Well. Hmm. Our flight was pushed back then flat out cancelled yesterday. Cubanana (the airline) put everyone up in this strange, soviet feeling hotel where you MUST HAVE FUN. There wasn’t really much to do except watch TV which was nice because we finally came across information telling us what this swine flu hysteria was all about. So, between that and waiting for meals, we ventured across the road to a very pretty church to kill some time. On the way we came across these Cuban elephants. (Photo courtesy of Katie)

Perhaps the most stark difference between the U.S. and Cuba was the lack of any sort of commercialism, the most notable of all being advertisements. Spaces traditionally reserved for ads from L’oreal, Budwiser or Comcast were instead replaced by propaganda courtesy of the  Cuban government. It wasn’t until the last day that I realized that I hadn’t been taking photos of any of it, so the drive to the airport became a frantic rush to capture what we could. You get used to seeing revolutionary jingoism and iconography so frequently that at a certain point you just grow blind to it, much like advertisements here in the state. Although it was questionable how much the revolution and its heroes needed to be celebrated, at this point it was nice to see the public landscape clear of noisy, sexist, and unrealistic mass market imagery.

Ten minutes into our visit to Cuba and just about every stereotype you may have heard comes true – people driving rusty classic American cars, enthusiastic people excited to meet Americans, mentions of Fidel and Che around every corner. Today we left our casa particulare on the beach in La Boca and received a ride back into town in one of these vintage American autos. It’s really impressive to see their ingenuity for fabricating replacement parts and keeping these decades old cars up and running. Again a stark contrast in comparison to the wastefulness and obsolescence here. Our drive promptly dropped us off at the edge of town in Trinidad as to not run into any police trouble for taxiing tourists without the proper credentials.

After Trinidad we had made plans to make our way to Playa Ancón to spend a few more days on the beach before our time was up. We took a taxi to this town called La Boca – about 10 minutes west – which was right on the shore. We booked a few nights at this casa particulare which was no more than 200 feet from the beach just right across the street. If people considered Trinidad sleepy, La Boca was in a coma. There was little to do here except sunbathe, swim and grab a few bites of food (at the casa only). Every night we were lucky enough to watch the sun set over the mountains north of the city.

La cueva is a strong runner up for the coolest place I’ve ever been in my life. Here we are in this sleepy but very tranquil Cuban colonial town where the most exciting thing that seems to happen is the opportunity to pull the broom out and sweep the house, yet again. We made our way up this hill past a gorgeous crumbling church and hear this music coming from the entrance to this club. La Cueva is an underground discotheque housed inside a natural limestone cave in the heart of a mountain. This main room/chamber must have been at least 3 to 4 stories tall, packed tight with locals getting their dance on. Just amazing.

If I recall correctly, this was our second night in Trinidad. I’d been having a hard time winding down probably due to the coffee that we’ve been offered while we’ve been in town. I decided to go for a stroll tonight and capture some nighttime photos. I was out of luck as far as finding dinner but did manage to get some cool shots of the town at night. Finding food was pretty difficult in this city. Most restaurants were difficult to find, didn’t have very much to offer (if anything at all and let alone at 23:00). Restaurants in Cuba are a funny thing – citizens of the country are not allowed to patronize the same places tourists do. That alone probably explains their lack of availability. Aside from the huge outdoor techno concert going on in the old center of Trinidad, everything was pretty quiet tonight.

I think Katie and I did an excellent job of finding a good place to stay for our remaining nights in Havana. We were centrally located on this street called Obispo, which is a main pedestrian thoroughfare in Old Havana (Habana Vieja). Throughout our travel in Cuba we stayed in these places called casa particulares. The Cuban government established this system where homeowners are allowed to rent their rooms to travelers for the price of US $15-30 a night. Most of the places are just spare bedrooms within the house of your host family. They usually offered us meals (paid, of course) but were by far the best options as far as food went the whole trip. All of the places we stayed at were in these beautiful old period buildings, some nicer than others of course. This particular particulare was located right up the street from La Floridita, a very famous Hemingway hangout and the birthplace of the daquiri. Every direction you could go was just teeming with beautiful architecture and busy people.

We have been winging reservations for places to stay most of the trip, this one was no exception. We made a last minute reservation for this place online while in Playa del Carmen. I think this eco hostel in Tulum may have been the best place we stayed the whole trip. The hostel only had 4 to 5 hours of electricity a day. No running water except that you pumped or that which was gravity fed. There was a whole band of travelers there with us – Australians, Brits, Americans, Mexicans. Everyone ended up chilling out by the fire that night and cooking up some food. Pictured  is the palapa that we stayed in that night, one of about 8 that were available on site. This hostel also had its very own cenote in the back with kayaks to borrow for free. Everyone there was incredibly friendly and laid back. First experience shopping in a Mexican supermarket by myself too!

Sadly, our last day in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. We played it pretty easy this morning since our bus was at noon. Woke up and had some food, wandered around the shops in search of various trinkets and gifts for friends back home. We stopped in this shop that specialized in day of the dead merchandise. One of the few shops that wasn’t completely selling dumb tourist junk. As Katie was checking out here, we realized we had about 7 minutes before our bus split and that our bags were in our hotel on the other side of town. I took off running to our hotel to go get our gear. I imagine it must have looked pretty funny seeing this pale dude running barefoot through the city streets with two hiking packs. We did make it in time, fortunately, though I developed blisters on the pads of both of my feet. Gotta have at least one experience like that on vacation, right?

I think Katie’s expression says it all. Spent most of the day lounging around the beach in Playa del Carmen and wandering around the town. The water was stunning!