• February 11 Bus tickets! Another cuban hero, coffee, and good food again

    Our first trip for the day was to get bus tickets. It took several hours last time so we weren't looking forward to the job. We walked down from our casa and came across a Royal Bank of Canada building that was in the process of being completely gutted and restored. The old building had […more]

  • February 10, Bus trip to Santiago de Cuba

    When we got up it was raining a little and threatening worse so we jumped at the first break in the rain to walk up to the bus station. We were several hours early but the timing sucked no matter what so we bit the bullet and waited. I took the opportunity to do a […more]

  • February 9 Rain’s almost done, time for a tour.

    We were up and had breakfast in time to go to the Cubatur office to catch a tour, on our way we walked by the Masonic Lodge in Baracoa, (Just down the street from the Cubatur office). When we got to the Cubatur office we found out that they had canceled everything the previous day […more]

  • February 8, Rain Rain go away, We’ve had enough already.

    We booked a tour for a river, a boat ride, a swim in a river and a beach visit. We had breakfast on our terrace but the rain was threatening. By the time it was time to go to meet at the Cubatur office there was enough rain the church was barely visible and we […more]

  • February 07 Rain, rain, and then more RAIN

    It rained during the night. Our room has louvered windows and is great as air flows all around and we up on the top floor so we don't have to close things up for security. The fresh air turned into rain so I got up and closed on side of the building and went back […more]

  • February 6, If you don’t like the way I drive, stay out of the ditch!

    We asked the casa to move our breakfast to 0730 so we could have a little extra time to get to our tour to the rainforest that started at 8:30 It wasn't a long walk to get to the tour company but if anything went awry it would give us a few minutes to adjust. […more]

  • Feb 5 Fantastic bus trip from Santiago de Cuba to Baracoa and we almost made it.

    Wilberto shows up in the morning and we made it safely to the bus terminal. He didn't say a word and neither did I. The casa owner made us a small breakfast it was very early and didn't charge us for it. Bonnie figured it was a peace offering. It was only after we settled […more]

  • February 4 A bank, a bank, and finally a frigging bank!

    We walked up to the Revolution Square and took a few pictures. It is beside the Viazul bus station and the taxi drivers said it was about a 45 minute walk they were about right. We took a bicycle taxi back to Parque Cespetes and we went looking for a bank Bonnie thought we were […more]

  • February 03, Rum, rum, more rum, and a chocolate soldier

    We started the day with two things in mind, the Emilio Bacardi Museum, and The Carnival Museum. We struck out completely on the Bacardi museum it is closed for renovations and not going to open until June. Strike two was the Carnival Museum. Santiago de Cuba has a Carnival much along the lines of Bahamas' […more]

  • February 2, The planted, the plants, and the almost planted.

    We had our tour booked but Beatrix was not around this morning so we were a little unsure if the jeep was leaving at 9:30 or 10. It turned out to be closer to 9:30 so we were good. Our first stop was the cemetery(cemeterio patrimonial Santa Ifigenia). According to the guide books, this is […more]

  • February 01, The east end of the historical walk

    Our casa is on Trinidad also called General Portuondo, every street has two names, one listed on the buildings on the street, and one listed on the guides. Some of the guides use one set of names and the other one may use the other set of names. It's a mixed bag and confusing at […more]

  • Jan 31 Getting lost in Santiago de Cuba

    Breakfast wasn't quite as good as Pepe's but That is hardly a criticism. Pepe is a top grade chef and presentation is a big thing to chef's. The food was still very good, and lots of it. Bananas, pineapple, melons, rolls (HONEY TO DIE FOR) two boiled eggs, and amazingly good coffee. The first thing […more]

  • January 30, On our list of Good Days in Cuba, This wasn’t one of them.

    We knew it probably wasn't going to be considering we were starting out at 10:00 pm (Jan 29) for a 15 and a half hour bus ride. By the time we got to Santigo de Cuba at 13:30, with one quick bathroom break, and no coffee or any food since 5 pm the previous day […more]

  • January 29 Walking around Varadero

    Our bus was leaving at 21:45 so we had a day to walk around and do not much of anything. We checked out of Pepe's and Elisa's and they were kind enough to allow us to leave our bags in their apartment and come back and get them later. They had another guest coming in […more]

  • January 28, 2015 A day to get on Cuban time

    We always take a day for letting our bodies adjust to the climate and to go from winter hibernation mode to actually wanting to do something outside. Today is to get our tickets to Santiago de Cuba and ask Elisa to call the next casa, Walk the beach and relax. The school is closed for […more]

  • January 27 2015 ESCAPE!

    Made it out of Fredericton in the nick of time SNOWMAGGEDON was what the US was calling the storm. Our forecast was 20-30 cm (8 to 12 inches) with blowing winds. Everyone called asking if we knew about the storm and asking if we were going to get out. The weathernetwork.com weather forecast said that […more]

  • We survived!

    The post tropical storm Arthur stopped by for a visit. We had lots of warning. We were leading the FYC Summer Cruise and we got as far as Douglas Harbour and pulled the plug. Douglas Harbour is very well protected, much better than Fredericton. So we pulled the plug on the cruise and did our […more]

  • Easter weekend

    Just got back from our Easter weekend visiting with my mother and step-father, brother, and extended family. We were in Alma for most of the weekend and it was a nice visit. It was a nice weekend and we walked down to the "beach" a number of times. The Bay of Fundy has the highest […more]

  • The summary of our 2014 Cuba trip

    I've put all of the posts in order so that it is easier to read and if you want to print a copy for easier reading, or taking to your mother so she can read it(the reason I did it). You can load the summary and just hit print. Winter 2014 Our second trip to […more]

  • February 18th and 19th The trip home.

    Pepe made our breakfast again, no eggs today either. We did have bread, apparently the bakery where most of the people get their bread had run out of flour so bread was in short supply. One of the other people we were talking to was complaining about not having bread. We walked over to the […more]