keiko says
first big trip with baby in cuba!
May 14 – May 21, 2007 at Tryp Peninsula, Varadero, Cuba
Our hotel is immaculate – lavish trees, well-kept grounds, and beautiful flowers everywhere. All the buildings and facilities are separated from each other so there’s quite a bit of walking to be done to get to places but it’s a nice stroll because of the pretty surroundings except for the geckos that come out of nowhere. I only saw one pretty gecko and it’s considered pretty because of its blue and green color. We have pictures!
Our room was spacious, very clean; our mini fridge was stocked everyday and our beds spotless. We had no problems with our toilet, yay! Everyday, our maid would make something pretty out of our towels and would put flowers in our room. We also tipped her 3 CUC per day. At night, you don’t hear any noise from outside which makes sleeping peaceful, except for the itchiness. Lots of memories in Room 2144 *wink wink*
I just recently learned that Varadero is ranked No. 2 Best Beach in the World! I packed lots of bikinis, sunscreen, bug spray, skirts, tank tops, a dress, flip flops, a towel and sunglasses and that’s all I needed.
The best part of the trip is the beach! Baby and I did something different everyday – like ride the banana boat, kayak, and hobie cat ride. The beach is not as white as Cayo Blanco but is comparable. The waters clear and turquoise blue, very inviting. I’ve never seen anything like it. We took lots of pictures! Baby and I always dipped in the water but avoided the water getting in our eyes. At the beach, there’s lots of shade and beds for everyone! We also learned some Spanish dance at the beach, and baby played beach volleyball while I sipped on fresh coconuts! We also made a sand castle! And I brought home lots of shells and pretty things off the beach. Yay!
Other things to do besides the beach stuff – we went to the pool usually right after coming back from the beach. We’re real Pisces, we like water; we drank a lot of it and used up a lot of it too *wink wink*. Anyhow, the pool is very pretty and very big. Lots of people go there to read. Again, there’s lots of shade and beds for everyone! And in the middle of the afternoon, there’s always a group of people playing water polo, but we didn’t join them. There’s also a pool bar where we get “Tryp Peninsula†drinks. Yum!
Other things to do besides the pool stuff – Baby and I played tennis twice and got really hot and sweaty together. We also used their steam bath and their cold Jacuzzi once. And my Legolas hit some arrows at the archery place on our last day.
As for the food, Tryp Peninsula is a 5 Star Hotel but keep in mind; we’re in Cuba, where they don’t get a lot of outside attention. They don’t even have Coke and you have to pay for chips.
andy interrupts
oh ya, and freakin same with the plane ride, they gave you really bad tasting sandwiches and wraps, and no peanuts! wth is that?!? and only softdrinks, alcohol is 5 bux, a bag of chips is $2, and headphone is $2 to watch a movie on the plane! we just had to make our own fun on the plane ;p
keiko continues
There is only 1 buffet restaurant where we ate 5 out of 8 dinners at. We had wine the first couple nights then switched to beer, and then to freshly squeezed orange juice. Technically, baby kept drinking his beer. The food is okay; I pretty much had pasta and fruits the whole week. The fried fish is not bad and you can’t go wrong with chicken. I liked their potatoes but did not see much of rice. As a matter of fact, we didn’t see many Asians – roughly about 4, out of the hundreds of people vacationing at our resort. One morning we woke up late and the buffet is not open till later so baby and I ate cup-o-noodles at our balcony and that tasted sooooo good.
andy ponders
maybe we shouldve left one for the maid, and they’ll end up loving instant asian food, packed with all that MSG all that MSG inside that cup
keiko goes
As for the other dinners, we spent them at 2 a la cartes: La Gandola and El Tocororo. It’s a sit down setting where you choose what you want to eat off a menu. They’re okay. I like La Gandola because the staff seemed more professional and there was live music (violinist and guitarist) and the food was better than El Tocororo. Both are very nice to try and the food is certainly different from what’s being offered at the buffet.
Baby and I went to 2 excursions: Catamaran Trip and Havana Tour with Tropicana Show.
I think the catamaran trip is a must-do, for anyone who plans to go to Cuba. It’s a day trip where you ride along the waters and make stops to snorkel, swim with dolphins and eat lunch at Cayo Blanco, the best beach ever! There’s a first time for everything and this day is certainly one of them! Snorkeling is so much fun! Wheee.. pretty colorful fish swimming around me and then there was an eel then I ran away as fast as I could back onto the catamaran and did not go back to the water =( But that didn’t spoil the fun for me, because I got to swim with dolphins! Woot woot! Baby and I have pictures taken with 2 dolphins kissing our heads. Yay! Dolphins are so cool, they’re so smart, they do lots of tricks, and their skin feels rubbery. Fun fun day!
The Havana Tour is different. Varadero is such a tourist destination that if you do not go to Havana, you are missing out on the real deal. The tour was of the Modern Havana and Old Havana. Cuba is a very poor country and the people live in poor looking shacks, streets are dirty and full of people, the bus is full of people too! The architectural designs on buildings and monuments are nice to look at, they are very colorful and the buildings are all in a row and side-by-side each other. The expensive properties are very pretty but there aren’t a lot of them. I like the Havana Tour for what it is; it makes me appreciate what I have and how beautiful Vancouver is. The Tropicana Show is really cool, it’s optional to go but baby and I figured we’re never going to Cuba again so we might as well. It’s a non-stop 2 hour show where girls show off their butts the whole night! Literally. All the Spanish dance were performed and more! There were these guys doing some acrobats and that was pretty cool, baby took lots of pictures, we almost run out of space in the camera. The bus ride back to our resort took 2 hours. All in all, a pretty tiring day, but well worth the trip!
Oh yea, so we had pretty good weather considering before we left, it was predicted to rain and chance of thunderstorms for the whole week =)
I love Cuba!
Baby, where should we go next year? *wink wink*
.andy says
vacation since when? i dont really remember, i guess 4 years ago when i went taiwan for xmas, cause im done! no more school, convocation is on jun 8th, and im already working full time (ya full time, i got my business card finally, and then my boss goes “hey look, so how many years have you been working here?)
super flickr upload, i havn’t upload pics for a while, only put like 30 pics but it’s kinda cool that, the most viewed picture of the trip is… keiko ;p go baby, it’s my shot of the trip
so ya, go cuba, i’ll keep this short cause keiko probably will write more detail, but man, it was pretty awesome, varadero has the craziest beach, i don’t think i’d ever go to another beach that comes close to how nice pretty it is (especially cayo blanco, man it’s like.. a movie beach), ate not-so-good-and-same-everyday-buffet everyday, there’s open bar 24/7 so i drank almost 24/7 (time to lose some weight), baby got drunk once ;p and there’s also a nightclub that has like no people inside, mojitos are pretty cool, didn’t really get to have cuban food, the living standards is just like… so different, the hotel and outside is two different world, i had a tripod setup when we went to havana, and i swear it was like the tool from the future, everyone was just staring at it, and in the market you’ll find random people that come up to you and go cigar? cigars? cohibas? and pretty lady want braid hair? and also the few that tries harder, konichiwa?
went to the beach and pool almost everyday, and i got crazy sunburn from riding the catamaran, it was so freakin hot there, and the hotel is like gecko land, and we were like the only asian people there, so i think lots of server recognized us, and we met a cool bartender Eldo that makes me random drinks with random name, went snorkelling/kayaking, rode on banana boat/hobie cat, played beach volleyball, didn’t get to windsurf or waterski though >< but that’s ok, cause i spent all the time there with baby keiko