Alone again

Briony left for Mexico today and I decided it would be a good day to take a trip to the yoga farm I've been thinking about doing an apprenticeship at. First I had to take a boat to Santiago Atitlan and ask around about Finca de Yoga Mystica. After wandering the town a bit I found someone who knew what I was talking about. I got on another boat and the man took me across the bay to the property. I didn't realize it was going to be so expensive, 80 quetzales with return! That's like 10 dollars. Plus when I got picked up it was by a different boat and that boatman was trying to get me to pay him 40 more. It was a bit of a scene and I ended up not paying him and telling him he needs to figure it out with the other dude because it wasn't my problem he didn't get paid. That, and the fact that I had over an hour and a half wait until the next boat back to San Pedro, put me in an irritable mood. I forgot how difficult it was to get around with my embarrassing Spanish skills, I was so spoiled traveling with Briony ;)
So, anywaysss.. Finca de yoga was alright. Kinda pointless for me to have visited because they were in the middle of a teacher training so no one was available to chat with me about the possibility of an apprenticeship. I did feel like I could spend some time there though. Its in a very secluded location, one of the most beautiful spots on the lake, on the eastern slope of San ¨Pedro volcano where its all a protected park. The side of the lake with San Pedro volcano is obviously a protected site because compared to the other mountains, it is mainly forested, where as the remaining mountains are pretty sick looking. They have lots of landslides because they farm on the steep slopes year after year and add more and more fertilizers. From a distance you can see the square corn and coffee crops and then many plots with no vegetation whatsoever. Close to the lake shore are many small scale vegetable gardens with much more variety in plant species.
Santiago is a small town, much less touristy than San Pedro. I was thinking I would change locations for my last couple days on the lake but I'm pretty content with my spot and now that I've been to 3 other towns I enjoy the variety of things to do in San Pedro the best. You can have all the meditation, yoga, eating, social life you want here, a little bit of everything :)

I haven't been doing much around the lake. Our second day here we hiked up volcano San Pedro. That was one hell of a hike! I've never hiked such a steep trail before, there were times I thought I was going to fall backwards. We met the local guide, whom turned out to be about 70, accompanied with his machete and towel around his neck...(the towel should have been my clue to get more clothes!!) at the reception of our hotel at 5am. Two Irish guys were ready for the hike as well. We started walking through the town and into the National Park and began the accent at sunrise. All seemed pretty good until I realized the guide was going to keep up the fast pace and not have any tolerance for stopping or meandering. I got pretty frustrated with the hike. I really wanted to enjoy myself and be able to check out the plants n whatnot but the guide was, clearly, in a hurry. (Its mandartory to get hire a guide in the National Park, otherwise we would have gone alone). We got to the summit at 8:30am! We relaxed and ate for about 20 minutes and then, vamanos! down we went, basically running. We made it down in 1 hour! It was so crazy, I have no idea why we had to complete the hike so fast. Oh and to make matters worse I thought I was getting frostbite on my toes the whole way up. I really assumed I would heat up and the sun would warm us but, man alive, was I wrong. I ended up wearing one of the Irish dude's thermal on my legs to keep from freezing. Briony and I were both wiped out for the rest of the day so we just sat and drank coffee and ate for the remaining of the day. There are many delicious gringo restaraunts here with lots of vegetarian options.
The other day we took a boat the Panajachel, the biggest town on the lake. We just wandered around and then came back to San Pedro, there's nothing special about Panajachel except it has the best view of the three volcanoes from the dock. Yesterday we kayaked to the town across the lake from San Pedro, San Marcos. San Marcos is very small, its basically a meditation, yoga center and then the indigenous people doing their thing. The kayaking was great on the way there but the way back was brutal, the wind was blowing against us and waves were crashing into the kayak. Briony thought we were gonnna drown, haha. I will stay here for 2 more days and then meet up with Joey somewhere on the beach of El Salvador. I've met some pretty..interesting El Salvadorians so far so I look forward to seeing what the country is like.

As for Tikal...where I left off on my last post:
Tikal is massive, its a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It took nearly 5 hours to walk to all the different temples, climbing the temples gave grand views of the forest canopy and the vantage point for hearing monkeys all over. We got there shortly after sunrise and there was still a heavy fog covering the tips of the temples to the point where you couldn't see the temples from high up structures. It was beautiful to watch the fog burn off from the top of Temple II.  Tikal was definitely the most impressive of the Mayan Ruins I have visited. Its very close to the Mexican border, so it is close to Calakmul, that other archeological site I wanted to visit but never made it. Tikal was the capital of the conquest state for the Mayans, in politics, economics, and military.

After Briony and I visited Tikal and Flores we went to Lanquin for 2 nights. The major spot to see outside of Lanquin is Semuc Champey, a series of natural pools in the valley of the mountains. Lanquin is, in my opinion, the most beautiful place in Guatemala. Its just a small village community and some tourists who are there for a day or two to visit the river's beautiful colorful pools. We stayed at a hostel that was on the peaks of several smaller mountains, we had a nearly 360 degree view of the canyons and river down below. The highlight of Lanquin was definitely the puppies at the hostel! There were 4, 7 week old puppies. SO cute!!! Briony and I spent pretty much all our time with the puppies or taking photos of the puppies. Moma pup was around too so that was just even more adorable when the puppies wanted to eat and she wasn't having it or when she would groom the little guys. Precious.

After Lanquin we spent one night in Antigua. We were getting anxious to settle in one spot, at the lake, so we just briefly saw Antigua. Besides, Briony had been there previously and I didn't care for the town as much as other people seemed to. People from all over rave about Antigua but what I saw was a bunch of white people taking over the town. There's a large population of students and peace corps volunteers in and around Antigua that makes it seem like a Californian town in Guatemala. Yuppie shops and not much traditional Guatemalan life going on in Antigua. Also very expensive clothing and food stuffs. But then again, where the white people are so are the health food shops so Briony and I did have a play day in one of the cafes, mmm huevos motuleños!

Well, I think that sums up what I've been up to in Guatemala so far. It sure doesn't sound as exciting as its been so I must be leaving things out or just not a good story teller...op! but thanks for reading anyways!

¡feliz solsticio de invierno!

Its been a long time since I have updated this blog so this could be a long one or I could get tired of typing and cut it short. We'll see how this goes...

Happy Winter Solstice!
I am in San Pedro la Laguna on Lake Atitlan in Guatemala. There's a Solstice/ Full Moon Party at the beach on the lake tonight that Briony and I will probably attend for a bit. There's some like minded folks around the lake. Working toward reforesting the mountains around the lake and growing their own foods. There's many yoga retreats and ecovillages in the lakeside towns. Most of the native people look to be of Mayan descent, wearing traditional garb but there are also heaps of tourists; some are here for long stays, either taking Spanish courses or volunteering. 

Again, I will work back in time from where I left off to now.
After my week stay in El Panchan, at the gate of the Palenque ruins, I went to San Cristobal de las Casas. I walked all over the town before I found  the hostel I wanted to stay at so I was tired and pretty cranky by the time I arrived. That night I didn't so much but I did meet Briony. Briony and I hit it off right away. I was complaining and she listened and then vice versa. It was nice to chat with another solo female traveler and talk about all the challenges of traveling alone. Briony is from Sydney, Australia, she's vegetarian and loves to do yoga. We have turned out to be quite a good match for traveling. We both have high standards when it comes to food and low standards in terms of accomodation. We both pee a lot and love animals! So it works out quite well. San Cristobal is a lovely town in the highlands of Chiapas, at nearly 7000 feet. It was so cold at night and in the shade during the day. I had to buy gloves, hat, scarf, and a warmer jacket. I was wearing all my clothes by the time night hit. It was actually quite miserable being so cold but at least I had company in the misery. Briony and I went to some yoga classes and found all the vegan/vegetarian restaraunts in San Cristobal. San Cristobal has the best food in Mexico. They ae focused on local products and community intergrity. There's a large population of Zapatistas there as well as many small Mayan villages. I rode a horse to San Juan Chamula, a Mayan village an hour away. It was a great time to be in Chamula because the 12th of December was the following day so there was a huge celebration going on for The Virgin Guadalupe. Many men and women dressed in wool skirts and tons of loud fireworks going off for minutes on end. The church was elaboratly decorated for Guadelupe, many candles and flags. There were people running with torches all through the country some starting in Mexico City and working their way all the way to Chiapas, it was really intense. They had bandages on their feet and were being closely followed by decorated vehicals.

Briony and I decided to go to Guatemala for a few weeks before she has to return to Mexico for her studies and I meet with Joey in El Salvador. We wanted to make the border crossing exciting so we got on the bus to Palenque. We missed the bus we wanted so we had a bit of a wait, at 1am. Arrived in Palenque at 8am and then played 20 questions to try to find the next bus to Frontera Corazal, the border town. We eventually found the collectivo that would take us the 3 hours to Frontera Corazal and borded with some machettes, piñadas, loads of boxes on the roof and quiet a few Mexicans, typical bus ride. The immigration office quickly stamped our passports for exit and we got on a small boat to cross the river over to Guatemala. The boat ride was only a few minutes and there was a chicken bus waiting on the other side to be filled before making its way to Flores. After stopping every 30 seconds for 1 hour we eventually started to make some progress toward Flores. That would be the first of many terribly long and uncomfortable bus rides.

Flores is an island, of sorts, its actually connected to the mainland by a road but people call it an island so maybe the road was an addition. Flores is the popular taking off point for Tikal, a Mayan Ruin. We had a chill day in Flores where were took a boat around the lake, Lago de Peten Itza. Went to a wildlife reserve where they have endangered species held captive for breeding purposes. Such beautiful animals! Many different cats and monkeys. The lake is large and didn't look to be very polluted. Lots of people were swimming in the lake or kayaking.
The next day we went to Tikal at 5am. It was about an hour ride to Tikal.
ugh, I'm so tired of being on the computer. I will finish this another day. I've actually had a really frustrating internet experience. I've been trying to upload my photos onto the internet so they are safe just in case something were to happen to my camera but its taking forever and I can't read anything on the webpage so I will cancel the upload and figure out another way to remove my photos from my memory card later. Suggestions? I think there's no convenient way without having my own computer.
Adios!!

Photo Time!

Campeche central. Just outside of my hostel, Monkey Hostel. (my hostel is in the green buidling and you can barely make out the sign in white). This is the main cathedral where the second column was not completed for 100 years or so after the first...that´s why they look different.



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There were several mother pigs but this is the only one I got a photo of. Piglettes everywhere! So adorable. They´d be running around oinking and cuddling up with each other.



THE armadillo!





Roasting the armadillo over the fire for hours!



Waterfalls that Walter and I went to for the day. His friend, Modestar dropped us off and picked us up. They were only a few miles from Modestar's house.

Modestar's adorable 3 year old son. He also has 3 older boys. 

Pacheca! Steve's dog. She and I became very good friends. She knew I was the one in charge of the food but I still hope it was a stronger relationship than that :)
Pacheco means stoned in spanish. And boy is she an airhead!

My hiking around in the national park around the Palenque ruins.

Palenque ruins!

Howler monkey! The whole family crossed by and I couldn't get it together to get some decent photos but this one will do for now. I'm sure there will be more monkeys in my future.

During the 30 hours downpour. You can see the cabins were filling with water. The river overflowed by about 3 feet!

Inside Steve's place.

Jungle Livin'

I am at an internet cafe in the town of Palenque getting some internet time and stalking up on sugar. I have been so addicted to sugar in Mexico. They have little treats all over and I just can't say no to 5 peso homemade donuts on the street. Palenque is a pretty big town with the basic Mexican requirements for a town. Giant markets! -just like we have the Safeway, and whenever you find a giant market there is always a farmer's market type situation in the vicinity with more local produce and all the necessities for everyday living, so I usually go to the mercados instead. I bought avocados and habeneros and cilantro for my guacamole tomorrow! Anyways, Palenque! And El Panchan! I am staying in a small village , El Panchan. Its at the entrance to the national park where the Palenque archeological site is. I have a sweet deal. My first day here I met an ex'pat, Steve, who offered me a space at his house for free as long as I cook. I had a room to myself until Anna joined the party, now Anna and I are sharing. Its cool and takes the pressure off having to cook every meal plus she is easy to be around. she set her tent up in the room which takes up most the space which is kinda annoying since i like to organize and clean and the tent doesn't allow for that. The room is technically outdoors so there's a bit of a mosquito situation, i light incense or coverup so that seems to work. Anna is riding her bicycle from Alaska to Argentina, has been on the road for 1.5 years, and that's just this trip. Honestly, I'm envious. It makes me want to go home and get my bike! Don't worry, Mom, I'm not going to.

My day today consisted of making hotcakes for Steve and Anna. Anna made me coffee- Yes, I am drinking coffee now too! AH! Then I showered over the river at the canbaña lodge, they have great showers with hot water. My walk to town took a long time, its over 4 kilometers and its not a simple path, lots of pulling over for cars to pass or stopping to take photos of weird ants and whatnots. I got a bit lost in town but found the internet!

I will now go back in time to when I left Campeche, on the 26th.

I wanted to go to Palenque but I read to bus times wrong and turned out I couldn't get there unless I waited 10 hours in Campeche and then arrived at 3am or something so instead I chose a destination on the list that wasn't too expensive to get to- Villahermosa! I got on the bus 1 hour later after eating huevos motuleños across the street. I love huevos motuleños, I will make them for you when I get home. I didn't even know where in Mexico Villahermosa was when getting on the bus. Turned out it was 7 hours away! I got in at 9pm and walked around until I found a hotel for cheap. I put my stuff down and went to the center of town where I watched a salsa band, ate flan and drank coffee. Then wandered around town a bit to find places I'd like to see the next day since I had a bus toPalenque at 1pm and wouldn't have much time in Villahermosa. I gathered its a big town with cowboys and typical Mexican life that you think of when thinking what Mexico is like, definitely different than the Carribean. Lots of cowboy boots and big belt buckles holding in bear bellies. Hot sauce was for sale in most shopes, Villahermosa is in Tobasco!

It was only a 2 hour bus ride to Palenque. I spent my first night in El Panchan, the tourist town close to the ruins, at Jungle Palace. Cabañas on a river! So wonderful. I got my barings and then ended up eating dinner with a Panamanian dude who travels around selling his jewelry. That night was interesting, talked to people from El Salvador and Guatemala and spent a lot of time writing in my journal or just being alone.
The next morning my waiter at the local restaraunt, Walter, asked if I want to go with him to his friends house for the night and next day because it was his day off tomorrow. It sounded rather strange that he'd ask me but I was interested so I agreed to meet him when he got off work at 3pm. We go to Walter's house in Palenque first and then drive 2 hours farther into the junglely farm towns to a place called Palestina.

Palestina has 20,000 people but live in a farming lifestyle. Most homes have pigs, chickens, geese, dogs, maybe a cow or 2 and some veges.  The house I stayed at didn't have cows or very many planted veges. I don't know anyones' name from Palestina! There was grandmother, probably 50-55, who has 9 children. 5 boys, 4 girls and then tons of kids from there. It was difficult to keep straight. They were so welcoming and fun. Always laughing together at something someone said or did. Oh, best part! On our drive we came across a armadillo that was recently killed by a car so Modestar (Walter's Friend who was driving) uturned to check it out. Turns out he wanted to take it home. So into a plastic bag the armadillo goes and first thing when we get to the house...prep the armadillo for grilling! That night consisted of sitting around the fire with the roasting armadillo. The next days food....armadillo. I had a great time but towards the end of the second day I was eager to get out...I ate very little food while there (tortillas and vege soup) and was getting frustrated trying to communicate. I just didn't want to talk or explain myself but they kept asking questions and speaking in Spanish and expecting me to unerstand and respond. There were times I just wanted to say, ¨Stop talking,we can't communicate!¨ and walk away. Ofcourse I did not do that, I already offended them enough by not eating the armadillo.  Walter was the only one drinking tequila that night and got super drunk where he threw up all over and almost fell in the fire. Nice.

The next morning I woke late, there was nothing going on...besides the tortilla maker on the other side of my head. We got a ride to some waterfalls from Modestar. So beautiful. Walter and I were, unforntuntately, the only ones there. That was rather awkward, we ate lots of oranges and I did a lot of walking around to get away from him. The latinos!! We went back to the farm house and chilled with the family for a bit until Modestar got home from work. Then 8 of us, Modestar has 4 children and his ¨big wife¨ drive about 1 mile, traveling at no more than 5 mph to a protected lagoon undergoing restoration. It was a lovely spot but by that time I just needed to be alone so it dragged on...eating the armadillo with the lemonade, swimming, yadda.

I got back to El Panchan around 9pm that day and went to Steve's to check out that situation. His offer was still open so I made a home there and we cleaned out my room a bit. Steve and I ended up talking until pretty late in the night. Steve is an interesting person, he has a sense of humor so that makes up for some of what he says. He is a bit crazy (his addiction to his ¨friends¨on Fox News, is 1 example), from living in the jungle alone for 10 years and various other stories, libertarian type personality.  But for some reason we get along and have some great dicussions about topics from Mexicans owning internet cafes to stem cell research to the music of Bach.

I went hiking around the jungle the other day to find some waterfalls Steve told me about. And as usual, its difficult to avoid seeing someone you know or meeting a local who wants to show you around. I entered the park the back way so I didn't have to pay admission and see Raul driving home from work, he's a tourguide in the ruins. Raul tells me he will show me the waterfalls and a trail to the ruins from the jungle. We end up hiking for a couple hours together until we reached the ruins where I explored alone.  And I got in the ruins for free too. Whew, I'm saving loads of money right now!

Its been pretty relaxed at El Panchan. Steve puts on  a movie most nights. I am reading a fun book; something like,The unforuntate event of the dog at night...that's not it at all I'll write the real name later. Oh the rain! The night I returned from Palestina the rain started and did not stop for 30 hours. It was a downpour constantly. The people staying in cabañas had to leave because water was up to their beds. The whole town was flooded for hours and it took at least a day for the trails to be visable again. I thought it was rather fun. I put on my poncho and walked around, even walked with Pacheca...Steve's dog. She's so sweet but has no manners and has her own agenda when released outside!

That brings us to persent time. I think I will stay here a couple more days. Work on the room a bit to help Steve out and then heading south!
¡Nos vemos despues!

blah blah kind of a day...

So, I finally got my Cuba trip posted! But, I have no photos to accompany it :(
I am terribly distraught about my camera getting jacked on the bus last night. I cannot believe I don't have any of my 1000+ photos from the past 2 months. It makes me sick inside to think that while I was sleeping someone was going through my purse long enough to find more pesos in a secret compartment, 800 more pesos!
I'm trying to let go of the camera as a material possession which is...do-able. But lossing the photos is what's keeping me bummed. I know the people I've been traveling with have taken photos that I can get my hands on but it's, obviously, just not the same. I went to Wal-Mart today to price a new camera, more than in the states! I'm debating on buying a camera on ebay and staying in one city long enough to get it mailed to me. Advice, suggestions? Do I just travel with no camera? I feel naked.

(side note! while at WalMart I met a man who spoke English and he drove me around the city to the black markets (with a detour to a castle? on top of the city) to try and find a cheap camera. No go but interesting none the less) :/

On a more positive note, I made it off Isla Mujeres and to Campeche! Now I'm on the other side of the Yucatan Peninsula along the Gulf Coast. Its hot and humid, more so than the otherside. The other side has been getting lots of rain storms so I'm happy to get away from the rain and have my bag stay dry for a day! Its hard to keep things dry when living in a hammock :)

Campeche is the capitol city of the state of Campeche and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Its large and busy with narrow roads and sidewalks. Back in the day the Spanish inhabitants, who killed most the Mayan who were living here before, built a large wall along with city center to protect the wealth from the European pirates. This wall still stands as well as the cobblestone streets and Spanish stype architexture. Campeche is one of the least inhabited states, along with Baja, and is the most forested region in Mexico, creating homes for many endangered species and large mammals. For this reason it is a UNESCO site and why I have come here. I want to go to Calakmul in the south of the state, just 50km from Guatemala. Its the largest biosphere reserve in Mexico but I am hearing its very hard to get to, due to its isolation. I'll have to ask around a bit to see it I will be able to visit Calakmul.

I just set up this blog and I am interested in continuing this form of dialog. I will play around with the website some more and see how I can personalize this blog of mine.

Until next time!

Oh, Cuba!

Arrived to Cuba in a Russian airplane around 5 pm on a Wednesday. We took a taxi to the Casa Particular. In Cuba it is most common to stay with a family. Cubans can get permission from the government to rent out 1 or 2 of their rooms to tourists for around $20 per night. They always offer breakfast and most the time dinner. Our first casa was in Havana Central with a nice couple in their 50s or 60s. All the casa families were very welcoming and helpful but the conversation was limited because of my poor Spanish speaking skills. Toward the end of my trip I was quite frustrated with my inability to have simple conversation or express my gratitude to the families and the other locals I met. The four of us went out exploring Havana our first night after getting acquainted with the homesay situation. I was with 3 men, 2 Islrealies and a Dutch guy. We all met at the hostel, Poc na, on Isla Mujeres in Mexico. We found pizza for a couple dollars at a cafetaria. We come to find out pizza, spaghetti, hamgurgers (ground beef on a roll), hotdogs, and moors y Christians (black beans and white rice) are the only food items in the country. I'm somewhat sarcastic but its true. Unless you eat at expensive tourists traps or the casas it was bread and cheese with pink sauce for you. The food was so much better if eaten at the casas. They served lots of rice and beans, fried banana chips, cucumber avocado tomato (sometimes green beans) salads, and omelette for me. The boys got fried chicken or fish or something with their meal. Those meals were delicious but expensive. We ate at the casa in the beginning but soon realized we were spending way too much money and began eating street food. After our pizza dinner in Havana we continued to wander around the big city, ended up sitting on the Malecon ( the walking path parallel to the ocean) for an hour or so just watching the locals.

Thursday began with breakfast at the casa across the street. Eggs, bread with butter, banana, guyaba, orange, café con leche, pastries, cucumber and tomato slices. Best breakfast in cuba. We walked around Havana, saw the capitol building. Its in a very centralized location so we walked by it all the time. It was under renovation so we couldn’t go inside. Walked down Calle Obispo, a very touristy street that deadends at a nice square with used books for sale all around the perimeter. A taxi in an old 50s Chevy gave us a tour around the other side of the canal, Havana vieja.  That night we went to Casa de la Musica. It’s a large salsa, etc club with live music and dancing, ofcourse.

The mission for Friday was figuring out how to get to Viñales. We walked all the way to the bus station which took over an hour. After asking several people where the ticket office is we got a woman in a restaurant to help us. Turned out her friend, who we ran into while walking in the bus station, would like to drive us in his car for the same price as the bus. In Cuba the tourists ride different buses than the locals. I’m not sure why that is but they keep the tourists very secluded. For example, there’s 2 currencies, national peso and the CUC (Cuban Convertible). One CUC is 25 pesos. The CUC is even higher than the dollar about 1.1 CUC to the $US. You can buy street food for incredibly cheep, pizza 5 pesos, hamburgers 2 pesos, lemonade 1 peso. But then restaraunts for tourists are 2-10 CUC per meal. It was almost free to eat street food but it was definitely not healthy. So, anyways, we got our ride to Viñales organized and go to the Revolution Square where Castro gave his famous 4 hour speech, History Will Absolve Me, and many marches and ralleys were held during the revolution time. There’s a very tall building/memorial/museum that you can go to the top of and get a whole 360 degree view of the city with a museum on the first floor. A giant sculpture of Jose Marti is out front.

Saturday at 1pm the driver shows up to the casa we were staying at. The car was quite a shock. I wish I got a photo of it. It was like a van/car with only 1 window on the right side. The driver installed the seats himself and the 1 window had some weird rolldown contraption that didn’t seem entirely secure. The floor was extremely hot to the bare feet. Luckily, it was only a 3 hour ride to Viñales. The exhaust was going straight into the car to the point where I was wearing my bandana. Viñales is an adorable village. Very small, farming and tourism community. The four of us had to sleep in 2 different houses, they were just 2 doors apart. We got in the habit of playing cards every night after dinner in Viñales. There wasn’t much to do at night there, as you may assume with a small farming village. We played rumy 500 or hearts or a Russian game that we clearly did not know the rules to because once we all got good at it there was no game left.

Our mission on Sunday was to find an activity for the day that didn’t cost a fortune. Its expensive to do anything. They are constantly approaching you asking if you want a taxi ride, hike in the mountains, eat dinner at their restaurant, etc. So after too long, its very difficult to make decisions with 4 people, we decided on horseback riding. At 1pm we met the guide on the main route and walked over to where the horses live. We rode to a tobacco farmer’s house and smoked cigars while he made fresh juices, either coconut with honey and rum or fresh sugar cane with grapefruit juice and rum. There was the cutest orange kitten at the farm that I held most the time I was there.  The countryside of Cuba is beautiful. Many black bean and corn, tobacco, banana, sugar cane farms. Pigs all over the place, even saw a litter of pigs with their mom and a very protective dog making sure we didn’t get close to the new family. We returned at sunset for dinner at the casa. That night the tour guide took us to a concert of Havana salsa bands playing at a Revolutionary Mural. The mural was quite impressive, took up the face of a mountain and I was told it took 5 years to complete. Hard to believe but it is a giant painting on the rock so maybe that made it much more difficult to paint.

Monday was a lazy day in Viñales. The horseride in the mountains and seeing the mural that night were basically the only attractions in the town so we layed low and just chilled at the casa and wandered around town. Figured out where we would go the next day and how that bus situation would work out. Arik and I got a tour of the Prehistoric Park in Spanish by a very old Cuban man that I'm not sure knew we didn’t speak Spanish. He showed us all his fossils and was interesting despite the language barrier.

Tuesday morning, breakfast at 6am and bus by 7am. We got lucky with the bus, turned out we were the only 4 people going to Cienfuegos so it was just a van with the driver and I could even lay down in the van. Got to an adorable woman’s house by 3pm Tuesday and she welcomed us and gave us fresh fruit juice. Walked around downtown Cienfuegos and ate some gross cheese sandwiches, but they were only 25 cents so its all okay. We saw all there was to see in that one afternoon so decided to go to Trinidad the next day.

Trinidad was only a couple hours away and we were bombarded by the casa particular senoras when deboarding the bus. It was quite overwhelming. I usually let the boys make the decisions because they were, if you can believe it, more picky than I about making sure they knew their options before choosing one. The rest of Wednesday we wandered around Trinidad. A cute town but also really hard to be in for me. They have cobblestone streets and use horse carriage for transport.  As you can imagine I did not enjoy the horse rides. The horses were all starving and looked completely miserable. Loud trucks and cars constantly zooming by them with less than a foot of space between the two, honking and yelling all the time. It was a poor environment for a horse.

Thursday we went hiking to the waterfall we’d heard about around town. We just set off from the casa toward the mountains and found it! But before we actually got the the waterfall there was a restaurant and a man collecting 6.5 CUC to enter the trail to the waterfall. We made our own trail to the point we were at and knew we could continue and make it to the waterfall on our own but Lars and I succombed to the system and paid the government to enter. Yiftach and Arik on the other hand when Che Guevara style and made their own way. But in the end they couldn’t jump into the water or go into the cave created by the waterfall because there was a ticket collector there as well. They did, however, make it all the way. Lars and I were sure we wouldn’t see them again until the casa. That night we went to a disco in a cave at the top of a mountain in town. It was the most interesting disco I’ve ever seen.

Friday was a day for sleeping in until 11 and playing at the beach. The beach near Trinidad was nothing special after seeing the Mexican Rivera.. Still a beautiful tropical beach.

Saturday we split with Lars and left for Camaguey, a 5 hour bus ride from Trinidad. Lars went back to Havana instead as he had to be ready to catch a flight the next day back to Mexico. Camaguey was a lovely little city and we decided to stay 2 nights. Not much to see besides walking around the town. Lots of coffee shops and cheap food everywhere! An annual festival occurs in Camaguey and we were there for the right time. The festival included music, food, activities morning, day, and night for 1 week.

Sunday was another day of walking around and getting the vibes from yet another Cuban town. Arik and I spent a lot of time at the festival, eating cakes and whatnots on the street. We walked around looking for the market and by the time we found it it was closing for the day. Markets in Cuba are not like other places. Sometimes there is no food, sometimes just a little bit, a couple bananas and some meat. I heard there's a market the locals go to where they receive a ration for the day/week/month. I'm not entirely sure how that works. Most food seems to be sold on the road. You can just sit outside your house and wait for the avocado man to stroll by yelling ¨aguacate!!!¨

Monday we abruptly left for Santa Clara. I was not ready to leave but the guys came back to tell me that we needed to leave that moment in order to get to Santa Clara that night and thus get to Havana in time for our flight. That was another 5 hour bus ride that turned into 6. Arrived in Santa Clara after dark and bombarded by casa senoras, once again. We had to stay in different casas again as most places don’t have room for more than 2 people. We wandered over to where the Che Museum is so the boys could get a look because they left for Havana the next morning. We watched a salsa band at a little bar that night and went over to some old revolution war vets house. He showed us photos and tried to communicate about the war in Spanish with us. It was moderately successful.

Tuesday I was all alone in Santa Clara but it was great and I had a hard time actually staying alone. I saw 2 English guys that I’d met in Trinidad and went with them to the Che Museum, Mosolium and the Boxcar Museum (where the turning point of the revolution occurred, the rebel army stopped an important train). I took an evening bus to Havana that night. It went by relatively fast and luckily too because it was a full bus and I could barely move my legs and the bathroom light went out so I couldn’t see anything when I went in, a nice Spanish couple lent me their lighter so I could get my surroundings before going in with the door closed.  Met the Israelies in Havana late Tueday night at the casa we spent the first 3 nights. We chatted up and went to sleep early. Next morning we got some street pizza, pastries, and coffee and then headed off for the airport where we’d spend the next 4 hours waiting for a delayed plane back to Cancun.