Cuba Diary - Seeing Pink in Varadero

"Cuba is a little dirty, loud but also beautiful and kinda romantic. After traveling the island for two weeks we are pretty exhausted by now but everything is very exciting. I miss the German food though!"

 

Those were more or less the words I wrote to my mom when sitting down to write postcards during our last week on Cuba (I hope they will arrive some day). So many impressions, feelings, experiences - mostly good ones and just a few bad ones too (no running water and food poisoning).

Maybe I'm a little more German than I want to admit ;-) I'm used to German comfort, service, hygiene and great food! It was pretty hard for me traveling for three weeks not knowing where we're gonna spend the night, literally searching for food, living with food poisoning but without medical service and questionable hygienic standards. 

I must say though, we were extremely lucky, we always lived in clean, comfortable houses owned by very friendly Cubans, got to see a lot of different places including stunning beaches, and almost always found yummy food somewhere, even if it was just some salad or fruit and bread.
On top of all that, the relationship with my boyfriend became more intense and now we are closer than ever before. I gotta mention that we have a long distance relationship for almost two years now so it was new for us to live 24/7 together and just have each other and no one else. When I live with him on Mallorca or he comes to Germany we also live 24/7 together but we are not together all the time like on Cuba because one is working or studying or whatever. So it was a totally new experience for us and except for one minor fight (caused by my burn out, haha) we had a fantastic time together and feel closer than ever. You can't imagine how hard it was to seperate again and go back to Germany and university after our Cuba trip, but fortunately I'm heading back to Mallorca next Monday to stay with my boyfriend for ten days, woohoo!

So like in the last two posts, today's photos were taken in Varadero, probably one of Cuba's cleanest places, at least your feet are not dusty and filthy when you come home, haha. Our last few days were the most relaxing and recreational days of our trip - the last week I really did feel like I'm on vacation! We had a pretty apartment in Varadero for four nights, almost five days without packing and traveling! Just going to the beach, shopping on the local food market, having normal dinner (mmh yummy criollo food!) and just chilling at "home"! That day we took a wonderfully relaxing walk at the beach catching the sunset. We had such a great time together just walking, chatting, taking some pics and cuddling. 

Here I wanna thank my boyfriend for taking me to Cuba! It was his idea (I wanted Bali!) because he wanted to see the authentic Cuba before it opens up and gets modified by invading tourists, haha. It was a great decision to take me here, I loved every single day of our vacation, with all ups and downs, and wouldn't have done anything differently. Thank you for this trip, marmota, I'm incredibly lucky to have you as a boyfriend and share my life with you! Te quiero con todo mi corazón <3

Cuba Diary - Varadero Beach Time

Hey guys, today I'm gonna take you to Varadero's wonderful, endless white beach. We were so lucky to have it almost right in front of our house, so we didn't have to walk much, haha, even more relaxing. At this time of the year Cuba is fantastic, because there's not much tourism and you got the beach all for yourself. It was so hot that day, almost 40 degrees Celsius so we just couldn't stay away from the water which is amazing in Varadero! Crystal clear, turquoise, refreshing but not too cold, just how I like it! We didn't do much that day, just chilling in the sun, reading some magazines, taking some pics and sipping our first authentic Cuban mojito, yum! Hope the photos make you dream a little, happy Sunday ;-)

Cuba Diary - ¡Hola Varadero!

Hey peeps, how is everything? Hope you're all enjoying your weekend! I just finished preparing my last posts about Cuba and packing for my next trip back to Mallorca. I spent five weeks in my home country Germany because the semester started and I had some stuff to do. Can't wait to escape to Mallorca again, I miss the summer weather... and my Mallorquin boyfriend ;-)

Anyway, today's post is about Varadero, one of Cuba's more touristy spots. Since we found a really nice, big apartment for only 20CUC (~20€) there, we decided to stay four days, the longest we have stayed in any place on Cuba. We just wanted to relax for a while, after traveling for two days from Cayo Coco to Varadero with a stop in Santa Clara, we were just tired of running around.
Varadero, as one of Cuba's largest resort areas, has a little bit of everything - big hotels, restaurants, beaches, a pretty town with lots of tourist shops, and lovely houses. Unfortunately it's a little hard to get some fruit, bread or any snacks unless you wanna pay 8€ for some yogurt in one of the tourist supermarkets - yes, we did and ouch, it hurt! That was the first time we had yogurt in two and a half weeks though, so it was worth the money. I actually thought the yogurt was 50 cent, that's what it said on the price tag, but every single effin yogurt was 50 cent! Three weeks without milk, no cereal in the morning, nor my beloved yogurt mixed with fruit, that was tough. We couldn't find milk anywhere, the only time I had some milk was in our hotel on Cayo Coco a few days before and it was made of water and sweet "leche en polvo" which is dry milk powder.

We traveled to Santa Marta one day, which is a little town at the end of Varadero, where we bought some food for the next days and ate the best tortilla sandwiches (for only 40 cent each). We were also lucky to have a local market just around the corner a few days later, so we could buy some exotic fruit. Cuban markets are super interesting, you get to see loads of different people, tropical fruits, rice and beans and also all kinds of meat (which was not really hygienic nor well presented, so I didn't post any pics of it, haha). You get to see some photos of the local market we went to at the end of this post. Hope you get a first impression of Varadero and like the pics ;-) xoxo

Varadero's local market

Cuba Diary - Lost in the Caribbean

We got lost! And without any effort we just found this stunning oasis! 
On our second day on Cayo Coco, we decided to check out Cayo Guillermo which you've seen in the last post, but we wanted more. After finishing our coconut at the beach, my boyfriend and I decided to take the tourist bus back to Playa Pilar, where we went  the first day, to discover that beach a little more since we really liked it there. Once we arrived we didn't even put down our towels but instead took a walk along the beach to see what's at the end. After climbing some sand mountains we found a path that led us away from the beach, away from the tourism - the destination was pure nature! 

We couldn't believe our luck when we found this magical place you see here on the photos. There was not a single person - just the two of us, some crabs, fishes, water plants and birds, a pelican here and there, and except for that only crystal clear shallow sea. Again I had this feeling that someone just put me in a movie or a screensaver, haha. It looked like we landed in a huge bathtub, amazing blue water, as far as the eye can see! I think this was the moment I fell in love with Cuba! 
We took our time, enjoyed every single step through the warm water, took photos, found crabs and fishes, even an old fisher boat, and just breathed in marveling at this incredibly beautiful yet unbelievable scenery. We never expected to find a tropical place like this that day, it was sheer luck that we found the path at the end of the beach that led us to this hidden spot. It was a true PARADISE, and we had it all for ourselves. The days of traveling in a hot bus, not eating at night, and stomach ache were totally worth all this! This place was definitely my favorite place on Cuba, so abandoned, so tropical, so MAGICAL!

There are seriously no words to express how we felt that moment and the photos surely can't depict what we really saw! Anyway, I hope you like the pics ;-) Take care and stay tuned, xoxo
PS: The fisher boat we saw from a distance brought the huge fishes my boyfriend's holding in the last photo, we didn't catch them ourselves ;-)