Cuba: Outside the Resort
Posted on February 20, 2007
Filed Under Uncategorized |
In about six weeks, Ashley and I will be heading off to Cuba to spend seven days at an all inclusive resort. (I’ll then spend about seven weeks paying off my credit card when we return.) I’m looking forward to the sun, the sand, the rum, and the cigars. I certainly intend to spend a lot of time just relaxing and enjoying the benefits of an all inclusive resort vacation. However, as enjoyable as those things may be, I don’t want this trip to be all about the cigars and the binge drinking.
I would like to see something of the “real” Cuba. This, of course, is a loaded term. Is it possible to see the real Cuba without actually being Cuban? Probably not. But I’d like to get as close to it as I can. Certainly, I’ll be doing the Havana day trip, but that’s still a fairly touristy situation. In order to have a bit more of a personal experience, I will likely rent a moped for a day and go check out Varadero at some point during the trip. It’s probably a pretty big tourist town, since it’s surrounded by a lot of resorts (including the one we’ll be staying at), but at least I’ll be able to check it out without a tour guide. Just me, Ashley, and the closest thing to “real” Cuba that a couple of gringos will likely be able to find.
On that note, I’d like to open the comment box to people who’ve actually been to Cuba. If you have any recommendations about what we should do while we’re there, places we should visit, things to avoid, etc, leave me a comment with the goods. And, since this whole Web 2.0 [1] thing is supposed to be about community, try to be as detailed as possible, since it’s entirely possible that someone looking for similar advice could stumble upon this page in the future. If that were to happen, I’d like this to be as useful for them as it hopefully will be for me.
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[1] Yes, I know that “Web 2.0″ is a stupid term. I don’t particularly like it myself. But, as buzzwords go, it’s got a decent ring to it, and I like the way it sounds in the sentence being referenced here.
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[...] Last weekend, because the weather was gorgeous, I went down to Whyte Avenue for a little walk around. While I was out on the Ave, I decided to purchase a couple of cigars. The upcoming Cuba trip had me pretty pumped up as far as the cigar thing goes, so I decided to ask the gentlemen at Burlington on Whyte to recommend a couple of lower priced cigars that would go well with a glass of rye. I picked out two, based on the advice of the tobacconist, and headed for home. [...]