Cuba...signing off...

We came back from Cuba on 22nd July...here's a couple of final piccies...

Havana...

We thought that whilst we were in Cuba, it would be a bit of a waste if we didn't go to Havana. We booked in for the trip with Hector (our Thomas Cook rep) and got up bright and early for the trip on Thursday morning...it's not that far but the roads are terrible! Even the "motorways" are unable to be tackled at anything more that about 40mph...the potholes are like craters! Consequently, it takes about 2 and a half hours to get from Varadero to Havana.

Anyway, once we were there it's a pretty amazing place with some stunning architecture but equally some really squalid living conditions...

Nice Cuban Architecture

Revolutionary Square


el Capitolio - the old Capital Building

Christopher Columbus' cemetery

Ernest Hemmingway's favourite hotel

Some more views...

Cuba is a very picturesque place...here's some more pics of the beach...

Teppanyaki...Cuban style...

I mentioned the on site restaurants at Paradisus Varadero earlier...they're pretty authentic - here's the guy serving - Teppanyaki style...

Cuba

On Monday 14th July we headed down to Gatwick airport in preparation for our flight to Varadero, Cuba. I must say that Gatwick was an absolute breeze! We had parked, caught the bus, checked in and gone through security in 30 minutes!

We were flying with Thomas Cook so the plane was a charter but this isn't normally a problem for us and we're not the tallest of people...flight time was 9 hours and 20 minutes. We landed in varadero to a massive thunderstorm - the rain was bucketing down! As you can see from the photos though, it didn't last long...the rest of the holiday was sunshine every day.

Varadero itself is really nice, however the country is incredibly poor. Average wage is $10-15 per month. I guess its a pretty good example of why Socialism doesn't work. Everyone wants money, the black market is huge and I can't see it going on once Castro is no longer in power.

We were staying at Paradisus Varadero and really, it was superb. The only thing I would criticise was the food - like most All Inclusive's I guess, you eventually get fed up of the buffet. Best thing is to book into the on-site restaurants. They were amazing, particularly the Japanese and "Romantica"

7 days really wasn't enough, however I think 14 would be too many - my advice if you're thinking of coming to Cuba is to go for 10 days...