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  • April 1st, 2014

    Cuba – where the present meets the past!

    Yea, with this quote cuba welcomed us and I would definitly agree that not very much in this country is state of the art. But lets start from the very beginning. It started a bit confusing due tot he fact that the envelope with my travel papers was demaged so most oft he staff was missing. The Air France checking lady insisted that I buy another touist card in Hamburg before I was allowed to check in – so i did. After I was through secuity I was able to contact the travel Agency which told me to buy another one for Stephanie as well due tot he fact that Toulouse don’t sell them. So 30min before take off I was running back to the entrance area an bought another tourist card and back to the terminal in 25min. That’s what I call a stressless start. Nevertheless, fhe Air France flight to Paris was delaid so I had to wait another 50min which leads to another run in Paris where I had 30min to reach the other airplane but beleave it or not – I made it. In Cuba the trouble was not realy ending but after 2,5 days we got all the papers and most dificult get another car… Finally we made it and started our tour through the island. Of cause I had my camera with me, even if the secuity on the Havanna Airport was very interessted in my stuff.

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    Scound day driving and weh ad our first very special moment. We decided to drive a mountainary area. After some realy adventuras ups and downs there was a sign at the road which looks a bit like a construction sign. 100-200m later we recognized why. The whole survace was done new which lead to a very very slippery raod. We made it a for some more hundreds of meters – 2 wheels in the dird 2 wheels on the oily street until a big truck was coming down on our line. We stopped the Truck slided over the street – I already imagined how it crashed into us but the truck made it to the other side. Problem – it was so sleepery we weren’t able to go for one more meter. To sleepy to go up, to sleepy to go down again and everything with a chinese car called Geely. The Truck finally made it to start again and was turning. The Cuban guys on the truck tried to get our car up on the hill but no chance at all. So the only solution was that the truck had to pull us up but not on the street but right next to it. I remember the sentence: „You booked the full inshurance right?“ Of cause I have a picture of this:

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    Weh ad to improvice a bit with a steel cable and the pulling device was of cause broken so we had to „repair“ it with a bit stone but at the end the truck and the Geely came up the hill and our cars wasn’t demaged at all and Stephanie got  her face colour back ;). I thought African Roads were bad but the differences in cuba for the same type of road mentioned in the map are realy huge. A red street in the cuban street guide could mean:

    • No Street at all where you can drive less than 5km/h and you have to fear that your car break down any minute
    • Road with holes so big and deep that your whole tire could fit into it. So you take not the left or right line to take the only survifable map.
    • Totally new road where you are able to drive 200km/h which isn’t of cause not allowed in Cuba and I think the Geely wasn’t able to do so as well.

    As wide as the street conditions are the posibility for acomunidation in Cuba. We mixed the stays of our Tour  between „Case paritculares“ which are kind of private organized hostals and 5* Hotels. Even 3 nights in a all inclusive club where included. Overall I have to say that all these kinds of stays have tehre advantages but also disadvantaces. I enjoied even the all inclusive days but that’s something I will do again when I’m fat and old (like the other guests).

    Of cause there is a picture gallery of Cuba – I will add some more in the next days:

    2 Comments to “Cuba – where the present meets the past!”

    1. April 2nd, 2014

      Melissa Says :

      Wow! Great blog and AWESOME photos!! Sounds like you had a wonderful adventure. So…. did you like Cuba? Do you think I should go someday?

    2. April 11th, 2014

      Uschi Says :

      @Melissa: Adventure it was. And wonderful as well – for the most part. Sometimes rather full of wonder(ing). You should definitely go! Just make sure to book your awesome Geely beforehand, it’s too hard once you’re over there. or get around by Viazul, their version of Greyhound. in any case, the country beyond Havana deserves to be visited!

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