g'day, 2013!

if i had to look back and pick the most interesting year i've lived it would have to be 2012.  you might be thinking 'duh' but i think i try to keep things exciting on a regular basis.  last year just had more excitement far, far from home.

i explored seven new countries, met lots of new friends, learned a new language, hiked climbed scuba'd some crazy places, ate really weird things, and generally made some great memories.  i also paddled molokai in my one man before i left.   

not to say that the year was all fantastic, there were some times of pretty intense loneliness, and i turned 40, but i think it balances pretty far to the good.

i'm not sure how to top last year but i have to try.  maybe this will be the year i figure out what i want to do when i grow up (i say that every year but who knows, it can happen).  

keep moving forward and expect great things.  

love to everyone, i miss you.  have a great new year.

sydney

mmm...

i ate kangaroo for dinner.  with mashed potatoes.

it was really really good.

yet somehow it makes me feel so sad, like i ate a koala bear.

on to sydney

i've arrived in sydney and this place is nuts, i can't wait to explore.

but basically i'm stuck in an apartment with a fantastic view, i have no keys so i can't leave and no one can remember the code to the wifi so i can't communicate.  i'm rapunzel, at the moment, without much hair.  at least i have a snickers bar.

how did this happen…

brisbane turned out to be a little more boring than i expected.  its nice and i like it, but all of the activities that i thought would be fun to do i found bigger and better and crazier versions in sydney so why bother?  i spent my last day exploring the surrounding suburbs which were quite pleasant.  i went to a power yoga class that kicked my ass.  i was the first to arrive so i sat on my mat and watched all the other women file in, about 20 in all and a couple men.  these women were all super fit and thin and were doing headstands to warm up.  i was just hoping i could still touch my toes.  in central america i was a yoga rockstar, i look great working out with overweight vacationers trying it for the first time.

i spent the afternoon (yesterday) researching places to find sea dragons and while they are plentiful, there are no hotels, hostels, anywhere to stay available.  my sea dragon dream is pretty much over, and i will never again go somewhere during peak season without making all of my arrangements months in advance.  

what better way to spend time after the death of a dream than to hit the pubs.  i scoped out some local places and tried the local beers.  interestingly enough, i have the opposite problem here than i did in central america.  i couldn't get the boys to leave me alone there and here i can't get anyone to talk to me.  i tried some small talk here and there and nothing.  at one point i was the only woman in a bar and i still couldn't get anyone to talk to me.  bizarre.

so i walked home and watched 'hot tub time machine', which i highly recommend to everyone except my mother.

i was glad to leave brisbane this morning, not only was the promise of bigger and better in sydney too much but i wasn't happy with my living situation.  i got a room through airb&b and it advertised a room in a nice house in a quiet suburb.  and that's exactly what it was.  but they neglected to mention that the entire house is rooms for rent and only one bathroom to share.  every other room had couples so there were quite a few people.  and i barely fit in my bed, they must have bought it in guatemala.  the other people were nice, there were 2 older couples, the aussie guy was great and full of information, the other 3 people weren't overly friendly.  there was a gay couple that was super fun but they left about 3 hours after i arrived.  and a young american couple who either sat in their room or sat watching tv and had no interest in interacting with anyone.  

the flight to sydney was great, i love flying on virgin australia.  i shamelessly stole the window seat and the boy that sat next to me, a carbon copy of ronald weasley, british and all, was too polite to ask for it.  turns out that he lived in sydney for a year and was happy to tell me everywhere i should go.  including how to get to my apartment by train (my host sent me an email with directions using trains, trams, a bus, then walking).  the train ride was quite nice, mostly underground until we got out to where the opera house is, from there i walked across a bridge, up a huge steep road, then got lost, because the buildings were so tall that my gps wouldn't work.  i asked every person i saw where cross street was located but no one knew.  finally a korean couple with a super high tech map program found it and i was only a street away.  i had been on the phone with the other woman who lives in this apartment and she didn't know any of the streets that i was walking past so all of the money i saved by walking a bit further instead of tram and bus was given to at&t.  probably would've been cheaper to take the hour taxi ride direct from the airport than to talk on my phone.  whatever.

not a great start with my second airb&b accommodation.  when i finally find the apartment building i'm let in by a woman who doesn't live there.  i was told by the owner that i would share the apartment with the other renter who would most likely be out of town the whole time i'm there.  instead, she had friends come to town for new years and they're all staying here too.  these friends include a very loud 3 year old who was running in and out of all the rooms, yelling, throwing things, and the father chasing him screaming his name over and over and 'stop it' and 'put that back', etc.  since the friends are in town they have my keys and i have no keys.  so now i'm sitting here by myself (the family went to the pool with my keys) unable to leave.  this is strike 2 for airb&b.  

before the family left i asked for the code to the wifi and they didn't have it.  the other roommate didn't remember it and she's trying to get in touch with the owner in new york to see if she remembers it.  that was 2 hours ago.  

eventually this will all get worked out and i'll be released from my prison and can get on with life.  snickers bar and kindle for a while, though.

update, 2 more hours have passed and no wifi.  i'm dead tired and trying to nap but there's a screaming 3 year old right outside my door (he's camped there and keeps having tantrums).  seriously thinking of walking to the park across the street and lying on a bench.

last update.  another hour.  i've been in my room because i know when i open my door they are going to ask me how my nap was and i can't think of anything to say that won't ruin their day.  i'm going to steal their keys and make a break for it.

update to the last update.  8 hours in sydney and no wifi.  but i finally met the other woman who lives here and she fed me beer and is super nice.  and she's unemployed for 2 weeks so i have an instant drinking buddy.  happy again.

brisbane

today i was a total touron.  it was great.

i walked to the nearest pier and jumped on the city cat, the water transportation that connects brisbane to all of the suburbs.  great big blue catamarans that stop on both sides of the brisbane river.  the more i see of this city the more i think its the australian equivalent of portland.  its beautiful, has every mode of public transportation possible, most of it environmentally friendly, bikes for rent everywhere, bike and walking paths that link all of the suburbs, and super clean.  buses, rails, trains, and what makes it so much better is that everyone uses them.  there is hardly any traffic anywhere.

i rode the cat for about 20 minutes to south bank and walked the botanical gardens.  beautiful stuff, not alot different from kauai.  across the river is downtown brisbane, i think there are 12 bridges downtown, all of them pedestrian friendly.  there's one that you can climb but i think i might save that adventure for the sydney harbor bridge next week.

the queens outdoor mall was incredible.  several blocks in the middle of downtown, several stories tall, nothing but shops and restaurants.  street musicians, people watching and no cars allowed.  i have no need to shop but it was a great place to sit and watch.  apparently there's a fashion trend here for women that includes wearing shorts that go way up high but leave your ass cheeks hanging out a bit.  it also seems that this trend is only for women that you'd have no interest in looking at their ass cheeks.

for the most part, though, people are pretty metro, and every kind of city style represented.  fairly easy to tell who's a tourist and who's not.

i found a bus called 'city sights' and hopped on.  there are 19 stops that cover all of brisbane and surrounding areas and a tour guide.  i'm not a huge fan of bus tours but it was a great way to see everything in a couple hours and find places i might want to go back to.  the coolest stop was the mount coot-tha lookout.  coot-tha means 'the place of wild honey' in aboriginal and its 287 meters above sea level, the highest point in queensland.  there's a restaurant, a cafe, and a lookout platform.  i stopped there and ate ice cream.

brisbane is possibly the cleanest place i've ever been.  i'm not sure i saw a piece of trash anywhere.  the oldest buildings aren't very old (mid 1800s i think) so it might be the prettiest modern city i've ever seen.  alot of the older buildings have 'convict built' signs, and all the streets in one direction have girls names, perpendicular are boys names.

after the city tour i walked back down to south bank and rode the ginormous ferris wheel by the river.  i'm not entirely sure it was worth the money but it was pretty cool.  each of the cars was enclosed with air conditioning and a taped guide pointing out the sites and the view was spectacular.  i think i did all of the major touristy crap in one day.

i have one more day here and i think that's enough.  i have almost a week in sydney coming up (yay for new years fireworks!) and then off to find sea dragons and the barrier reef.  but if i wanted to live in a city this might be the one i picked.

brisbane from mt coot-tha

australia begins

i'm not sure how i thought that drinking tequila instead of packing was such a good idea.  i snoozed my alarm 3 times before i realized that i had a plane to catch.  luckily packing is as easy as stuffing everything i own into my giant backpack and done.

as i sat waiting on oahu for my connecting flight to brisbane i realized all of the things that i spent the past 3 weeks not doing.  i have no real plan for any of the places i am going.  find a place to sleep in a place that seems cool is about what i accomplished.  my travel guide never showed up but did i ever look through the online versions?  not so much.

i never sewed the button back on the one pair of pants that i have.

i found an entire pocket in my backpack of stuff i smuggled back from cuba.  so now i have to worry about that when i fly home again?

pretty minor, yes, but annoying.

the flight was pretty nice.  the plane was maybe half full so everyone had at least a couple seats to sleep in.  food and drinks were nonstop, and the only disappointment were the movies.  taxi and the watch.  forget to download more movies on my computer, too.

australia has the most involved quarantine of anywhere i've been so far.  after we landed we had to sit in our seats while people sprayed the overhead luggage compartments and disinfected the plane itself (or that's what it sounded like outside).  then the longest immigration line i've been in since its a holiday and there were only 3 people working.  the guy stamped my passport right across france, belize and honduras.  like i don't have 10 blank pages, thanks.

i'm staying at an apartment outside the city and its almost like i'm in portland.  cute tree lined streets with sidewalks and cars parked on the side of the road.  flowers blooming and cute corner stores.  i almost got mashed walking to the store, jet lag and driving on the wrong side of the road don't mix.

one thing i was curious about was whether a toilet will actually flush opposite of home.  first thing i did was try.  maybe its modern plumbing but the water just all went straight down, faintly disappointing.  perhaps its an urban myth.

i still can't get my head around what day it is, i left christmas morning and now its the evening of the day after.  maybe it'll make more sense tomorrow after i get some sleep.

twas the nite before christmas

and all through the house
preggers kari was stirring
and in my car there's a mouse

but really i drank too much and haven't packed and my alarm is set to go off at 3:30am.  there is a mouse in the car, though.

after a week in cleveland and 3 weeks on kauai i'm back on the road tomorrow and i was pretty anxious but tequila makes things ok.  there were so many things to do and people to see but i ended up having leftovers for dinner with mark and watching old movies.  it ended up being a great christmas eve.

happy christmas to everyone and i'll resume regular blog posts in the next few days!

ready to roll...

i found a one way ticket to brisbane, australia for $346!  the only catch is that i have to fly on christmas day.  all day.  12 hours maybe?  my ass is gonna hurt.

and brisbane is 20 hours ahead of kauai, i'm not sure i'll be able to wrap my head around that.  as it is, going through central america my phone and computer couldn't get a grip on where i was and i have alarms and reminders going off at all hours of the day and night.  it seems that when my phone finally figures out what time it really is it leaves all of my 'to do' list on whatever time zone it was planned in and there's no way to change everything with one click.  australia is really gonna fuck things up.

i don't have a plan yet for where i'm going in australia but i have a couple weeks to work on that.  then cambodia and thailand, vietnam, new zealand, philippines, and as much of south pacific as i can until i'm out of money.  figure about 4 months?

and in 5 months i'll need to get a job.  but i don't want to think about depressing things yet.

little break at home

i'm at home for a few days, taking a break.  before i left for this trip i never realized how much work traveling is and that i would need a break.  its so nice to be around people i know and not have to go to bars to find people to talk to (which i will do anyway but for slightly different purpose), and just relax.  hot showers are so nice.  i missed them so much.

i went to cleveland for thanksgiving and that was a nice break too, although the cold was almost more than i wanted to deal with.  i did get to see snow, though, its been several years.

after being on the road then sick for 2 weeks, i didn't want to do much of anything at my parents house but sit and recover.  we ate alot, hit the malls a couple times, actually worked out in a gym, hung with my sisters and niece, watched football.  downtown cleveland with the relatives was nice, too, visiting the westside market, little italy, sorta like travelling still.  but alot less effort.

my flights from cleveland to kauai took almost 20 hours total time.  the first flight wasn't bad but the second made me realize a huge difference between central american airlines and united states airlines.  i've never been annoyed by anyone flying (or even on a bus) in central america, even when it was so crowded i was smashed between sweaty, stinky people.

on my flight from chicago to los angeles i got stuck in the middle seat.  there was a fat woman in a track suit with her stuff spread out all over my seat and when i said 'excuse me', she looked up and said 'what.'  like i'd be talking to her for any other reason than that she was taking up my seat.  it took close to 5 minutes with me blocking the aisle for her to gather all of the things she had unpacked, put them back in her bags, then heft herself out of her seat to allow me to sit.  i've seen alot of strange things in central america but i've never quite run across people who are absolutely ridiculous, like this woman.

i wanted to sleep through this flight but the six seats in front and behind me held 4 small children so i had almost 5 hours to watch this absurd fat woman.

the first thing she did was pull out several small bags of nuts and eat them as quickly as she could.  she dropped one on the floor and spent a couple minutes trying to reach it without getting out of her seat but her belly was too big to reach.  but she wouldn't stand up so she kept rocking herself back and forth to get some momentum up to reach the food.  didn't work.  eventually she had to find places to stash the dozen small items she had laid out on her lap and on her tray table so she could get up and eat more.

the attendants hadn't reached us yet with the drinks so she then spent the next 15 minutes looking at the pictures in 10 different tabloids.  can't miss anything that the celebrities are doing.

and finally it was time to get a drink.  she ordered a coffee and received a couple creams and sugars.  she called back the attendant twice for more supplies, and ended up putting six creams and six sugars in her small cup of coffee.  and made such a mess that it looked like the coffee bar in starbucks after the morning rush.

it had been so long since i encountered anyone who was so amazingly ridiculous i wasn't sure whether to be offended by my fellow american or to laugh at such a perfect stereotype of us.

after watching her for 4 more hours doing random stupid crap, and listening to all the children scream, i got to los angeles and bought an upgrade to first class for my last flight to lihue.  i ended up having 2 first class seats to lounge across and a nonstop flow of pinot grigio.  or, it was nonstop until i drank it all, then i had to switch.

the attendant brought me one of those small, cute wine glasses and kept running back and forth to keep it filled.  finally she brought me a giant tumbler so she didn't have to make so many trips.  i got pretty drunk.

and that brings up the question, which is the worse stereotype, the fat woman in coach, or the lazy drunk girl in first class?  i realized after a while that i didn't have alot of room to laugh at anyone else.  but then again, i was drunk, so i did.

managua

made it to managua today.  feeling way better than the last time i was here.

i can't really be too angry about being sick but what a waste of time.  i spent 2 weeks in my room sleeping.  couldn't really ask for a better detox program, though, its been 2 weeks since i've had a drink.  i tried a monkey lala last nite in celebration of leaving roatan again and after a few sips john had to practically carry me home.  my poor body is defenseless against toxins right now, i'll need to ease into party mode a little at a time.

seems like a good time to leave roatan again.  there have been 2 prominent murders in the last month, one being yesterday.  a canadian tourist was shot while leaving a bar he really had no business going to and the canadian government is going nuts.  although a good portion of non-hondurans on roatan are originally from canada, the media is portraying the island as a lawless, desperate place that no one should visit.  which will really only make crime worse since tourism is the only industry i could see.

yesterday's death was much closer to home for the islanders, it was a long time resident named vern, the boat owner and captain of the catamaran that did daily runs to utila.  i even watched him loading his boat for the last trip when i was going out to scuba.

later yesterday we heard that his catamaran was found in a bay and he was dead on board, shot and stabbed.  his crew had jumped overboard.  i haven't heard if they found the guys or why this happened, but i do know that this is more than the government will tolerate, especially 2 days before elections.  the cobras are gonna come down and kick some ass.

i hope they get their shit together because roatan is a beautiful, fun place that everyone should be able to enjoy.

finally, nicaragua

update...

i've gotten some emails and messages about whether i died or maybe was in jail somewhere so i figured i should update...

i'm still sick.  still sitting in my room watching horrible crime dramas, rerun over and over.  my world is filled with serial killers and arsonists.  i make it outside once in a while to make sure that there are normal people around.

almost through with my drugs and looking forward to getting back on the road soon.  and eating.  that'll be nice.  2 weeks of barely any food and my crash diet has barely touched my beer gut.  fairly disappointing.

hope to be somewhere different by this weekend.  cross fingers.

honduran health care

i finally broke down and dragged my sad self to the clinic yesterday.  amoxicilan and vodka weren't working as expected.

had i known what a great experience it would be i wouldn't have spent this week laying in bed, sweating, watching csi reruns.  10 minute $2 cab ride to the clinic at anthony's key resort (the cab driver tried to take me to 'dolly's clinic' with the handpainted rainbows and hearts sign, no thanks) and i was seen in less than a minute after walking in.  5 minutes after that i was getting blood drawn and peeing in a cup, given drugs for nausea and pain, and told to come back in 5 hours for my results.

5 hours of awful tv later i was back in the office with a bacterial infection, thank you cuba.  more drugs and a bill for $42 and done.

no fuss about health insurance, no waiting in hours long lines, totally affordable care.  i still can't eat but i'm pretty sure i'm on the right drugs now and maybe in a couple more days i'll have the desire to do something besides sleep.  best doctors visit ever, i think.

otherwise i'm still glad that i came back to roatan to recover.  the usual folks are still making house calls to make sure i'm alive and i even got a couple drinks from the bar delivered (even though i couldn't drink them, they were very thoughtful).

also still looking forward to getting back to nicaragua, anytime now...

roatan flashback

my last nite in havana was less than perfect.  i figured i could sleep through anything but i was wrong.  even wearing headphones.  i got about 2 hours of sleep before my housemates came home and woke me up.  must have been their honeymoon?  when i finally gave up trying to sleep and went into the bathroom there were used condoms all over the floor, about 2 feet from the garbage can.  really?  after that was another hour of listening to one or both of them violently throwing up.  nice.

finally its 5am and i should get ready for my 6am taxi.  time for coffee but no one is awake as promised and i have no idea where to find anything in their gross kitchen.  i really wish i'd spent time looking at this place before i decided to stay but for one nite i figured there wasn't anything too bad that could happen.

i'm getting ready, 5:10, 5:20, 5:30, no coffee.  5:40 my taxi driver rang the bell so i know its time to wake everyone up.  i wander from room to room yelling 'hola!' until i hear someone mumbling.  they also kept my passport which i very much need to leave.  i'm still kind of sick, no sleep for 2 days now, and in no mood to deal with a grumbly woman who promised me coffee at 5.  so i let the taxi driver talk to her and he brings me coffee.

manuel (the taxi driver) was a godsend for getting me ready and to the airport.  he collected all my things, got my passport and coffee, and got me to my airline.  his car was another classic but if he could buy a new one he would.  cubans aren't allowed to buy new cars (unless they are important people), and even if they could he couldn't afford one if he saved all his tips for years.  he makes exactly what everyone else makes, about 15-20cuc per month.  he does get to keep his tips, though.  

i ended up giving manuel all my extra cucs, i'd already paid about 13% to change dollars, then it would be another 13% to turn them back to dollars, why give the government more of my money?  poor kid had alot to deal with when he came to get me this morning anyway.

as i'm checking in the airline agent gave me the third degree about where i'm going, what i'm doing, when i'm going back to the states.  i couldn't understand what his interest was since i was leaving his country.  but i was so tired i answered all his questions and only later wished i hadn't.  i feel like they're still keeping track of me.

emigration was even worse, stand in front of the camera, don't smile, she checked my passport picture to my face to the picture on her screen about 10 times.  no one has ever cared that i'm leaving their country quite as much as the cubans.

an hour later i'm on the plane feeling (and looking) seriously unwell.  there are 2 german men sitting next to me and they must be supermodels.  each about 6'3", thin, totally hot, one blonde one brown.  and i'm coughing and snotty and realizing that kissing a german supermodel is not a goal that i will accomplish on this leg of my trip.  they got up and moved far away from me.

flight to panama, flight to nicaragua, almost there.  nicaragua is the first country that made me fill out a health questionnaire.  does 'it' have decay?  or a coungh?  not sure what they are but i probably have both.  i checked every box yes but they didn't even look.  at immigration there are posters everywhere about who to call if you feel sick and there's a woman in a white lab coat standing watching everyone.  at this point i'm sure i have a fever and don't want to even try to find a bus to grenada so as i approach this woman i start coughing as loud as i can, maybe she'll cart me off to the hospital and i can finally get a good nite's sleep.

but she doesn't even look at me.  i was actually disappointed when i wasn't rushed off to quarantine.  

next fevery choice was to walk across the street (giant 'best western' sign was the happiest thing i've seen in a while), and fell into bed for 14 hours.

when i woke up i couldn't imagine navigating a country where i haven't been before.  being sick and trying to find my hostel, food, money, anything, didn't sound like fun.  so that's why i'm on roatan again.  within 20 minutes of being here i had my old room back, a credit at the grocery store (since i didn't have any money), and 4 people banging on my door to welcome me back.  over the last 3 days i've slept almost continuously, but haven't gone more than a few hours at a time without someone stopping by to make sure i'm still alive and had food.  the closest thing i found to a family away from home.  feels nice.

today i think i'm finally ok.  the store had a wide selection of antibiotics and i think they're working.  managed to watch part of monday nite football before i went back to bed, that's a good sign.  the intense amount of sugar from 12 days of drinking in cuba is finally leaving my system, and everything should be great now.  maybe i'll dive a couple days here then try nicaragua again.  it looked very pretty both times i flew over it.

bye cuba, you were fun

last of cuba

1 november 2012

i'm back in havana for one nite before i catch my plane to nicaragua.  i'm staying at clara's casa and i'm sort of regretting it.  i knew this was a busy place with lots of people in and out but i didn't expect that several people would be watching tv in different rooms, all with the volume turned up enough to drown out the others.  and i have to share a bathroom with a very loud couple who seem to think i can't understand a word of spanish, even though that's the only language i've spoken in since i've been here.  just one nite, i can handle most anything by now.  the multiple mojitos i drank to celebrate my last day in cuba should help.

trinidad is an amazing little city.  its not very big but there's a lot going on.  i was pretty worn out on the last day with julianna so i declined the invitation to the waterfall and read and napped in the sun.  i sat on the terrace and watched men brick up roofs, women hang clothes to dry, listened to the sounds of the city and just absorbed things.  a fine way to spend a day, i think.  

we had a little trouble turning in our rental car, though, we were told that it was a 45cuc drop off fee if we didn't return to havana but the man in trinidad demanded 90cuc.  that's enough to make us drive the car back, even though julianna wanted to continue east.  i called havana and explained the situation and javier, the man who didn't much like us at the havana agency, assured me that all he has to do is make a 'report' and all will be fine.  we went back to the agency and the man demanded 90cuc and i had to get a little bossy with him.  i told him that we were going to return the car key and 45cuc and there wasn't going to be any further discussion.  we argued for a while, he was very much against calling havana to speak with our agent, but he finally did and they yelled at each other for a while.  at one point i was handed the phone and the havana guy repeated over and over that the other guy wasn't a liar, i was a bit confused.  think he was trying to reassure me but it was just comical.  

it all got worked out but no one was really happy all around, least of all the trinidad agent.  he had to send a couple of emails to people informing them of why we weren't paying 90cuc, and had to be backed up by the agent in havana.  i'm guessing that if his money and reports come out wrong he'd have to come up with the extra 45cuc and that's probably at least 3 months salary for him.  

paperwork is a huge deal here.  in each casa the women keep very detailed ledgers with the borders and amounts paid.  every store and restaurant has a notebook of every item sold and the amount charged.  in the hotels the women fill out multiple forms for every transaction.  and there are people watching everything that's going everywhere.

so i can understand why the trinidad agent was upset but i'm certainly not paying double for a service when i was already quoted a price.

we got the car turned in all right (i was a little worried about all the tar covering the sides, seems that road workers here don't put up signs that say 'wet' or 'do not drive on') but apparently that's common enough and not a word was said.  i still have tar on my legs from leaning against the car and will probably have it until i molt.

after a beer to celebrate successful negotiation julianna noticed that her camera was missing.  poor girl had to go back to the rental agency and speak with our angry friend again to see if she left it in the car.  they had taken the car to the mechanic's house so i'm not sure yet how that turned out.  its either there or it was stolen by the hitchhikers she picked up, all her pictures from her trip, guatemala, panama and cuba, are on it.  cross fingers.

later last nite we went to the steps in the square, there's an outdoor stage and bands and a couple bars and everyone in town (only the 'respectable' cubans allowed) goes to drink and lounge on the stairs and dance.  julianna and i get a bit bored and start to walk around when a woman runs up, its the uk woman from new zeland that we met in maria la gorda.  and five minutes later we see the couple that was there with us too, so we're all back together again.  music, drinks, good nite.  

i opted for a van to havana rather than a bus this morning and it was a mistake.  i got stuck in the awful seat in the middle that feels like you're sitting on a rock, and had to sit next to a very smelly australian man who would not stop talking to me the entire 5 hours.  i had stayed out later last nite thinking i could sleep the whole way and that plan was a total fail.  

all in all though, cuba was an amazing adventure.  i am so grateful that i had someone to travel with, and that we could rent a car rather than take a bus everywhere.  julianna was perhaps a bit more overenthusiastic about seeing everything than i was, i like my lazy days, but we did manage to see almost half of the country.  i only hope that my contraband doesn't get confiscated when i come home.

now i need to prepare for nicaragua.  not having internet whenever i want was really hard in terms of planning my next few weeks but i have the name of a hostel, a basic map, a rudimentary understanding of the bus system, and a plane ticket.  that should be enough for a couple days.

lotsa cuba

30 october 2012

i'm sitting in my casa particular in trinidad, cuba with a cold.  not a real bad one but i've had it for 3 days and its annoying.  all things considered, i've been on the road for 5 months and this is the worst i've gotten, that's pretty good.  i'm going to skip the nite out here and take it easy and try to catch up on the past few days.  last i wrote i was in maria la gorda so let's go back…

the group of us from the bar decided that the hotel food was too awful to eat again so we called the woman that julianna and i met on the side of the road for some home cooking.  she had offered 10cuc per person but the lithuanian woman (i can't begin to pronounce or spell her name) spent a good deal of time telling us about her bargaining skills and i let her loose on the family.  we ended up paying 40cuc for 6 people and it was so worth every peso.  there was the biggest platter of lobster that i've ever seen, without all the little legs and claws and such to dig through.  just mounds of tails cut into pieces.  we couldn't even eat them all.  added to that was beans, bread, rice, plantains, papaya, cucumbers and more.  after we were all stuffed and could barely move was when we saw the rat walking through the rafters.  awesome.  

the last day at the hotel was kinda lazy, walking on the beach, sitting and reading, planning our next drive.  i was in the hotel store looking for road snacks and i noticed juice boxes, looked kinda like they would be chocolate milk.  turns out they were pina coladas.  most amazing thing ever.  the internet was down at the hotel ('its not working, maybe try again in a couple days') and i decided to call home just to check in.  pam had given me an international phone card which of course you can't use in cuba, so i went to the desk to buy a card.  5cuc for 3 minutes.  to anywhere.  same price to call the woman in the next village as it is to call home (and as julianna put it in her best russian voice, 'phone call is phone call').

its been very interesting traveling with a woman who grew up in a communist country, she can explain so much more than i would have picked up on by myself.  she also points out the similarities between present day cuba and the soviet union.  i don't think i've ever considered a lot of things i learned in school but seeing them first hand is very eye opening.  one thing i can tell, though, is that people here seem to live better and be happier than in much of central america.  and its much cleaner.  i'm still a little weirded out by the propaganda everywhere, billboards don't advertise products but instead point out the benefits of socialism and education, giant pictures of che, quotes from fidel and raul.  

we get on the road to jaguey grande and stop by a crocodile farm.  when we pull in the man explains that everyone has gone home for the weekend but we should come back on monday for a tour.  we stand there asking questions and hoping that he'll let us wander around by ourselves (yeah right) when miraculously another worker shows up, we can take a tour.  we walk to pens of 2-3 foot crocs and they are adorable.  there are about 20 or 30 per pen and they're all huddled together in the shade, hardly moving, mouths open, trying to keep cool in the heat.  next stop was the babies and they might even be cuter than the teensy turtles in mexico.  so tiny and skinny and skittering into the water so fast when we approached.  these pens were covered with metal fence material, not so they escape but because the giant birds think its a buffet.  our guide picked one up and i got to pet him and i wanted to take him home more than any kitten or puppy i've ever seen.  

last stop was the adult crocs in the giant fenced pond area.  we walked out onto a platform about 5 feet off the ground and watched them sleep.  pretty uneventful.  i think i expected something a bit more terrifying like in belize but they were nice anyway.  this was the last area where they live until they're released into the nearby lagoons.  the whole time we were at the farm we could hear sheep and goats and we figured that that's what they feed the crocs, but turns out that they were for the workers that live there.  if i were a croc i would sneak back and eat them, but they rarely get free or surprise anyone.  our guide did show us his leg with some pretty mean scars, i guess when they surprise you they mean business.  he offered to take us for a walk along the fence line (in the tall grass) to get a closer look and i went, julianna decided that she liked her legs like they are and stayed on the platform taking video in case anything interesting happened.  a croc blinked a couple times, that's how lazy they were.

we make it to jaguey grande and i can't recall much detail.  stupid cold.  i do remember that every town we've gone through (oh so many) is fairly stressful driving, barely 2 lanes, people everywhere, bikes with 2 or 3 people on them, motorcycles, horses or oxen pulling carts, giant trucks and tractors pulling trailers full of people (country bus system), i'm always a bit stressed out with dodging people and being lost.  our casa particular was owned by a tiny, cute little blond woman.  there wasn't a lot to do in town, we went to dinner and wandered through the streets.  the one thing i wrote down from the nite out was about walking home.  everywhere we've been here people whistle or yell or ask where we're from, no one says hello.  some people seem pleasant to talk to, some seem creepy.  its hard to decide who to chat with and who to ignore.  so we're walking home, its about 9pm and dark, and a man walks up behind us and asks where we're from.  he seems creepy so we don't answer, just keep walking.  he asks again and isn't looking like he's going to leave us alone even though we aren't even acknowledging his presence.  so i do what julianna does in these situations, i say 'russia' in as sinister a way as i can manage, usually makes people go away.  and what does the guy do?  he starts talking to me in russian.  crap.  julianna whispers to me what he's saying and its so funny because its not like i can answer back in russian.  so finally she tells him that i don't want to talk to him (in russian) and he walks away into the bar we're passing.  

the next day we decide to go to cayo santa maria but its a long, long drive.  there is an autopista that goes to various places but for anything interesting or scenic you need the small roads.  there are miles and miles of horrible potholed dirt roads through some of the most beautiful land.  i'm doing all of the driving and julianna is reading our german cuba guide book and finding points of interest to stop at.  our first stop is the bay of pigs, beaches and calm blue water and a cute little hotel with cabanas that instantly made me think of 'dirty dancing', loud cuban music and 50s style everything.  we walk a bit and get back on the road to the bay of pigs memorial museum and che guevera memorial and mausoleum.  

i've never had the feeling of being in the wrong place so strongly in my life.  the bay of pigs museum had displays of weapons of all types but the walls were covered with pictures and newspapers with captions in scary propaganda language.  yankee imperialist cowards.  mercenary yankee bombing.  victim of yankee shrapnel manages to scrawl a last revolutionary message in his own blood.  the yankee mercenaries were well armed but lacked our moral strength.  (on and on until) victory! the armed wing of the revolution punished the mercenary impudence to invade our socialist country.  then came all the messages about the humane treatment for the captured cowards who wouldn't fess up to taking part in the invasion and the miserable moral condition of the yankee murderers.  then there was a wall full of pictures of the martyrs who gave their lives defending their land.  i was quite uncomfortable.  

most places require a passport, every casa and some roadside checkpoints.  the museums only required a name and nationality.  i signed in as a russian to all of them.

next was the che memorial and mausoleum and it was pretty cool.  it covered about 2 city blocks, most of it kind of like a park.  giant statue surrounded by quotes from fidel, flags, sculptures, etc.  the museum had pictures of che from boyhood up until his death, things he owned as a child, pictures from all of his campaigns.  historically, it was amazing.  the mausoleum had the remains of everyone that he died with, there was also an outdoor cemetery with an eternal flame.  no cameras were allowed in any part of this.

we're back on the road to sightsee santa clara before we head to cayo.  some of the roads have long stretches of white substance that i thought was sand, seemed like a weird way to repair the roads.  at one point half the road is covered in white and i'm driving on my side with oncoming traffic in my lane.  rather than drive on the white the other cars and trucks pull to my far right and drive on the dirt rather than on the road and we can't figure out why.  after a while we see men actively raking the white and we stop to ask what it is.  turns out its rice, they're spreading it on the road to dry before they bag it and load it onto their ox carts.  i had sorta driven on some earlier so i asked if its ok to drive on it, they said that it would be better if we didn't.  oops.  

santa clara is a decent sized town but i wasn't real fond of it.  the same crowded streets and stressful driving, we walked around the square and had a horrible lunch.  it seemed kinda sinister to me but i think that's because of the bay of pigs museum making me feel like everyone in this country hated me.  i made julianna leave.

finally after about 10 hours on the road we make it to cayo santa maria.  the last 30 minutes of driving was on a bridge sort of like driving through the florida keys, 2 lanes and nothing but water on either side.  there was an armed checkpoint at the start because cubans aren't allowed there unless they are bussed in to work.  we picked santa maria over another similar place because it would save a couple hours driving.  its newer and doesn't have many hotels but we thought that might mean its less touristy.  no one we spoke with had been there.  the guidebook had 3 hotels listed, all kinda pricey, we picked the cheapest one as our first stop.  

its sunset when we pull into the hotel.  i'm totally frazzled from driving all day and can only think of a couple of beers and bed.  the hotel has one room left but julianna doesn't like it, 'too jungly'.  its a nice room with an ocean view but the waves on this side are kicked up from the hurricane winds and there isn't much beach to walk on.  she doesn't want to stay.  i get a beer to go and we set off in search of the other hotels, knowing that they are about double the price.  we get lost and end up in an outdoor plaza and ask for directions.  we find an all inclusive resort starting at 250cuc per nite.  we ask for directions to another hotel and end up in the plaza again.  we get more directions and find another all inclusive resort for 177cuc, julianna wants to see the room and isn't happy with it.  the first hotel was only 85cuc (we've been paying about 20cuc for our home stays).  we decide to go back to the first place and i'm so happy to finally be done with the day.  but while we were out they rented the room to someone else.  so we have to drive all the way back across the island and pay double.  i wasn't real pleased.  

the hotel was huge and we needed to get to our room by an overly friendly man in a golf cart.  we have 20 minutes until dinner is over (10pm omg i'm so tired) and we grab a drink at the bar and eat.  the hotel was expensive but at least it included booze and food.  internet was 12cuc for half an hour and incredibly slow.  i drank myself back to a good mood.  our bartender was a nice chatty guy, he gets a bus to work (with all the other employees) that takes 2 hours and works 16 hours, then 2 hours home.  the next day he has 4 hours of driving and an 8 hour day.  then 16 again.  he gets one day off per week.  

the next morning we could see our view, and julianna liked it because it was 'jungly'.  whatever.  the beach was crazy, the wind was pushing the waves all the way up the beach and walking on it took a lot of care to not be swept into the angry ocean.  i decided on a couple drinks and a nice nap by one of the several pools.  our nite stay gave us until 3pm to vacate the property and we drank and ate until exactly that time.

we were going to drive to trinidad but we started out pretty late and it would be after dark when we arrived.  one rule i have is that i don't want to drive here after dark, there are far too many people and bikes and animals in the roads and the streets are crazy mazes in the towns and its too much.  we started picking up hitchhikers (women only) to get information during the past couple days and our passenger told us that we shouldn't drive into trinidad at nite so we go to sancti spiritus.  we had only intended on stopping there to have a quick look so we didn't research any places to stay.  its a pretty big city and i'm instantly lost.  there's another car with a couple tourist women so i'm following them, thinking they know where to go, turns out they're lost too.  while we're stopped i spot an older woman on the street with a business card, in cuba that means that she has a house and is out looking for guests.  

we go to her house and its much the same as all the others, it could be my grandmothers house when i was small.  the outsides are very much different but the insides are all 'antiques' and knickknacks and totally old school (one day when i'm not on cold medicine i'll go through my pictures and be a bit more descriptive).  we get some news about the hurricane (after it smashed its way through santiago no one seems to care and its been hard getting news about the us).  there's also a dengue fever outbreak a few towns over.  we walk through the town and the restaurants are all closed, there's only one left to look for and the directions send us to a dark street with lots of shady looking people hanging out.  we see the sign for 'el soltano' but there are no lites anywhere.  julianna asks a man why all the restaurants are closed and he says its not, we're just looking in the wrong place.  there's a doorway next to a house, dark hallway, stairs, and we end up in someone's house.  they lead us to the back and there are 3 tables with settings and 2 more on an outdoor patio overlooking the river.  its a private, underground restaurant and we're the only guests.  friendly family and massive amounts of cheap food.  not great food but more than we could possibly eat. 

there's no real tourist activity in sancti spiritus so its an early nite.  we get up (and have a moderately awful but inexpensive breakfast like we do every morning in our casas) and begin the drive to trinidad.  we stop at a couple of incredible miradors, we get fresh squeezed sugar cane/coconut water at one of them.  trinidad is a small town but totally confusing to drive through.  roads point in all directions, one ways, some closed, we're swamped with people running up to take us to this hotel or that restaurant and its completely intimidating.  i'm driving through hordes of people on cobblestones dodging horses and dogs and its been about 20 years since i had a standard shift car and i'm barely managing to not freak out.  today was the day that i hit my limit for driving in a 3rd world country.  dozens of hours over 9 days and i just want to put on the brake in the middle of the street and run away.  i'm actually looking forward to returning to central america and taking buses.

we're lost and incredibly enough we see the women that were on the bike tour with us.  there's another room in their casa and we load them in the car and they show us the way.  this place is like an antiques museum, i don't think there's anything newer than 1940, everything perfectly clean and in excellent condition.  all i could think of walking through was the field day that antiques roadshow would have here.  poor suckers, they want the american embargo lifted so bad but when americans get here they're going to leave with every valuable old thing the cubans own.  then sell them on ebay for millions of profit.  capitalist pigs.

julianna and i walk to the car rental place to see about turning in the car here for a fee instead of driving back to havana.  i buy a bus ticket on the way.  the grumpy horrible man tells us that its 90cuc for turning in the car in trinidad, when we were told that its 45.  julianna refuses to accept that and the man won't budge, says its in our contract.  he points to a line of illegible writing, and he won't call havana to confirm.  looks like we're driving back to havana, i get my money back from my bus ticket.  when we get home i call havana and simply because we called we get half the fee waived, and if we return it early we can get the day refunded.  we walk back, thinking that we have a great victory ahead with this unpleasant man and the office is closed.  so we have the car for one more day and honestly i don't even want to look at it.  i'll go buy another bus ticket tomorrow.

i only have 2 days left before i go to nicaragua.  cuba has been a fantastic adventure but overwhelming in a lot of ways.  i'm also not used to traveling with someone that has a plan for every moment and i think its made me kind of weary as well.  i don't need to see everything that every place has to offer, some nites just need to be chill with a book, regardless of where i am.  i think she was a little upset with me for not going out to bars tonite but i'm happy to be here alone, finally catching up on my blog (although way too much has happened to do it justice in my scatter brained writing).  everything i've seen over the past 5 months has been amazing but there's nothing i can think of that would make me feel like i'd want to die if i missed it.  and i don't expect that the nitelife in trinidad will make me feel that way.  my last big nite out will be here tomorrow and i'll make sure to do it justice.

scuba

26 october 2012

this morning i did 2 dives at maria de la gorda, cuba.  the hurricane brought a lot of wind here but otherwise the morning was looking good.

i got to the dive shop and they told me to come back at 8:30 to see if we were going out.  i returned at 8:30 and he told me i had to go to the front desk to pay, but i should only pay for one dive in case the weather was bad and we couldn't do two.  so i ran all the way to the other end of the hotel, stood in line, paid, ran back, got equipment and jumped on the boat.  there was a uniformed man on the dock watching everything that was going on, i couldn't figure out what his job was.  i think he was counting people and tanks.  there was a huge scuba club from argentina that took up one full boat and the rest of us were on a second boat.  i met my first americans since i've been here.  

we dove a wall for the first dive and it was pretty nice.  lots of great corals and fans and colors, not a huge amount of fish.  not many at all, actually.  we did a couple swim throughs.  my buddy was a belgian guy named claude.  the dive master, martin, turned to check on us every 2 or 3 minutes, it got sort of annoying.  there's only so many times in a dive that i want to be disturbed to let someone know that i'm ok when i look just fine.  maybe that's a cuban dive thing, making sure at all times that everyone is good at every moment.  if i got too far from claude, maybe 4-5 feet, we'd get the sign that we need to buddy up closer.  super annoying.  

there was one new thing here i hadn't seen before, long green coral things that had black markings.  when they waved in the current they looked like snakes.  most everything else i've seen on other dives but it was super good visibility so it was pleasant.

during the break between dives i had to pay for my second dive.  julianna was out walking the beach and she left the key with reception.  so i had to run across the hotel complex, get the key, run to my room, get money, run back to reception to pay and leave the key, then run to the boat.  argh.

i watched the man in uniform again to see if he did anything but again he just watched.  my best guess is that he makes sure that everyone that goes on the boat comes back?  maybe one of the instructors has a grand plan to strap 6 tanks together and scuba to miami?

the second dive wasn't as good as the first.  because the wind was stronger we only took the boat a small distance out and had to swim a lot of sand before we got to any reef.  we didn't do a wall like the first dive, just swam over stuff.  mildly disappointing.  my buddy was the uk guy that we had drinks with last nite and he was a good diver, his girlfriend was pretty new so martin took her as his buddy.  whenever simon would get a few feet away, rattle rattle buddy up.  relax.

the diving was good but overall disappointing.  this was the most expensive diving i've done and the dives lasted the shortest amount of time, maybe 40 minutes each.  i had over half a tank of air when i got back from both.  they charged for equipment rental as well, which is not unusual, but they charged me not for a day of rental but $7.50 for both times i used it.  that's bullshit.

so i dove in cuba, its probably that i never will again, it was nice and i'm glad i did it.

btw, cuban people are not allowed to dive.  go figure.

vinales to maria la gorda

25 october 2012

we were just at the bar at the hotel in maria la gorda smoking cigars with women from france, new zeland and lithuania and a man from uk, and one woman said that she likes to think about her top 10 moments of each day while traveling.  she asked what our favorite moment of today was and here are mine.  i have 2.

smoking my first cuban cigar on a tobacco farm in vinales.  that was so awesome.

my second moment was during the drive from vinales to maria la gorda.  i'm driving the rental car on a 2 lane road.  there's an old soviet era truck in front of me belching stinky black smoke and i want to pass him.  there's a giant tractor pulling a trailer in front of him.  coming from the other direction is a team of oxen pulling a cart and a man on a horse.   bicycles and hitchhikers are on both sides of the road.  i can't think of a time when i've been in a traffic jam with that many different modes of transportation.  

last nite we went to the only nite club in vinales, an outdoor bar with a stage and cuban band.  the music was great and everyone was salsa dancing like professionals, it was very intimidating.  after turning down a few guys one in particular wouldn't take no for an answer, ivan, a giant black man with short dreads, so i danced with him.  he was very patient with me and went through the basic steps and it was a lot of fun.  the daiquiris helped too, they aren't like the ones at home but rum and sugar and that seemed to be about all.  

there was also a man in some sort of tribal wear that danced a bit during the band's intermission, then he walked around with fire sticks.  some he'd put out in his mouth, some in his hands, and others he'd put down the front of his pants and wave them around until the fire burnt out.  seriously weird.

today was great.  julianna and i got up and had another interesting cuban breakfast at our casa particular (mercy's house), then were off to our bike tour.  we got squeaky old mountain bikes and waited for the rain to pass.  the weather and terrain seemed very much like kauai in vinales, palms, bananas, coffee, guava, mangos, red dirt, mountains, beautiful.  our group consisted of our cuban bike guide who looked like he'd never been on a bike in his life and 2 women from holland.  our first stop was at the tobacco farm, the farmer came out, said a few words, we went to the barn but it wasn't the season for harvesting or drying so we only really saw where they do these things.  then we sat down at a picnic table and watched the farmer hand roll a cigar, then he passed out one for each of us to smoke and his wife brought us coffee.  we sat at his house and smoked for about half an hour.  

the farmer didn't have electricity or running water but it seemed like a very pleasant place to live.

it had been raining on and off, thanks to hurricane sandy, so by the time we got back on our bikes everything was red mud and we were a mess.  i found it pretty amusing but i'm pretty sure i was the only one.  one of the women broke a slipper in the mud.  our next stop was a cave but we weren't really allowed to go in.  it started raining really hard so we hung out in the cave while our guide took our bikes into a giant puddle to get some of the mud off.  

next stop, a 'prehistoric' painting on the side of a mountain.  that's what they told us.  that's what the road sign says.  but really its a giant painting on the side of a mountain, sorta looks like it was done by a 3 year old with watercolors, of a couple dinosaurs and a person.  they repaint it every year.  

final stop was somewhat of a mystery, at a house with a chair full of bananas on the front porch, we stood there while our guide and another woman washed the mud off our bikes.  he told us to eat bananas, then after we ate them he told us what they cost.  we were there for about half an hour since there's no where to wash the bikes in town and he'd get in trouble if he brought back dirty bikes.

interesting, odd tour, lasted about 3 and a half hours.

after peeling layers of mud off of ourselves julianna and i got in the car and headed towards maria la gorda.  this is the place i picked for scuba diving, all the way on the south west point of the island.  the drive was incredibly beautiful, we drove through tiny towns that could have been out of the 50's, some places we were the only car among bikes and horses and oxen, some places had loads of old american cars, all places had hitchhikers.  its a very accepted form of travel here and everyone does it.  people stand on the side of the road everywhere and wave at you, and seem to get mad when we passed by.  our house mothers both told us not to stop for anyone but i really want to, i think it would make for a more interesting trip.  we don't need to stop for the guys with machetes but ladies and kids and old people, why not?

several times today i actually started laughing out loud and had to say out loud, holy shit i'm driving a car across cuba.  

we got turned around a few times but pulling over and yelling a town name at someone standing on the side of the road was usually enough to get us back on track.  nothing really eventful happened, lots of roaming cows and horses and pigs and oxen and again, breathtakingly beautiful scenery.  and lots of billboards with socialist propaganda.

we didn't have a reservation for anywhere to stay tonite, we were told that there was a casa owned by señor tomas and cookie (?) but they didn't have a phone.  or there was one hotel.  after 3 hours driving we came to the water, pure caribbean blue gloriousness.  not a single hotel or bar or anything on the beach for miles and miles.  we pulled over to take some pictures and an old woman and a little boy walked over to sell us dinner, turns out that she was friends with cookie.  she stands at that junction, you can turn right and go into a tiny pueblo that looks kinda sketch (where she lives), or you can turn left and after 9 miles of driving along the deserted beach you come to the only hotel on this part of the island.  she stops cars and looks for renters or just people to come have dinner.  we decided to check out the hotel first since it has the scuba shop and i wanted to sign up.

all of the hotels in cuba are national, meaning that all of the money goes directly to the government and they pay the workers a teensy little bit.  actually, that's how every occupation is here, farmers, landlords, gas station attendants, everyone.  the fact that there was one hotel here was a big deal since there aren't that many anywhere, with the exception of the major cities.  for $42 we got a room on the beach, and the hotel is the only building in sight.  its incredible.  anywhere else you can hardly see the water with all of the hotels, bars, boats, houses, whatever, but sitting on our porch there is nothing to see except water and sand.  dozens of miles of absolutely nothing else anywhere.  

i went to the scuba shop and was told that maybe we'd dive tomorrow, maybe not.  the hurricane brought some decent wind and they will decide in the morning, show up at 8:30 and see.  i washed my filthy bike clothes in the sink then we headed to dinner.  the hotel has a buffet and it was a pretty disappointing affair, so i'm thinking that we'll take a couple car loads of people we met and go to cookie's house for home cooked cuban goodness tomorrow.  we got a phone number from her for a woman who lives a few houses down, just call in advance and have her send one of her kids to cookie's house to get the phone.  brilliant.

vinales

24 oct 2012

julianna and i got up early and started our trip to vinales again.  we had a more clear (hand drawn) map to the autopista, and were hopeful that there might be signs along the way.  before we left we had to endure more cautions from our family about the hurricane coming to the south east, road conditions, talking to strangers, etc.  and while they were hurrying us out we ended up sitting and looking at old pictures for some reason.  we thought they'd be pictures of the scenery and places to go but they were of random people in a house.  not sure why that happened.

a couple extra turns out of havana and there it was, a giant 4 lane highway that cuts cuba in half.  we did see a sign for it hidden behind a tree but i'm not sure we would have noticed the road itself while we were going over the bridge last nite.  it was actually a pretty nice road too, compared with other countries.  and all the while julianna is gasping and shrieking when she thought i'd hit a hitchhiker in the road, or a horse and buggy, or maybe a pothole.  when she thought the windshield was dirtier than was safe she'd reach over and work the wipers.  drove me a little nuts.  

i let her drive the car to park it at the hotel last nite and in the 5 minutes that she was behind the wheel i decided that i don't want her to ever drive while i'm in the car.  timid and slow and it took her 3 turns to get into a parking space.  that's scarier than fast driving.  so i'm going to insist on doing all of the driving and i'll just have to deal with her comments and worries.

we get about half way to vinales and she wants to pull off the autopista and sightsee, find our way through the back roads.  i was more of the mind to get where we were going, make one successful journey, then go from there.  i had visions of last nite, being the only car for miles in a town with bikes and horses and hundreds of people sitting outside wondering why the hell we ended up there.  but whatever, let's go explore.  i ask where we're going, she doesn't know.  great navigating.  we're driving on a 2 lane road through breathtaking countryside, very similar to hawaii, actually.  small mountains, palm trees, bananas, sugarcane, horses and oxen pulling carts and plows, small lakes.  

we come to a fork in the road, las cuavas de los portales.  the caves where che hid when there was some sort of war going on, probably american intervention of some sort.  i decided to tell everyone that i was russian too.  we parked and walked through, great cave system.  there were steps and platforms, no signs with historical info, no one around.  a man finally came up to us to find out who we were, and again, 'where are you from' is the first thing he asks.  which is what every guy asks as you're walking down the street.  why can't anyone ever say hello, or maybe how are you?  so i try to ignore him, he thinks i don't understand, he goes after julianna.  he's trying to get us to pay for being in the cave.  she tells him that we've already paid.  they argue.  he leaves.

as we come out its starting to rain so we figure we'd better get back on the road.  there is a sign outside that has entrance fees, 1cuc per person, 1cuc per camera.  i didn't see it before.  julianna gives him a cuc, all i have is a 3cuc note so i take her cuc from him and she starts arguing that he owes us money.  i'm trying to explain that i paid 2 and she paid 1 and all is good but i think she just needs to argue a bit whenever there is money around.  finally we can leave.

the next town we're looking for is las palmas which is a small town on the way to vinales.  we get some directions and off we go again.  i'm pretty resigned to the fact that no matter how many times we ask we will always have to go in the wrong direction at some point before we get where we need to.  no one ever has the whole picture, there is always a turn missing.  at las palmas julianna wants coffee so we slowly drive through the hordes of people walking and biking in the streets looking for a cafe.  we find several tiendas with rum and beer and juice but no coffee.  i just stand in the street next to the car while she looks, the less i hear her argue the better off i will be by the end of this trip.  

no coffee, we get directions to vinales, we go the wrong way, get more directions, back on the road.  its another scenic country road.  we're pretty much the only car.  its funny how people stare at us as we go by, like what the hell are 2 women doing here by themselves, flying down the road?  everyone seemed very pleasant looking, though, i wasn't at all worried about having to pull over or get more directions.  the few houses were well kept, the streets were clean, there was no garbage blowing in the wind like guatemala, this seemed more like a proud people that took care of what little they have.

after almost 4 hours we make it to vinales.  yay!  we find our casa particular fairly easily (i have no idea how julianna found it so fast) and something has happened that we cannot stay there.  maybe a leak or maintenance and they've just started tearing up the floor.  so the woman walked us across the street to mercy's house and we get a room there.  this one has 3 beds, a/c, bathroom.  we can eat breakfast and dinner here if we choose for extra, she charges us 25cuc for the nite, 3 for breakfast and 7 for dinner.  

i called our havana 'mother' to let her know we arrived safely.

there is a bicycle tour that julianna has been talking about for days so we set out to find the office.  her guidebook mentions a restaurant where we can book but its not there.  but lunch is needed first.  while we're there julianna complains that our 7cuc dinner that we signed up for is too expensive (lunch at the restaurant was around 5 each) and that we're getting ripped off.  i tell her that it probably includes a lot more food, probably the home cooking tastes way better, etc.  but she's kinda angry about it.

she's probably saving money as she goes by arguing over every dollar but i can't imagine that she's made many friends in her travels.  i remember her complaining about her host family and teacher in guatemala but i didn't know it was a constant thing.  our next stop is the bike shop to sign up for the tour.  we can't find it and are sent to a man on the street.  he only rents bikes.  he sends us to someone else but julianna won't deal with someone on the street, if he doesn't have an office we can't speak with him.  we walk to an office and they have bike tours, a man follows us in and its his shop.  they show us the same routes and julianna's question is why should we do this when we can see all these sights in 10 minutes in a car?  there's a cave system, a mural painted on a mountain and a tobacco farm tour.  its 15cuc for 3 hours.  i think we should do it, who cares if we can drive to these things, we're riding bikes through cuba, that's the fun.  she doesn't really do anything athletic but insists that if the tour goes on the road then its a waste of money.  

the man behind the desk is getting frustrated with her.  if it rains too much (its rainy season), we have to bike on the road.  he doesn't know if it will rain tonite so he doesn't know where we will go.  somehow we will see all of the sights.  this isn't good enough for her, though, and she continues to argue and threaten.  she was so excited to ride bikes in vinales, that was our entire reason for coming here, and now she's making everyone hate us.  so i just say that i want to do it, i prefer to go off road, i'll be there at 9am.  15cuc for a guided bike ride through a cuban tobacco farm.  i'll pay for that.  maybe that's why i'm not rich, i don't mind paying for doing fun stuff.  she'll probably have a heart attack when she finds out how much it costs to scuba dive, i'm not going to let her into the office with me when i sign up for that.

finally she agrees to the bike ride but is angry as we leave.  i'm mentally deciding if i can find a bus schedule somewhere and sneak out in the nite without her.  but having the car is great and i'll get to see so much more than if i was only riding by bus so i can stick this out for another 7 days.

julianna has no concept of relaxing.  she wants to see everything possible while we're here.  i want to sit on the porch with a drink and watch the tractors and horses go by.  so she's just left with the car, she's going to drive an hour to a beach then turn around and come back by 7 for dinner.  maybe i'll read a book.  or nap.  i don't find it necessary to be moving every minute of the day.  i'll see enough of cuba, way more than i ever imagined.

havanna

23 october 2012

the flight from panama to havana was great, i found juliana at the airport, we made it through immigration with no problems but many jokes (she always made me go first in line in case i didn't make it through 'the door'), we found a taxi and went to our 'casa particular'.  we made the taxi driver turn off madonna and play some cuban music.

our casa is a high-rise complex in new havana.  we have a 'mother' and a 'father' and i could understand every 7th word they said.  cuban spanish is near impossible.  they don't say the letter s.  at all.  but that doesn't stop them from talking to me constantly, at least after a couple days they started to speak slower and use small baby words.  julianna is way better understanding them, she's had a lot more spanish over the years and didn't spend the past month with gringos like i did.  our casa was decorated in complete 70's fashion, much like all of havana seems to be.  

we went to hotel nacional first to have a celebratory mojito and meet julianna's friends from germany.  they'd been here 10 days already and were about to go home. claudia and michael rented a car and drove all over the island, said it was pretty easy.  

our first nite out we went to cabaret parisien to see a show for $35 each.  kinda pricey but hey, we're in havana, everything here is expensive.  the exchange rate is $1 for 1cuc, and then they charge you 15% for the service.  so actually, everything is 15% more expensive.  

the cabaret was fun, lots of great music and crazy dancing in risqué costumes.  exactly what i think of when i think of a show in cuba.  

we spent the next day wandering through old havana, stopping at all the famous bars that hemingway frequented.  bodega el media, floridita, all of them.  mojitos galore.  too many, in fact, i haven't consumed that much sugar in the entire 5 months i've been traveling.  all of the bars had cuban bands, usually a singer and 3 others with various instruments and backing vocals.  amazing music.  we also stopped into a couple art museums for early cuban art.  beautiful.

the biggest question that julianna and i had was whether we should take buses everywhere or rent a car.  finding a bus schedule was basically impossible.  we could spend $20 to go to the bus station just to make a reservation, $20 back, then $20 again with all our bags.  none of the tourist info stands were any help, i don't know why they even exist.  everywhere you turn there are 20 guys yelling 'taxi lady' but no one knows the bus schedule.  

we did finally get a taxi when we were coming home late last nite, a '55 chevy.  it was gorgeous.  the cars here are amazing.  there are some modern cars of makes that i don't recognize but mostly what catches the eye are the vast numbers of american cars that were made when my parents were young.  some beat up but a lot are in mint condition.  there are also hundreds of bicycle taxis and horse and buggies.  

after talking with the other germans about how easy it was to drive around cuba we decided on renting a car.  we went to several rental agencies (cubicar, all the same but different prices) until we found the best price at a large hotel in old havana.  it was pretty straight forward but julianna argued about everything.  i thought the guy was finally just going to kick us out.  but then she'd been angry about lunch, our host family, basically everything today.  she's not afraid to tell people that she's upset, which i do like about her.

we get our car but we have no real map of the roads.  that was an argument that julianna and the rental guy had, lasted for a while.  finally one of the guys drew us a map to the autopista and we went home to collect our things and get on the road.  it was about 4pm at this point, and we had to say goodbye to all the people in our building.  that took forever.  one woman (who we're renting from when we come back to havana before flying out) wanted to introduce us to everyone that was currently staying in her apartment, lots of small talk, it was 5:30 before we finally got out.  our first destination was vinales, about 4 hours away, no map, sun setting in 2 hours, why did we think it was a good idea to leave so late?

but leave we did, with total fanfare.  we agreed that i would drive and julianna would navigate.  almost from the start 'slow down', 'watch the bikes', 'careful', total back seat driver.  i'm surprised at how good i was driving given that its been so long, and finally i had to tell her to relax, everything is under control, just tell me where to go.  driving through havana was kinda crazy but not too bad.  the first thing i noticed was that there are no street signs anywhere.  no direction, no arrows, nothing.  so we follow the guy's hand drawn map and everything seems to be going well.  some roundabouts, a tunnel, all good.  so we drive and drive.  i'm happy.

when we entered the small town with no cars, everyone on bikes and horses, that's when i started to wonder where we are.  the sun was setting and i thought ok, we're going south, i think that's good.  but vinales isn't south.  the road becomes dirt.  this can't be the autopista.  we drive through a muddy pothole the size of the car.  really not good.  julianna says that we need to follow this for 24 kilometers.  um, hell no.  dead end.

turns out that we're not on the autopista.  julianna knew this but didn't tell me an hour ago when it would have been easy to go back.  i just figured that we're in an undeveloped country and i've spent months driving on dirt roads.  so i turn around.  we make it back to the small town and everyone in the road is waving and making signs at me that i can't understand.  i keep wanting to stop but julianna thinks that everyone is going to rob us and refuses to let me talk to anyone (our host family was very adamant that we don't pick up hitchhikers or talk to anyone).  but really, i don't want to die in the middle of nowhere in cuba so the next man yelling (gigantic black man), i stop and roll down the window.  turns out i'm going the wrong way on a one way.  this at least is easier to understand than the first guy i asked (julianna almost freaked out) whom we didn't understand at all.  so we get directions back where we came.

as we're driving back to find the autopista there's a fabulous sunset.  which of course means night.  we make the decision to go back to havana and spend the nite and try again in the morning.  but at nite with no signs we get lost.  our hand drawn map is now even worse.  did we pass this before?  which direction did we come from in the roundabout?  where the fuck is the tunnel?  

after a couple turn arounds we find familiar ground, we find the tunnel, we find the glorious ocean on the left hand side.  julianna is almost in tears, i'm trying to pretend like all is great, but all the while i'm deciding where would be a good place to spend the nite when we are so lost we can't find havana.  i did decide that if worse comes to worst i could pull into someone's driveway and pay them $10 to sleep in the car.  but at no point did i see a place that would have been appropriate.  i would have settled for kinda sketchy but didn't even find that.  

i truly enjoyed our first adventure driving in cuba.  never once during this trip did i imagine that i would be driving across cuba so it was a mark in the positive adventure column.  we got lost, i didn't freak out, even when there were no lites anywhere and i had to dodge crazy bikes and walkers and swerving oncoming traffic.  i thought julianna might have a stress attack so repeating 'todo esta bien' over and over helped us both.

we both laughed and cheered and almost cried when we found the hotel nacional again, its right across the street from our casa.  the front of our casa is a big hangout for people, and they were all there when we left over 3 hours earlier, so it was a crazy scene when we pulled in.  our 'mother' was sitting on the stoop and instantly she needed to know why we were back.  luckily the woman who reserved our room didn't show up so we could spend another nite without any hassle.  except for the hassle of explaining to everyone why we were back and getting lots of 'i told you so's ' in spanish.  everyone decided to blame me because i was driving.  whatever.  that's what i get for having a stressed out navigator who won't tell me when she thinks we're lost.

we took all of our stuff out of the car, back to our room (which, btw, is a small room with one small bed, i liked julianna a lot in guatemala and instantly am sleeping with her and spending every moment together, not quite my way of doing things but its working).  we had to take the car to secure parking at the hotel so we had a beer and laugh about all the crazy things that happened in the past 4 hours.  we also made a decision that if we make it to vinales tomorrow and have a lot of trouble we're ditching the car and taking buses for the rest of the week.  there's a fee to leave a car somewhere other than where you rented it but i don't care, if this is too much of a pain in the ass it will be worth it to bail.  

i'm now sitting in the stairwell in the complex because i can't get anyone to stop talking to me long enough to write anything.  as it is, everyone who walks by asks why i'm still here.  i don't even care that i'm speaking in horrible kindergarten spanish now, i have beers from the bar across the street and i'm happy.  this has been the most adventurous thing i've done on this trip, so far out of my comfort zone, and i survived.  i didn't succeed, but i survived.  i don't even care that everyone thinks i'm a total moron.  todo esta bien.  

cuba as a whole has been way outside my comfort zone.  i usually sit at a restaurant or hotel and plan with the internet but that isn't possible here.  we got a guide book from julianna's friends but its in german.  i figured that there would be regular buses and tourist agencies like everywhere else but instead i find nothing but people i can't understand and men that want to marry me (julianna thinks that i hit some sort of latin sweet spot, everywhere i go men fall over themselves to talk to me and tell me how much they love me while ignoring women that i think are way prettier and younger than i am, i don't understand it at all, i wish all this love would get me something other than declarations of love, why am i paying for anything?).  

but tomorrow's another day, we're having breakfast at 7, finding a real map, then hitting the road again by 8:30.  we should get to vinales by noon if all goes well.  and if it doesn't, at least we know the way back to havana and can take a bus.  

todo esta bien.  

wow

bocas del toro

my whirlwind tour of bocas del toro is coming to an end.  i could probably spend a couple months here and not see everything.  but i guess that's true of everywhere i've been.  not enough time (or too many bars).

i only did one day of scuba diving, that was plenty.  after belize and roatan i'm not sure that any diving will be spectacular again.  but i'm looking forward to diving in cuba, i've heard that many of the reefs are pristine.

on wednesday i did a full day catamaran trip with 2 snorkel stops.  the first stop was super clear, we swam on the edge of the mangroves.  starfish were everywhere, corals, little fish, lots of jellyfish.  ever since belize, mangroves remind me of crocodile hunting and i was a bit timid at first, but after a while i was able to swim into the trees to look around.  still creepy though.  the second snorkel was nice, had to dive down a bit to see things, and still not alot of fish.  good time though.

i had been out drinking the nite before the boat trip.  i went to rip tide, a boat that is permanently anchored and turned into a bar.  fun locals but nothing too crazy.  then i tried to go to the indian place and it was so packed, i waited forever and never got a drink, much less had anyone say hello.  as i was wandering out i noticed people drinking downstairs and walked over, its the towns book store with a bar.  another local hangout, super friendly, and possibly the craziest bartender i've ever met.  i stayed way too late, did way too many shots, and wasn't feeling real great the next morning.

so i get on the boat and after about 10 minutes i started feeling really bad.  i've never been boat sick but hangover on a boat is probably the same.  i crawled onto the wooden slats on the very back and let everyone know that there was a good possibility that i would be barfing soon.

i didn't, surprisingly, and after about an hour everything was good.  snorkel in some cold water and lunch, ready for a beer.

i fished for most of the day but didn't catch anything.

i met up with captain hardy last nite for some drinks at rip tide and purposely left early because he invited me to go fishing on his boat today.  but what was on my way home?  the book store.  total fail.

the bartender told me that if i went topless for 10 seconds all my drinks for the nite were free.  being a budget traveller i thought that this would be a smart money saving move.  it was, but again, i woke up this morning (barely) and wasn't sure i could survive a boat.

this one was much better, motoring along in a fishing boat was easier on the stomach.  as it was, i couldn't even look at a beer until about 1pm.

we ended up catching a 10 pound yellow fin tuna and a 5 pound mackerel.  not much for the 4 hours we were out but i got to see several of the islands.  on the way home we stopped at isla bastimento and pulled up to the dock at los secretos, the owners are friends of hardy and pete.  possibly one of the most beautiful bars i've ever sat at.  if i come back here i might have to stay there for a nite or 2.  we had dinner, then pete filleted the tuna and we had sashimi.   nothing better than fresh caught sushi.

and now its time to pack up and move on. 6:30am flight to panama city tomorrow for a last day with mandy and kids, then i'm off to cuba for 12 days!  i have no idea where i'm going or what i'm doing but as long as i have cash everything will be ok.  i'm want to smoke a cigar and drink rum in a bar blaring salsa music.

i cannot go out tonite.  i cannot go out tonite.  i cannot go out tonite.