Cuba and Grand Cayman Islands

As we said goodbye to Toronto, we flew direct into Varadero, Cuba and took a van/bus to Havana Cuba to meet our friend Biggles (who has amazing spanish) where we stayed at the homes of locals. They're known as casa particulares and can vary from staying in beautiful old buildings to tiny rooms within someone's home. We learned very quickly as we stood outside the exchange booth that US Dollars are not accepted everywhere and you are charged an additional 10% right off the top for even bringing it so, if you have Canadian dollars, bring them, they love the Canadians.

We spent our first two nights at Casa de Martiza y Monollo and their daughter Giselle who lives nearby. They have two rooms in their casa on the ground floor with a sofa and a couple of rocking chairs to chill out. Breakfast is served up every morning for an additional $3US and a home cooked Cuban style dinner that will fill you up for only $7US.

The next three nights we stayed at their neighbour's just upstairs called Casa de Mayla. She has the COOLEST assortment of ornaments and decorations from around the world. Cat statues, little buddhas and paintings scattered around her Casa. She also has a sweet sun room and rooftop perfect for people watching below and sipping on some cuba libres and smoking cuban cigaros.


 Casa de Mayla
San Miguel Nro. 961
Entre Espada y San Francisco
La Habana

Casa de Maritza, Manolo y Gise
San Miguel Nro. 959 apto. 2 (bajos)
Entre Espada y San Francisco
La Habana
Teléfono: 878-2052
Email: casamaritzaymanolo@gmail.com


Our time in Havana was spent visiting the city centre, mainly Calle Obisquo which had the most bars with live cuban music blazing out from every entrance. There was always a party inside and if there was a crowd of locals outside, you could be sure to find a good time inside!

Take a full day to walk all around the main town and stop into local joints for delicious local meals of beans and rice with plantains, meat and veg or sit outside a patio somewhere, watching the locals and tourists alike, sipping beers and don't forget to order your share of Churros filled with condensed milk or chocolate!

Internet is hard to come by in Cuba. You have to go to a hotel or into town to an internet place and purchase a one hour internet card $6US. It's very controlled there and even the locals have a limitation on how long they can spend online in a week.


Our favourite restaurant in town is called Los Nardos. Named after the beautiful flower, you will find a queue outside so arrive before 6 to get a table. The decor is beautiful with two los nardos flower rocking love seats and a view of the open kitchen, as you wait and a good selection of wines to accompany dinner. We loved the chickpea dish with our bread basket as a starter and recommend sharing one main between two people. Wine was also served with a sophisticated service of smelling the cork, sipping of the wine by our server Qi-Que before it being served to all of us. We visited Los Nardos two times and a third to their less ambient location upstairs. I have to say the virgin pina coladas were the best I've ever had!


The proportions are large and great value for money. If you're running out of time and just want to try the food - go straight upstairs to "italian" restaurant on the 2nd floor which is the EXACT same menu without the ambiance.


Havana or Habana as the locals say, is a time warp back into the 60s where old chevy shells still run the streets with little interior to match the exterior. Still we couldn't leave without taking a ride in one so we organized a day trip to Vinales, a tobacco farming valley and town with some cool caves to visit.

Our tour included a very delicious and filling lunch of bbq'd chicken, salad, three kinds of rice, bean stew and of course, cerveza!

My man looking super cool in the front seat as we hit the road to Vinales. 

After our week in Cuba, we made our way to the Grand Cayman Island where the waters and skies are as blue as Paul Walker's Cool Water ad! 

We got to spend a fabulous week in the sunshine and reunited with our dear friend Fede and his beautiful Jessica. They opened up the sofa bed for us and we had one of the best weeks of our trip. It felt a little like being in Hong Kong on a sunny junk boat kind of day, only it was for the whole week. 

The Cayman Islands are definitely driven on tourism, nightlife and the chilled island life and LOTS of yoga, I could totally live here!
 

We hung out at Duke's for some of the yummiest pub grub (beef ribs, pork ribs, wings and poutine) and at Calico Jack's on the beach for drinks, sunsets and live music. We landed during pirates week (yes it's a real thing!) and saw a lot of "real" pirates that travelled from Seattle Pirate's Week for another week of trials, parties and parades. I also had the pleasure of teaching a class of 2-3 year olds at the Cayman Island International School and had so much fun with them. It was also great to have the principal in class and looking at incorporating yoga into their education. YAY! 

The highlight would have to be the visit to Sting Ray City. It's a sea bank in the middle of the clearest blue water you've ever seen and at least 50- 70 stingrays come swim around you. The water is about waist high and you can feed them, touch them, kiss them, hang out with these amazing creatures. They were so gentle and would swim right into your arms and you would know when they were ready to go because they'd give a little swing of their tails and you'd just let go. It was the perfect morning followed by a visit to the yacht club for lunch and afternoon drinks at Rum Point (serving up the BEST mud slides). 

Our beach life was coming to an end as we made our way to Costa Rica but first we had a one day lay over in Miami. I now understand why spanish is spoken there! We spent the day at Dolphin Mall, just a short ride or free shuttle away from the airport and watched Bad Grandpa in a theatre pretty much to ourselves and some delicious greasy Chinese! We were on the same flight as some new Cayman Island friends and got hooked up with some cool shades from the The Peripheral Foundation. It's so great to meet like minded people around the world, it's a good reminder that the world is small and the world has a lot of good. <3