Hola desde CUBA!!!
After 3 weeks cut off from the world thanks to little internet access we say HI from our beach hotel at Cayo Coco. In the past 2 weeks we experienced so much that we can already fill nights of storytelling. But since we are a little restriced with time and internet, here are at least some little details. Our adventure continued right before we went to Cuba with the last day in TULUM, Mexico. There we saw the famous Maya Ruins and Anna had her first experience and lesson learned riding a little Motorcycle. From our little Beach Cabin on a wonderful Playa we prepared our next stop to another world: Fidel's famous Island CUBA.
The first thing that striked us on our way there was the white smoke coming out into the cabin of our old russian Yak airplane. Our worst thoughts stopped when we got to know that this white smoke was just desinfection spray for eventual CIA threaths of bacterias or diseases:) After the exciting ride in the shaking airplane we had our first tour in Havanna with a German speaking taxi driver. Here we quickly realized the former connections between Cuba and East Germany.
It also took us about a day to figure out the double currency, the real prices and infinite tricks of the so called jineteros (people that try to help tourists to spend theyr money a little faster than planned) With our Spanish knowledge and our tight budget we quickly understood most of the tricks and managed to get prices cheaper from first 45 cuc (40€) to 10 cuc (8€) for b&b per night. Same happened with our budget for food when we figured out where to get a whole dinner with drinks for just 1 cuc (0,8€). We also figured out that a lot of our tshirts, pants, pocket knives and other little souvenirs we brought from "the western world" are of high value for Cubans. This helped us to a lot of good Cigars, Souvenirs and other nice things from Cuba without having to spend anything. From amazing Habana with its giant black market (we made a friend in the cigar factury that took us to a secret chamber in order to sell some cigars for a third of the price that he just "borrowed" from the official tobacco store next door) we started our round trip through the island beginning with Vinales. Vinales is a sweet little village in a wounderful countryside of tobacco fields, mango trees and old caves within the mongote mountains. The colours on the whole island are so intense that you have postcard views everywhere you look at. The greenest green we have ever seen! Wonderful! We went horseriding, swimming in a dark cave in the mountains and we went to a tobacco house where we were welcomed with rum drinks served in a coconut. After we got familiar with the cigar making process we enjoyed some self made ones on our ride back.
It was also in Vinales where thanks to a nice Cuban guy Anna could fullfill one of her many dreams. He invited her to take him for a ride in his 1954 Chevrolet Belair. With a dream coming true and a never ending smile on Anna's face we went on further South to Trinidad.
This city was famous for its long music nights were everybody was dancing and drinking outside at the Casa de la Musica. We even saw one little Cuban dancer, who could handle two girls at the same time. We also met another nice German couple and exchanged cigars and stories about the many Cuban ways to help tourists with their money.
After some last cigars we split again and went north towards Santa Clara where we visited Che Guevara's monument and mausoleum. It was an emotional moment and we learned a lot about Cuba's history and the famous revolution.
Meanwhile in Germany we heard that our package with all our belongings from Canada arrived at the German customs. We did not think about having any problems until they wanted a bill or prove of every single piece of clothes and belongings to prove that they are not all importet. Struggling with hardly any reliable cheap Internet and unable to send information about our belonings we feared the worst already. Thanks to Annas mom and her outgoing personality towards the customs she managed to bring our package back home to Stuttgart.
What A big relief!!!
On our way to the East we went to Santiago de Cuba, the second biggest city in Cuba and famous for its music, carneval and the Revolution. We will remember the city especially for a great deal of a box of Cuban cigars that we changed for some pants of mine.
The next great deal was in Baracoa, a little fishing town further west. Here we enlighted the day of our host mom with an H&M Top for some chocolate and cacao from Che's chocolate factory. With almost no cash in our pockets because of the lack of ATMs we were forced to keep on trading.
With our rental car we drove along the north coast, always with some hitchhikers in our car. Children, Families or Policeman all wanted a ride along the road and we liked their payments with fruits and vegetables. Passing some more Carribbean beaches we arrived in our 4 Star all inklusive ressort in Cayo Coco to relax after all the hard bargaining (20 cent spiceless pizzas, partially illegal hostels, etc).
4 days we enjoyed all the luxury that is only accessible to the all inclusive tourists.
The most striking adventure there was that Anna left all her fears behind and went into the dark and dangerous deep see. Scuba diving was the least thing Anna had in mind when we started the trip but finally we enjoyed diving in the incredibly colorful coral reefs.
We spent our last days back in good old Habana where we got our last box of cigars before we took the plane to our next destination: VENEZUELA
This city was famous for its long music nights were everybody was dancing and drinking outside at the Casa de la Musica. We even saw one little Cuban dancer, who could handle two girls at the same time. We also met another nice German couple and exchanged cigars and stories about the many Cuban ways to help tourists with their money.
After some last cigars we split again and went north towards Santa Clara where we visited Che Guevara's monument and mausoleum. It was an emotional moment and we learned a lot about Cuba's history and the famous revolution.
Hasta la victoria siempre!
Meanwhile in Germany we heard that our package with all our belongings from Canada arrived at the German customs. We did not think about having any problems until they wanted a bill or prove of every single piece of clothes and belongings to prove that they are not all importet. Struggling with hardly any reliable cheap Internet and unable to send information about our belonings we feared the worst already. Thanks to Annas mom and her outgoing personality towards the customs she managed to bring our package back home to Stuttgart.
What A big relief!!!
On our way to the East we went to Santiago de Cuba, the second biggest city in Cuba and famous for its music, carneval and the Revolution. We will remember the city especially for a great deal of a box of Cuban cigars that we changed for some pants of mine.
The next great deal was in Baracoa, a little fishing town further west. Here we enlighted the day of our host mom with an H&M Top for some chocolate and cacao from Che's chocolate factory. With almost no cash in our pockets because of the lack of ATMs we were forced to keep on trading.
With our rental car we drove along the north coast, always with some hitchhikers in our car. Children, Families or Policeman all wanted a ride along the road and we liked their payments with fruits and vegetables. Passing some more Carribbean beaches we arrived in our 4 Star all inklusive ressort in Cayo Coco to relax after all the hard bargaining (20 cent spiceless pizzas, partially illegal hostels, etc).
4 days we enjoyed all the luxury that is only accessible to the all inclusive tourists.
The most striking adventure there was that Anna left all her fears behind and went into the dark and dangerous deep see. Scuba diving was the least thing Anna had in mind when we started the trip but finally we enjoyed diving in the incredibly colorful coral reefs.
We spent our last days back in good old Habana where we got our last box of cigars before we took the plane to our next destination: VENEZUELA
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