Day 5, Trinidad

The hotel is very nice.  It has a central water fountain surrounded by a lounge area and overlooked by the upper balconies where our rooms are located.

After breakfast we walked in the rain to various places in the colonial part of town, which is a UNESCO site and very nicely preserved

Our first stop was a typical Bodega or market.  Very small but has most of what one may need to prepare meals.  The meat and bread markets are separate stores.

We then went to a Ration store where the poor can get beans and rice, maybe some flour or sugar, milk in a box or powdered milk.  But not enough to feed a family for a month.

We stopped at a Casas Particulares or what we might call a Bed and Breakfast and visited with the owners son.  Private enterprise is allowed but inspections and taxes are increasing all the time, making it harder to earn a living.

The Temple de Yemaya is a two room center where people gather to worship as Santeria (pronounced santa ree ah).The Baba Losh or priest explained that this religion is a blending of Nigeria and Cuba and is based on the natural elements of water, air, fire and earth.  This temple used water and had an alter set up with various sizes and shapes of glasses filled with water.  He explained that there is only one God but they find links between saints and natural elements. ( It is not voodoo.)  In this temple the water is the most important element and is the link to the Virgin Mary.  In one corner they had a black Mary holding a white baby Jesus.  Santeria are baptized by the Catholic Church. Music and dance are important ways of expressing their faith.  

 

We visited the Museo de Architecture.  The docent pointed ou the various ceilings, walls, doors and windows seen in the homes from 1700-1900’s. In the courtyard of the museum was a row of bathrooms with the last being a room to house the shower.  All fixtures were from the US before the embargo.

After shopping on the square we had lunch in a lovely home at tables that were set for a formal banquet. Music and dance accompanied our meal of lobster.

After lunch we watched a master potter mold bowls and vases on a clay wheel at Casa del Alfarero.  Then we drove to a small village outside of town where slaves used to work the sugar plantations and the the sugar mills. The tower we climbed had steep and narrow stairs and was used to keep an eye on the slaves.

After our dinner at the Palador Sol Ananda, a private restaurant where we again had lobster tails, the men visited with the owner about running a business in Cuba.

Day 4, Cienfuentos & Trinidad

The drive to Trinidad is a 4-5 hour drive but we made a couple of stops.  One rest stop had a bathroom (yeah!), gift shop and cafe.  As I was wandering around the area an old man waved be over.  I wasn’t sure what he wanted but I didn’t want to be rude so I walked over.  He points at himself and then at me and says several times, “Amigo, Amigo!” (friend).  He then starts pointing to trees and plants and telling me what they are.  “Banana, Guava, sugar cane.”  Then he hands me a banana and he eats one.  Then he climbs up a tree and plucks a fruit, cuts it in quarters and hands be one while showing me how to eat it.  So I ate some guava.  He also had a white (blanco) guava but I didn’t eat that.  He was so excited and happy that I had come to visit him!  I gave him a few coins and then told everyone else to go see him. The highlight of my day!

To fill empty space our tour guide talked some about a religion found in Cuba that is a mix of Catholic and a an African religion called Oricha (may have misspelled that) called Santeria.  Today more that 60% of Cubans embrace Santeria.  They worship in homes and small groups, it is considered a daily religion and they talk to the gods and goddesses and saints.  We will learn more later in the week when we get to visit a small temple.

Cienfuego Providence is the agricultural heart of Cuba.  We saw many fields of rice, sugar cane and bananas.  The town of Cienfuego was very busy despite the rain.  The square was surrounded by the capital building, a school, theater, museum, restaurant, church and their own miniature version of The Arch de Triumph which was a memorial to their heroes.

As we walked through the shopping district, Lynette took us to a typical Cuban ration store that only accepts the original Cuban peso.  There were fewer items than we are used to seeing, cheaper products and products made in Cuba.  Across the street is a store that accepts the other currency, CUC.  It had imports, more items on display, newer floor plan and newer products.

Cuba has two currencies but they are trying to change over to once currency.  The Cuban peso is the original and is what the government uses for the ration stores and government run stores.  The CUC, Cuban Unit of Currency, is about the equivalent of a US dollar and is what more and more stores are accepting.  It is what we exchanged our Canadian currency for.  One HAS to use Cuban currency in Cuba and Cuba will not accept US dollars for anything.

Lunch was in a private restaurant on the Bay of Cienfuego called Paladar Villa Lagarto.  Paladar is the equivalent of a Bed and Breakfast or a resatuarant in ones home.  Near this place was a rich man’s villa that exhibited a lot of Moorish influences.

After we ate we were entertained by the Cienfuego Choir.  The group of 20 men and women were professional singers and the quality of their music was wonderful.  They sang A Capella with only a tuning fork to give them their pitch.  We were blown away by their concert!

We continued on to Trinidad and arrived there fairly late in the afternoon after driving in rain.  Due to the very narrow streets, the bus driver had to back into the space in front of our hotel.  Very impressive maneuvering!

We had dinner at Paladar Davimart where we again were able to dine on lobster.

Day 3, Havana

We rode a short distance to a Primary School for children ages 6-12.  It is a neighborhood school for about 300 children.  We visited with the principal and a student read us a poem that teaches tolerance. (We had a translator as the principal spoke only Spanish)

We then went to the 4th Square that we did not have time to visit on Saturday.  This one is called “Old Square”. The buildings and square have been totally renovated.  At one time the buildings were so dilapidated the city tore out the square and put in an underground parking garage.  Then in the late 1980’s a company was given permission to totally renovated all the buildings, fill in the garage and make a beautiful new square. The buildings, non of which are a church, were rehabbed and now house various businesses such as a museum, a primary school, restaurants, gift shop, and apartments. They also placed several large art pieces in the square.

Two blocks off this square is a residential area that is undergoing renovation.  The people living in the old buildings are being moved into “plastic” (temporary) housing that was put up in front of the old buildings. Once the renovation is complete most of these people will be moved back into them, but not all since they will be enlarging a lot of the rooms.  Those that can’t move back in will be provided housing in another apartment building.  They also provide senior housing. All this is done by the government.

Our next stop was the University of Havana in Central Havana District.  The first building for the school was built in 1906-1911.  Today is has over 17,000 students.  There are three models of studies, regular, technical or work/study, and self study or lessons by distance.  There are 18 schools and 20 research facilities in the university system.  The school we visited teaches math, pharmacy, psychology, law and physics. 95% of the students graduate.  All services such as food & lodging is free to Cuban students, international students must pay.

We had lunch at a government subsidized restaurant, El Aljiibe, in the Miramar section of the city.  It was an open air restaurant with thatched roof and very good chicken.

We had a short stop at La Lavanderia which used to house a laundromat but is now the gallery and studio of several artists.  Not far from there is a alley that has been transformed from a junk yard into an artistic walkway surrounded by paintings on the wall and recycled items turned into art like iron bathtubs cut and painted to be bench seats.

We had three hours free time, so David, Mickey, John and I hired a 1952 Chevy convertible to drive us out to the Habana Golf Club.  The car was pretty cool.  It had a Toyota diesel engine, hand crank windows, no radio, and none of the gauges seemed to work.  The golf course was really ruff but we tried our hand at putting on the practice green before buying souvenir shirts and hats.  Our driver had waited for us then took us to the National Hotel where we had a mojito and watched it storm & lightening over the bay.  Our driver waited to take us back to our hotel.

It only seemed proper that we had a local beer (Bucanero) for the ride.

Dinner was at a private home where we were served Seafood Paella full of shrimp, scallops, mussels and fish and topped with a whole lobster tail! 

Day 2, Havana

In 1976 Cuba went from 4 provinces to 14 provinces and in 2011 they divided Havana Province into 2 separate provinces. Today we drove east of Havana for about an hour to Las Terrazas Community.  

From 1968 to 1978 50 square kilometers of land was stripped of forest and mined for charcoal.  The mining process created countless terraces, thus the name Las Terrazas. Early this century the area was designated a Biosphere and replanting of trees was started.  But they also helped restore the lives of the people who once lived here by building a village, Buena Vista, for all the people who were working to rebuild the forest.  The village has 1014 inhabitants.  They set up a community center, shops, medical facilities, school and day care, restaurants, cafes, home industry and a 4 star tourist hotel.  

Our first stop was an area that was used to dry, sort and grind coffee beans.  There is evidence of slave quarters and a sorting house.  An old cabin has been refurbished as a restaurant.  In the village we learned how a young entrepreneur learned how to recycle newspapers into art paper and is making a living from it.  We also had coffee at Maria’s Cafe.  Our lunch was at a farm house where our food was prepared over wood fired stove and oven.  We were also serenaded by a Cuban Country ensemble.

Upon our return to Havana, we stopped to explore Fusterlandia.  Sr. Fuster is considered the Picasso of the Caribbean. He has transformed his home and neighborhood by covering everything with mosaic tiles.

Before we had dinner, we met with a professor of economics who spoke on Cuban and US relations.  He gave a brief history of our involvement with Cuba and then I fell asleep, then I went to the bathroom and when I cam back he was almost finished!

We had dinner at LaCalifornian.  This was a privately owned restaurant as compared to some of the government subsidized restaurants we will be experiencing this week. While we ate a couple danced the salsa and cha-cha for us.  But then we all were invited to learn these easy steps and do the salsa ourselves.  It was quite fun!

Day 1, Havana

Or Habana as the Cubans say it.

When the program manager, Josette, said we were traveling back to the 1950’s, she was so correct.  As we came out of the airport in Havana, the parking lot looked like a car show in the US featuring 1950’s era Chevy’s and Ford’s.  The process of going thru immigration felt like it was Pre-9/11.  The stores carry only Coca Cola and Sprite, we could get Lucky Strike or Salem cigarettes (at least that is what the cigarette machine said on the outside but the actual cigarettes are from Cuba or non-US countries.), and the young folks are dressed like hippies!  The books being sold by the Used Book sellers on the square are also from the 50’s.

Our first stop today was in the Revolution Square where a large obelisk and statue commemorate Jose Marti’.  He is considered by the Cubans to be the greatest poet, journalist and writer in Cuba.  Fidel Castro followed his ideals.  This square is surrounded by old and new government buildings.

We drove along the malecon which is a 7km long sea wall on the Bay of Havana.  We passed at least three different forts that were built to protect the harbor over the past 300 years.

Lunch was at El Templete.  We all had a complimentary Mojito as well as an additional beverage like beer or water or cola. The main course was mahi mahi.

Lynette said we would visit four of the main squares in the colonial ‘Old Town’ of Havana but we only saw three today since we ran out of time.

Square #1 was The Arms Square which was the first square built in Havana.  Carlos M. Cespedes is the Father of Cuba and he was its first President.  The square has a fort on one side, the first government building, the Governor’s mansion which is now the City Museum and other 19th century buildings.  This area was built after the Spanish American War and Cuba’s Independence in 1902.

Square #2 is called the St. Francis of Assisi Square because one side of the square is the St. Francis Cathedral that was built in the 16th century.  The other three sides have building from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.

Square #3 is the Cathedral of Havana Square built in 1777.  This church is made from soft limestone so it is not intricately carved but has a simple elegant Baroque architecture. Near this square was a University that used to be a monastery and a business called Habaquanex which restores UNESCO sites.

Hard to tell, but these are wooden bricks.

Since we walked past the Floridita Bar, one of Ernest Hemmingway’s favorites, we went back there after supper to try their famous Daiquiris.

Cuba, Here We Come!

We flew from Kansas City to Miami today to join the People-To-People Cuban Discovery Tour.  This tour is through GoNext. Inc and university alumni associations around the country.  We are “representing” the University of Central Missouri although only two of our group have actually attended classes there.  We are traveling with Mickey & David and John & Susanna from Sedalia.  Others on the tour are from around the US and other universities in FL, CA, AR, AL, CT, and TX.

We met some of our fellow travelers and invited them to join us for dinner at the seafood restaurant next door to the hotel. Later we met the remainder of the group at the orientation meeting.  Our program manager will be Josette who will make sure we are where we are supposed to be and on time, checked in or checked out, etc.  Our tour guide will be Lynette, a native of Cuba.

We have to be on the bus to the airport at 5AM!!

Friends and Family

On Monday, Sept. 29 my girlfriend Mona and her son Justin drove up from Denver.  Mona and I were not only neighbors but best friends in high school so it was fun to revisit those days and to catch up on each other’s lives since then and Justin seemed to enjoy hearing the stories about his mom’s youth.  

Tuesday we drove to Conifer, CO to park in Ray and Judy’s driveway for a couple of days.  They live on the outskirts of town and enjoy feeding the wildlife that pass by their back porch.  They have lots of deer, birds and squirrels but we also spotted two young male elk, a raccoon and a possum. We always enjoy our stays with Ray and Judy visiting, eating and walking in the foothills. Plus we got snowed on the last night, time to go.

Thursday we headed toward Norman, OK to spend the weekend with our daughter and her family.  Its a day and a half drive with an overnight in a Walmart parking lot.  Erin and Bryan recently moved into their new home, so Erin and I went shopping for furniture and accessories. Once the boys got out of school, though, all shopping has to stop and John and I have to play!  We really like their new home as it is very spacious and open.  They also have a new 3D, HD, K something HUGE television.  I made the mistake of letting John watch a 3D movie on it.  Now he thinks we need to get a new TV for our home!

This is a short wrap up of our two weeks in the RV.  It takes almost as much work to get ready for two weeks on the road as it does for 3 months on the road!

Our next trip will be in a few days - so watch for it!

Two Days of Biking

We left our RV resort and moved to a National forest campground on Dillon Lake early on Saturday morning.  Once we were settled we got on our bikes and rode east around the lake and then up the hill to Keystone.  Its not a really bad ride but it is mostly up hill although there are a few flat spots and some downhill cruises to give our legs a break.  Unfortunately there is not much going on in Keystone this time of year.  Almost everything is closed for the “mud season”.  Despite the ‘easiness’ of the ride we were pooped when we got back to the RV meaning a nap was necessary.

Today is John’s birthday so to celebrate this momentous occasion, we rode our bike up to Copper Mountain Ski Resort.  And by ‘up’ I mean ‘up’!  6.5 miles up hill plus 4 miles to and from the campground plus cruising around the deserted ski area.  There were NO flat spots or down hill rests, it was all up hill!  I didn’t make it on the bike the whole way but had to walk parts of it.  The weather is changing today with rain threatening so we didn’t hang around Copper but coasted (more or less) back to the RV for lunch and a nap. The ride up took 2 hours and the ride down took 25 minutes.  Both days were about 23 miles each.

To celebrate John’s 64th birthday, we had a really nice dinner at a seafood restaurant in Breckenridge.

Red = Difficult / Red Cone = Very Difficult

The trail today was very scenic as well as fairly difficult but then it got very difficult!  

We started out in Montezuma and drove along the road to Webster Pass which topped out at 12,096 ft.  The assent up Webster Pass was very narrow and, in places, rocky but the scenery was beautiful. Along the way we passed a motorcyclist who had seen two moose along our route.  Unfortunately the only moose we saw were in the picture the motorcyclist showed us.

But that is not what made this route a Red run. Webster Pass circles around Red Cone Mountain.  We traveled on a very narrow road, at times driving over the roots of the many pine and aspens on either side of the trail.  

But that is not what made this route a Red run.  The trail then ascends Red Cone back up to the 13,000 ft mark along the ridge line of the mountain. As we are about to climb past the tree line the road got very rocky.  One boulder presented us with a very big problem.  Three Jeeps traveled over this big boulder, but the fourth Jeep did not get his left wheels on top of the rock and thus slid off, landing with his axle on top of the boulder. 45 minutes later, after assessing the situation, jacking up the Jeep and piling rocks under his wheels, he was able to back up and drive over the rock.  The rest of us found a shortcut around the boulder so we did not have to worry about getting stuck. 

This is what made this route a Red run. The trail from the top was an almost 45° angel downward!  There were two separate descents, the first one was the steepest and the most treacherous due to loose rocks and gravel.  If one were to apply too much brake or any brakes at all, they might start fishtailing and sliding out of control.  So we were instructed to use the engine to slow us down.  I don’t believe anyone got down without tapping their brakes at least a couple of times.  John almost red-lined the RPMs before touching his brakes. Everyone made it down if fine fashion!  The second descent was not as steep and we all traveled down without any problems.  A lot of whooping and hollering greeted each Jeep as they reached the bottom and several drivers displayed shaking hands!

Golden Aspens

Today’s drive took us through some of the most breathtakingly beautiful Aspen groves.  Boreas Pass and Weston Pass were both easy roads that almost anyone could drive.  In the 1860’s Boreas Pass was a wagon road that handled up to 225 wagons or stagecoaches a day between Breckenridge and Como. Weston Pass was a toll road that also handled hundreds of wagons a day between FairPlay and Leadville.  It was reported that over $1.5 million was collected in toll fees in a year.  In the early 1880’s the old Denver South Park and Pacific Railroad built a narrow gauge rail system on these roads to carry all the gold, silver and other ores coming out of these mountains. 

After a fast walk through Leadville we headed back to the RV and still had time to take a quick 10 mile bike ride up to Breckenridge. A short afternoon shower caught us on the way back, but we didn’t get too wet.

Mosquito Pass

By the time we rounded up all the Jeeps and headed out there were 13 in our caravan.  That’s a lot of people to be herding around.  Our leaders today were Dana and Debra but we didn’t hear what the name of their party would be.

We headed south out of Breckenridge to Alma and then turned off on Mosquito Pass road. At the town council meeting back in the 1870’s, the councilmen could not decide on a name for their town so they decided to close the ledger and discuss it again the next week.  When they opened the ledger there was a dead mosquito on the line of the ledger where they were going to write the name.  So they chose ‘Musquito’.  

The road took us past both the North and South London Mines and up to just over 13,000’ elevation.  This was the quickest route between Alma and Leadville where silver and gold were being mined.  An itinerant minister used to travel that route to deliver mail, gold and the message, sometimes twice in one day but once it took him three days in deep snow. One story tells how he saved a stage coach full of people stuck in snow on the pass.

It was a fairly easy road except for one spot where a boulder had partially blocked the road.  We squeezed through the gap with no scratches but a few other caravaners were not so lucky.  One guy lost a fender and another poked a hole in the bumper of his rental Jeep. It was a BIG rock!

We lunched at the Leadville Fish Hatchery then headed home past Ski Cooper and Copper Mountain Ski Resorts.

The Lindstrom Lively Leap to Radical Hill

Our fearless leader, Mike, likes to name his trail runs after the leaders of the group.  We drew the Tuesday straw to lead.  Our route took us to Montezuma, a small hippy community then up to Staints John mill and townsite (there were two Johns and they wanted to call them both saints so it is Saints).  From there Sts. John road took us to the Wild Irishman Mine.  This was a fairly difficult run with some really steep hills and large rocks on the road, narrow ridges and some tippy traverses.

 The goal for the day was to run down Radical Hill.  This is a very difficult and technical run that our 4-wheeling manual recommends having skid plates and aggressive stock SUVs.  One couple had to by-pass this run and head back home. Some of the spots were so steep that several people got out and spotted for the rest of us.  One lady walked down as she didn’t like the tilted angles.  One spot was built up with some extra rocks as the drop-off on the down side was really steep.  Almost all of the Jeeps scraped on that rock.  But, oh what fun we had!

Argentine Pass and McClellan Mountain

If you are an avid follower of this blog, you may recognize this destination from three years ago.  We traveled from Breckenridge to Georgetown where we found our way to Guanella Pass before turning off on the rough road that took us to Waldorf.  Waldorf was a  mining community accessed by trains. One half of the 11 Jeeps drove up to Argentine Pass while the other group headed to McClellan Mountain.

We were in the Argentine Pass group.  This is not truly a pass today as the down side of the road was closed off to traffic.  But the views from the top were magnificent!  Just as we were ready to descend it started snowing!  At 13,300 feet it felt more like sleet but as we worked our way down past 12,500 feet it gradually changed to rain and then blew on past.

Our second climb was up to McClellan Mountain.  The railroad that came up to the mine extended its line up the mountain for the sole purpose of tourism.  There used to be an old mining tunnel filled with ice formations and the views from above were spectacular! The trip was call the Stairway to the Stars and at over 13,000 feet it probably felt like they could touch the stars. The tunnel is long gone but the road remains. And the views were awesome as was the high winds!

The ride back down seemed to take forever and we were really tired when we got back to the RV.

Short Vacation in the Rockies

We picked up our newly decorated RV after a delay of about 5 days.  We are happy with our new look - new tile floors, new carpet, all new countertops with under-mounted sinks and new faucets.  I had a week to clean and reload the coach (while John went trout fishing!) and we were off again on a mountain adventure.

We left Sedalia on Saturday, Sept. 20 after helping our granddaughter celebrate her first birthday. A long drive across Kansas with an overnight in one of their interstate rest areas and we arrived in Breckenridge, CO mid-afternoon on Sunday.  This is our annual Jeep Caravan trip with Born Free friends plus some new faces this year.  Our fearless leader, Mike, met 5 different couples at gas stations during his travels and invited them to join us! It will be interesting to see if they can stick with us this week.

Home Again!

We left Chesterton and drove all the way to Elkhart, IN (a long 70 mile drive) where we parked in MasterTech RV’s parking lot Sunday afternoon and evening.  They are going to do some upgrades in our RV over the next three weeks — new tile, new carpet and new Corian countertops and sinks.  Since we have no where to stay we loaded up the Jeep and headed home to the first blistering heat wave of the summer!  John is NOT happy!  But I am.  Can’t wait to see the grandkids and my friends.  Thanks for following our adventures.  

Until next time we head out, in late September, - Live well, Love much and Laugh Often!

Chesterton to Michigan City

The small town of Chesterton hosts a European Market every Saturday so I convinced John that we HAD to go!  I love farmer’s markets, art fairs, craft shows, food tastings, etc. and this was a little bit of all four.  Local produce and baked goods, clothing and jewelry, painting arts and crafting arts and lots of food vendors.   We stopped at one booth with these decorative gourds hanging around the edge.  Each gourde had a spring dangling from the bottom.  When you jiggled and spun the spring the gourde reverberated in your hand and made a sound like thunder!  A food truck, a Studebaker truck no less, that we had seen near our campground was at the market.  They make wood fired flatbread pizza and came highly recommended by YELP so we got the ‘purple pig' and even though we didn’t eat it right away, it was delicious!  I also got some very good fresh peaches and John found some really good cookies.

We then drove up to Michigan City where they were having a huge art fair!  But I just could not convince John to pay $7 to park and visit the fair.  We took the scenic route home along the lake coast.  Some really big and pretty houses along the road.  After lunch we rode our bike on another scenic road along the lake and saw more homes overlooking the water.  We also took a short walk along the water’s edge but it was such soft sand & many stones that we soon gave that up — too much work! There were a lot of people on the beach but not very many swimming and it was quite warm out.  I guess the water is just too cold to enjoy splashing around unless you are a kid.

Dunes - The Beginning and the End

We left Forestville State Park yesterday and drove 6 hours through Iowa into Illinois and stopped at a nice commercial campground in Utica (not a prison) so that I could do laundry as we had gone our 10 day limit and had nothing to wear otherwise.  The roads were not good!  We stayed mostly on two lane roads and they were so bumpy that two cabinet doors fell off and we thought something horrible had happened!  They were not hinged doors so were easy to snap back in.

Towards the beginning of this trip we visited the Sleeping Bear Dunes on Lake Michigan and now after a three hour drive through the south side of Chicago, we have landed at the Indiana Dunes State Park - where they turned us away.  But no problem, we went to the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore campground and the ranger helped us pick out our site.  All campgrounds are now full for the weekend.

This afternoon we rode our bikes 15 miles on the Calumet Trail which paralleled the railroad tracks and visited the park’s visitor’s center.  On the ride back we rode along the lakeshore and enjoyed the cool breeze while watching the sailboats and yachts on Lake Michigan. We could also see the Chicago skyline across the lake through the haze.