This summer was THE BEST! If our summer was a figurative cup of water…it was overflowing and instead of water it was actually full of a tropical smoothie with one of those little umbrellas. Seriously amazing! Since my husband is a teacher and has the summer free and I had a week with no weddings….we booked a last minute cruise deal to Cuba! Here are some of my favorite images and memories from our day here.
Havana, Cuba Destination Wedding Photographer
From the minute we walked off our ship and into Cuba, it was as if we stepped into a time machine. What a cool experience! Muscle cars everywhere! I think every time a cool car passed by….I snapped a photo of it. No doubt I looked like a tourist. And I could care less! I took photos the whole time. Here are some of my favorite ones! ps…i’ll take the purple one.
This was our favorite stop – a cafe right off the historic square. Ordered a Cuban coffee of course! And you guys will totally laugh….but we also got french fries (so American of us!) We just wanted a snack so it was either that or rice & beans! lol! I loved the architecture at the square. Really reminded me of Venice Italy.
Hands down the best part of our Cuba trip was our old car tour! If you aver get the chance to go to Cuba….don’t miss this! We were able to see a lot of landmarks in a short amount of time. And this car was so cool!!! We drove around for a few hours and saw so much! All while Cuban music played on the radio and the wind blew in our hair. Best car ride of our lives!
Thankfully Derek knows Spanish, because our tourguide (Mani) only spoke Spanish! haha. I could guess some of what he said but it was a lot of pointing to buildings and Spanish dialog happening. He stopped at a few different places to show us popular touristy things. First stop – a cigar shop. SO MANY CIGARS! And be ready to only pay with cash – no electronic credit card machines here.
The building on the bottom right is the local hospital…which is free for locals. The average monthly salary of a Cuban doctor is $26 -$67 to put it into perspective. You do get what you pay for though!
Below is a old football (American football to be exact!) stadium that was/is no longer allowed for use after the Revolution. Still abandoned! Sad to see.
We drove to what we call “the jungle” in Cuba. Really amazing to see such a different environment in Cuba compared to what we had been seeing.
One of my favorite things were these hilarious coconut taxis. I kinda wanted to drive one….but heard these get in wrecks a lot, so we stuck with our tour guide driver.
Our driver took us to the Malecon, which is a long sea wall across from the business district. Sometimes if the tide is high, the water will crash over the wall and get on the highway. Mani was also super nice to offer to take our picture here with the car. We also think the old car needed a break to cool off so got to hang out here for a bit. So fun!
Besides the colorful walls, there was also a lot of cool artwork and graffiti.
Above – The Floridita was a frequent favorite of Ernest Hemingway where he got his usual daiquiri. While we were exploring, we saw some tourist eating these churros…..so of course we asked them “where did you get those?” and voila! Awesome find!
One of the old churches has a statue of a man called “El Caballero De Paris” (the gentleman from paris) who was a local that everyone loved. Rumor has it that if you rub his beard and hold his hand you will have good luck. You can see a little in the photo where his beard and hand are polished. We didn’t learn this until afterwards, but that’s ok! We didn’t need his luck to have a good time!
We sat at an upstairs cafe that had an amazing view of the square. Great place to cool off, listen to the sounds of Cuba and take it all in!
If you ever get the chance to go to Cuba….do it! Asap! I can only image that it will quickly change. The locals were super friendly and it was a great place to visit. Highly recommend!
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