Month: September 2024

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Cuba 2024……….Part 5

La Habana…………….(Havana)

Where we stayed.
Monument for the revolution.
View of downtown from the top of the light house
Light house for the harbor.
Yes, a copy of the United States capital but of course a few feet taller and you can walk around it, on the outside anyway
View from a very nice restaurant next to where we were staying
90 miles to Miami

TO BE CONTINUED

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Cuba 2024………..part 4

We visited a tobacco farm. They also have to give 90% of their crop to the government. I think it was some of the best tobacco I have tasted. These cigars were not 25 for 5 dollars but well worth it.

We went inside a huge cave with a river running through it. Beautiful

TO BE CONTINUED

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Cuba 2024………..part 3

This is a police station along one of the highways. Notice the new paint and good condition. Very typical of buildings use by the government officials.
This is the standard bus between towns.
It works
They didn’t let me drive.
A very nice hotel just before you get into town.

TO BE CONTINUED

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Cuba 2024………..part2

On our way to the coast, we stopped at a small farm. Now remember this is Cuba. The government owes everything. The land, the homes, they own it all. So that makes the farmers just workers. They have to give 90% of what they grow directly to the government. They can eat, sell or whatever they want to do with their 10%. If the government is not happy with the farmers, they just get new farmers. One in the group, Amie brought clothes and such and handed some out here. The family was super nice and let us wander around at our leisure. They do have the basics and plenty of food.

TO BE CONTINUED

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Cuba 2024………….. part 1

This year I was able to spend just over a week in Cuba. Jonathan (a friend who has a travel company) had some friends that asked him to set up a little trip. Twelve of us flew from Ecuador to Panama then on to Cuba. The flight from Panama to Santa Clara, Cuba was completely booked so two flew into Havana and took a 4-hour taxi ride to Santa Clara in a 1956 Chevy. Nice start to the trip.

In Santa Clara on the first night, we had dinner where according to Ernest Hemmingway they serve the best mojito on the island. The mojitos and the food are very good. It is a very popular restaurant, and I believe has been in the same location for 100 years or so.
This is how we traveled from city to city around the island. A 1956 (?) Chevy school bus. I took the owner over a month to save enough fuel from his allotment for our trip.
Santa Domingo is where we stayed the second night. Very pretty town, lots of tourist, good food and music.
This is a local community store. The book the clerk is hold has a list of names from the neighborhood and as they pick up their allotment of monthly food from the government, he marks off what they take. At the end of the month is given a new book for the government. An example of what the government supplies per month is 2lbs brown sugar, 2lbs white sugar, 7lbs rice, 1lb coffee (if over 7 years old), and allotment of bread.
Someone getting her allotment of bread.
If you need more than your allotment this shows some of the prices of some items.
These are the reason we were at the community store. Medlen knew I wanted cigars but not just any cigars. I wanted what the workers smoked, everyday people. She was told that they would have at 10am the next morning. When we got there the owner said that he could not find them. An older gentleman sitting in the corner heard that and said he could get some. 15 minutes later we had our prize. 25 cigars for 5 bucks! We bought 5 bags total. Turned out it was a really good deal. Best I could find later was 10 bucks a bag.
When we made it to the coast, we visited a couple beaches then headed to the “Bay of Pigs”. We stopped at the museum that celebrated (and rightly so) our failed invasion before heading on.
We stayed a few nights at the Bay. Relaxing, Swimming, and even rented bikes to ride the coastline.

TO BE CONTINUED