Category Archives: Mid-life travel

December 28, 2015 · 10:41 am

Seeing Cuba at last – Baracoa

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We didn’t have any stragglers on our 4:30 am start, the wake-up calls must have worked. As we were leaving so early the hotel provided us with a breakfast to go – a ham and cheese sandwich and poppa. Jenny accidentally sat on hers in the bus and caused huge hilarity and some really bad jokes. I think we were all laughing way too hard to stop from crying!

Early start!

Habana airport in the dawn light

And here we are at Baracoa!

This time we went to the domestic terminal and, oh boy, was that a different story to the international one. All sorts of sights here and some badly smelling toilets too. Once again we were there about 3 hours early and this flight was also delayed, so maybe that’s normal over here. I’m not usually a whinger when I travel, I expect and accept that things are going to be different – but, really, I had the worst cup of coffee ever. Lesson learned – attempted cappuccino made with long life milk is never a good idea for me at 5 in the morning, lol.

Once we got going it was only about an hour to Baracoa, I was beginning to think we were in a sea plane when going in to land, the airstrip begins and ends in the ocean with both the approach and take-off over the sea, beautiful scenery but a tad daunting at first. It’s a really pretty airfield, surrounded by ocean, little rises and trees.

View to the airport from hotel

Very tropical Baracoa

Tropical outlook at Baracoa

Looking down to Baracoa from the hotel

Fruit stall at Baracoa

Rainy arrival at Baracoa

After a bit of a drive around the town then a half hour or so walk it was straight out to a cocoa farm a short way out of town. Baracoa is the biggest producer of cocoa and chocolate in Cuba and on the way we passed the chocolate factory opened in 1963 by Che Guevara, sadly, the factory is closed these days.

Chocolate processing factory, sadly now closed

Cocoa farm tour at Baracoa

The cocoa farm tour was interesting, had a taste of cocoa fruit, saw the processes and scribbled this recipe for making chocolate – 3 teaspoons cocoa powder, 2 glass water, 1 glass milk. The very first of our group lunches was at the farm, lots of rice, black beans, plantains and chicken. Three local musicians serenaded us, they were fabulous and a few of the braver souls in our group joined them. Then the CDs came out for sale as well, loved the music but didn’t buy one – I’m pretty sure there’ll be other opportunities.

Hahaha, we got to walk off our lunch with a climb up a darn big hill to our hotel! The room’s very old and worn but the air con worked so I didn’t mind, had a little nanna nap before heading back down to the town for dinner. Seems there’s quite a common practice of opening a restaurant on the roof of your home, this one was fabulous. The owners were so happy and friendly, the seafood was amazing – whole lobster; dinner was 20 CUC (equivalent to about 20 euros) with 2 drinks included. The musicians this time were a couple of guys who kept making eyes at all the females – funny as…. again we had a ball – except for the uphill climb home, lol.

First lunch on tour and the ever present serenading begins

Dinner at the rooftop restaurant

Stormy sky at Baracoa

Our hotel on the hill

Musicians at rooftop restaurant

Dinner on the roof

So this is what they mean by “Mexican time” or “Cuban time”

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Had brekky, did a sketch from my room and wrote some notes before pickup at 12:30 for the airport; we’ve increased numbers by another 2, a couple, Chris and Min, from Melbourne have joined us also. We were at the airport by 12:45 even though our flight wasn’t due to leave until after 4.Thank goodness there were a few of us because we had no idea where to go or what to do; a guy in uniform came up and asked us which airline we were flying with, told him Cuba Air and he told us which number check-in desk to go to but we would have to buy the Cuban entry visa for US$25 before we checked in and he could do it for us then. Jenny, Tanya and I all gave him our money and got our visas but Min & Chris and Wendy and John didn’t trust him so didn’t get theirs. This guy then took us to the check-in counters and started doing the same thing with everyone in the line. The 2 couples had to wait then for him to do theirs and he said to them, do you trust me now, bahaha!

Lots of waiting at airports for our group today

We still had almost 3 hours to kill, so had lunch at an American place called Bubba Gump Shrimp Co, all themed on the Forest Gump movie. According to most of the others my chicken salad was the pick of the food! Boring as batshit sitting around waiting after that, the flight was delayed and even after we boarded there were more delays and we didn’t leave until 6 pm. After all that it only took 50 mins to get to Havana.

Habana at night

Habana bike taxis

First night in Havana and what beauties are these!

Just a taste of what the building are like – simply gorgeous

And this is the floor!

I sat next to a couple from Seattle going on a tour but only allowed to stay 7 days and mostly around Havana. They told me one way Americans get around the ban is to organize it through a Canadian travel company as a cultural visit. When we got there it took about 20 minutes for any bags to start coming out, and, I kid you not, 2 hours for 10 of us to finally get all our luggage. Sometimes the same 6 items would go round a huge loop 6 times or more before any new items were added. Also, seems there’s quite an amount of goods coming in on normal flights, if there was one tyre come out there must have been 15! All this time there were more airport staff than you could poke a stick at wandering around having hugs, cheek kisses and good old chats! It was a real eye opener too, they were all very young, the girls uniform skirts were tight minis and most work black fishnet stockings, the guys uniforms were reminiscent of the old safari suits of the 80’s. During the wait I was talking to a couple from Tingalpa or Taragindi (can’t remember which) on holidays with their two boys. They’d been to LA, Las Vegas and Cancun, are having 3 weeks in Cuba and another week in Hawaii on the way home – 6 weeks in all – pretty cool!

Amazing food on our first night!

The first of many enjoyable mojitos…….

And a new beer for others to try

View from our dinner spot

Falling in love with Cuba already

Most of us had wanted to change money at the airport, however, the guide, Vladimir, told us we’d be better off doing it at the hotel and the rate would be the same. Another 40 mins to our hotel, The Telegrafo, in the middle of Havana, checked in, changed money and met back in the lobby 10 minutes later to walk to dinner – at 10 pm. Dinner was fantastic, assorted seafood, the mojitos were nice and minty and everything was all new, different and interesting. Back to the hotel at midnight for a 3:40 am wake up call to be in the lobby by 4:30 to catch plane to Baracoa! Never thought I’d get sick of flying but I’m getting close at the moment, this will be the 5th flight in a few of days!

It’s sort of annoying to have spent the whole day doing absolutely nothing until late at night when we saw a little of Havana old town and had dinner. But, I guess, that’s the joys of travel, isn’t it and tomorrow we’ll get to start our holiday properly.

Interior of our Habana hotel

My fancy hotel room for a few hours in Havana

Something else I’ve never seen before!

Downstairs of where we had dinner

The buildings are on such grand proportions, amazing

Vigo and beyond

6th August 2013

Looking back over my emails from this time I see this is the point I started looking around for a tour to join. I still hadn’t recovered well from my bouts of sickness that started in Paris and I think home-sickness was playing a large part in my feeling a bit lost.

The train journey from San Sebastián to Vigo passed through fields of what may have been wheat or barley and looked just like home at times, then I spotted the towers, so not Australia, lol. It’s fascinating to wonder why the train lines run where they do, sometimes almost on the beach, or running along a river and other times through small hills instead of around them. This trip was particularly interesting, farmland, mountains, a river with pretty garden plots, and a dam with its gates open.

Pretty in the country, Spain

from San Sebastian to Vigo

The gates are open……

Spanish farmland

Wonderful, but not home!

Just like home until you see the tower

Uninspiring urbanization happens everywhere apparently!

Perfect weather in Vigo Spain

I wandered aimlessly around Vigo for a day or so while trying to decide where to go and what to do next.All the same, it’s a pretty city and I was never lost for new and unusual things to keep me interested.I stayed near the waterfront quite close to the old part of the city, the cruise liner docks and even a shopping centre – the first one I’ve seen for weeks!

Jules Verne riding an octopus in Vigo Spain

Did you know that Jules Verne set a part of his book 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea in the Bay of Vigo and he visited the city in 1878 on his yacht? Neither did I, but there’s a fantastic statue commemorating this on the waterfront!

The architecture is a mix, with huge ornate gothic looking buildings along side plain square block of offices and apartments. I saw several unusual building details too, they looked like closed in Juliette balconies or window seats. I just love all the little quirky things you see, like a derelict building with a few of its outside wooden blinds still hanging as if new, or an old building finding a new purpose in life and still retaining its original gorgeous and unique features.

Loving this building in Vigo

I sat and sketched in the gardens, watched a guy in the plaza entertaining kids with a bubble blowing contraption made from two sticks with a piece of rope tied to each end and a bucket of water and soap suds, and googled tours endlessly.

The waterfront at Vigo, Spain

Rain rain go away, Vigo, Spain

Part of the harbour on a rainy day at Vigo, Spain

Vigo Spain

Unusual finds in Vigo Spain

Such wonderful reflections in those windows, Vigo, Spain

Mmmm, thought that person was real for a minute, lol

What a lovely window seat. Vigo, Spain

The old and the new of Vigo

These little hidden squares are so European and utterly divine

There’s a story there!

Laneways through the old part of Vigo in Spain

Relaxing in the plaza, Vigo, Spain

Sad or contemplative?

Statue detail in Vigo Spain

Old signs and wooden blinds

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Filed under Mid-life travel, Solo female travel, Spain, Travel

Tagged as Jules Vern, midlife traveller, solo travel, Spain, Vigo

November 28, 2015 · 3:04 pm

My gateway to Spain – Donostia San Sebastian

4th August 2013

Decided to spoil myself with a first class ticket on the TGV to San Sebastian as a few of the trains I’ve been on lately have been really crowded and noisy but not in a nice way.

Ahha, I’m in Spain!

Somewhere along the line a nice young Irish guy made his way into the almost empty carriage and was in for a good old chat. We were having a lovely time until the ticket person came along and evicted him for lack of the correct class of ticket! Poor guy, he had to go back to the pleb carriages!!

The stop at Irun was a matter of follow everyone else and hope for the best. I didn’t realize but it was the border crossing because I was herded to what I thought was a ticket office, made to produce my passport and get waved on after a really perfunctory glance.

La Zurriola Beach in the late afternoon glow

Parts of the journey took me along the coast which was easy to take and left me wishing I could stop for a while. I also found it amazing how the architecture changed quite dramatically as soon as we were in Spain, the overall style of buildings was very different within just a few kilometers. My hotel was just a few streets away from the train station (getting clever!) so I had no trouble finding Pension Ondarra which was rather chic, modern and in a great spot.

San Sebastian, Spain

I thoroughly enjoyed my couple of days in San Sebastian, explored the beach close by, Zurriola, which is massive and full of people, young and old, playing games, surfing and generally hardly sitting still for a minute. Walked across the bridge to the old town centre and the more famous ones at La Concha Bay and marveled at finding such beautiful beaches only steps from the city and it’s grand old buildings. It surely must have the best in-city beaches anywhere in the world.

There was a great little bar just across from my hotel so pintxo and mojitos were my new favourites although I heard a gin-tonic is a San Sebastian specialty – maybe I’ll have to go back again to try them!