11-Mar-2004, 03:56 PM
Thought I'd try this lovely little forum once again. We just had two of our Leyland nieces over for a short vacation, they went back yesterday, tired but happy.
Talking of vacations, I thought you might be interested in reading about a vacation that I and three of my soccer playing friends went on to Cuba. Any body been there ? It is a terribly run down island, not really fit to be called a tourist spot, but very interesting..
We had a great time mind you, we hired a mini van, and a Cuban driver for the week, and we covered quite a bit of the island. Needless to say, it is a poverty stricken island, with most buildings not having seen a splash of paint since the Castro invasion in 1959, not to mention the state of the vehicles, mostly late fifty models, or Lada's, from the old USSR, bicycles and moped's are the main source of transportation, sometimes with a s many a four to a bike, all at the same time !
We stayed in some lovely ' tourist ' hotels, at very reasonable prices, one as low as $13 US a night, with a five course meal for $8 US, and we stayed some nights at B&B's, arranged by our Cuban driver.
At one place we were fortunate enough to meet one of the ' original ' eighty members of the Castro invasion force from back in 1959. He was 65 years old now, but had all kinds of certificates of ' valour ' and some great photo's of himself with Castro. He was very interesting to listen to. But even he is under the strain of life in a communist country, where the ' ordinary ' folk aren't allowed to mix with the tourists. Our driver for instance was not allowed to come into some of the restaurants that we visited, and ' we visitors ', were not allowed to ride the public transport...it was rental car, or taxi, or walk it !!
Old Havana is in a state of disrepair that most of us couldn't envision. There are very few stores with anything worth buying, even souvenirs are hard to come by.
The interesting thing about the monetary system is that it runs on the American dollar, with change being given in the Cuban peso, which the tourist is not allowed to use !! How's that for a nifty way of charging you the full dollar !!
Here's an interesting bit of life....most Cuban public toilet's are ' serviced ' (cleaned), by women who park themselves outside of the toilet and demand a small ' tip ' for the service...fair enough eh ? Trouble is, you have to tell them just what you intend to do while in the toilet....they hand out the toilet paper !!!! Very interesting situation eh ?
We carried our own with us ;-)) Clever eh ??
We did manage to get about with our driver, and like he said, we probably saw more of the island than 90% of the people that have lived there all their lives, travel is very restricted for the Cuban's, the cost alone is a massive deterrent to them, and as you probably guessed, they aren't allowed to leave the island...sad eh ?
Anyway, all in all, it was very interesting, but it was nice to get back to civilization.
Talking of vacations, I thought you might be interested in reading about a vacation that I and three of my soccer playing friends went on to Cuba. Any body been there ? It is a terribly run down island, not really fit to be called a tourist spot, but very interesting..
We had a great time mind you, we hired a mini van, and a Cuban driver for the week, and we covered quite a bit of the island. Needless to say, it is a poverty stricken island, with most buildings not having seen a splash of paint since the Castro invasion in 1959, not to mention the state of the vehicles, mostly late fifty models, or Lada's, from the old USSR, bicycles and moped's are the main source of transportation, sometimes with a s many a four to a bike, all at the same time !
We stayed in some lovely ' tourist ' hotels, at very reasonable prices, one as low as $13 US a night, with a five course meal for $8 US, and we stayed some nights at B&B's, arranged by our Cuban driver.
At one place we were fortunate enough to meet one of the ' original ' eighty members of the Castro invasion force from back in 1959. He was 65 years old now, but had all kinds of certificates of ' valour ' and some great photo's of himself with Castro. He was very interesting to listen to. But even he is under the strain of life in a communist country, where the ' ordinary ' folk aren't allowed to mix with the tourists. Our driver for instance was not allowed to come into some of the restaurants that we visited, and ' we visitors ', were not allowed to ride the public transport...it was rental car, or taxi, or walk it !!
Old Havana is in a state of disrepair that most of us couldn't envision. There are very few stores with anything worth buying, even souvenirs are hard to come by.
The interesting thing about the monetary system is that it runs on the American dollar, with change being given in the Cuban peso, which the tourist is not allowed to use !! How's that for a nifty way of charging you the full dollar !!
Here's an interesting bit of life....most Cuban public toilet's are ' serviced ' (cleaned), by women who park themselves outside of the toilet and demand a small ' tip ' for the service...fair enough eh ? Trouble is, you have to tell them just what you intend to do while in the toilet....they hand out the toilet paper !!!! Very interesting situation eh ?
We carried our own with us ;-)) Clever eh ??
We did manage to get about with our driver, and like he said, we probably saw more of the island than 90% of the people that have lived there all their lives, travel is very restricted for the Cuban's, the cost alone is a massive deterrent to them, and as you probably guessed, they aren't allowed to leave the island...sad eh ?
Anyway, all in all, it was very interesting, but it was nice to get back to civilization.