Where in the world do I start with Cuba… I guess at the beginning is best, but first… open a new web browser page, search Cubana Airlines, book a ticket, and once you’ve received your confirmation, continue reading.

Okay. Cuba.

Firstly, wow! Cuba is one of the best places we’ve been, on so many levels. The people, the places, the everything. 

We only had 9 days in Cuba and resultantly decided to only hit 2 spots, Havana (Habana) and Viñales. This only covers a tiny, tiny portion of this HUGE island, but they’re both amazing, and unlike anywhere we’ve ever been. 

This first blog post will be about 3 of the quintessential Cuban things. Some of the things that in a way make Cuba, Cuba.

Our next post will talk more about the people and the places. The people of Cuba are some of the nicest we've met on our travels and the places are unlike anywhere we've ever been.

The Cars!

WOW. ​

Now I’ll admit right here and now I don’t know anything about cars. I know where the accelerator and the brakes are, and I can work the radio and quite often the CD player, but the rest (the insides, the brands, the models and the makes) is well over my head. However heading to Cuba I had one thing on my mind, “Gee I hope I can find an old car to take a cool photo of”. Boy did I feel like a dumbass heading to our casa particular (more on these later) from the airport.

As you may or may not know Cuba, since the 60’s has had an embargo in place from the USA. Resutlantly, they have not, and currently still do not, receive any products from the United States or majority of the nations the USA trades with. This combined with it’s geographic location means that Cuba does not receive many new cars, and hence a huge portion of the vehicles in Cuba are working remnants from the 50’s, and even earlier.

And they’re beautiful.

Whether cared for - shined and polished every day - or completely dilapidated, Cuba’s car are fantastic and ensure that whilst walking around exploring you feel as though you’ve jumped back in time almost 70 years. ​

Now, like I said if you haven't already, book a ticket to Cuba asap!

In our next post on Cuba we'll talk more about the places we went and the people we met. The people of Cuba are amazing!

We jumped off the bus in Tulum from Playa del Carmen and after a bite to eat we headed straight to the nearest bike rental place and got a pushy each for 60 mexican pesos per person per day (about $5 aussie for those playing at home). 

Tulum, like all of the Yucatan we saw is super flat, and with the assistance of some bike pathways, the bikes were a great way to get around for the few days we were there.

We headed off down towards the beach and our acommodation. We dropped off our gear and went for a little explore before having a relaxing arvo catching up on a little homework. 

The next morning we got up early and cycled back through town to the Gran Cenote. We got here nice and early and only had to contend with a handful of scuba divers to enjoy the turtles, bats and fish in this awesome little spot. 

After the boat back off Isla Holbox, a bus to Cancun and another short bus from Cancun we arrived in Playa del Carmen. 

Note: This post may seem a little negative, and that's probably because it is. This part of the world was A LOT more touristy than we expected and resultantly we didn't love all of it. We still had an awesome time here, we were just a little surprised at how "Americanized" it all was. 

I'm going to be honest right off the bat here and say that this was far from our favorite place on the trip. Basically picture a main strip littered with shops and restaurants door to door all with at least 1 person out the front calling out to you every time you walk past to eat there or buy their stuff and you get an idea of what it's like. Kind of like Kuta in Bali or some of the touristy Islands in Thailand plenty of people back home would have been to.

That being said, we stayed at a good little hostel close to the beach and close to the bus depot. The beach wasn't too bad to swim in either once you got past the ever present salesmen without any sales skills. However if you think you'll get a quiet little spot on the beach to yourself think again. And we went there in the super low season.

None the less the water is clear and blue and the climate is great... It just wasn't our cup of tea.

One day we hired a car with our 2 new buddies Rhys and Bonnie (hey gang),  and drove to the ruins at Chichen Itza. The main pyramid "El Castillo" here was beautiful, and we arrived super early and hence were able to get some snaps of it from different angles without a million other people in the shots. 

Apart from El Castillo though we were a little let down with the site at Chichen Itza. With the volume of tourists through here every day I completely understand why the sites have been closed to people climbing them. However, the hundreds of locals with stalls everywhere harassing you to buy the same crappy nick-nacks that are available all over the peninsula really cheapened the place. 

Our first stop after NYC was Cancun, Mexico.

Now whilst Cancun has beautiful beaches and some of the bluest water I’ve ever seen, it wasn’t really our scene. We’ve got nothing against Cancun specifically. It has amazing resorts, restaurants, shopping and partying opportunities, however it just wasn’t our style of place. None the less, we spent 2 nights here had some great cheaaaaap food, 5 tacos for 25 pesos ($2 Aussie), corn on the cob w/ parmesan, butter & chilli for $1 and an entire bag of churros for $2! Perfect!

We just missed the tour season (we arrived October 2 and it ends in September) however it was bittersweet because as much as we would LOVE to see and swim with a whale shark, we weren’t sure how we felt about these tours. We’ve heard horror stories about some tours allowing people to touch the whale sharks, which damages the mucus membrane on their skin potentially leaving them vulnerable to infections. There are potentially hundreds of people on multiple boast flapping around and compounding the problem as these creatures try to head on their merry way.  I’m sure there are some tour operators that do a great job but anything involving people and wild animals hits a bit of a chord with us, and we don’t like to participate unless we know it’s either in the animals best interest or they aren’t being interrupted at all. 

That being said we’ve had plenty of friends who have done tours and said they were handled quite well with good instructions about giving the sharks space etc.

Our days in Isla Holbox were spent at the beach, lazing in the sun and playing cards with our new amigos Bon and Rhys in the arvo before watching the sunset. Although we didn’t get the best weather here we still had plenty of fun. Whilst Holbox is much bigger than other Caribbean islands such as Caye Caulker in Belize or Little Corn in Nicaragua, it’s positively deserted compared to it’s Mexican sisters of Isla Mujeres and Cozumel. We don’t have lots of interesting stuff to write on this one sorry guys, but all in all we had a fun and chilled few days. 

Next stop.. Playa del Carmen. We're not sure what to expect from this well know party town.