#16 Havana -home

This is our last night and we are off to dinner and a show at the Tropicana Club. This is the original.  The shows are reminiscent of those of the big band era.  They were very colorful with many musicians and dancers!

The university where our guide taught English.

We are traveling around Havana and passed the American embassy.

Before we left our area, Sharon had arranged a tour of the bunkers at the National Hotel. It was too cold and rainy for the tour.  I was so disappointed.

Since we couldn't go to the bunkers we took advantage of the short line for ice cream!  

The line is usually around the block and there are two lines, one for the locals with CUPs and the other for tourists using CUCs.

They also have two counters- one for a custard style ice cream and one for vanilla.  Then you need to choose whether to have cookie crumbs on top.  

The other thing that amazed me was that they buy their ice cream at the counter and never take it out on the street.

It was quite a wait to get our seats and we had to separate according to the flavor we wanted.

You then got a glass of water which I quickly warned them all not to drink as I could see where it was coming from :-(

How many scoops and with cookie crumbs or not?

Two girls for our counter and the big cost for this treat was about $.25. 

Bonanza!

As I was packing I looked out the window and saw this lady doing her laundry. I couldn't resist taking this picture.

We are heading home today.  We had no trouble getting to the airport and David and I had no trouble getting our luggage on but some had to rearrange their suitcases and carry on stuff- some had to pay a dollar for each pound over.  If we had pooled the right suitcases together we could have avoided the cost maybe.

We thought two of the students were going to live here as they had lost their visa.  No problem- a long wait in line and $20 later they could join us on the other side!

We are ready.

Some one is happy to go home :)

Our trip has come to an end. I felt I have learned more researching the information when I returned home than I knew before and during my trip. 

Here are some of my thoughts.

The cars didn't phase me as I grew up with them and after the first hour I was there, it seemed very normal. The money was interesting but I am used to using different currency. They are crazy with two systems....but I hear they are going with one. Time will tell.

I loved the fact that everyone gets to be educated for free. I love the fact that the medical is free but I don't like that they can't get the medicine they need.

I expected the buildings to be in better shape and not so poor and dilapidated.

I was shocked that they had only gotten internet a year ago. I thought they were more in touch with the world than that.  I was also surprised how many tour buses were there and cruise ships as I thought the island was just opening up.

I found the people very friendly and wonder why they are so nice to us when we did everything we could to hurt them. Yet they are looking forward to having us come and bring them money.

I would go back in about 5 years to see how things have changed. We as Americans need to lift the embargo and let bygones be bygones.

Ciao:-)

#15-Varadero

I was surprised to see so many police along the road side. Our guide said it was normal.

He was stopping everyone...

Some buildings along the way.  Our guide pointed out a boarding school which looked like a barn that was about the fall down.

Orange groves but the region grows guava, mangoes, and bananas.

Houses along the way

Life here can't be easy.

Dogs on the roof watching us. There were quite a few houses like this with dogs on top. The tank on the left side is a water tank and some are heated by the sun.

Sugar cane growing along the side of the road.

A new sign for my collection!

A tourist area for Cuba. The hotel below was an all inclusive hotel. 

We are here for some R & R and some lectures for the kids that needed to complete their research. 

One lecture was about maternity. Every pregnant woman has her baby in the hospital. There are no Midwifes here. Also you go to a maternity home at 37 weeks to wait until you give birth. The mom gets a year maternity leave. 

Some cute things we saw.  The above picture shows sugar cane in a glass. This is for your coffee or tea. Below is a sculpture of a mouse carved out of butter.  They had a cat and some other ones too.

A huge buffet here.

The three amigos walking the beach. We had a red flag so we couldn't go swimming - too rough and too dangerous.  I was so looking forward to going in.

We came back to Havana only to find they had done something again with our reservations. As I said before we arrived at 11 hotels but didn't stayed in all of them. We were moved on.  So tonight we hit the jackpot!! a 5 star hotel and it was.  YEA!  It was so nice.

We forgot to educate about the mini bar in the rooms...

Unfortunately one poor sole discovered how much it costs. :-(

This morning we took advantage of talking about all our experiences and what we would recommend for changes.  The group had some great suggestions and overall had a wonderful time.

One of the suggestion would be to stay in homes instead of hotels.  Hire a tourist guide that would give us more information as to where we were going and what we were seeing. - ahead of time.

I felt like I was in the dark most of time.

Sharon our director did a great job. I felt badly for her as everything was changing at the moment. The night we stayed in this hotel was because there was no place else to stay, especially trying at 7:30 at night when we arrived in town. She had many obstacles to overcome.

The views from our hotel room. 

I would have loved to swim in the pool but it was pouring rain. I was impressed with the bar seats in the pool.  I want one of those!

Views of Havana and the Lobby of the hotel below.

This is our last full day and night in Cuba.

#14- Guama and Playa Giron- Bay of Pigs

We traveled to Guama. First stop was the crocodile refuge.

One of the many bill boards along the side of the road.

tree rats

Some the students wanted to hold these little critters..

Anyone for lunch?

And now they want us to get into a boat.....

 We are off to the Taino Village

We traveled to Guama that was replica of a Taino village that was a representation of the pre- Colombian culture that dated back to 8000 years ago. These people were known as  peace loving farmers, weavers, ceramicists, and boat builders. The pre-Columbus population for Cuba was believed to be 100,000  but within 30 years 90% of the Tainos had been wiped out.

The Taino village was built of wood and mud. The most important and emblematic artifacts are the "cemis" which are small figurines depicting cult objects that represents social status and political power of fertility. These unearthed objects are displayed in various museums around the island.

        I didn't see much information while we were here so it was difficult to know what we were actually experiencing.

We walked into the hut and they painted our faces and blessed us.

On the way back we traveled through a narrower canal and saw these treasures. The pelican above and below a big termite nest.

We are waiting for our bus to take us for lunch and then onto Bay of Pigs.

Lunch. and here is the bathroom where you need your own toilet paper and you need to use the bucket of water to throw down the toilet to flush it.--this is a nice resort!