Old Fashioned Cars in Cuba

July 12, 2017

Tash and I awoke to breakfast being served by Marilyn's mother, an older, incredibly sweet cubano woman. We enjoyed our food leisurely, not realizing that we would have to vacate the premises that morning and that the couple who would be staying in our room would arrive early. We were shooed out with less than 10 minutes to get our things together. Talk about a rushed morning!
Demaris came to pick us up and walk us to our new homestay, Villegas 66. She is a good friend of Frank's and because Frank didn't have room for us he set us up with her. Her apartment was huge and it was completely vacant. She lived in a flat down the road with her husband so we had the place all to ourselves. There was a walk in shower, which we both took advantage of, because at Frank's they had "run out of water". This happens sometimes because the way water delivery works in Cuba is much different than in other places. Each walk up has big blue tanks on the roof, porch or somewhere inside. These tanks hold the water for the household. Each week a truck comes around to refill these giant tanks. However, if you use all of the water in the tank before the truck comes around again, you're SOL. 
After freshening up, Demaris set us up for a driving tour of Havana. She told us that her friend would take us and that he had a GREAT car for it. A few minutes before the tour, Demaris' friend showed up with his car. A few minutes later, the cops showed up. Demaris told us to wait upstairs. She headed down with lemonade and sweet talked the cops for a few minutes before Tash and I were allowed to take our seats in the car. Demaris' friend wasn't a great guide because he didn't say much at all, but she was right, he did have a pretty cool car. We drove around Havana in the HOT, HOT sun and saw many of the beautiful buildings, landscapes and monuments. There were even a few people who asked to take photos with our car! 

After driving around Tash and I headed to Cha Cha Cha, an open air restaurant with an upstairs seating area. We ordered what we thought were chicken fajitas, but were really fried chicken fingers. Ooops! We went back to our homestay where Demaris gave us a cigar from her humidor. Papi Frank had recommended a taco joint for dinner, so we headed there. It was a super small place that was really difficult to find. Tash and I thought the tacos were questionable at best, especially considering we weren't exactly sure what the mystery meat was in the middle. Because Demaris' apartment had a cute little balcony we decided to have a few beers at the house before hitting up the Buenavista Social Club. 

This is an outdoor club with live music where you're allowed to smoke cigars. The place was flooded with old people. Tash and I were the youngest there by years and years. We didn't care though, because when it came time to light and cut our cigar, there were plenty of people around who were able to help us out. We did some dancing while at the club, but mostly just listened to the music. 

As the band was wrapping up, we noticed a guy around our age lingering, so we headed over to chat. He was a tour guide who was just getting ready to bring his group back to their hotel for the evening. He offered for us to jump on the bus so that we could learn a few more things about Havana on our way home. We dropped off the chinese tourists at their hotel, and then Edgar the tour guide and Michael the bus driver took us on an adventure we'll never forget! They brought us to a store to buy a few beers so that we could sit back, relax and enjoy the views as we drove around. They then took us to a completely cubano club. I mean no tourists, none. Not only was the club all cubano, but they allowed smoking INSIDE the club. Not on the dance floor though, rather, on the floor before the dance floor. Last time I checked smoke rises, but who am I to judge? We danced the night away and I even tried some of my spanish on a local, Ariel. Shoutout to Mo for all of those helpful spanish lessons! I was able to roughly communicate but that was more than enough for him. He offered to take Tash and I for pizza, however Edgar warned that it wasn't in a great neighborhood, so we turned back and taxied home. What a night in Havana!

Welcome to Havana, Cuba

July 11, 2017

Tash and I were up at 3am and in a taxi by 3:30. We had a really early flight to CUBA :)
I sat one row in front of Tash on the flight and boy did she have some crazy amigos sitting next to her. They ordered orange juice with four sugars each and then asked for extra cans of pop. They tried to explain to the two of us what hot commodities the pops were and wanted us to have them before exiting the flight.
Tash and I took a pirate taxi from the airport driven by none other than Rico Suave himself. This car, as well as this man's style, was E-X-P-E-N-S-I-V-E. However, dropping us on the side of the road at some random unmarked building to exchange our money did not leave us feeling very E-X-P-E-N-S-I-V-E. We eventually got to our hostel though, which was more like a homestay, run by an AMAZING couple Marilyn and Frank. 

Papi Frank as we affectionately started calling him, sat and chatted with us for a long while and then took out us and about in Cuba. Among other things he told us, was that if we didn't see a blue anchor sign on the door, it meant that the place of residence wasn't a sanctioned homestay and that we needed to avoid it. 

After, he brought us to a local restaurant with a fish and beef special that was so delicious (but way, way too much food for Tash and I). 

We walked around after lunch and noticed that all of the buildings were so colorful! The heat was horrendous though, so we headed back to our casa to take a nap. I think Frank and Marilyn thought we were crazy for sleeping midday, but also for running the AC while it was still light outside. Tash and I had a really hard time getting up from our nap, but we knew we would regret it if we slept away our first night in Havana. 

While we were getting ready, the power went out. Papi Frank told us that this was extremely common and sure enough, we looked around to find that the whole block was out. Tash and I used our phone lights to navigate the little house through the small sliding door that provided closure to our bedroom and down the tiny stairway that even I had to duck under. 

Tash and I went to the Florida hotel which had a bar downstairs for dancing. This bar however, was like no normal hotel bar. The restrooms were down the hall and man were they a sight. Firstly, the door didn't latch, which wasn't a big deal until I came to find that the toilet was missing it's seat. Not only that, but there was no toilet paper in sight. Upon exiting the restroom, I found that both sinks were completely dry. I sure was glad we were staying in our homestay and not this hotel. However, what the hotel lacked in facilities, it made up for in experiences. The music was bumpin, the mojitos were strong and the men were ready to dance! Tash and I were immediately scooped up by the local cubanos whose pleasure it was to teach us to salsa all night long. 

Roberto took a particular liking to us and even offered to bring us to another club before we headed home. Papi Frank warned us about these overeager cubano boys though, so Tash and I headed home on our own, counting our first night in Havana as a win.

If Reading Isn't Really Your Style

I am so lucky to be traveling with such an awesome companion. Not only does she take tons of photos and video footage, but then she compiles them into a memory of our trip that will last us a lifetime. Check out this video if you want to see and experience Costa Rica like we did!
Costa Rica Video

Surf's Up, Dude

July 10, 2017

This morning Tash and I got up early for our surfing lessons. We had two instructors, Diego and Axel, who were teaching us and a family of four. We spent the first part of our time on the sand. The instructors drew surfboard outlines for us and showed us proper technique. We had to practice laying on the boards and then jumping up quickly into the sideways position. After some sand practice, we headed out to the water. The boards were huge and incredibly awkward (earlier we saw a couple take off from our hostel with two rented boards and head toward the beach-- there is no way I would've been able to carry my board all the way to the beach. I struggled carrying it from the surf to the sand). 
My instructor was awesome and helped me position myself in the water. He saw a wave coming and told me this was the one we were going to catch. He yelled for me to start paddling and then told me when to stand up. I hopped up and didn't lose my balance but instead rode the wave in toward the shore. I was so fucking excited that I had ridden the first wave that I'd tried! Earlier this morning I was thinking I'd be lucky if I got the hang of it by the end of my lesson and was able to catch one or two waves. Boy was I wrong! Now I was hooked. I grabbed my board and headed back out to the water to ride again. Diego was really helpful because he told me which waves to catch and he helped me by yelling "Stand!" By the end of our hour though, Diego was letting me judge which waves I should take and letting me "feel the vibe of the wave" in order to determine when to stand. Surfing on my own was a bit more difficult, but still manageable. 

Meanwhile, Tash was battling her board, much like I had been yesterday with the paddles. She just couldn't seem to get up. She tried, and tried, and tried some more. Our instructor even encouraged her with the kind words, "don't suck, try harder", which should have been all the motivation she needed :) Finally, after a much needed fruit and water break (you don't realize how exhausted you are until you get out the water), Tash was able to get up on her first wave. We all (instructors, myself and the family of four) were so happy for her!
Surfing was one of my most favorite activities in Costa Rica. I would definitely love to go again sometime!
After finishing we headed back to Flutterby for lunch. I ate a hearty meal and then relaxed in a rocking chair on our cabin porch to finish my book. 

Around 2pm, Tash and I waved Flutterby goodbye and headed to the bus station, where we waited for 2 hours. Our bus finally picked us up and we started our 7 hour bus journey to San Jose. 

When we arrived the station was closed so we were caged in in a very awkward way. It was like being in a zoo. All of the taxi drivers were outside hooting and hollering and waiting for us to step out of the metal enclosure. Tash and I were incredibly overwhelmed and grabbed a man who wasn't straining his vocal cords to get our attention. Overall, Tash and I didn't get a good vibe in San Jose. To be fair however, we arrived at night, when it was dark, and most establishments were closed. We tried to ask our hostel clerk if it would be safe for us to walk and get a bite to eat but he just smiled. This exchange turned into Tash and I trying to act out our question by using the words "hombre mal" and pointing at the street. Needless to say, this charade ended with Tash and I on the streets hoping that we wouldn't be "mauled" by an "hombre mal". We found a bar so had a quick beer (this is where I first experienced the classic "beer napkin" tradition of central america") and some food (did you know that "rice with shrimp" and "shrimp rice with" are actually two different dishes? Me Neither!) before heading to bed. We had to be up at 3:30 the next morning for our flight to Cuba.

one and done, paddle boards are not for everyone

Jul 9, 2017

This morning Tash and I got up at 6am to wish Chelsea goodbye. We then hurriedly went back to bed. This was the first morning of the whole trip that we'd gotten to "sleep in". We checked out of our three bed and took a taxi to Flutterby, the hostel we had spent some time at the day before. Tash and I booked a two bed cabin and then indulged in Sunday brunch. 

After, we headed out for our paddle board tour. Tash and I thought we had enough time to make it to our meeting spot but ended up being rerouted through the Uvita National Park which added a considerable amount of time to our trek. We both had bags and were huffing and puffing through the wet sand and blazing sun. Did I mention Tash had had a bloody mary at breakfast and I hadn't? She was way more relaxed about this situation than I was. She's three times my height yet I was yards ahead of her. I had to keep turning back and urging her forward. #littlepeopleproblems
I was so incredibly worried that we were going to miss our tour that by the time we got there we were in shambles. And to make matters worse, when we showed up at the hut, no one was there. Greatttt. Now what? All that running for nothing? Slowly but surely a little man, Tico, came 'round the corner. He explained that our "group" was having lunch and that it would be a little while before we left, but we were free to wait in the restaurant. While Tash shot me daggers-- guess we didn't need to speedwalk 35 minutes--, we cooled off under the fans at the bar. Not enough however, because we still both had to peel ourselves out of the leather chairs when it was finally time to go.
I should have picked up on the foreshadowing, because I could never in my wildest dreams imagine what the rest of the day had in store for us.
Tash and I were grouped together with 13 teenage girls. As we left the restaurant, we watched the girls get on an air conditioned bus while Tash and I crawled in the back of the pickup hutch that stored the paddle boards with the four guides from the tour company.
We drove a little over half an hour to a secluded area and unloaded the boards. The girls then arrived and we all got in the water and onto our boards. The tour started off beautifully-- the water was calm and the mangrove trees were on all sides of us. We entered a clearing and it looked like open water for miles. We paddled alongside it and then found ourselves winding back into the mangroves. However, because we visited during rainy season, the water levels were extremely high. We had to sit, and in some areas lay on our boards to get under the low hanging trees. We had to put our paddles across our laps and just try to float through. The girls were having a hell of a time with this and up ahead all I kept hearing was shrieking and crying-- we were floating in a line one by one and could only see the person directly in front of us because of all of the twisting and turning. It came through the grapevine though that someone had fallen off her board. How? How was it even possible that she had fallen off while we were in a sitting position? All I knew was that now we were stopped because she was crying and didn't want to keep going. Tash and I exchanged looks but what could we do? So we sat back relaxed and reveled in the shrieks. We got up and moving again and after a relatively long stint through the trees the water opened up a bit again. This time however, we were in a much smaller area. I was doing quite well with my paddle and felt like I had a handle on the manuevering of the board, when all of a sudden the teen queens' bus driver came barreling toward me. He was throwing his arms up and exclaiming "I can't stop! I can't stop!" He stepped backward on his board which sent the nose of it straight into mine. I wobbled from foot to foot waving both arms awkwardly as I tried to regain my balance while my board shot backward. Luckily for me there was a large tree branch behind me that my board caught on. The jerk sent me stepping back but only for a second and by some grace of god I managed to stay on my board. The bus driver however, was not nearly as graceful and ended up diving forward as he fell- sort of a last ditch effort if you will. He grabbed my hand but faltered and fell straight into the water. I again, somehow, by the grace of god, managed to stay on my board. Now though, I was stuck in the tree branches and had to get one of the guides to come help me out. Luckily though, I was deemed worthy of help. The guides took one look at the poor shmuck driving the bus and put him straight in their canoe- he had lost his paddle privileges for the day. But onward we went and soon we were stuck in quite the predicament. There were downed trees across our path so each of us, in a single file line, had to get off of our boards and into the water, undo our leg strap, pass the board over the branches, crawl over the branches, sit back on our board and reattach our leg strap. Our guides had to get everyone over, so while this took place the group of us who had already gone were waiting in the still water ahead. The only problem? We were soaked and sitting in a swamp and it was feeding time for the mosquitoes. They were everywhere. And there was no swatting them. After making it a bit farther down the swamp our guide realized that our path was blocked yet again but this time in a much worse way. HhMm.. what now? Where were we going to go? Back the way we came, that's where! Our guide had us all backtrack so now what was supposed to be a 3 hour leisurely paddle through the mangroves was turning into a 6 hour haul from hell. Not only was it starting to get dark, but we could see off in the distance that a storm was coming. My energy was completely drained. I was paddling and paddling and paddling some more but my board wasn't even moving. I was drifting further and further behind so I tried laying on my board and paddling with my hands- no use. I tried sitting and paddling with my paddle- yet again, no use. I literally couldn't move myself ahead, even though I was paddling with all of my might. Tash and one of our guides found this rather humorous, so floated along next to me as I struggled to keep up. Finally, laboriously, after what felt like an eternity, the shore was in sight. I was so happy I leapt from my board to land. My arms and legs were exhausted and I couldn't wait to get going... going to the bathroom that was. After six hours of activity my little self needed to use the toilet, and now. However, instead of using a toilet, I watched the teen queens get on their air conditioned bus and drive away, leaving Tash and I with our four guides, the pickup hatch and a million paddle boards. The guys had to load up the truck before we could head out. Then, we still had a half hour drive back to the meeting point. So, now, not only did I have bug bites all over my back, arms and legs, but I had them on my ass as well. #whenmothernaturecalls
Boy was I ready to get in that truck. We made it in the back just in time for it to start pouring rain. The windows fogged up and the sweaty men, Tash and myself all crowded in. Finally, we were on the road. We convinced the guys to drop us at our hostel instead of at the meeting point. #onewinfortheday

I pulled some leftovers out of the fridge in our hostel kitchen and slumped over one of the tables while shoveling them into my mouth. Imagine my surprise when one of the guys working the desk at the hostel came over to tell me that I had a phone call. That's right. a call. for me. on the hostel phone. what in the?
It was Tico. He felt so badly about what had happened that he offered Tash and I free surfing lessons for the next morning. As exhausted as we were, since our surf sesh with Chelsea had been a bust, we decided to go for it. Which meant there was no other option that night except going straight to bed. Woof. What. A. Day.

Welcome to Uvita, Costa Rica

Jul 8, 2017

This morning we got up and took the craziest pirate taxi ride ever to Uvita, Costa Rica. There were MULTIPLE close encounters. There was no A/C so we kept the windows down, which gave me an even clearer picture of our impending doom. Maybe this type of driving is just a thing in Costa Rica? To make matters even worse, our driver was from Italy so on top of being a bad driver, he didn't have the slightest idea where he was going. How an italian man became a taxi driver in Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica is beyond me. #That'sALongJourneyForAPirate

 We finally made it to our hotel, sweating bullets and saying hail marys. We were staying in an adorable little room complete with a kitchen (although we didn't use it, not even once!)  The women working there spoke no english. And I mean none. Not even a little bit. So, the three of us girls tried to walk to beach on our own. 3 minutes into our walk, we encountered a woman who stopped us and asked if we were headed to the beach. We said yes and she just shook her head. The path we were taking wouldn't lead us anywhere near the beach. She informed us we would have to take a taxi to get there. Much to our aversion- hadn't we been in a car for long enough today? - we agreed and hopped in a taxi. We were trying to make it to see the whales tail, which is only visible during certain times of the day, dependent upon the tides. The woman, who was also american, gave us her hostel card and told us to stop by later if we wanted to grab a meal or socialize. Unfortunately, we were too late for the whales tail, but that didn't stop us from getting an amazing view of the beach. The beach wrapped around a jungle and led out into the ocean. It was vast and gorgeous and absolutely amazing to be able to see all three landscapes at once.

After an amazing morning spent at the beach, we decided to check out the hostel the woman we'd met earlier had recommended to us. The walk in the sun was long and hot. Really hot. It took us over forty minutes to get there. However, when we got there, it was all worth it. We had this amazingly delicious organic lunch. I had a fantastic fruit smoothie, complete with a metal straw which numbed my lips and kept my drink cold even in the hot sun. The entire place was eco friendly, complete with compost bins, fan only bunks and cabins, cold water showers and toilets that were hooked in a loop so the waste flushed down them was recycled to generate the electricity that powered the stoves in the kitchen. 

The staff there suggested we taxi to a beautiful waterfall (actually they suggested we hike, but ain't nobody got time for that!). Once we got there, we walked on the rocks and enjoyed the nice cool, water. We jumped in and then scaled the rock wall to jump off from the top. The three of us relaxed for a long time and enjoyed watching other swimmers jump and slide down the rock wall.

We headed back to the hostel for dinner and beer buckets. We met a lot of really great people while hanging out and decided that we're going to stay there tomorrow night. The town of Uvita has a really great, chill vibe.

Beach Animals are the Best Animals

July 7, 2017

Today we were up at 7am to get ready to head to Manuel Antonio National Park. We checked out of hotel Villa Prats and went for breakfast at our favorite joint with the cute old man who calls us queens and gives us fresh fruit, a pancake, eggs, rice and beans, bread and coffee for 2500 colones.

After a hearty breakfast, we headed to Manuel Antonio national park. We spent about 4 hours at the park-- there were viewpoints, beaches and jungle to walk through. On our first path we encountered a falling tree-- it was really scary because it cracked (unprovoked) and fell right across the trail. It was so loud!

We kept walking and were able to see monkeys, iguanas, birds and butterflies. We headed to a viewpoint that overlooked the ocean. We went to the beach and the tide came up so, so fast and threatened to wash away all of our things. I did some swimming because the water was so nice. On our way back we encountered a baby sloth within arms reach-- usually they're up really high in the treetops. We got to see it sleeping and then transition to awake and start climbing the tree. It was one of the most awe inspiring things I've ever seen. It was also amazing to scan the bystanders and see that everyone was quietly watching and seemingly feeling the same way.

We did one more viewpoint which had way, way too many stairs for my taste. At this point, nothing was able to top that sloth.

We headed to the beach for lunch and 2 for 1 drinks--- when will that not be a thing, seriously? And then laid on the beach with some beer for a few hours.

After, we headed to our new hostel, complete with a beautiful balcony. I sat out there for most of the night just taking in the cool air and enjoying the view. What a lovely day!