Sunday, April 15, 2007

We're back from Cuba

What a trip! We stayed in Varadero, at the same resort and had a completely different trip than last year. We were much busier, actually had rain, met lots of people, and just enjoyed being on vacation!! We've already started our 2008 Vacation Fund :)
On the plane to Varadero...woo-hoo!

Saturday: spent the first night taking pics around the resort, this is my fav of Kristen and I...and it's a palm tree not an elephant trunk..yes, I was asked that :)



Sunday: Went to Varadero Market, Kristen bought a Humidor (a wooden box usually made out of cedar used to preserve cigars from drying out) I bought a silver ring and a wooden face artsy fartsy type wall thing.



Monday: Relaxed on the beach and went to the Italian a la Carte for Dinner. This is Kristen by the palm trees outside the villas where are next to the a la carte. That night we also went to the International Disco...lots of fun.




Tuesday: Rented the Mo-Ped's with another couple that we met at the resort. Here's Kristen gassing up and then we headed over to Al Capone's mansion. The whole side of the river has houses that used to by owned by him.



Kristen also spent a LOT of time snorkelling


Wednesday: We got the storm :( No beach time but still didn't ruin our vacation it was actually pretty neat to see how quickly the storm came on and how strong the winds were. Kristen was still in the water when the sky was that black. Not to mention lightning in the background....that boy!

Thursday: Jeep Safari....which was AMAZING!! We started out driving the jeeps through the backroads of Cuba, going through some small villages where the kids would run out to the road and we would give them candy. Then we went to a coral reef to snorkel (those pics are on our water camera and not scanned yet) then to a cave where we swam. Then on to a ranch for lunch, then we drove through Mantanza City and then on to another ranch to horse back ride (Kristen and I just watched everyone else ride the horses since they're so thin there) then on to a boat ride which is on a river which looks like you're in the Amazon and then you finish the river on Seadoos' and then back in the Jeeps to off road again back to the resort. Soooo much fun! We left around 9am got back to the resort at 7pm and were in bed by 9pm...we were exhausted.
This was our group! We were awesome...lol. Rest of the groups were grumpy and would try to avoid the puddles and bumps...I thought that was the whole purpose of a "safari"

Kristen at the cave

Me at the Ranch where we ate, that's a train track in the background.

Then at the Ranch where we watched people horseback ride. The cowboy with the horses is my FAVOURITE Cuba picture!


Friday: Rented the Mo-Peds again, Kristen bought his cigars, then we spent the day on the beach just relaxing and trying to get a bit of colour since it rained on Thursday as well while we were riding the seadoo's.


And Friday night we drove into town on the mo-peds to a bar called Calle 62 which is also the street name. A local band starts singing and before you know it all the local cubans are on the street dancing. Then a there's a fire show, I have that on video..I'll try to post that later which is great! And before you know it the WHOLE street are tourists and locals just dancing away.

Very early Saturday morning we were up and back at the airport to fly home. The week went way too fast but we had a GREAT time!

1 comment:

Myrna Hynes said...

So exciting...wish I'd been there. We were thinking of you guys all week.

You have such a great (and improving) eye for taking photos...some really good ones here!