After spending half an hour walking around the cobbled streets in Trinidad, I told my boyfriend “this city shares the first place with Cinque Terre in Italy of being the most beautiful city I’ve ever been to.” The city offered everything just how I like it. A relaxed and nice atmosphere, beautiful surroundings and nature, happy people, and a great little public square that invited people to live music, salsa dance, and cold drinks every night. Waking up after a night of too many Pina Coladas, Mojitos, Cuba Libres, and salsa dancing, made us take a low key day and spent it at the beach. The beach was empty, which made us feel like we owned it, it was quiet, the water was turquoise, the sand was white and soft, and we treated our hangovers with fresh coconut water directly from the coconut, and this mix proved to be the best cure for hangovers. We had two amazing days in Trinidad until we had to go back to Havana to catch our flight to Cayman Islands before arriving back to New York City. This ended up being a whole different story, and to make a long story short, let me…
Now it has been almost two weeks since I arrived to Miami after spending eight days in Cuba, which was a mixed experience. We spent the first two days in Varadero. We drove straight there after landing in Havana International Airport. We stayed at a not so good all inclusive hotel there that we shared with hundreds of university students from Canada that were on their “reading week” (read: having fun-drinking-partying-week). We had some fun nights partying with them at the beach, sleeping in and spending the whole day at the beautiful beach. After a day and a half with only beach, party, and relaxation on the program, we headed back to Havana to experience the capital of Cuba, which has a lot to offer. We stayed privately with a mid-aged couple who had a nice apartment directly in the city center. We played the perfect tourists and did everything after the book plus more. Got lost in the streets of Havana, ate food from a government-run restaurant, walked the Malecon with crazy wind and waves, went to the more tourist friendly Old Town district, not to mention a visit to the Museum of the Revolution. My favorite part of…
Petrol fumes from all the old cars. Socialist banners everywhere instead of advertisements. Fresh mango juice. Beans and rice. Fresh meat. Crowing cocks early in the morning. Warm weather all year round. The biggest retro car museum in the world. Pastel colored houses. Turquoise water. White sand beaches. Fresh coconuts. Sunny hours spend on the beach. Pina colada. Mojito. Cuba Libre. Cigars. Horse carriages. A weird trend that makes all young guys pluck their eyebrows. Government run restaurants. No Internet or WiFi. Spanish speaking mostly. A lot of car driving through the island. Palm trees. High waves on the Malecón. Music everywhere. Staying in private homes. Salsa dance till the early morning. Enjoying life. Socialist. Wandering around astonished by the Cuban world. A totally different world. Low water pressure in the toilets and showers. Shortage of toilet paper. Kids playing in the streets. Tourists with cameras around their necks. Revolution museum. Che Guevara shown everywhere. More than oldschool when it comes to technology. A place stuck in time. Cracked streets and neglected areas. Laundry hung to dry on the balconies. Roof tops. Lack of technique. Like a different time age.