Travels

In the previous entry, I talked a little bit about the difference between self-guided and tour vacations. Most of the stuff we did was tour-guided, aside from our trip to Havana and our somewhat unplanned excursion to Matanzas. Self guided tours can be far more interesting when you get to know the locals a bit, which is not something you really get to do when you are on a tour-tour. This gives a lot more insight into the people, the place, and the culture. For us, we got to go where (resort) tourists normally wouldn't go, and it ended up being one of the most interesting and memorable parts of the trip.

With every intention of going snorkeling, Cathy, Andy, Mary, Tamara and I arranged for Oliwa, the same driver who took us to Havana, to drive us to Coral Beach for the day. Unfortunately for our snorkeling ambitions, the weather had turned ugly and the sea was quite rough. It's not fun to try and snorkel when the waves are tossing you against the coral and when you can't see anything anyway due to all the sand being stirred up.

While in Cuba, Tamara's brother Jamie pledged to set up a web site to host the various pictures people took. I haven't uploaded any of mine yet, but they are available here already.

Alana got much better pictures (number two) of creepy Jesus than I did.

Proof of SCUBA (I'm on the left).

There are two major forms of vacation: self-guided, and tour-guided. Of the two, I can't decided which I would prefer. The only two major trips I've ever been on have been tour-guided. The first was to Italy with my high school. The second is of course this recent trip to Cuba.

The advantage of the tour-guided trips is that you don't have to think. The downside is that you don't necessarily get to do what you want to do. Self-guided trips can be very stressful to arrange and organize, as we found out during our trip to Havana. There are a couple of different tours offered that go to Havana. One is a day trip, where they take you to old Havana and other touristy things. The other does some touristy things, but the focus is on the Tropicana cabaret show, which doesn't start until 10:00 pm. Some of our group really wanted to see the Tropicana show, others weren't so enthusiastic about it. One came only for the cigar factory tour. Unfortunately, the factories were closed for holidays.

We ended up renting a van and a driver to take the ten of us into Havana. Tamara found herself appointed tour guide for the day, a position which she initially embraced enthusiastically, but which wore on her as the day progressed. It turns out that steering nine family members around Havana is about as much fun and just as difficult as trying to herd cats.