Cuba, Communism, Caves, Cigars, Cars, Crazy Swimmers

I'm back!! Blogger doesn't seem to be letting me post any more pictures, so this will do for now (actually it's a lot of photos i think), but maybe I'll post a couple more in a future post! I had a great trip!!

We left last Saturday night and arrived in Cuba at 6am, just in time for the sunrise! Unfortunately they didn't let us into our rooms until 3:30 which was annoying, but we were able to enjoy the beach and everything else around there while waiting.. Pretty much we just ate and drank for 9 hours.. hahaha.

The resort we stayed at was beautiful and had an amazing beach!! Lots of really great pools too! We were able to go paddle boating and snorkelling and go for some great walks along the beach.

It was super interesting being in a communist country. You don't realize how much your views and opinions of things are formed by the government system you come from. It was actually pretty crazy to see how certain things are run and to hear from some of the locals their views on it. Anyway, here follows a lot of pictures and stories, Enjoy!!
Here's the view of our beach from the hotel. I didn't really take any pictures on the beach because, well I didn't.. oops. I think the other people I went with did so when i get their pictures I'll post some!! One day when Brooke and I were swimming, there was this little fish that kept following us. it was the weirdest thing, because usually fish are scared of people and dart away, but no matter what we would do, this fish stayed right next to either one of us-it was hilarious!! It hung out for like forty minutes.. and we were darting around trying to get away. I think people watching us thought we were a bit crazy... this one woman was standing on the shore smiling at us and I was like "there's this little fish-he keeps following us." and she just nodded and was like "Yah, there's lot of little fish in the ocean.." HAHA.. i really do think she thought i was a bit insane or something. :)

Swim up bar at the pool!! So fun!

These pictures are out of order (sorry!) On our off-roading tour (see pics lower down), Manuel was our driver and we had a ton of fun with him the whole day. He is super smart and a lot of fun as well. It was really interesting to hear about his thoughts about government stuff and also to hear a bit of his life story. Anyway, he invited us over to his house for dinner in Matanzas (a town about thirty minutes away). So we went there and he cooked us a full bore Cuban meal-it was amazing!! Probably the best meal I had all week. It was fresh lobsters, shrimp fried in rum, fresh pineapple, rice and beans, and some good Cuban drinks to go along with it!! it was a great night and it was really neat to be in his home.

Brooke and I caving

They have old cars EVERYWHERE there-it's crazy!! So cool though!

This is at the Che Guevara memorial. He's a huge national hero there because he helped the revolution happen. It was interesting to see how many billboards were everywhere with his face on it and different quotes from it. All the other billboards were ones talking about how socialism is so great, etc. Very interesting...

I wanted a picture of the military men.. so i got Brooke to pose by a sign and then used my zoom lens to capture a shot of them!!

These pictures are from Trinidad which is a historical town in the south of Cuba. Beautiful city with cobblestone streets and lots of really colorful houses!

Another sneak zoom lens shot where he didn't know i was taking his picture..

This is in Cien Fuegos, a beautiful town we stopped at on the way back from Trinidad.

We went on a jeep safari where we got to fly through a lot of huge mud puddles (it had rained the day before). It was hilarious all together because our driver, Manuel would fly through the puddles at top speed and splash everywhere. He kept trying to get me muddy by keeping my window open and locking it open, but he did not succeed! haha..

We also got to go down the river on a powerboat-was kind of fun

Eating fresh lobster!! MMMM!! so good! and big too!!

Drinking mojitos with our lobster

The other jeep ran out of gas so we had to pull over and cyphen gas out of our tank for them.. thought it was a great picture opportunity

We stopped at an old coffee plantation. It was 109 hectares.. When the revolution happened, the farm got taken away from the owner and became the property of the government (like everything else in Cuba). The old man who's grandfather used to own the plantation still lived on it (the government let him stay in the house) and he gave us a tour in Spanish. it was neat to hear a bit of the history from him.

Posing by our muddy jeep

This is a huge water tower-beautiful!

We stopped at a cave to go snorkelling in a natural lake-so refreshing!! It was stunning to see all the stalactites and stalagmites in the water!

View of Havana from our hotel room

Balconies of Havana

St. Colombus Cemetery. I think I could have spent days wandering around. I absolutely love cemeteries and I was sad we only got ten minutes there, but I got some good shots nonetheless!

Rum Factory

This man (and many others) would follow us around drawing pictures of us and then try to sell them.. I took a picture of the portrait he drew for Brooke.

My mom and I enjoying mojitos at the restaurant/bar where Ernest Hemingway used to always go

Tropicana is a world famous show under the stars in Havana-it was awesome! Over one hundred dancers and singers. The costumes and everything was spectacular.

We also went on a Catamaran tour one day and went to a beautiful beach, but I didn't bring my camera and so I have no pictures. But once again, once I get them from other people I will have them and post them!

And that's my update from my trip!! Was lots of fun and now I have a nice burn!! Would love to go back! :)