Piña coladas en paraíso ~
Varadero, Cuba / Feb. 10-17 2007



¡Hola, mi familia y mi amigos!

Nikki and I spent a week in Cuba from Feb. 10-17 '07; here are few photos from our vacation.

¡Tomemos un viaje! (Let's take a trip!)

Our pal Laurinda gave us a lift from Oshawa to the airport on Saturday Feb. 10 at 11am. Here we are leaving Nikki's, and a view from the backseat on the 401 West heading to Pearson. 6

At the airport...

Oh, man... Get us outta here, please! Sunny Varadero awaits... 6

After hanging out with some fellow travelers at the airport bar, we finally boarded the plane at 3:30pm. Ladies and gentlemen, your capable pilots! (Photo courtesy of WestJet. :) 6 Also, a shot of the passengers.

Flyin'...











All WestJet planes now have monitors on the backs of the seats; you can watch TV or purchase a movie by credit card for $5. One channel also shows the progress of the flight. 6 Cruising 35,000 feet over the Florida keys at speeds of just under 500mph... ah, what a feeling...














And there's even a nice lunch! :)















We landed in Cuba around 7pm; we breezed through customs and entered the country with no trouble. (See a short video of our descent through the clouds before landing in Varadero by clicking here.) After collecting our luggage and switching our Canadian currency over to Cuban convertible pesos, we hopped on Nolitours bus no. 769 and were on our way to the resort.


The first bus I've ever been on with its own waiter! A cold Cristal or Havana Special, anyone? :)

The bus ride was a trip; it was cool to be traveling through a Caribbean country for the first time, and we were really excited to get to the resort (which is about 45km from the airport). Soon we arrived safe and sound at... La Hotel Playa Varadero 1920! We checked in around 9:30pm.

So, here's our first room:
1210 didn't have much of a view, but it was clean and everything was functional. However, the dank, musty odor from the mildew on the walls was almost overpowering (at some point this part of the hotel must have been water-damaged by a typhoon or something). We ran the a/c constantly and sprayed a lot of perfume and cologne around in an attempt to mask the smell, but Nikki was still forced to sleep with a towel over her face! It was pretty bad. (Not to mention the big Cuban bug outside the bathroom that scared the life out of her shortly after we got unpacked. :) Reception couldn't get us another room that night, so we spent the first night in there and upgraded the next day...

...to the Cayo Coco Villa bungalows! Now we're talkin'!

Ah, good ol' room 6415. Nice and fresh! A huge improvement over the first one, with a lovely view of the ocean. Here's the view from the patio:














So, we were perfectly happy with our new neighborhood! Our first day at the resort was warm and sunny, so we spent the afternoon at the beach and took the first of many refreshing dips in the ocean.

Some images from the coastline not far from our room. 6 The crystal blue-green waters of the Caribbean are amazing...

It began to cloud up a bit on Monday afternoon, so we took some time to explore the resort. Various images of our wanderings below:


You can tell by the sign below that we were on the far end of the place; all the arrows point in one direction. 6



Here's the Cayo Coco pool bar, which was right near our bungalow (the area where we stayed is visible in the background). 6 We stopped for a piña colada (our cocktail of choice for the week) on the way by.

The bartenders keepin' things loose...













On we go...



























It's paradise, I tell ya!


















After lunch on Monday we visited the Cohiba Bar, which is right down the stairs from the main hotel lobby.



Umm...Brian doesn't really feel like drinking today... 6












Wait a second! Yes he does! Mmmm, spanish coffee (with rum. :)


That night we dropped over to the...

...which happened to be completely deserted (and incidentally, didn't have a piano). We were looking to sample an authentic Cuban Mojito which, back in the day, was a favorite cocktail of Ernest Hemingway's.

The Mojito (recipe & information courtesy of Tasteofcuba.com)
Ingredients:
1 teaspoon powdered sugar
Juice from 1 lime (2 ounces)
4 mint leaves
1 sprig of mint
2 ounces of Havana Club white rum
2 ounces club soda

Note: There are countless recipes for the Mojito (pronounced moh-HEE-toh), but this version is the one Hemingway himself enjoyed at the drink's place of birth, La Bodeguita del Medio in Havana.

Place the mint leaves into a long mojito glass (often called a "collins" glass) and squeeze the juice from a cut lime over it. (You'll want about two ounces of lime juice, so you may not require all of the juice from a single lime.) Add the powdered sugar, then gently smash the mint into the lime juice and sugar with a muddler (the wooden device pictured below; you can also use the back of a fork or spoon if a muddler isn't available). Add crushed ice, then add the rum and stir. Top off with club soda and garnish with a mint sprig. Fondos para arriba!

Quite an interesting concoction, I must say! We chased 'em down with some cold Cristal. :)

After the El Mojito we had dinner at Restaurante Mirador Los Coco's (seafood) and saw a magic show at the resort's theatre.

Skin the shrimp and remove the head, you say? Why bother?













On the way back to our room later that night, I found myself carrying an umbrella, one of the drinking mugs and a beer.So, I quickly came up with a way to cut down the load a bit...

Brilliant! :)

So anyway, we woke up and it was mid-week! The rain was letting up by this point, and our wandering continued...here we are poolside near the Habana bar.


One of the other small bars by the beach. 6 The piña coladas here were the best...




















Watch video of Nikki writing in the sand by clicking [here].

Scenes from a paddle boat...












As were we hanging around that afternoon, a wedding party began to assemble for a ceremony on the beach. A large crowd soon gathered to watch the happy occasion, and I captured the images below.

Welcome to Mini Jurassic Park! 6 In the wooded boardwalk area between the main hotel and the beach, the lizards run wild and free...

More relaxation on the beach. 6 (The beauty of being on vacation: Even when you're doing nothing, you're still doing something. :)

There are a variety of day trips and excursions available for purchase through the tour company; on Wednesday we went on the Seafari catamaran tour to Cayo Blanco island. This was an amazing trip which included a swim with trained dolphins, snorkeling the reef among a huge school of tropical fish (no pictures, damn!), and a seafood lunch on Cayo Blanco...all drinks included, of course! Some photos taken with the disposable camera during the day, below.

Aboard the catamaran on the way to the reef...

Lunch time for a pelican flock...

And of course, the dolphin enclosure (I had to crop this one into the shape below due to a screwed-up scan of the print).

Here we are in the water with the crazy creatures.

After swimming and having a photo taken with the dolphins, we got back aboard the catamaran and cruised to Cayo Blanco for lunch (icy cold Cristal beer, lobster, shrimps and a pretty tasty fried fish). All the passengers were allowed a couple of hours to enjoy the sun and gorgeous white sand on the island, then it was back onboard for an awesome sail back to Varadero. It was an amazing tour, the best day of the entire week. That night at the resort we had a nice Valentine's Day dinner in the main dining room; these folks provided the music. 6














In anticipation of Kelly & Yuniesky's visit the next day, that evening we decided to take it halfway-easy on our cocktail intake. :)

Main pool area at night...














The Habana Bar. 6 (Largest bar in the resort, open 24 hours.)





















On Thursday morning Nikki and I rented a couple of motorscooters, which are available right near the front door of the hotel (cost: 24 pesos for 24 hours). 6

















(This shot was taken right after Nikki realized, "Hey! I can drive one of these things!" :) 6


Kelly and her fiance Yuni were on their way by scooter from Matanzas where she was staying, and they met us in a parking area in front of the resort. They arrived around 10:30am; this was the first time Nikki and Kelly have seen each other in nine years! I got a quick photo, and we were off to Varadero for the day. 6

On a scooter doing 60 kph, the trip to town from the Playa Varadero 1920 takes about ten minutes and is a beautiful oceanside drive. It was a very cool ride. After getting the scooters parked, we walked around the Gran Parque de la Artisania market and shopped for some souvenirs.

We spotted this little guy sitting on a bench with his owner. 6 It was really hot that day in town, but he managed to lift his head long enough to pose for a photo. :)

Coconut taxis! 6 Another common means of transportation in Cuba.



A side street next to the market. 6 There wasn't an oldies car show going on, believe it or not...


I

I like the way this pic turned out. 6 ("Palm tree fireworks.")

For lunch we dropped over to the 13th Street Snack Bar. (A peso for a beer, a half-chicken dinner for around $3.50. Wasn't bad, either!).

After lunch we hopped back on the scooters and visited the local conference center & shopping mall, La Centro De Convenciones Plaza America.



























After strolling around for awhile, we were soon relaxing with a round of cold Heineken's at The Marino Bar.






And here it is, folks -- I believe it was these salami slices at the Marino that knocked me out of commission for a day. 6

At least I think that's what it was; it was the only thing I ate that nobody else did, and I was then laid up with cold sweats and stomach cramps for most of the day on Friday. It tasted normal, but live and learn, kids -- be careful what you eat and drink while outside the resort! :)

La policia outside...

After the mall, we hopped on the scooters and motored back to town...






It was great hooking up with Kelly and Yuni; by late afternoon it was time for us to head back to the resort and for them to hit the road back to Matanzas. Some parting shots before going our separate ways:



That night Nikki and I had our second a la carte dinner of the week at the Palma Real.


As you can see, the fish is prepared in a pretty basic manner...


And I had to get a shot of some of the artwork inside the Cohiba Bar. Truly fine work...


From speeding around town with Kelly and Yuni on Thursday, Nikki and I felt comfortable with jumping on a single scooter and heading to town the next day for some more sightseeing and to pick up a few additional souvenirs. More photos from the market, below.

Some of the public transportation in Cuba is pretty funky indeed...


















Painting for sale...behold, "Samuel L. Castro." 6

After we returned from town on Friday afternoon, I was completely out of commission for the entire evening (damn that rancid meat!). But I felt better after a night's sleep, and on the last day of our vacation (Saturday), we had until 4:30pm before the bus arrived to take us back to the airport. I captured a few final pictures of our neck of the woods before our buddy Jose arrived to bring our luggage to the lobby.

On the way to the catamaran on Wednesday I'd noticed Ambrosio's Cave about 5 minutes up the road from the resort, so we decided to rent a scooter for a third time and check 'er out (and maybe take another quick cruise to town!).

Cueva Ambrosio is one of the 15 archaeological sites on the Varadero peninsula which contain testimony of Indian customs. It's 820 feet long and has five interconnecting galleries. The cave contains 72 rupestrian drawings - one of the largest collections of Indian pictographs in the Caribbean islands. During Cuba's colonial period, runaway slaves used to take refuge in the cave. (A full tour is available at a cost of 3 pesos per person, but we had to return the scooter by 2pm and didn't really have time to see the whole thing). We did step inside to look around, though...

The cave is a really cool place...and is populated by quite a few fruit bats! 6

They fly around constantly. You can tell Nikki was slightly freaked out... :)








A few stops on the way to town...





...and some shots from our last tour around town on Saturday afternoon.





There are dogs in the streets everywhere in Varadero. Here's a few hangin' around the gas station...

...and an old Daschund we saw by the river who's had a few hard nights. :)
We motored back to the hotel around 2pm, and took a last walk around the resort before the inevitable bus ride back to the airport...













Yep, lots of lizards in Cuba...













...and snakes, too! (This guy's about 4 feet long.)

Mucho cacti! Glad we didn't fall in there when we were loaded...

Some images of inside the hotel...

Dining room and Main Hall.

Much of the main hotel building is "open-air;" staircases lead right outside without a locking door in sight...



























While waiting for the bus, we hung out in the lobby with this crew from Brampton, ON...

...and got these cool shots of Nik and I above the sign.




Varadero airport...

And once again, ladies and gentlemen...our capable pilots!

Aerial view over Toronto before landing...

And finally, ground transportation back to Oshawa from the airport. Nice to be home!















For a first trip to the Caribbean, Varadero was a great place to start. We'd go back! Actually, planning for the next trip is already underway... :)

Hasta la vez próxima, amigos! (Until next time, friends.)

Cheers,

Brian

J