Cuba and Costa Rica you were fun,
but now our visit must be done.
Flights back home are what we need,
to finish our summer, yes indeed.
It may be early, we may be tired,
but unfortunately our time here has expired.
Tuesday, August 7, 2018
Heading Back Home
July 19, 2017
Cuba and Costa Rica you were fun,
but now our visit must be done.
Flights back home are what we need,
to finish our summer, yes indeed.
It may be early, we may be tired,
but unfortunately our time here has expired.
Cuba and Costa Rica you were fun,
but now our visit must be done.
Flights back home are what we need,
to finish our summer, yes indeed.
It may be early, we may be tired,
but unfortunately our time here has expired.
Sunday, August 5, 2018
Our Last Day in Cuba
July 18, 2018
We had breakfast at our homestay and then were picked up by a taxi bound for Havana. This was by far our safest ride yet. We were so, so thankful for the A/C and the spacious backseat as well. We traveled back to Havana with a really nice Australian couple. Previously, for whatever reason, we kept getting put in taxis with this strange American couple. Once in Havana, we were dropped off at Padre Frank's casa but of course, he did not have room for us. Never fear. Pappi Frank never left us hanging and he immediately set us up at a friend's casa. Last time we ended up with an entire flat to ourselves, courtesy of our right hand man, so we were feeling pretty excited to find out what this set up would be like. As Frank escorted us the five blocks there he chatted with us about our adventures the past few days. When we arrived we went through not one, not two, not three, not four, but FIVE locked doors. Hmm... why would someone need their accommodation to be that secure? In addition, there wasn't a blue anchor on the door signifying that it was a government sanctioned homestay. Our first day there Papi Frank had been VERY clear that we shouldn't stay in any homes without the blue anchor. Hmm... if only we had known this was just a foreshadowing of what was to come.
However, Tash and I were starved so we ignored the signs and tried to head out of the flat for a quick lunch, but the locks proved incredibly difficult. After what felt like ten minutes of tampering, yanking, closing and opening we were finally in the sunshine of the outside world. We happened upon a fantastic hipster lunch spot and ate our fill of rice, beans and ropa vieja.
After lunch Tash headed to Frank's to buy some authentic cuban cigars while I headed back to our casa for a much needed shower. Two minutes in however, and me with a head full of shampoo, the water slowed to a trickle and then stopped completely. WHAT?! I tried to no avail to turn the faucet on and off, and even waited a few minutes thinking the water just needed a little break but would surely start flowing again soon. No dice. I exited the shower and used the little bit of water left in the sink pipes to get the shampoo out of my hair. I proceeded to use the wipes we'd been carrying around to take a hillbilly shower. When Tash returned I told her of my ridiculous ordeal so she also hillbilly showered. We set out to find the owner of the casa so we could inform him of our waterless woes. Luckily, as fate would have it, we ran into him on the staircase. He assured us that the big blue water tanks were being cleaned and that we should head out to explore and that by this evening we would be all set to take our showers. Ok, that was fair. We could deal with that. Tash and I headed to a bohemian place that Julianne suggested for dinner. However, when we asked to see the menu everything was in spanish. We didn't have a clue what anything was so we opted for drinks there instead. Because they didn't have enough room for us, they kept putting us at tables with other people until they finally found us a two seater. It was a funny experience for sure. We decided to head down the street to the tried and true El Dandy for dinner. On our way, we encountered an open front "shop" that had rifles connected to tables with chains. The man in the shop was advertising shooting the BB rifles at targets on the opposite wall. How could we not do this? What a ridiculous activity to stumble upon.
After we'd worked up an appetite from shooting, we continued on to El Dandy. It couldn't have been better. We shared a greek salad and cuban sandwich with sweet potato fries and truffle aioli.
Julianne recommended the Fabrica de Arte- a museum-ish type place that had neat exhibits and drinks. Our waitress told us it was closed but what did she know? We took our chances and hopped in a taxi there anyway. Or was it a taxi? It was a big car with a family sitting in the front who hailed us and asked us where we needed to go. They took us for a ride, literally. It was absolutely closed and we think our driver knew it. He tried to take us elsewhere and charge us an arm and a leg for our ride. No sirree. Not tonight. For it is our last night in Cuba and we know the drill. We changed our plan to drinks at a rooftop bar next door to Fabrica de Arte. We decided to make it an early night though because we were heading back to Costa Rica the next morning. Once we made it through the five locks (I'd like to tell you we were getting better at it by this point but we really weren't) Tash decided that her hillbilly shower wouldn't suffice for our flight tomorrow so she attempted a real one. About five minutes in she came out of the shower crying and calling my name. "What's wrong, What's wrong?!" I exclaimed. Her eyes were burning and her skin was tingling. I rushed into the bathroom and was immediately consumed with the overpowering stench and stickiness of chlorine. Tash said that the water coming out of the faucet was HEAVILY chlorinated and she wasn't kidding. She also said that when she tried to turn the shower off it shocked her. I looked up and immediately knew why. There were exposed wires coming out of the shower head. Since Tash was soaking wet I knew she couldn't turn the shower off so the task fell to me. I himmed and hawed for a few minutes trying to figure out my plan of attack. I finally decided to stand on the toilet and lean into the shower while holding a dry towel that I used to quickly flick at the knob. After a few zaps, we managed to get the shower off. Tash had to take yet another hillbilly shower because her skin was covered in chlorine. Needless to say, I didn't try my luck in the cuban shower from hell but instead opted for the hillbilly one. Our heavily chlorinated, baby wiped selves were ready to be done with Cuba.
We had breakfast at our homestay and then were picked up by a taxi bound for Havana. This was by far our safest ride yet. We were so, so thankful for the A/C and the spacious backseat as well. We traveled back to Havana with a really nice Australian couple. Previously, for whatever reason, we kept getting put in taxis with this strange American couple. Once in Havana, we were dropped off at Padre Frank's casa but of course, he did not have room for us. Never fear. Pappi Frank never left us hanging and he immediately set us up at a friend's casa. Last time we ended up with an entire flat to ourselves, courtesy of our right hand man, so we were feeling pretty excited to find out what this set up would be like. As Frank escorted us the five blocks there he chatted with us about our adventures the past few days. When we arrived we went through not one, not two, not three, not four, but FIVE locked doors. Hmm... why would someone need their accommodation to be that secure? In addition, there wasn't a blue anchor on the door signifying that it was a government sanctioned homestay. Our first day there Papi Frank had been VERY clear that we shouldn't stay in any homes without the blue anchor. Hmm... if only we had known this was just a foreshadowing of what was to come.
However, Tash and I were starved so we ignored the signs and tried to head out of the flat for a quick lunch, but the locks proved incredibly difficult. After what felt like ten minutes of tampering, yanking, closing and opening we were finally in the sunshine of the outside world. We happened upon a fantastic hipster lunch spot and ate our fill of rice, beans and ropa vieja.
After lunch Tash headed to Frank's to buy some authentic cuban cigars while I headed back to our casa for a much needed shower. Two minutes in however, and me with a head full of shampoo, the water slowed to a trickle and then stopped completely. WHAT?! I tried to no avail to turn the faucet on and off, and even waited a few minutes thinking the water just needed a little break but would surely start flowing again soon. No dice. I exited the shower and used the little bit of water left in the sink pipes to get the shampoo out of my hair. I proceeded to use the wipes we'd been carrying around to take a hillbilly shower. When Tash returned I told her of my ridiculous ordeal so she also hillbilly showered. We set out to find the owner of the casa so we could inform him of our waterless woes. Luckily, as fate would have it, we ran into him on the staircase. He assured us that the big blue water tanks were being cleaned and that we should head out to explore and that by this evening we would be all set to take our showers. Ok, that was fair. We could deal with that. Tash and I headed to a bohemian place that Julianne suggested for dinner. However, when we asked to see the menu everything was in spanish. We didn't have a clue what anything was so we opted for drinks there instead. Because they didn't have enough room for us, they kept putting us at tables with other people until they finally found us a two seater. It was a funny experience for sure. We decided to head down the street to the tried and true El Dandy for dinner. On our way, we encountered an open front "shop" that had rifles connected to tables with chains. The man in the shop was advertising shooting the BB rifles at targets on the opposite wall. How could we not do this? What a ridiculous activity to stumble upon.
After we'd worked up an appetite from shooting, we continued on to El Dandy. It couldn't have been better. We shared a greek salad and cuban sandwich with sweet potato fries and truffle aioli.
Julianne recommended the Fabrica de Arte- a museum-ish type place that had neat exhibits and drinks. Our waitress told us it was closed but what did she know? We took our chances and hopped in a taxi there anyway. Or was it a taxi? It was a big car with a family sitting in the front who hailed us and asked us where we needed to go. They took us for a ride, literally. It was absolutely closed and we think our driver knew it. He tried to take us elsewhere and charge us an arm and a leg for our ride. No sirree. Not tonight. For it is our last night in Cuba and we know the drill. We changed our plan to drinks at a rooftop bar next door to Fabrica de Arte. We decided to make it an early night though because we were heading back to Costa Rica the next morning. Once we made it through the five locks (I'd like to tell you we were getting better at it by this point but we really weren't) Tash decided that her hillbilly shower wouldn't suffice for our flight tomorrow so she attempted a real one. About five minutes in she came out of the shower crying and calling my name. "What's wrong, What's wrong?!" I exclaimed. Her eyes were burning and her skin was tingling. I rushed into the bathroom and was immediately consumed with the overpowering stench and stickiness of chlorine. Tash said that the water coming out of the faucet was HEAVILY chlorinated and she wasn't kidding. She also said that when she tried to turn the shower off it shocked her. I looked up and immediately knew why. There were exposed wires coming out of the shower head. Since Tash was soaking wet I knew she couldn't turn the shower off so the task fell to me. I himmed and hawed for a few minutes trying to figure out my plan of attack. I finally decided to stand on the toilet and lean into the shower while holding a dry towel that I used to quickly flick at the knob. After a few zaps, we managed to get the shower off. Tash had to take yet another hillbilly shower because her skin was covered in chlorine. Needless to say, I didn't try my luck in the cuban shower from hell but instead opted for the hillbilly one. Our heavily chlorinated, baby wiped selves were ready to be done with Cuba.
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