Feb 14, 2016 Seriously, endurable?
“Did you see the size of the cockroaches in the shower!” was Bonnie's first words to me in the morning. I hadn't bothered looking in the shower so I went and had a look. They were rather large! They were on their backs and mostly dead. They were still wiggling a little. We left them […more]
Feb 13, 2016 A waiting day.
Today was a waiting day for us. The casa had other visitors arrive on the first Viazul bus of the day and we were on the second bus of the day so we had to clear out so they could turn the room over. It is a $3CUC taxi ride one way to the casa. […more]
Feb 12, 2016 Hotel Moka, Bird watching, The Banos of San Juan
We took a taxi to Hotel Moka and got dropped off with the idea that we would get picked up at 4pm at the Hotel Moka. We were planning on walking down to the Bano de San Juan. They were mentioned by Marlyn as a very beautiful spot. We wanted to walk down and be […more]
Feb 11, 2016 Off to Las Terazzas
We weren't leaving until early afternoon so that is a long wait. We cleaned up our room and left our luggage with Pinchito and went walking we walked up the street the opposite direction from Ermita and found the ball team warming up for a game. We walked down the long row of casas to […more]
Feb 10, 2016 Hunting for Cigars!
We walked out to the tobacco farm and the lady that was so pushy last time was not hanging around the tobacco house and we managed to arrive between the seemingly endless supply of Transtur buses. We talked to the local farmer who was there as a guide. He asked I was interested in buying […more]
Feb 9 2016, Cave Santo Thomas
We did the taxi run out to the Cave Santo Thomas. It is a 42km cave system. The $10 CUC admission gets you into one that is about 2 Kms long. There are big rooms, lots of popcorn, draperies, columns, stalactites, stalagmites, and even a few eggs. A nice calcite deposit but other than that […more]
Feb 8, 2016 Rain, cold, and the Botanical Gardens!
Both of us are feeling the effects of a cold. We have been giving our long pants a stress test, laying low, and getting a lot of rest. Between the showers we walked around and slipped into the church. It was open in the morning and it was still in very good condition and being […more]
Feb 07, 2016 The Vinales Hop-on Hop-off bus
It rained during the night and it was a muddy day. We took the hop-on hop off bus and did a full tour, several people did the same. Lots of people to the cave with the river. We did the full loop and got off at La Jasmine and took pictures then walked down to […more]
Feb 6, 2016 Walking around Vinales
Breakfast was good. Boiled eggs, bread cheese, pancakes, fruit, coffee, juice, and pasteries, served in the little kitchen in front of our room. We visited Vinales on our first trip to Cuba in 2013. There have been a lot of changes. At that time we stayed at Casa Maryiln and she was on the last […more]
Feb 05, 2016 Off to Vinales
Before we left NB we had purchased all of the Viazul bus tickets online. After all of the trials we had last year in the east of Cuba, there was a GREAT incentive not to have to buy tickets and then come back to check in another day. The Viazul bus system is a painful […more]
Feb 04, 2016 A day to adjust
Today was a walking around Varadero day. We were only planning on a two day stay in Varadero before going into Cuba for the bulk of the month. We would be back in Varadero for a few days on our way out. Next year when we are planning on the trip we are going to […more]
Feb 2 and 3, 2016 Off to Cuba again.
Hi we did our winter escape to Cuba again. We have been using Air Canada for our trip to Cuba we would leave at an ungodly hour 0420 to the airport get in to toronto in time to do a mad dash from Terminal 1 to Terminal 3 to get the Westjet flight to Cuba. […more]
November 30 Home again!
We were looking at a very long day. The Taxi would pick us up at 1pm Costa Rica time and we wouldn't get home until 1am December 1st New Brunswick time. We had coffee and our patisseries a repacked our luggage for the trip home. With our long pants and sweatshirts and rain coats out […more]
November 29 Back to San Jose
We slept good and were pretty well all packed the night before. So that in the morning we didn't have a lot to do besides make breakfast and go. The car took a couple trys to get moving. It barely had enough energy to get moving on the level let along moving on the vertical […more]
November 28 Monteverde day tour and Maggie and Jamal’s again
We had to have breakfast at 7am to make our 0720 tour. It was a good breakfast of a fruit plate, eggs, bacon, a small pancake, and piece of toast. The drive up to Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve was good for the first part and then turned to hell again. It was a very rough, […more]
November 27 Monteverde, a Day of insects!
Bonnie started our day off right when she found a stick insect by the door of the Maggie and Jamal's in the morning. It would end up being a day of bugs! Maggie and Jamal were ready to go by early afternoon. So rather than have lunch here we left and got as far as […more]
November 26 Tire repairs
We wanted to go to Monteverde and that requires driving on some rough roads again so we were off to Santiago de Puriscal to see if we could get the tire fixed. It was easy to see the source of the problem, a gyproc screw in the tread of the tire. The Firestone tire shop […more]
November 25 Tucans, Santiago de Puriscal, a walk to Cortezal, and a sunset
Bonnie and I slept in late for us. Maggie and Jamal were up and going by the time we were going. That was unusual. We had a late breakfast and then Maggie noticed tucans in the tree by her bedroom. Bonnie saw them before but I hadn't. So I had to take lots of pictures […more]
November 24 Turu Ba Ri Park and a Zip Line
We decided to try for the Turu Ba Ri Park that Maggie suggested. It had a nature walk and a zip line. We were a little late leaving so we didn't get there until about 11. The zip line takes an hour and the Nature walk takes 3 hours. We figured the zipline, then lunch […more]
November 23 A walk to Barbacoas
Bonnie and I needed a laundry and a bit of exercise. So after the laundry got hung on the line we were off for a walk up the hill to Barbacoas. On the way we saw a number of coffee farms that are Maggie and Jamal's neighbors. We also saw a number of parades of […more]
