Cuba! After being taunted and continuously “pushed” to go to Cuba by a friend I finally went along with him. I took off to Cuba on Thursday, May 27th, 2010 and returned yesterday (Friday, June 4th, 2010).  It was an excellent 7 day trip to Cuba with a great chance to experience a different lifestyle and way of life. I stayed at Playa de Oro, Varadero, and had a one day trip to Havana on a bus tour.
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(All images and video taken with a Lumix GF1 – pancake lens. 97 images contained within this article.)
– Figma images in second Cuba article (next one over).
How is Cuban life? Very poor and great at the same time. People seem to be outright friendly (probably more so then in Canada). Any Cuban is willing to become your amigo (friend) and is willing to help you out in return. Hotel staff, drivers, bus drivers, police, locals anybody. I’ve been trying to compare Canada and Cuba in every aspect of life and can see Cuba as another province or territory belonging to Canada. You’ll see tons of Canadian related materials on buses, on their person, at hotels, what they own, on the street somewhere, and anywhere else you can imagine. Us Canadians always gift the Cubans so they love us, or so it seems heh.
Apparently the Cubans are better drivers then my fellow Canadians. I haven’t seen or heard of any outrages crashes . The Cubans are patient chillin’, calm, relaxed people who are trying to make the most out of their life in Cuba. They’ll help you out whenever in need and will honk to let you know they’re driving by when you’re cycling or scootering. Do expect beggars (Havana tourist spots) as Cubans gain (on average) 10 pesos a month. If lucky, the Cubans will gain 50 pesos (or more) in Varadero.
Lastly, If you are allowed to travel to Cuba, do bring things you no longer cherish and gift them to Cubans who might want them. If anything, you might make a real friend instead of those pretending to be ones. Don’t just give them the gifts and expect something great, get to know the person and let everything flow naturally because who knows what situation you might get yourself into.
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Montreal – Trudeau Airport – YUL (or CYUL in Flight Sim’ X)
Now then, picture tour time. We’ll start off with a Sunwing monitor showing a Windows XP screen saver on it at Montreal’s Trudeau airport.
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Airport security on a segway. I found it amusing as I never seen such a thing at other airports. Big airport + Segways & bikes = more efficient. The thing was quick causing me to blurry the image a bit, sorry.
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Loose change piles at St Hubert’s counter and a warm meal we ordered.
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The flight to Varadero.
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First snack.
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The main meal. Was full of St Hubert’s food, couldn’t eat this.
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The moon lighting up the night sky and the top of the clouds.
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After finding out I had to use the “ISO” option next to Auto the images ended up being nicer, 2 second timer.
Night views of Florida – Miami and probably Tampa Bay.
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Cuba – Varadero & Playa de Oro
When the air re-pressurized to allow normal air flow all I could smell was some kind of salty air. I can’t describe the smell though, but it probably might of been the airport vehicle exhaust and the salt air merging or something. Next thing you see would be various 1980’s Eastern Europe and Russian designs at the airport and airport security. Communist style as people say.
And the next surprise was a modern Asian bus. I swear I seen these on Hong Kong and Malaysian blog sites. Yutong buses.
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A giant ass cockroach on the first floor of the hotel. It wasn’t much of a surprise as I’ve seen a massive swarm of tiny ones in welfare home complexes here in Ottawa. Never take first floor rooms if you dislike insects and moldy walls in Cuba. Might not be the case everywhere else and it might be fine in other rooms. That was the only roach I seen in my 7 day period there. Its unavoidable and might as well accept it. Better yet, spend your whole 1-2 weeks trying to find a roach on the first floor, bet you won’t find many.
Go with the Canadian and Cuban mentality of “who the *beep* cares, have fun, its Cuba!”
Giant and tall roach as my friend put it.
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With my 1 hour sleep I snacked out on this an omelet, bacon, and some kind of sausage that tasted like headcheese.
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Playa de Oro’s “indoor” bar. The main hotel had a lifted and opened roof on 8 pillars and 4 incomplete walls to allow air in. It was a great place to relax or have fun at. Everybody is your friend, regardless of who they are or where they come from.
For those not in the know, this isn’t something like a school setting where you can have one sided friendships. Its a place where you open up and talk about whatever you want to whoever you want. No peer pressure and no dramatic bull crap. Probably sounds weird to those who already know this but meh, just stating the obvious. Just saying. It even looks weird when typing this up.
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The coolest roof I’ve seen on any hotel on the strip or other cities I went to.
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A mini Banana tree, or maybe some other species of trees that is similar to it. View of a tennis court behind it.
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Dinner at the indoor restaurant. Fish, fries, potatoes, and rice.
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Ham and Cheese burgers and regular burgers with fries.
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Maids love to get creative for their tourist visitors. Three people, two rooms with twice as many chances to view many different maid creations heh. I apparently missed out on a Medusa creation *sad face*.
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A harmless insect sleeping near a door.
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And then a few images of me car spotting for forgotten American antique cars as everything has to be modern in this world. There has to be a mix with the old and the new, common! There were some nicely painted and stickered cars that slipped passed my camera.
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Varadero Bus tours – 9am till 5 pm (Sometimes till 8 pm?). The double decker was also a Yutong.
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Plaza America – Biggest mall in Cuba.
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“The toilet is unemployed!” – my friend
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Alcohol in a grocery store? You’d have to go a local “The Beer Store” or “LCBO” to get one in Ontario. Either that, or go to Quebec and buy it normally like any other sane nation around the world. Again, its Cuba’s “who cares and have fun” mentality. My friend was able to drink a can of beer inside the grocery store and the Plaza without anyone getting all uppity.
If you’re a reader/lurker from Ontario or Quebec then please stay neutral as we both know we love to provoke one another. A similar type like Canada and USA provoking one another over everything possible.
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And car spotting once more. I managed to personally see an old bus that Slovakia once used for their SAD buses that I once seen in old pictures. Not this bus, maybe this or this Zlaty Bazant bus (click the two bolded words).
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Mini mall.
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I seen something similar in Slovakia, Modra.
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Anybody play Vice City? I keep being reminded of that when seeing these cares.
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Capone’s Villa in Varadero. It got turned into a mini-museum/tourist attraction with a restaurant.
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A Cuban car inside a restaurant. I seen a similar car during Canada Day on July 1st, 2008 here in Ottawa passing by in-front of Basilica Cathedral.
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Taxi’s that you’ll find in both Varadero and Havana. This doesn’t look Cuban at all. This image looks more Canadian then Cuban.
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Cuba, Havana
Went to Havana for a day on a bus tour. So many pushy beggars asking for 1 peso from people. The pro-beggers are females dressed up in 1800’s dresses holding a basket and, Holy crap, they were extremely pushy and forceful. They would purposely get in your picture. If you are going then prepare yourself to be both kind and forceful at the same time as they’ll even try grasping your arm. Try walking like some kind of wind up toy solider or something? The normal beggars are more tolerable as they come up to you and walk away or just sit somewhere.
Minus that, Havana seemed modern enough to keep up with the world. Its a mix of old and the new. You’ll see hordes of European influences ranging from street signs, road patterns, building structures, vehicles, and etc. Cuba is like the Europe of North America in almost every aspect, except for present day technology and such. I mean, they do have computers and all, but they’re slightly dated. Even more so for the average person. Personal computers look like they came from the late 1990’s or early 2000’s.
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Vultures sitting next to the tallest bridge in Cuba.
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The best bartenders not from any hotel. They’ll sing to any song and are willing to be in any picture for later viewing pleasure, free of charge. Buy a drink to support their uniqueness?
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Fun fact: All vintage cars use Toyota engines.
Also, note the emblem on the front half of the car. See what it is? A Ferrari emblem with a playboy bunny on it. Italian playboy.
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Havana Club Museum
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Drink up!
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Funny construction hat. He even did a quick hand pose/wave (not the rude one) which didn’t make it into the shot.
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Stray cats = girl gatherer. Get your girls vaccinated or checked up on in case they bring some kind of illness.
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Entrance to the French tunnel.
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The statue from Cuba’s bigger version of America’s White House.
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I was disappointed when I saw graffiti in Havana, but glad they weren’t useless tags. Props to those in Havana for keeping their city as clean as possible. I only saw these kinds of graffiti in-front of China town’s entrance. The bus also took us down poorer areas and saw no graffiti there.
Oh, and the train is part of the train museum.
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Various bottles in “Romeo and Juliet” factory.
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Havana’s Market. I got my Figma’s a single chair made out of black bull horn. Its a nice fit and wished I got two for 10 pesos.
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Varadero:
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A marina on the northern end of the Varadero peninsula.The area next to it was heavily under construction as I saw trucks coming and going a lot. Took a bike on the second last day to take a picture of this and anything else seen up north.
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Rich 5 star hotels next to a hotel that was under construction (not in picture). Note the Heron I tried to take a picture of.
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Dolphins on the way back. They were quite friendly and looked like they were treated well.They had a large enough closed off area and saw no signs of oil slicks and the like from boats, passing vehicles, and the other side of the mini bridge.
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And the last day brought rain and a light thunderstorm as to cry for mine and my friend’s departure from Cuba. On the plus side, my hotel space had an extended balcony that my friend exploited a lot. Please be a good tourist and don’t get us banned or given a worst treatment that Japan is thinking of, or tried.
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I tried to get my own Cuban sunset as my friend took some from his 6 trips there.
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I was even gifted with two rainbows, heh. One was almost a complete arch while another looked like an incomplete mirror image.
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Rain, lovely rain! Don’t worry, I used my hat to shield the camera from the rain when hopping from the funny roof to the umbrellas.
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Varadero Airport to Montreal – VRA -> YUL.
Damn, left the hotel with some silly drama at 12 am, slept 45 minutes at the airport, and took off 3 or 4 am. Arrived at Montreal airport at around 7:25 am with some great views and videos upon landing. Its amazing what the sun at Cuba can do to your body. Me and the two others I went with were all shivering on the flight, at the airport from the A/C, and even when standing outside. People thought we were weird but hey, go sit under the sun for seven days and tell me you shivered as well when returning to Montreal, haha.
Breakfast on the plane.
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Funky clouds at 38,000 or 39,000 feet in the air. The camera didn’t like the clouds so I had to get the window in view. Even with the blurriness, this is how it looked.
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Montreal!
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YUL – Trudeau airport.
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My Cuba Trip – 2010
Video can also be seen in part three article, enjoy!
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Crazy Highlights:
– A guy from London, Ontario kept stiring up crap at Playa de Oro while singing the same songs over and over. He later started behaving after he got told off by the people at the hotel and during a show at 10 pm.
– A black bird nearly shat in a girl’s plate. I had to go up and tell them a bird did just in case it didn’t crap in their food and get them sick. It crapped on the bench in between two girls in the group of five. You’ll see which bird in part two or three.
– Almost got into a fight with a group of loud French Canadians who wouldn’t shut up during a show. They were talking in the most annoying way possible. I spilled their beer and left it at that. Not proud of it as I dislike fighting.
– While sitting at the back of the mini-tour bus heading back from Havana, the bus kept hitting pot holes and the like causing me and my friend to fly in the air many times.
– A group of Frenchies tried to out blast my friend’s trance causing a local Cuban to laugh at the Frenchies. The Cuban later mocked them in the hotel’s bar.
– A sidewalk in the northern Varadero peninsula had a random hole with trees growing in it nearly causing me and my friend to fall in it.
– My friend drinking beer in the grocery store. When I was taking the picture of my friend the female cashiers were laughing at him posing for the picture.
– I used my Figma Ryomu to help with tipping as I thought the maid would chuckle at it because they loved to make creative towel creations. The situation unknowingly got worse where she was mistaken as a gift with me and my friend not knowing what happened. When we were returning to the room we noticed the maid had it and was playing it with both of us going “oh, she’ll return it when cleaning the room”, until our minds went *click*. I asked for it back and tried to apologize to her which got lost in translation. My friend later apologize and we gifted her when we left.
– I left my card reader at home. I later realizedI could of used my laptop’s built in card reader to save the videos and images when back in Montreal. We traveled across Varadero’s downtown region in search for a USB cable and the like searching for it. We found the store but we didn’t buy the cable which was 30 pesos. The bright side was we got to travel across Varadero instead of beaching at the hotel and I would only take necessary pictures and videos. 777 pictures and videos on my Lumix GF1 and more on my Sony W170.
More forgotten highlights coming soon….
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Thanks for viewing this article and hoped it wasn’t too much for both you and your internet connection. Thanks for lurking, viewing, or skimming through my article. I hope I also didn’t offend anybody as I tried to be as neutral as possible.