Recap - Final Thoughts - Grand Cayman / Cuba Trip - December 2013

Love, love, loved the trip. Rachel and I got along so well except for a couple minor scrapes which would have happened to anyone who spent 14 days together every hour. I had such a good time, saw new things and got SCUBA CERTIFIED! I love life. I love travel. Can't wait to do it again.

For photos from this trip click here.

Day 13 - Sunday, December 15th, 2013 - Grand Cayman - Charlotte - Omaha

Woke up, packed, had a little breakfast and pretty much spent all day at airports. We had to hurry and run through the airport to try and make our flights and we were kinda worried about our cigars coming back through customs. There was really no issue. We removed the bands and were prepared to say they were from Cayman, but we weren't even asked. We ended up making all the flights and got home where Mike and Melanie were waiting for us. It was like 20 degrees. UGH! Back to reality!  

For photos from this trip click here.

Day 12 - Saturday, December 14th, 2013 - Grand Cayman

 Got up early and started packing, got some breakfast and got ready to go on our last scuba dive. Somehow, the group left without us knowing, but we hurried up and drove to where they were and met the boat. We were able to go! We loaded onto the boat and Laura and Helen led our two dives. They were awesome! We got down to 100 feet, saw a moray eel and swam by a shipwreck called the Kittiwake. Very cool dives and a nice way to wrap up our scuba experience. 

We went to the Heritage Cafe, a local, right-off-the-water shack that served fresh fish and wonderful little biscuits. I got Cayman style snapper and Rachel got curried grouper. It was probably the best lunch we had. Everyone that was near the restaurant was raving about it! And you know it's good when the locals go there.

After that, we wanted to check out Barker's National Park, which was a 10 minute drive from our hotel, if not less. We drive there, and it is a bunch of super pot-holed roads surrounded by swampy areas on both sides. It was pretty unimpressive most of the way. We knew it had to be better, so we pulled off and walked toward the ocean.

It started raining, but it was an “island rain” and only lasted a few minutes. We watched kite surfers for awhile, then went on a walk along the beach. We looked for shells, played with hermit crabs, enjoyed the beauty, took photos. There were mangrove trees right off the beach in the water. We met a guy on the beach who had moved from the U.S. to the Caymans and had his own construction company and adopted the dog he was walking with when he moved here 20 years ago. It was a nice stroll.

We went back to the hotel and walked to the Hell bar again that night. We had a blast, saw some of Rachel's friends, played pool, danced, and just generally had a really good night.

Ivan the dog had followed us almost all the way to the bar before his owners picked him up. Dinner wasn't much, we just split an overcooked burger before the bar.

 We went to bed pretty much right away when we entered our room.  

For photos from this trip click here.

Day 11 - Friday, December 13th, 2013 - Havana - Grand Cayman

Slept in a little bit, arranged for a ride to the airport, but walked around a little to get some breakfast first. We walked to a few places that looked open but were closed and got a few suggestions along the way. We saw a cafeteria in a hospital and tried there. We peeked inside and it looked like it had been vacant for years. At this point, we're just getting hungry, so we found the closest place we could. It was a little stand made of wood, one half sold sandwiches and the other half sold juice. The locals were lining up in droves for the juice, but we were hungry so we ordered 2 sandwiches and 2 juices. From the sign, we were expecting to pay $14. It ended up that these prices were in CUP and not in CUC, so it was actually like $1.35! We felt like we had to try the juice that everyone was loving, because people were literally double fisting and slamming this stuff down. We tried it, at 5 cents a piece, it was ok, t was sort of a guava with a nutmeggy spice quality to it.

We walked back to the casa with a little help from a taxi, as we had waked quite a ways by now. Packed up, got Leidy's neighbor to run us to the bank and to a quick flea market to look for a couple of souvenirs.

We made it to the airport and had to wait outside because they only let in certain flights at a time. We had a beer, the line opened up, we did our airport thing, and we were on our way back to the Caymans.

We got back late because our flight was delayed so we missed our car rental places' closing time, but we went to another company that was still open and Rachel drove us back to the hotel. This time it was a right hand drive car, so I was kinda glad I wasn't driving.

 We stopped at Myrtle's for dinner and split a turtle soup. It was a lot like a chicken and vegetable soup, but the pieces of meat looked like turtle fin. We had jerk chicken and a turtle burger as well. The burger tasted like a turkey burger. It was good. We were both tired & a little cranky, so we just went back to the hotel and got our new room and went to bed. 

For photos from this trip click here.

Day 10 - Thursday, December 12th, 2013 - Vinales - Havana

Bus is leaving at 7:30, so we got up around 6:30, packed, ate our usual breakfast and walked up to the bus pickup area. Slept a bit on the bus, got a little rain. Found a man willing to take us near the Tropicana and look for a casa particular to stay in. He was very nice, stopped to change more money on the way. The first casa was full, but the lady was very nice and pointed us to another about 3 blocks away.

 The lady that met us was called Leidy. She is 6 months pregnant, has a very nice accommodation for us for 35 CUC per night. It is also a short walk to the Tropicana show we want to see tonight, so it saves us on a cab fare, and it's away from the downtown area that neither of us were fond of. Pretty perfect.

We walked up to the Tropicana to buy tickets early and we had a couple beers each. No real plans today, just a chill day, and the show isn't until 10pm. Pretty late for an event in Cuba, from our experience. After a couple of beers, we found a lunch spot not far away and got Rachel's beef fix temporarily subsided. We had a burger and lasagna.

After that, back to the casa for a 3 hour nap and some Matt & Rachel time. We gave each other massages, showered, and got ready for the show with plenty of time to spare.

We got ready and walked to the Tropicana. The sight was impressive. A lot of neon. A '57 fully restored Ford Fairlane parked outside. We had purchased the best tickets in the house. We were escorted to the front table, right by the stage and we were met by our two tablemates. They were from Spain, one of them visited Cuba regularly because of his business relationship with a manufacturing plant in eastern Cuba. They were great. His friend was an animated man who was very excited. It was his first time at the Tropicana as well. Our tickets included ½ bottle of rum, a can of cola each, a sparkling wine starter, and some nut snacks.

 The show was great, very fancy. Big costumes and good choreographed dancing. After the main part of the show, our friends parted. The next part was all male dancers, and they said, “I think this part of the show is for the gays.” It was a small dance part, then they invited the crowd up to dance onstage, country by country. They didn't call the U.S., but we found ourselves up there anyway. We danced and drank until fairly late. We headed back to the house and smoked a Cuban cigar on the walk back.

For photos from this trip click here.

Day 9 - Wednesday, December 11th, 2013 - Vinales - Maria La Gorda - Vinales

 Woke up early, around 6 and had the same breakfast as yesterday and got a taxi to go to the beach called Maria La Gorda to dive today. It was a crazy ride. 2 ½ hours at a very rapid pace, dodging horses, people, bikes, trucks, and anything else you can think of. The driver was super ice and had a sweet little ride. It was a VW something with a newer, pretty sweet Pioneer stereo and some aftermarket 6x9s. We lovingly referred to it as the disco taxi as he played American dance music the whole way there.

Watched a beautiful sunrise from the taxi and listened to probably the whole collection of Adele. On the way, we picked up his girlfriend, they were cute, and made great time.

We arrived at the beach about 1 ½ hours before the first dive,and we checked in and paid for the excursion. I noticed they had a computer with 2 USB inputs that should work for the file transfer I've desperately needed for like 4 days now, so I bought a card to use the computer. It had Windows XP on it and evidently this place, or Cuba in general, restrict certain things on the computer, so I couldn't pull up the file exchange window. When I plugged in my phone, it only gave options to open Word and something else completely useless. I finally figured out that I could open Windows Media Player, go to File - Open, keyboard shortcut Copy, change drives, then keyboard shortcut Paste. Whew! It worked though, just had to sit there for an hour and move the mouse every 60 seconds so the card I used wouldn't log me out.

Anyway, got that done and we went to go on our first ever non-training dive. SCUBA in CUBA! We got our gear and loaded onto a boat that drove us to the selected dive site. We dropped in and swam the reef for the usual 45 minutes, seeing some decent sea life. Nothing too crazy of note, but a nice dive. We came back to shore and scheduled another dive at 3pm, so we had a couple hours to kill. Got lunch, tuna sandwich, and we were immediately swarmed by 6 hungry scavenger cats. I fed them ¼ of my sandwich and we went down to the beach to relax. Rachel built a sand castle for a bit and I laid in the sun until it was time to dive again.

We got our gear back on and got to the boat again. We drove to a different dive site and did another 45 minute dive. This one was much cooler. Better reef, several schools of brightly colored fish, about 8 lionfish, and an array of yellow, blue, and white fish all over. Saw a barracuda in the distance. Huge. After our dive we headed back, got our log books signed by the dive instructor and hurried out to meet our driver.

Same story on the way home, only it was a bit scarier since it was dark most of the way, and most people/vehicles, etc. have no reflective materials on them. Long drive, tried to sleep, but mostly was getting tossed around in the backseat as we bobbed and weaved home.

 Once home, paid for our bill at the casa particulares and had dinner. Same setup with beans, rice, tomatoes, cucumbers, and fruit, but instead of fish, we had a ½ chicken each. Stuffed again! Too much. And we couldn't even eat ½ of what was on the table. Rachel and I irritated each other a little bit, so we had a talk and called it a night instead of going out or anything. Everything is good, just a long time to be with anyone for 24 hours a day without a couple of speed bumps.

For photos from this trip click here.

Day 8 - Tuesday, December 10th, 2013 - Vinales

Got up fairly early. 7ish. Had a nice egg breakfast with toast and guava jam, fresh pineapple & papaya. We met our guide, Luis, at 9 am and walked through town to a farm area where our horses were waiting. I decided to wear shorts, which in hindsight, was not the best idea. My thigh rubbed on the saddle and got pretty chafed. That being said, it was such an excellent experience. We rode through the countryside, which is a National Park. There are rounded mountains that are covered in foliage that are breathtaking. It reminds me of Jurassic Park's flying in scene and at the same time, reminds me of Yosemite valley.

We rode through farms on dirt paths past pigs, chickens, many birds, goats, sheep, cows, horses, and more. We saw tobacco plants, yams, sugar cane, black beans, and more. Watched a farmer plow his field with an ox and directly behind his newly plowed path, more than a dozen birds were getting all the worms that it was turning over. Unique. My stirrups were a little long, so it hurt a little bit to trot, and we trotted somewhat regularly. My butt and thighs are sore tonight! But it was well worth the pain. We rode to a cave in one of the mountains and were guided through the stalactites and stalagmites by flashlight to a natural pool 30 meters long. We didn't have swimming clothes, but washed our faces and arms and watched while others swam. One of the swimmers was a lady who lived in Glacier National Park on the Canada side, very nice.

We rode a bit more to a tobacco farm where we were served coco dios by the tobacco farmer. To make this drink, he cut open a coconut, cut some skin off, added honey to the skin and offered us the skin to eat while he made the drink. Drained about ½ of the coconut water and let us drink it, then cut fresh oranges, pineapple, and another fruit and squeezed the fresh juice into the coconut. Added rum made in the valley and some honey. Wow! Best drink presentation ever!

He then offered us a cigar and rubbed honey on the tip you put in your mouth. That's the way to go - so good. While we smoked, he showed us how cigars are made from the tobacco plant and what the difference is between the types, and he hand rolled a cigar right in front of us.

I showed him how to blow smoke rings, a talent I couldn't believe they hadn't seen before, but they were amazed. The farmer was learning how to do this quite quickly too. Between them, they smoke like 12 cigars a day, with multiple tourists usually, and they had not seen smoke rings before. But I felt good for teaching them a new “skill”. We bought a small pack of cigars from him and rode back through the countryside, stopping at a little stand for beer afterwards with Luis.

We drank Mayabe, a new beer to us, it was good. The people at the stand were playing with a little animal that looked like a mix between a large hamster, rat, opossum, beaver, and who knows what. It was the size of a small dog and they called it a hotillo. I guess this one was a baby and they said it was in the rat family. They were laying with it like a dog, rubbing its belly, etc. and could grab it by the tail and put it on their arms, shoulders, etc. Rachel was the first to pet it, and I followed suit, then had a local put it on my shoulders for a photo. He liked my beard.

Rachel and I walked back home and freshened up a little, grabbed some money, then went and had lunch. Rachel had lamb and I had a Cuban style sandwich with ham, chorizo, cucumber, mustard, and a tomato-y sauce on pressed bread. I had a chocolate milkshake to wash it down and we hurried back home in time to meet Tamara's husband who was to guide us on a hike.

He asked if we preferred regular hiking or to ride in a horse pulled vehicle for awhile. I had been wanting to ride in one of these two wheeled metal carts pulled by horse since I saw one on the way into town. We chose that. It was a bit scary at first. Nah, mostly the whole time.

The cart was fairly wobbly with nothing to really hang on to, there was a small wooden bench on either side, wide enough to sit about 3 people very closely. The roads are rutted and part of the journey was on dirt roads and paths that were also rutted, uneven, and at times, rocky. It was fun though. Check that off the list.

We rode to his family's tobacco farm and he took us inside the barn where they were going through the same thing we had done earlier. Rachel and I were good on that, so we left and told him what was up. We felt a little bad, because it was Tamara's family who would have gotten the money if we would have bought from them, but we didn't know it was part of the “hike” and the farmer earlier was so cool, I would have rather bought from him anyway.

We went over to the house and had a coffee drink and enjoyed the view before heading back out in our horse cart. We arrived at a place where they had a giant prehistoric mural painted on the mountainside and walked around there for a bit. I got a beer and as I was sitting there, I was playing with my Cuban coins and my magnetic money holder on my wallet. I stacked them so 3 coins were balanced on top of one another. One of the bartender's faces when he saw it was priceless. He must have thought I was a wizard. A few people wanted to know what as up and were all talking about it. I told them it was santeria. It's a slave/christian/voodoo type religion in Cuba. They laughed, and then played with the “magic coins” themselves for awhile. Google Maps is also going over extremely well here.

I imagined it would since I have been hard pressed to be able to find a frickin computer to dump my photos on to a thumbdrive. In Havana, the hotel computer was closed on Sunday & Monday, the only days we were there, and to my knowledge, Vinales has only 1 public computer at the post office, open from 8-5 with a 1 hour siesta in there. We haven't been able to make it there on time yet with our daily activities. Crazy.

After the prehistoric mural park, we rode through the breathtaking views of the National Park and then, after grabbing a couple guys who needed a ride, went back home.

 Rachel and I showered and had some down time before dinner. For dinner, fish, black beans, rice, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, plantain chips, fresh fruit, green beans, and cerveza. We arranged for a cab to a dive location tomorrow leaving at 6:30 am, so we decided to have an early night tonight and went to bed.

For photos from this trip click here.

Day 7 - Monday, December 9th, 2013 - Havana to Vinales

 Woke up, had breakfast at the hotel. Standard, eggs and bacon with bread and butter. We walked around Havana for a bit, exchanged some currency at the International Bank, after the regular bank apologized and said they couldn't take the new U.S. $100 bills. Again, everywhere is very business uniforms & all ladies in skirts. We are approached again several times for money, etc. and decide we're good on Havana for the time being and find a travel info kiosk, who guides us on the best way to get to Vinales.

The waiter from breakfast takes us to the bus station and we get in line for a ticket. The lady behind the desk with a full-on mustache tells us to sit and wait when we tell her where we're going. We wait about ½ hour while she helps countless other people and finally get back in line and she sells us tickets then. Guess you gotta go through twice. HAHA!

We get tickets and walked around the area for a minute before grabbing a ham sandwich at the station. The bus arrives pretty much right when we get done and we get on it. It is nice, with reclinable seats, a company called Viazul. It is a 3 hour + ride with one stop for snacks. Rachel got a pina colada which was excellent, with real blended bits of coconut & pineapple, and I had a mango juice which was good as well. Not bad for a roadside stand!

We stop and drop some people off, and evidently the bus picks us hitchhikers along the way as well. I think they can ride as far as they want too. Weird. We had read that Cuba encourages and tries to assist hitchhiking, but seeing it in action was unique. We drive through a National Park with beautiful bluff-like mountains, palm trees and farmland.

We arrive in Vinales and are immediately bombarded by locals wanting us to stay with them. Rachel gets approached by an adamant woman named Tamara and we agree to pay $15 a night for a room with her, including breakfast and dinner. The house is painted blue with 4 rocking chairs on the front porch. Well kept lawn with beautiful landscaping.

Inside, it is a common room with a bedroom on either side for guests, a dining room toward the back, and a kitchen in the back. Our room is all blue with blue curtains and shiny blue bedding. We fill out the paperwork and also pay her to go horseback riding and hiking with a guide tomorrow.

Rachel and I walk down into town to watch sunset. We try a couple areas and found both to be gorgeous. The 1^st was down a dirt road, a farm with horses, pigs, goats, chickens in trees!, dogs, etc. but we felt like we'd be trespassing to see a good sunset, so we tried another area as well. This one had a barn made of thatched palm leaves and had a dirt road leading between houses down to a farm field area.

A nice man sitting on the porch said it was ok to go down, so we stood next to a lake and a cow and watched a gorgeous sunset go down behind the mountains and palm trees.

Went back and got dinner. Wow! Best meal yet! Fresh fish, don't remember what she called it, but it was a moist, tender whitefish with a reddish skin cooked perfectly. Homemade rice, black beans, plantain chips, and fresh pineapple & cantaloupe. Never had a better cantaloupe and the plantain chips were amazing! Everything was great, but I couldn't stop devouring the fish, it was perfect.

 After dinner, we had a beer, smoked a cigar and walked into a bar area to seek out live music. We found a great place where a Cuban band played Cuban songs and a couple of people were salsa dancing. Rachel and I both agreed that this was exactly what we wanted and needed and were so glad we made the choice to seek this place out. Walked back home after a couple of beers and several songs and went to bed. Long day ahead.

For photos from this trip click here.

Day 6 - Sunday, December 8th, 2013 - Grand Cayman Island to Cuba

 Got up around 8am and had breakfast at the hotel. Nothing special, omelette, it was good. Packed our stuff and left some luggage at the hotel, so we didn't have any check bags in Cuba. Said goodbye to Liz and the Allens and took the car back to the airport dropoff, checked in for our flight and had a beer at the Cayman airport. Cayman is pronounced K-Man, not K-Men, as I had previously thought by the way. I saw a t-shirt with a chicken crossing the road and had to get it to commemorate our time here. We had a little bag of pistachios and another beer, then got on our flight. Met a nice lady from Oslo, Norway on our flight who told us to go to a town called Vinales, and also gave us some other travel advice. The flight was not long, just over an hour I think.

We arrived in Havana and went through immigration. It was very intimidating. They had footprints on the floor for you to stand on, and they video you as they are checking your passport. No problems though. They buzz you through the door and get into the receiving area of the airport. All the employees are wearing khaki, almost military looking outfits, and the women are all wearing skirts. It was a bit confusing navigating the airport, but luckily our hotel that we booked for the first night had set up a liaison for us. He met us outside the airport and led us to the currency exchange. My info said that CUC (Cuban Convertible Pesos) and US dollars were equal, but the exchange rate / fees amounted to .87 USD to 1 CUC.

Our guide then led us to a van where we rode into Habana Viejo (Old Havana) and were dropped off at our hotel. Everything is very old. Colonial style buildings. U.S. cars from the 50s amounted to about ½ of the cars on the road. Mixed in were some Japanese and European cars as well. The buildings are run down, but beautiful. Habana Viejo is kinda dirty and the streets are in disrepair, you step over giant cracks and puddles everywhere. Most of the tourist district is blocked off from cars by old cannons stuck in the ground as barriers.

“Where you from” is constant, leading into a short conversation about getting money from you somehow. Our hotel is nice though. Old building with a 20 foot high wooden double door entrance with iron rivets and knockers. Everything is old, but would have been extremely nice when it was built and for awhile after that, and I guess still is to a point. It has a wonderful charm. There is a courtyard in the center of the hotel with a glass ceiling and three stories of rooms surround it. Our room has marble floors, a sitting area, vanity, TV, bed, and a great bathroom. I showered, and we headed out to check out the nightlife.

We looked in a few shops with some really nice things for cheap, then we started walking around looking for some music or dancing. 

A man and his daughter struck up a conversation, and he looked like, and jokingly referred to himself as, Obama's brother. He said he would lead us to a salsa club for dancing, etc. We started asking questions about Havana and what we could do and not do, and somehow weed came up. He shushed me in front of his daughter, but whispered, “Give me 5 minutes”. He took us to a small bar with only a couple people in it and a bar man carried a table and chairs for us to sit in the back. We intended on just getting a joint or two and going dancing. Obama ordered a round of drinks of something with rum, lime juice, and sugar.

We drank them and sat with his daughter while he ran outside. He insisted on being very hush hush in front of the kid, but got $40 from me, then another $30 later for cigars that Rachel only said maybe to. He hands me two wrapped packages and some cigars and says to hide them. “Here is weed, and some cocaine.” At this point, kinda freaking out. Getting ripped off, and in a country where you don't know what is what. I half expected some cops to come in and shake us down for some money as well and take everything. His daughter is playing with both of our iPhones, then we leave, and we have to pay the bill, which they say is $70...total rip. Way too much. They didn't offer change back. I checked the weed out in the bathroom and it was super sketchy. We go outside, he says he would like to do some weed with us and would drop his daughter off and meet us at our hotel in 5 minutes. He called a pedi-taxi and we get back to the hotel. I just wanted to get to a safe place, because at this point, we know we've been scammed and I don't know how elaborate it could get. Luckily, we're back in our room.

 Pretty much immediately, Rachel realizes she doesn't have her phone. The little girl was playing with it and she didn't get it back. We decide to get a beer in the hotel bar and wait outside just in case this dude comes back. He doesn't. We didn't expect it. Havana 1. Rachel and Matt 0. We have one more beer in the hotel bar with the singing bartender lady who was super nice, and go back to our room. Without even checking, we flushed the “coke” down the toilet and the weed soon followed because it was either super shitty or not weed at all. The cigars were actually legit, so we held onto those. We retired, beaten. 

For photos from this trip click here.