Figures! After about ten minutes, we heard someone whistle over to us. It was the shop owner! In his driveway outside of his car! He demanded to give us a ride back to the casa particular. We didn’t think twice really, because riding with him for six minutes was a much better scenario than us trying to hike up the steep hill in thee rain that we easily came down before in dry weather. He was a very sweet man, even talked to us in the little English he knew. Apparently, he was good friends with the owners of our casa! He kept saying it was is pleasure to drive us, which I believed. He seemed sincere.

Seriously, the people of Cuba are quite wonderful. 🙂

By the time we got back up to our place, it was getting dark. We had spent an entire day out and all we did was shop at one location!!! OHMY! We went right to the main house to make dinner reservations at a place they had suggested to us earlier. We made reservations for 7PM, and a taxi was going to pick us up at 6:45PM. Which meant we had an hour to kill.

Did someone say daiquiris on the patio?!!? Oh, that was me.

The villa across the street

Our casa particular at night

Hey Brenda!!

hee hee

this is a virgin pina colada for my daughter

and the seven year run for my husband that i tried… a little strong for me.

We got freshened up for our dinner in minutes after drinks. It was rainy still, so even though I changed, I didn’t want to lose the cap! Our taxi came to pick us up on time. When we gave him the address, he smiled because the ride was short. So short that he offered to pick us up after dinner for a total fee of $6 CUC, because he said it would be more worthwhile for all of us. I mean, that was super nice, right? Our reservations were for La Fondita Heredia. The taxi driver brought us to the restaurant’s door, handed us a business card, then literally parked across the street. Whether he waited the whole time, we aren’t sure, but he was there in seconds after we called for pick up.

The restaurant was so much fun!!! We walked in to this beautiful modern space to find it decorated with red and white balloons for Valentine’s Day (it was the eve of). We were seated by the bar where you walk in. We were greeted by our very nice waiter. He spoke English very well, and greeted us with a complimentary drink of our choice. We got a round of drinks, which were so fancy and delicious. A canchancharra for my husband, a sangria for me and the girls’ usual drinks, a pina colada and a frozen lemonade. Right as we started ordering our main dishes the restaurant got busy! In a matter of ten minutes sitting there every table, both floors filled up. A lot of people were out to celebrate VALentine’s Day.

We ordered a round of appetizers to share, a chicken tamale casserole, talk about amazing!, and plantains stuffed with tuna. I didn’t eat the tuna appetizer but they all raved how fantastic it was. Talking to our waiter was a lot of fun. We ordered another round of drinks. Then our meals arrived; ropa vieja, chicken chimichurri, pork tips and shrimp enchilada. This feast came with a side of tostones and moros & cristianos (rice cooked with black beans) family style. We ended the meal with a round of flan for my crew. I just couldn’t fit another bite of food in, so I had to pass.

This place was awesome

And decorated for LoVE 🙂

My Sangria

Pina Colada..what is this the third one today?

and a lemonade

We are not counting drinks..

i think he got a canchanchara

Plantains stuffed with tuna (they swore it was good)

Tamale casserole

With my lover-boy. He is literally the best person I know.

chicken chimichurri

ropa vieja

Pork tips

Shrimp enchilada

Yes, the BEST beans and rice I had ever had in my entire life.

Annnd another one…

Flan for three… but this was actually the second one. hahah

This meal was so comforting and delicious. You could just see the attention to the dishes, and the flavors. It was the best meal of the trip thus far.

Our waiter let us use his cellphone to call the taxi, who arrived in seconds. Was he sitting nearby? I mean, we were dining at this place for about 2 hours, or even more! He was so joyful picking us up, and got us back up to our casa particular safely. Driving these crazy ripped up streets was so nerve-wracking in the daylight, but at night-time it was scary!!

We arrived to our apartment full, happy but utterly tired. We changed into pjs then hung out on the beautiful leather couch in the living room watching a murder mystery. It was a great way to end our rainy day

My review of the day.

What a soggy and blustery day! While we were watching TV tonight, all I could think about was the kind hearts of the people we encountered today.

The elderly woman who let us in from the storm. She didn’t have to do that; she had a school to take care of. We were strangers to her, but she saw us struggling and opened her heart. The antiques shop owner going out of his way from the comfort of his home to driving us in the rain, up the largest hill I had ever seen in a city. He opened his heart. The taxi driver at the end of the night. He did not have to help us out with a good price for a two-way cab ride or wait for us, either. He didn’t have to do anything even close, but, he opened his heart.

What better gesture on Valentine’s Day Eve is there than opening your heart to someone? I can’t think of any. ❤︎

Next Cuba post will be Day 6– We head off to the beach of Varadero, and go out for a special Valentine’s Day dinner!! Does the rain stop??

My Travels

CUBA 2019- Fusterlandia and Habana Vieja

Posted on March 12, 2019March 20, 2019 by Valeria

Hello WordPressers!

Our fourth day in Cuba started off with bright sunny skies. The day’s plan was to eat breakfast then head to the pool to enjoy some sun before heading out on our second previously reserved classic car tour. Pick up was for 1PM, which left us a good amount of time to relax a little.

This was our first morning in this casa particular, La Rosa Ortega. It was even more beautiful in the daylight. When I opened my eyes our room was lit up in a peachy glow. The glow went throughout the house, especially in the terrarium. There were so many orchids draped in the light on the wall, with one magenta flower blooming in the top left-hand corner. It really was a neat visual in the space.

Getting ready in this apartment was fantastic. We had so much room, which is a huge deal when you have a teenager and a tween..who are total opposites. We made record timing getting into our swimsuits and covers. Not an argument to break up, and I was able to get myself put together without any interruption. Which doesn’t ever happen. Ever. It was a miracle morning!

Right outside the front door there was a view of the pathway to the rooms, and flanked to the upper right was a driveway that was not active. It was a grand cascading driveway that formed the letter ‘J’. In its crook were many parked retired classic cars. One of which, a black Cadillac, that I drooled over. Some little girls dream of unicorns and rainbows, well this girl had dreams of owning a vintage Lincoln, like the one there, but with suicide doors.

View from our door- to the right is the stair to the patio

The owner collects antiques

Pool day ready

VIew of right from our door

Morning shot of the terrarium

The table where we ate breakfast

Breakfast at this casa was made with so much care and love, that it was hard for me not to at least try what was presented. The juices here also had a weird texture or taste, so after this first breakfast I just stayed away from juice in general. We started this breakfast off with coffee and milk, and, hot milk and tea for the kids. The milk served in Cuba is whole fat, and it is not bright white like in the States (just a heads up). It tastes great and is perfectly paired with their strong coffee. We were then served the first course of a pastry and homemade marmalade; yes, they served us in courses. This was a special treat after a weird few days with breakfast. Now, I like jelly and all, but this marmalade was the BEST I had ever eaten. It was beautiful in every way; the colors of the fruits they used and the texture, it was so enjoyable. Needless to say, I had eaten a lot of it.

During our meal we heard a parrot whistling, and playing with one of the maintenance men. The man would walk up to the pool railing, about 25 ft away, whistling to the parrot then the parrot would whistle back; in that sexy whistle. The second I walked up to the bird he just stared at me, wanted nothing to do with me. The maintenance guy, however, in Spanish behind me was telling the bird to whistle. The bird seemed freaked out by me so I walked away. The bird whistled finally when I walked away!! SOB!!

Back at the table, the traditional fruits were placed on the table. Here they made it into a soupy fruit salad, and well, it was not ‘Yummy. Yummy’. Man, I just don’t get why their fruits had such a crazy off flavor. At this point the woman running the space asked us about eggs. Since I had only eaten a bite of eggs the day before from my kids’ plates, and was not into them, I was curious and asked for one over hard. My kids asked for scrambled and my husband omelet. After that, we were served this beautiful basket of toasts and breads with the most amazing butter. Then a platter of tomatoes with a chorizo type salami was placed on the table. The eggs then followed and we were left to enjoy a beautiful morning under the thatched eating area.

Almost forgot to take a photo of the pastry and amazeface marmalade.. soo good!

Coffee 🙂

The soupy fruit salad

tomatoes and meat, anyone?

Crunchy bread. Thank God for bread.

Our kids couldn’t even wait for breakfast to end, they wanted to run up to the pool to play. Well, we let them go up a touch before finishing their meals. We then soon followed. The pool area was beautifully set up above the patio, facing the gorgeous yellow house and overlooking an expansive view of Havana. It was almost too perfect. We were there as a family alone the whole time, splashing around playing with the pool toys we had brought. Really enjoying the water and the sunshine. We then grabbed some drinks, yep, daiquiris and pina coladas! I miss these daiquiris typing out these days.

Beach ball!

The fountain in front of the parrot

Looking down at Brenda from the pool area

View from pool of common area

Always taking mamma’s phone

View from pool of Havana

Yep..daiquiri it was late enough!

It was time to get ready for our big day ahead! We were all so excited for this tour!! We reserved it to take us to all the hotspots of Havana in a shiny pink convertible. And, well, we didn’t get what we reserved.. ugh I hate complaining.

So, we had made this reservation ahead of the trip, specifically for their gorgeous pink convertible that they had on their website. When this other convertible showed up that afternoon, my husband gave me the look of disappointment. I just smiled and carried on getting amped to go out.

Ok, so the car wasn’t exactly what we asked for but I didn’t want to ruin it for the girls and figured the tour will still be fun, regardless. WELLLLLLLLlllll.

A tour is usually with someone who knows about the area they are taking you around, explaining why the sights are important or at least knowing something about the area. As much as this man taking us on the tour was nice and knew where to drive, he didn’t really tell us anything about the sights he was pointing out, nor did he speak English very well (or at all). Which was not part of the reservation. We asked for a specific car and an English-speaking guide.

Our tour guide started off with taking us down a street pointing out all the embassies around, we were obviously near embassy row. These things were easy for us to understand without much more explanation. Then things we didn’t quite understand the reasoning of why he was pointing them out started right after.

Our first stop was to a river. Why was this river important? We have no idea. Well I do now since I googled “rivers of Havana” when I got home. SMH. All we saw at that moment, however, were a work crew on our left, some old world pavers and steps to our right, and a sight of the water rushing below. From the guide’s expression I understood it was somewhere important, but he couldn’t say more than the word river to us about it. I learned that it was the Almendares River, an important river of the area that was used centuries ago to separate the provinces then became a major waterway for industry. The construction crew there, I learned, are working on a project to bring back the area with greenways of paths, plants, parks and even restaurants to enliven the city.

As we left the river, he took us on a tour through a beautiful wooded area. Why was this wooded area important? We don’t know. I learned it was the Havana Forest. As we were driving the path, the trees were making interesting shapes, like the elephant in the photo below. So many old trees along the path were twisted around like that. The sunlight was struggling to make it through the lush canopy. There were a few sights like an old castle like building and a park where families were playing with their children among these huge trees.

Then from the wooded area we ended up in the city. We were driving by some interesting places, but nothing was said by our guide. We arrived at our next destination, Fusterlandia, in the Jaimanitas neighborhood outside Havana. This place was so super cool. From the drive into the neighborhood you are immersed in art. Our guide parked, let us out, then motioned to us and literally said, “You go look. I am here.”

Well, OK then. Thankfully we researched this place beforehand. It is an artist colony that started as an art project of José Fuster. He is a folk artist who was so influenced by his overseas trip to Spain, as he was struck by Gaudi’s artworks. When he returned to Havana, he decided to transform his impoverished neighborhood into a work of art. Little by little he tiled his space, then his neighbors, then the whole neighborhood. The end result is this folksy, colorful tiled space that brings a smile instantly to your face.

We enjoyed it so much. The main part of the area, Fuster’s art studio, was transformed into a three-story outdoor wonderland. Each rise of your eye level, along each floor, brought you a totally different view-point of the surroundings. Each tiled space would show you its secret, like the pool below that was tiled in blue abstract tiles turns to reveal a woman bathing below from the top level. So cool! Every piece of building was tiled. It was so impressively unfathomable. The time and talent behind this space. After looking around this space we decided to take a quick walk to the shops that surrounded the streets. We hopped to different jewelry stores, where I bought myself a cool wooden bracelet. Then we got to look at an art gallery where we found this woman artist who specialized in Afro-Cuban art using different mediums like spray paint, newspaper, or naturally made paints from locally sourced plants, she was so talented. I talked to her for some time as she showed me all the upcycled materials she had used in her gallery.

We really enjoyed this time on our tour.

Ready to go out!

Aww they made the girls’ bed with their teddies 🙂

The tour guide and the pink car

The girls and I were happy

Sign along the street- Cuba, Havana

Driving along Havana

‘river’

Doesn’t it look like an elephant!!??

Fusterlandia

A turtle in Fusterlandia

My family portrait in Fusterlandia

Fusterlandia

Fusterlandia

Fusterlandia

Fusterlandia

Fusterlandia- Viva Cuba

Fusterlandia

Fusterlandia

This is a pretty specific request…

We planned to go to the Hotel Nacional in Habana Vieja from Fusterlandia. Well, this is where my husband started to lose his mind. My husband is a passive giant, seriously, what a patient person, but on this afternoon tour I could see from the back seat that he was slowly turning into the hulk. haha I just have to laugh, because it is so not in his nature to do what he ended up doing. Ok, so I am not sure how I can explain the oddity of this tour further. Our guide started pointing out some sights, but not more than one word about it. Even if we’d ask about it, he would just repeat what he said. Like this:

Our tour guide pointing to a hotel in Miramar (affluent area): “Hotel Melia Habana” (which was written on the building)

My husband, sitting up front: “Ok, what about it?”

Our guide: “Hotel.”

My husband: “Why is it important?”

Our guide: “Hotel.”

My husband: “Yes, hotel, but what about it?”

Then my husband points to another hotel coming up with the name on the front: “Hotel Panorama? Hotel.”

Our guide smiling: “Yes hotel.”

Then my husband just repeats what he sees along the tour like a chimp: “school”, “park”, “man”, “car” as our tour guide smiled along saying yes.

…I can go on; Though I was starting to become upset with my husband for his behavior, I understood where it was coming from. From the start it wasn’t the right car, then our tour guide was not the right match for us, as he didn’t speak enough English nor did he understand our social queues, nor did he try.

When we made that Fusterlandia stop, my husband pulled me aside while we were looking around to ask me if I wanted to continue the tour with this guy or not. We decided I’d make the call at the next stop, The Hotel Nacional. When we pulled up to that hotel, I gave my husband the nod to let the guy go. We paid him in full, I mean it wasn’t his fault, it was his companies fault, and left him to go enjoy of our day on our own.

Hotel Nacional is a national monument and my gosh, is it GORGEOUS! We walked in to the most welcoming doormen, and the lobby had that stately old-world feel. It was gleaming with people, and cheerful staff waiting to help. We wanted to grab a drink and relax along the water. Oh, and eat, because my family needs to eat at all times. We made a beeline for outside to where they had a seated area. We grabbed drinks, daiquiris for us adults and a lemonade and pina colada for the girls. Then they ordered traditional Cuban sandwiches to share.

The hotel was beautiful outside. There was a peacock walking the grounds, and in the back ground was the gardens overlooking the Havana Harbor shimmering. We decided after our little lunch to walk the gardens towards the water. We knew that along the pathway there were the original caves and canons on display that made up the old Santa Clara Battery. This is where, during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, Fidel Castro and Che Guevara set up defenses against aerial strikes. It was surreal to see this stately hotel in the background to these canons and trenches.

Walking into the Hotel Nacional of Cuba

Hotel Nacional of Cuba

Hotel Nacional of Cuba

I did not eat any sandwiches..i was busy drinking this daiquiri

PEACOCK!

Hotel Nacional of Cuba

Hotel Nacional of Cuba- Who knew Walt like black beans and chilis? hmm

Hotel Nacional of Cuba

Hotel Nacional of Cuba

We walked back into the hotel to roam the lobby. It was chock full of historic information and had so many impressive famous people who stayed there, we were just in awe. Our youngest was most impressed with Walt Disney staying there and hearing what dish at the restaurant was named after him.

From the Hotel Nacional we decided to take ourselves over to the market area for local art, jewelry or whatever we could find. We took a conventional taxi straight to that stop, the Almacenes San José Artisans’ Market. This was in the cruise ship port/waterfront area of Habana Vieja, the high tourist area near where we went the first day.

I LOVED WALKING THIS PLACE!

This building was so beautiful on the outside, it is the oldest warehouse in the city, and they went through a major restoration a few years ago. Where they turned into the central location for local artists. it is a bit chaotic at first, but the chaos comes from the hustle of the artists. I met some funny people shopping within each stall. One of whom, was really into me, and wouldn’t let up until I took a selfie with him… yup.

The building was split out from one end to another neatly, however. Everyone was grouped by their stalls, like, paint artists flowed into the clothing artists that shared space with the jewelry artists that gave way to print artists. Peppered in some of the walk throughs were hair artists looking to braid or chalk color hair. There was a lot to look at here, so much talent! I bought myself two of the coolest resin rings that I have ever seen in this bizarre.

We would find random trains along Havana, no descriptions nothing, but they were cool

The market

So this was my marketplace boyfriend, or so he thought.

He stopped harassing me after this so it worked!

Havana Club Museum

Walking Habana Vieja

We were a stones throw away from one sight we had wanted to visit, the Havana Club Rum Museum. We got there just shy of it closing, so we couldn’t take a tour, but were able to look around at the cool lobby ..and use the bathrooms.

We left the museum to look for a classic car, preferably a convertible, to continue on with the rest of our tour. The girls asked about a pink convertible, which we weren’t sure about. We walked towards the Malecon, where we had seen a row of beautiful cars the day before. Again, there we saw a few guys hanging out with some nice vintage cars, but not exactly what we were hoping for. Gorgeous, but blue, green or burgundy colored. A random tour guide walked up to us, hoping we would take his car service. This guy spoke English so well; we turned him down because the girls didn’t like his car so much, but ended up asking if there was a pink convertible, maybe a cool Cadillac, anywhere nearby. He smiled at us then immediately waved over to someone else.

And guess what? The guy he was waving over was the owner of the ONLY pink 1959 Eldorado Cadillac convertible in service in all of Havana (and this fact checked out when I got home!).

OHMYGOD!! The girls were jumping up and down cheering for this car, and so was I. Needless to say we hired the guy on the spot to take us around to the few locations we had left on our itinerary. We hopped in the car to find it was customized, too They extended the seated area of the car to add in a bar!! Talk about a dream car, right!?

We drove down the rest of the Malecon, talking to the owner’s tour guide. The owner, himself, did not speak any English, but his guide did. He was a super friendly guy who was born in Cuba but brought up in Norway. His English was great, and he LOVED talking to us about the politics of Cuba. As we were going down the Malecon the sky started to dim, and by the time we were driving over to the John Lennon Park the skies opened up to a deluge. The guys quickly put up the convertible top, and we got to see the park from the car. So, I saw the John Lennon statue I wanted to sit on from the car. Womp.

The rain did not stop. It actually got worse.

We drove by the Plaza de la Revolución, the ONE sight I talked about standing on in person. It is the largest plaza in the world, and my hype for it was because the day before we were told that there were millions upon millions of Cubans from Havana on the plaza during Fidel’s memorial services when he died. Not just there to pay their respects, but because they were all MANDATED to go!! I imagined how crammed everyone would be going around the José Martí Memorial building because they had to be there. Plus, I really wanted to see the Palace of the Revolution, across the street, for the steel memorials, most importantly of Che Guevara. But we got to see them from the car.

After this, the guys drove us around a while longer to see Chinatown and a few more obscure places. Then we all realized this rain was not letting up. When the girls mentioned they we were starving by this point, we decided it was a good time to end the tour to go grab dinner. They recommended we go to the restaurant La Guarijita. We had them drop us off there, and magically the rain slowed down, so much so, that they offered to take down the top for us to take some photos. Which was a lot of fun. Everyone came out of the restaurant and from around the neighborhood to see the car.

It was a beautiful car!

1959 Pink Cadillac

1959 Pink Cadillac

While we were out there, the rain picked up again. We realized we made the best of a rainy situation by going to dinner at that moment. The restaurant ended up being fun fun. We got seated quickly, as the restaurant was empty, but that all changed quickly as the place filled to the brim minutes after we sat down as two large groups of travelers came in right after us. WooH!

We immediately ordered daiquiris, a frozen lemonade and a pina colada once we were seated. Then we ordered our meals. My husband ordered what was essentially sweet and sour pork. I got braised chicken with onions, and family style fried plantains and tostones. And… This is where my kids lost their minds in ordering. They got pizza. haha PIZZA! Surprisingly, the pizza wasn’t as terrible as I had expected it to be. I only tried the crust, but the girls and my husband swore it tasted like a normal pizza.

We were at this restaurant for about three hours. When we left the doors it was still raining, but not as badly as before, so we decided it was a good time to make it back to our casa particular and hired a classic car taxi to take us back. The drive back was entertaining as the driver was a young man who spoke great English. We talked about Cuba, and what it is like to be a taxi driver there with his family. He was a very nice man.

Ordered a second one, and it came in blue

Driving the streets of Havana- Che Guevara

Back at La Rosa Ortega

The house was beautiful

Some of their antiques

The owner collects a lot of antiques, this was her study filled with art.

The view of the terrarium from above our apartment!

creepy

Down at the patio.. the kitchen is filled for tomorrow’s fruit concoctions.

View of Havana from the patio

Daiquiri me.

This drink was spectacular, a canchanchara.

Playing Disney Codenames

Snow White and the Prince

We arrived to the house to find the rain had turned to drizzle. Now there was a crispness felt in the air. I didn’t get a chance to check out the actual home of the casa particular, so this was a great time to do it. The house was beautiful, with so many antiques and large chandeliers. Magnificent.

We asked the night shift manager about the weather. The weather information without good wifi is an issue. No one knew if the rain was short-lived or not, but we were semi-assured that rain in Cuba doesn’t last very long.

We all went to change, and the girls begged to hang out on the patio for family game night. Which was a great idea. The bar and kitchen night staff was all around, so we got to hang out with some daiquiris while playing Codenames with the girls, and, our dog pal Brenda. Codenames is such a fun game, if you haven’t heard of it. We bought it last year for a trip we took to Maine to visit our friends. We had such a ball with everyone, but mostly the kids enjoyed it. So, we bought the Disney version for the girls at Christmas. It was such a trip playing this version here in Cuba, and super hard after a few daiquiris! I can’t wait to bring this along this Summer with our friends.

My review of the day.

This day was a great example of making the best of what comes your way. Even though a lot of curveballs were thrown at us, we hit them all out of the park, not letting them affect our vacation. We saw some once in a lifetime places and things like Fusterlandia, the Hotel Nacional, and the canons and trenches! We ended up riding in a pink 1959 Cadillac Eldorado convertible along the Malecon! We met some interesting people at the art colony, the restaurant and along our rides in the taxis. We even got to spend time together, which is all we want to do anyways.

Nothing dampened our spirits… even in the rain!

Next Cuba post will be Day 5- Rain doesn’t pass that quickly in Cuba.

My Travels

CUBA 2019- Viñales

Posted on March 8, 2019March 20, 2019 by Valeria

Hello Everyone!

Here we are on our third day in Cuba. We had made three classic car reservations ahead of our trip. One was for this day to take us to Viñales. Viñales is a town, about 2.5 hours from Havana, known for their tobacco farms, and their 51sq mile lush valley that is surrounded by large mountain-like limestone hills, known as mogotes. These mogotes are huge! They draw a lot of activity from hikers, rock climbers, and cave explorers.

Day 3

We woke up, luckily again, to bright blue skies. Since it was our last morning in the apartment, we took some time getting ready while enjoying the breezes and sounds from the windows. We had to gear up in long pants as our itinerary for this day had us roughing it! But first, breakfast. We planned to head over to Habana Vieja to a restaurant we had read about beforehand and happened to see the morning before. It was actually right across the street from where we had breakfast. It had a way better display than where we had ended up the morning prior.

We had some time to sit and relax, as our car reservation wasn’t showing up to our apartment until 10AM. Also, when Mary from our casa particular was going to arrive to collect keys. We soaked in the last morning on this side of Havana. I’m so glad we decided to go to a different place for breakfast, as I really enjoyed the coffee and the toast. Ha ha

Another beautiful day in Havana, Cuba

Wearing my capris for some horseplay later..

Breakfast time!

Coffee love

Once we arrived back to our apartment, our car was waiting outside for us, as well as, Mary. The car was a super cool blue 1951 Plymouth hardtop. Which made me giddy! And our driver was waiting along side the car all neatly dressed in his orange button-up shirt and jeans.

We quickly went upstairs to grab our luggage then handed our keys to Mary as she sent us off with hugs and kisses for a great trip. We filled the trunk with our bags then hopped into the car with our super cute driver in orange, Ernesto. Who spoke very good English and was very polite. We started off on our trip by heading down the beautiful Malecon!

As Ernesto was zooming down the Malecon, he pointed out the American Embassy along the left. Just as we were about to talk about it, whammo, we got a flat tire! This definitely made us worry yet all laugh, because of course at our embassy, right? But Ernesto was such a great sport about it as he changed out the tire as quickly as he could. While we were instructed to wait outside the car, we took some time to hang out at the edge of the wall. We got to gaze upon the beautiful sea lapping and smashing up against the rocks. I decided to walk down the Malecon towards the embassy for a few shots, too, and just as we were finding the bright spot in the flat tire, the police showed up. They questioned everyone about the flat tire situation, then went about sitting behind the car to protect Ernesto from the traffic whipping by. He had to get under the car to change the tire. VERY DANGEROUS! But he did it! Though he came up from it dirty. 😦

Poor kid.

And we are off!!

It was surreal driving in such a vintage car

We got a flat tire…1951 Plymouth

Look at how white Ernesto’s sneakers are… poor kid got wrecked from this tire

Our daughter inspecting the situation.. hahah

The Malecon

The American Embassy in Cuba..

Back on the road!!

The signs around left me with so many questions and feelings.. not one advert for a product, only propaganda.

Once the tire was changed, we stopped nearby to fill it. After that quick fill up, we were back to the road driving to the Valles de Viñales lookout point.

Driving in Cuba is pretty interesting. There are a lot of people out, at all times, and they are everywhere. Driving side roads, main roads, and highways you will find people in groupings waiting for either a personal ride, taxi or bus. Also, there are horse and buggies carting people or items around. And sometimes, there are animals just grazing along the highway. It all is fine, but it was a bit shocking to see people on highways in the most remote areas waiting for rides.

Driving through Vinales

Public park where wifi is attainable..so ppl on their phones r there.

Valles de Vinales

Horizontes Los Jazmines

Valles de Vinales

Valles de Vinales

Valles de Vinales

Valles de Vinales

This guy makes pina coladas all day…

where you put in your own rum! OOHhh yeahhHHH

Pina colada twins…except hers is virgin. 🙂

Valles de Vinales

Some guy rode this lil guy up the hill to the lookout point 😦

He looked so sad all tied up through his nose. 😦

We spent a lot of time checking out the views of the valley. What a beautiful sight! We enjoyed a drink there and shopped the two local pop up shops they had set up along the tree line. We had spoken to a few other tour drivers that knew Ernesto, learning about the area. It was a fun stop, and my husband and I asked to come back if we could catch the sunset later on. Depending on the time.

From the lookout point we headed to a local tobacco farm to learn some cigar rolling and possibly ride horses through the countryside.

The farm we end up visiting is a small family run farm. We were introduced to our farm guide, Josue; it was just our family on this tour. After introductions, and his happiness hearing we were Americans, we were led to the tobacco drying space. It’s a one story thatched structure with tobacco leaves drying all around with a table set up at the front showcasing their processes. Right away we were shown how the plant looks (there was a vast field right outside the doors) and how it grew. The walk through was short and sweet; basically, we learned what parts of the plant are the best to use in cigars. We were then led to another building where they showed us how the cigars are rolled.

We were walked through the ways they pick the leaves, which were best to go in the middle versus the exterior. Josue then explained how 90% of the local farm crops are sold to the government leaving the remaining 10% for the farm to sell, to visitors like us. I found that devastating. He then proceeded to show us how they bundle the cigars and how to best care for them. Passing every item around for us to touch and smell. My gosh. The tobacco smelled of chocolate, leather, and heaven.. like that perfect warm smell we want our men to smell like, know what I mean? Once we finished that lesson, he pulled out a handsome bundle of cigars, a bottle of locally harvested honey and a bottle of homemade rum, then asks if we would like a smoke! UHM, YES PLEASE!

Before we were handed a cigar, our guide asked us if we wanted to smoke one like Che Guevara. Apparently, Che had asthma and filtered his cigars by dipping them in honey! IS this a true story? I am not sure, but holy wow was a honey dipped cigar amazing!!

Our guide then proceeds to grab two glasses for me and my husband to try their special rum. The rum made in this part of Cuba is from guava fruit. It was interesting to try while smoking a honey dipped cigar. Actually, tasted like whiskey to me! haha

We hung out with our guide for a nice hour. We talked about so many things pertaining to the history of the area, Cuba, and even music! But I think my favorite part was at the end when he asked us about the show Breaking Bad!! Well, it was best when we told him about Better Call Saul!! OHMYGOD! His face dropped. How awesome!?

At the farm

another tour was here in this car

1951 Plymouth

Tobacco Farm- how they grow and dry tobacco for cigars

tobacco!

Pictures and such of Che Guevara are everywhere…and I mean everywhere.

Showing us how to roll cigars

Showing us how to roll cigars

The smell of these cigars were so intoxicating YUMMMMMM

Cuban Cigars

Smelling the finished product

Lil L checking it out…

Big Mike lighting it up.. he never sokescigars

He enjoyed it 🙂

I love cigars..

I had such a great afternoon smoking and talking with this farmer.. so good.

I actually like this candid photo of me 🙂

Our day was not over yet!

From being taught cigar rolling we walked over a hill to go on our first family horseback ride! It was the first time for us riding on a horse; I had gotten on a horse once as a child, I think at a zoo or farm, but that was it. We were set up with a horse wrangler and went on our way. From the farm, on horse, we got to cross a highway, oh yes, to trek around the countryside and farmlands. It was so beautiful and peaceful. I felt so lucky to be there during this experience.

Our horses were funny creatures, however. I think my horse was in the middle of an argument with my husband’s horse, cause she did NOT want to let him pass or anything from the second we got to the riding path. She would smash her head on his body or cause a scene with him only; if he ignored her she’d start a fight with another horse! So dramatic!! I spent a lot of time looking around at the scenery while keeping my horse from the others. My husband’s horse and our youngest daughter’s horse were also sort of jerks. haha They would fight to stay ahead! Then our oldest daughter’s horse was so calm, hung back of the group trotting along.

It was so much fun to ride my horse! I do have to ask why there is no padding on the saddle? Yeeoowwwzaaahhhh! (It hurts your tush, just be aware).

On our horses at the end of the ride.

My horse was all set standing still… she was such a jerK!

Our day on the farm was coming to an end. 😦

We said our good byes to everyone then headed to a paladar, a family run restaurant, that Ernesto suggested. Along the drive to the paladar, Ernesto got pulled over by the military police! Haha This poor guy couldn’t win this day with driving. He ended up being ok, but my gosh, this poor guy! My husband and I decided that minute right in the first photo below, that we would treat him to dinner. (Which he humbly refused, till I wouldn’t take no for an answer. heehe)

The paladar, El Campesino, was fun and the food was fantastic! We got seated outdoors, which abutted a family farm; it was a perfect setting after the day we had experienced. This place offered great cocktails, like, you guessed it, my favorite, Havana style daiquiris! We each ordered a delicious dish, too. My husband got ropa vieja (shredded beef in sauce). I got the roasted pork loin, and the girls each got grilled chicken dishes. Ernesto got the braised chicken, just FYI. It looked pretty great. They offered two types of rice and beans, and they were served family style. We enjoyed a wonderful meal together while talking about politics and history, it was perfect. I love having discourse where we can share and learn from one another. Ernesto is such a great guy!!

annnd Ernesto gets pulled over. SMH

What a kick ass wagon! Classic Cuba Car

Paladar – El Campesino

Large grill

Dinner

We took a drive after dinner back to the Valles de Viñales to see if we could catch a sunset. Welp, we were not that lucky to catch a sunset, but the views of the valley and mogotes at dusk was beautiful. It quickly turned dark, so we left Viñales for our new home in Havana, La Rosa Ortega, in a different neighborhood called La Vibora. This was a two and a half hour drive back, in the dark.

This drive to Havana in the pitch dark was so crazy scary. Not for Ernesto, he was a cautious driver but everything else. Remember how I said there were people out everywhere on the drive there? Well, in the dark people are still all out there, too! You can be driving along a pitch black highway as your lights catch something in the darkness, it’s a group of people waiting under a bridge. Then a hundred feet from them is a racing horse with buggy. Not lit except by the car’s lights as it approaches. Then on some small town roads it was like everyone was out socializing in large numbers on the streets, in the dark.

Thank the Lord for car high-beams!!

We got to Rosa Ortega’s late, around 9PM-ish. We were all anxiously waiting to get there to hit the sack. When Ernesto dropped us off we all hugged like long lost family, and I gave him a gift for his wife and daughter. (I had brought items to gift on this trip) He was such a wonderful guy. When we walked into the gate of our new place, my mouth dropped. I knew what the house was going to look like, but oh my gosh it was so beautiful! In the dark! It looked like an Italian Villa in Tuscany with winding bright colored bougainvillea climbing out of its pottery clinging along this huge fence that hid a magical looking mansion.

We were greeted by Jose Carlos, the night shift manager. He brought us into the reception area, and checked us in with our passports. After check in, Jose Carlos, directed us to the the patio below where there was an outdoor kitchen. We got to meet the grounds German Shepherd, Brenda. She was the sweetest dog, who loved following us around. Jose Carlos walked us through all the aspects of the casa particular as he introduced us to the night staff. Jose Carlos then asked us sit down for a special welcoming drink (fresh pineapple juice). It sounds corny, but it was a beautiful way to start this leg of our trip. I started to feel like I was actually on vacation for the first time since landing in Cuba.

We then followed this welcoming reception with putting all of our things in the room and to freshen up. MY GOSH. Our room was amazing! From the second we walked in it was impressive. It was modern and spacious. The artwork was soulful yet playful. The materials all around felt new and clean; it felt like home. The apartment had a full kitchen, dining room, living room, two bedrooms with huge closets, and big bathroom. One of the coolest features, and my favorite, was the large terrarium set up to separate the kitchen from living room. It was about a fifteen foot high glass case that was open at the top to the outside. It housed orchids along the wall. So pretty.

After setting up our space, we headed back to the patio for a nightcap. You guessed it, daiquiris. 🙂

outdoor kitchen/common space

outdoor kitchen

Welcome fresh pineapple juice