More travel planned!

Been a while since Jennifer and I have traveled but I'm super excited to let you guys know that I am moving back to California from New York City and Jennifer and I will be spending our summer zig-zagging and seeing the great US of A in the good ol' '96 Ford Expedition. Jennifer has been quite caught up with finals to show her excitement for the trip but I have been scouting, grouponing, and planning this 3 week journey across the 50 states.

Tentatively, we are planning on the following itinerary.

-NYC - drive south for as long as we can handle (stop somewhere in Virginia)

-Charleston - South Carolina - weekend by the beach and golf courses

- Birgmingham, Alabama - free stay with cousin Richard? Or spend a night in Atlanta (getting caffeinated at the Coke Museum)

-Nashville, Tennesse (homestyle southern cooking and country music)

-Kansas City/St Louis, Missouri (Truck stop country BBQ?)

Madison, Wisconsin - Supposedly a beautiful college town to visit

Minneapolis, Minnesota - spend some time around the great lakes.

South Dakota - mt rushmore!

Idaho/Wyoming/Montana - hiking/biking/fishing/camping

Seattle, Washington - justin/Ben - (side trip to British Columbia)

Oregon - maybe visit Corvalis, home of the O. State Beavers!

Back to Sunny California in time for July 4th.

Highly Recommended:
- Casa Arialis: 66 Zequerda, $25 cuc/night
- Paladar Sol y Son (in the LP)
- Pedro (Havanatur representative): Simon Bolivar No 424. In the Meson del Regidor cafe
- Horseback riding tour to the waterfall
- Nightly salsa band at Plaza Mayor
- Unlicensed Paladar eating

After spending 2 nights in Habana, we took the 1pm Viazul bus from Vedado to Trinidad. While I normally would dread a 6-hr bus it did provide a nice glimpse into the landscape of the rest of the country, which reminds me a bit of Riverside and El Monte in California.

Upon arrival, there was a small horde of Trinidadian-Casa owners hawking their wares on color print outs. "STay here! Stay here! very nice!" I had read that these brokers get a commission from the Actual Casa owner and avoided their services, opting to hike over to "Casa Munoz-Julio & Rosa" the "Our Pick" in Lonely Planet's guide. Being in the Lonely Planet, and especially being crowned "Our Pick", the equivalent of winning an Oscar in Lonely Planetdom, meant that Casa Munoz was booked solid. Luckily, the very friendly and very helpful Julio recommended his friend's casa and in cubanesque fashion said, "Come, follow me, I will take you!"

We arrived Casa Arialis- 66 Zequera ($25 Cuc/night-not including meals), home of Arialis. Outside of the flaming red comforter cover with sewed on puffy heart pillows and awkward blue stuffed bears, the room was on the shabby side, but very clean.



Trinidad was my favorite city that we visited. Every time you blink you open your eyes to a new picture. I loved all the colors, the friendly people and the ease of traveling.

Activities that we did in Trinidad:
- walking tour: beautiful but unmemorable because I dont have much of an attention span for architecture
- peso pizza: deceptively delicious snack
- horseback riding: 5 hour ride up to the waterfall and natural pool. We booked through Pedro at the Havanatur desk and realized he gave us one of the cheaper rates compared to other people on this same tour.
- Playa Giron: Take a Coco Taxi- best part of the trip. pretty beach but crowded. Don't leave too late from Trinidad or it's hard to get a taxi. Bring mosquito spray.
- Paladar Sol y Son: must try! the owner and his brother are like caricatures and the food is delicious.
- Plaza Mayor nightly salsa: its free, and dependable
- Underground paladar eats: we decided to take a chance on a random woman soliciting her home for a good meal. This is an illegal activity and the process of going to the meal was probably the one of the more exciting parts!

Havana

Havana was the launching and departing site for our Cuba trip. We opted to stay in hotels, rather than casas, during our time in the capital which basically dictated our activities. For the first two nights, we stayed in Palacio O'Farrill, which I pre-booked using cubatravelnetwork.com. Although staying in casas is the recommended/preferred method of lodging, we decided to stay in a hotel the first night because we arrived into Cuba around midnight and wanted a "safer", guaranteed place to lay our heads. Inevitably, the majestic experience of staying in the beautifully restored hotels in Havana justified the cost and we later stayed in the Hotel Raquel.

There are 3 main areas in Havana: Habana Vieja, Habana Central, and Vedado. Both Hotel Palacio O'Farrill and Hotel Raquel are located in Habana Vieja so we concentrated our walking tour primarily in this area. Compared to Habana Central and Vedado, which are more residential/"local", Habana Vieja is far more touristy and feels a bit like Disneyland. Since neither of us are architectural buffs, we just wandered around visiting each of the plazas, taking pictures of old cars and ornate buildings and getting acclimated. I don't know the names of all the places we saw so I can't be much help!

At some point during our first day, 2 friendly locals- a man and a woman- approached us and unassumingly asked us some typical questions. They seemed so warm, genuine, and so Cuban; I will admit I was flattered by their attention and opportunistically thinking that this exchange would make for a "great travel story!". So, against my better judgement, when the woman told me that the famous Buena Vista Social Club would be performing an underground performance at a "locals only" bar located upstairs in a remote clubspace, I allowed her to drag me along with Jason uneasily trailing behind. Walking up the darkened staircase I was thinking, " The Buena Vista Social Club! And WE were the special tourists that would be able to see them!...What a "great travel story" this would make!!! Man, were we lucky!!"

The four of us sat down at the bar. The Cuban Duo encouraged us to order mojitos. They only ordered 2 colas. The man got up and claimed he wanted to give us something leaving the woman and us to chat enthusiastically at the bar. The man eventually returned with some cigars and some "very special Cuban coins" which he handed to us, saying it was a "gift" from Cuba. Pictures were taken with our new bff's. Cigars were puffed. I was about to ask the woman to teach me how to Salsa dance.

"Man, were we lucky!!"

Somehow, the conversation between the four of us managed to disintegrate from the excited staccato of a bumblebee to the sludge that is unbaked cake batter. And that's when The Cuban Duo began to tell us their sad story:
- We cannot afford to get married, it is very expensive in Cuba (I later learned this was a complete lie)
- We have a young daughter, we cannot afford to give her milk
- Cuban cigars are very expensive if you buy them in a store. My husband works in a Cuban cigar factory and will give you a good price
- Will you help us buy milk for our daughter? Can you give us 20 Cuc?

Jason and I quickly realized we just got Punk'd by our new friends. We eventually were guilted into giving them 10 Cuc and also paid for the bill which was 20, which seemed really high for 4 drinks. It wasn't until walked back into the Cuban sun, bewildered and disoreinted from the past 30 minutes that we realized that the bar tab was 20 PESOS, not CUC.

"Man, we are such idiots."


The rest of our time in Havana was uneventful and pretty idyllic. The city is impressively well maintained and it just seems that Cubans live fairly Spartan existences (not necessarily out of choice) and are pride themselves in cleanliness. On our last night, we made like Romans in Rome and paid the driver of a cherry-red convertible Tbird $10 Cuc (this is a lot of money) to drive us the 10 minutes to the famously beautiful Hotel Nacional. Although this national monument is undeniably grand and historic, I would say that our 45 minute walk along the ocean back to our hotel was equally beautiful and cherished :) (sorry if that is uber cheesy)

Spring Break '10- Cuba

Jason and I wanted to beat inevitable infiltration by "Western" culture, so we decided to spend his Spring Break '10 in Cuba. Sorry if this post is a little factual and boring but I hope it helps people that plan to visit this beautiful country!!

Getting There

LGA-->CUN:
Unfortunately, American citizens are still not allowed to visit so getting to the destination and figuring out currency were the trickiest part about organizing this trip. As NEast-residing US citizens, the easiest options are to fly through either Canada (Toronto) or Mexico (Mexico City, Bahamas, Cancun etc..). I found it much more economical to fly Spirit Air through Cancun ($~700 pp rt) vs Toronto (~$900 pp rt). Looking back, I would have spent the extra ~$40 to fly with Jet Blue because Spirit Airlines is a bit of a piece of poop (delays, cancellations, overbooking, rerouting).

CUN-->HAV:
I attempted to pre-purchase our Mexico-->Cuba portion of the trip in the States, but the airlines won't accept any US currency or credit so I called Air Mexicana in their Mexico City office and made a reservation. This act caused me quite a bit of trouble due to language difficulties (my spanish not so bueno and their english not so bueno) and ended up being a huge waste of time because they didn't have our reservation when we landed in Cancun. Nonetheless, the flight was not sold out and we paid ~$350 USD pp rt for our flight to Jose Marti International in Havana.

Money Issues for 10 days
The source of much of my worry was not being able to use my credit card (in case of emergency) and having to carry 10 days worth of cash. After reading through endless Thorntree forum debates, we decided to bring 4 forms of currency:
1) Amex Travelers Cheques- photocopied the receipts and kept the receipt and cheques separate in case of theft ($1000)
2) Euros (or Canadian or Pounds)- the exchange rate seemed to be the best for Euros at the time of our travel
3) USD- Jason read that they were accepting this currency, and in most of the world, George Washington goes a longer way than most local currencies.
4) Mexican Pesos- The Air Mexicana lady told me I could only pay in pesos, I believe this applies only to US citizens.

Cuba has 2 local currencies- the peso (locals ~30 peso to 1USD ) and the Cuc (tourists ~1 cuc to $0.89USD). Cuba is NOT cheap!

We exchanged all our Euros and half the Amex Cheques in either the Havana airport or Cadecas (money exchangers), these are located throughout most of the major cities. We carried the cash on us at all times but really never felt unsafe and spent a lot less than we prepared.

Traveling
We divided up our time among the Eastern part of the country due to time constraints and visited (in order):
- Havana
- Trinidad
- Playa Giron
- Vinales

The Viazul Bus system is an excellent, clean and reliable bus system whose relatively elevated cost structures makes it generally for tourists use only. Within most of the cities, walking or a taxi was relatively easy to access and prices are comparable to taxis in NYC (so, kinda expensive).

Communication is fairly easy in the larger cities. Plenty of people speak English but almost EVERYONE is engaging, warm and wants to help. Jason and I got plenty of opportunities to practice our rusty high-school Spanish with our Casa owners, most of which did not speak very much English. Like most places we have traveled, Cubans always wanted to know where Jason and I were from, "Are you China?" "China? " and everyone is shocked and amused when we said we were from Estados Unidos. And many people mentioned they had relatives in Florida, "You know Miami?"

The biggest shock and most prevalent difference between Cuba and other countries that we have visited that haven't been shunned by the US is options. Clothing stores will have a rack or two of clothing and everything is placed behind the counter. Grocery stores carry the standard fare of preserved meats, frozen meats, jarred sauces, packaged crackers but there is only one brand. .

The landscape consists of buildings, propagandist artwork, and nature. Considering that we live in one of the most marketed and advertised places in the world, it was quite a shock to there are NO advertisements..anywhere. No Nike, no Coco Cola, no Victorias Secret, no Starbucks, no McDonalds. Just lots of Che and viva revolucion!

Despite the US embargo on Cuba, they get CNN, VH1, HBO and plenty of other American TV channels. They have Coke, Sprite, Red Bull and plenty of Old American cars. As I assume with most prisons, if you know someone who knows someone, you can get pretty much anything. For example, our taxi driver from Trinidad to Playa Giron was this 25 year old playa who blasted reggaeton for 3 straight hours, professed his undying love for the Yankees, and boasted about his MLB game for his PS2.

I loved that there was no Starbucks in every corner, no kiddies with their happy meals. While the US embargo severely limits Cubans access to luxury items and chain store euphoria, they seem fairly peaceful. Poor, but peaceful. Lacking, but still so extremely generous and warm. Our taxi driver once stopped the car and ran out to help a woman because she had fallen on the street. Who does this in the states?! People leave their front doors unlocked and open, sit on their stoops and gossip. Women will ration out home made mayonnaise to their neighbors because they made too much. From my ignorant and superficial assessment, this country was filled with warmth and community.

Lodging
Outside of Havana, we stayed in the recommended form of lodging in Cuba called 'Casas Particulares'. These are basically homestays in a locals' extra room. They require licensing from the government and cost from 20-35 cuc, with the option for meals. All the casas we stayed at were impressively clean, had AC and hot water and it was with the owners that we have some of the fondest memories. In addition to paying for the license to become a registered 'casa' owner, they pay 250 cuc or 400 cuc per month (depending on if they have 1 or 2 rooms to rent) to the government, regardless if they have guests. Since the average salary for a Cuban is ~30 cuc/month this is an immense burden for the casa owners and the competition to recruit guests is pretty intense!

In Havana, we decided to forego Casas for hotels and stayed at two beautifully restored hotels, Hotel Raquel and Hotel Palacio O'Farrill. A 5 star hotel is the equivalent of a 3 star in the states, but it was definetly worth experiencing the majesty and grandeur of these monuments.

The mattress situation in Cuba puzzles me. Regardless of the amount we paid for the lodging, the mattresses were all equally s*itty. Like seriously crap with wires and springs jostling at your back all night and strange divets that encourage scoliosis. Seroiusly bad sleep, but just a part of being in Cuba.. :) In New York, I'm used to falling asleep with the city buzzing around me so I wouldn't necessarily say I need it to be outback- cricket-quiet to be able to sleep. However, Cuba was a whole other level of cacophony- rooster, horse hooves, coco-taxis, T-bird engines, dogs wrestling, Salsa music, Reggaeton blasting, Cubans shouting at each other, all throughout the wee hours of the night. But again, just part of the country's charm.

Food
I'm not sure I can accurately convey the reality of the food situation in Cuba because I was a tourist. However there were still plenty of opportunities to witness socialism and the Soviet influence. From what I understand, the government provides a family ration slips which they exchange for their weekly rations of bread, rice and beans, eggs, and meat. Luxury goods, such as guava jam, honey and ice cream are usually sold separately in pesos or cucs. I really don't understand their rationing system so sorry if this is totally incorrect...

Needless to say, there really isn't much variety or "fusion" going on in Cuba. Do not expect that a trip to Cuba will blow your gastronomic mind. Breakfast was usually an array of fruit (pineapple, papaya and oranges), black coffee, a roll and eggs. Lunch was a ham and cheese sandwich. Dinner was a predictable but delicious fare of rice and beans with some protein (fish, lobster, chicken, pork). Highly recommend the fish and lobster if you are by the coast..amazing!

Hopefully this post gives somewhat of a framework of how we (as American tourists) can feasibly travel to Cuba. I'll follow up this with more a more specific itinerary for what we did in each location.

Not ready for NYC yet

In a last gasp of desperation to avoid returning to the real world (does B-school count?), I have re-scheduled my plane ticket to stay in LA for 4 more days. aaahhhhhh

Home

We are finally home after spending 48 hours in airports and planes. The flight home was quite a harrowing experience and an adventure in itself since we had 4 connecting flights before reaching LAX, our final destination.

During the Dubai--> San Francisco plane portion of the trip, an older man made the mistake of sneaking a smoke in the bathroom. Understandably, if you have any sort of chronic addiction, a 17 hour flight will get the best of you. Needless to say, it didn't turn out too favorably for this old guy because he didn't quite understand English, none of the attendants could speak his language, so no one could convey to him that smoking had been forbidden on plane rides since the 80s. He started to cause quite a scene. so along with the burly male flight attendants, the plane marshal was summoned and the man was forcefully handcuffed to his seat. For the remaining 6 hours of the flight, he would get hysterical and at some point started spitting on his neighbors and plane officials, so they muzzled him with a face mask and he spent the rest of the flight sandwiched between the marshal and the male attendants. When we landed, ground officers came onboard to arrest him before the rest of us could deplane. Entertaining? Yes. Appreciated? No.

We then missed our connecting flight from San Francisco--> LAX because we spent too much time waiting for our backpacks,one of which never showed up and is currently still missing. Thankfully we were put on another flight 2 hours later but after we finally boarded, the brakes were problematic so everyone had to deplane and wait for another plane.

I could definetely do without seeing the inside of a plane/airport for a while, thank you very much.

Anyways, we are home and happy to exploit the comforts of a westernized country.
Thanks for reading! Jason has posted our pics at www.flickr.com/photos/ruchbum

Mt. Kilimanjaro

We did it, we climbed and climbed and climbed for, literally, days and we reached the summit. I dont think I've properly digested the past 5 days to give an accurate and wholesome recap of our latest adventure (and i'm worried that the bad internet is going to shut me off before i finish), so i'll wait until we have better access and more clarity.

All I can say is that climbing this mountain was THE hardest, most challenging physical, mental and emotional journey of my life. and that is an understatement. Our wonderful group of 6 all reached the summit and i think at some point, each of us broke down and cried. its hard to explain, but i'm so proud.