Dreaming of coming in out of the cold....Cuba part 2

In order to get some relief from the cold, I'm retreating into the confines of my holiday memories to continue the sharing of my Cuban retreat....

After our days at Matanzas City, Bellamar Caves and a relaxing inebriated day at the beach, we loaded on the sunscreen and headed out to sea. Our vehicle of transport was a huge catamaran that took us (and 65 other voyagers) away to Cayo Blanco (White Beach). The Catamaran was very cool! The sun was shining, the music was blasting and the drinks were flowing all the way to our first stop where we put on the flippers and snorkel masks to view the depths of the ocean off the coast of Cuba. The water was only 3 metres deep. It was so clear we could see the bottom without the snorkel masks. We saw live coral, colourful fish and sandy ocean floor! Very cool!
We hooked up with this catamaran to get a cooler of lobster tails that our hostess grilled and served as appetizers to those that wanted on our catamaran. After we had partaken of the lobster we headed out to Cayo Blanco for some island fun and lunch.

The guy holding up the world was a big attraction for the women to the island....okay maybe it was just me...he was anotomically correct from both views, so I made hubby take pictures for me! He loves me, so he did it! Beer flowed freely on the island as well and although I didn't take a picture....Shortly after the picture of Dawn was taken, well let's just say she had to nap and try and regroup! TeeHee! The beach on this Island was incredibly white and you could walk out into the water for what seemed like forever. The water was warm and we had a great time chatting it up with a couple from the Okanagen Valley in B.C. Simone and Gary. Then back to the Catamaran for more partying, sailing and a return trip to the main island to see the dolphins at the Dolphinarium.

After this it was back to the resort for more drinking, dinner and then bed, to rest up for our trip to Havana the next day.

On Wednesday, we got up and had a quick breakfast and were loaded on the bus at 8:20 am for a 2 hour drive to Havana. Our guide was fabulous. During our trip there he explained about Cuban culture, different sites we saw along the way and what we could expect to see in the wonderful city of Havana.

Havana is deeply embroiled in their history and is spending millions of dollars to restore the facades of the old buildings to their original beauty. I took more than 200 pictures of neat buildings, streets and people. Although I would love to share them all with you...well you understand, it's just not possible. So here are a few of my favorites.
This is one of the Squares in Old Havana. It's a good example of the refurbishing that they are doing in an attempt to restore things back to what they used to be like. The only thing is...the refurbishing is only happening on the outsides of buildings and therefore often as you walked down the streets and looked inside doorways you could see walls falling down and people still living in the ruins.

This lady was trying to make some extra dollars by dressing up, smoking huge cigars and hoping that some tourist would pay a peso to have their picture taken with her. There were men , women and children that would do just about anything to supplement their income. I did not pay for this shot as she was totally unaware that I was taking her picture.
This is a picture of the street that led to this beautiful Cathedral. It's interesting that in the bottom right hand corner of this picture is a group of men playing dominoes. When they aren't working the Cubans seem to party and play as hard as they work!


This Cathedral was absolutely stunning. The picture does not really do it justice. It has beautiful stained glass windows, huge hanging chandeliers and beautiful paintings on the walls inside.


This is another statue of some local hero....again like I said before....Everyone is a hero in Cuba it seems!This is an apartment building right across from the Cuban Capital building. On the balconies, people were doing their laundry, washing themselves and cooking dinner...very odd assortment of things to be doing right downtown it seems to me, but for them, this is where they live and where you live is where you do those things!
This is one of the buildings in Revolution Square. The metal structure in the shape of a man is Che Guevera. Che is a revolutionary that is honoured all over Cuba!

We went to a Cemetary where they also charged you for taking pictures. I took most of mine from the bus as it passed through but you will see that they have some amazing monuments!
This particular monument is of the first divorced woman in Cuba....smart lady!

Apparently, no one gets buried in Cuba. Everyone is entombed in these types of cement graves and every 7 years they open up the tombs and put your remains in a smaller container till you are all gone. I don't know how true this is...but this is what we were told. Apparently there are two million people in the cemetery we visited in the middle of Havana.

Our day trip to Havana City was a long one but very interesting. If I ever return to Cuba (and I would go back in a heartbeat!) I would spend more time in Havana. So much to see!

On Thursday, our last full day in Cuba, our intent was to get burnt and suffer the consequences back in Canada. We had all been very careful about lathering up. Unfortunately, it was not to be. We woke to what turned out to be the only overcast day that we had on our entire vacation. Not to be disuaded...we spent the day at the beach anyway and there we saw what we can only imagine to be a wonder of the Cuban world.....two white full moons over the ocean in mid afternoon!