Cuban flash holiday!

The offer for a short week of indulgence at Rancho Luna on the Playa Luna in Cienfuego Cuba was too good to be true! And so, we went for the very first time in our lives to an all inclusive resort! It is never to late to try new things, right????

What a week!

Our flight with Cubana  de Aviacion departed 2 hours late from Toronto ...so what, it gave us the opportunity to socialize at the airport! Our little group of like minded people had started to build...and by the time we arrive at the resort (1 am) we were in the mood to enjoy the Cuba! And because the bar was still open, all of us congregated and began our week of fun..until 4am!

It is so easy to get into the Caribbean mode once more: warm and humid air, flowery smell, good rum, and easy going friends..."vivir mi vida"(living my life)!!! as Marc Anthony sings! (still a salsa hit in Cuba...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMl_1Ak0JcI).

There was only one sailboat, a Hobby Cat, and Heiner became friend with the 2 instructors and got to sail almost every day...all  our friends were so keen to go for a Cat ride!!!

On the the second day, we took the hotel shuttle (free) to Cienfuegos, about 15 minutes away from our resort. We went with one friend, Desmond, and had a leisurely walk through town..it brought back memory from our first trip to Cuba (in 2001).  The buildings, the stores,the malecon, the ice cream machines, horse pulled buggies...

Cienfuegos has a charming architecture,

Coppelia is THE ice cream store in Cuba and like in Havanna, there are always long line ups to enjoy its ice creams...we did not have one there but somewhere else in town where we could pay in Cuban pesos, for a delicious guyaba flavoured soft ice cream cone!

Line ups also in the government owned stores to buy goods ...

or take the bus #1...full to the rim!

 There are still few cars in Cuba, and it may stay like that given the astronomical prizes of newer cars!

Benny More, a Cienfuego born musical wonder, has its statue in the ciudad...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYmsJgYsvN4

Here are Heiner and Desmond posing under a majestuous banyan tree...

 

 

 

And here are mojitos...we searched for them for quite a while...we could not get them at our resort because they did not have mint..."yerba Buena" (mint) seemed impossible to get until we went to this little hotel bar and we could finally enjoy them! Muy rico!!!!! Music by two older gentlemen made the mojitos even more enjoyable!  

We actually kept the mint (we happened to have a zip log bag with us!!!!) and brought it back to the resort...showed it to the barman and proudly ask for a mojito!!! which we got....The next day, our friends Fermando and Hilde went into town and brought back a nice bag of mint! People looked at us strangely thinking we had a bag of weeds (ganja)...but no, we just needed mojitos to be happy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We also took the opportunity to walk on the road in direction of the lighthouse, coming back on the beach and admiring the mountains...Cuba has so lovely landscapes! The Escambray Mountains extend about 80 kilometers from east to west, and 80 kilometers from north to south. Their highest peak, Pico San Juna rises to 960 m (3,150 ft) above sea level.

 

And departure day arrived! We had to be up at 5am, having breakfast at 5h30: the staff was there, with scarves and tuques because it was quite a cool day (17C?)...and we arrived quite early at the Cienfuegos airport...and guess what! the coffee machine was out of order! Oh oh...we all needed more coffee to stay awake for the next hours...oh well, one of us, Brandy, quite resourceful woman, decided that a Cuba Libre would do the trick! And so, many of us followed her example! Our earliest rum drink EVER!!!!!

 

Brandy and Marleyne posing in front of the clock...just to show how early it was!!!

Nicki and Marleyne...following her example!!!!!!!!!!!! And Heiner who joined in...with the third Cuba Libre!!! Hasta luego Cuba!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

 

Our Cuba Group - we had fun!  A lot of fun!

 

 

 

Happy to leave Cordoba and its cool weather for sunny and warmer Malaga, we went back to the »malaga market for more seafood and on that evening, our last evening in Spain, heiner managed to bring us to the Taberna Los Gatos for an excellent tapas and beer dinner...It is quite challenging to find one's way in Spanish cities..with streets name changing at every corner... But we found Los Gatos after meandering in Malaga's street and we enjoyed its atmosphere and its delicious food!

The last station of our Andalousian trip: Cordoba.

Again the Rio Guadalquivir is part of the city landscape...

And what about this restored Islamic water wheel that once would have raised water to the caliph's palace...

Our main goal in Cordoba, however, was to see the Mezquita: we had seen photos of this moorish-christian temple and found it stunning.  We were going to be rewarded for braving the cold Cordoba weather....(6C at night).

 
 The temple was beyond our expectations.  We both agreed that we never had seen such a jewel of a church.

Cordoba was placed under the control of Abd ar-Rahman I in 756. He was the sole survivor of the Umayad dynasty and proved to be a firm but moderate ruler establishing control over all but the north of Spain.  Following the Islamic invasion, the Muslims proceeded to the demolition of the church of San Vincente (see remains in photo on the left) and proceeded to the construction of what was going to become the most important sanctuary of Western Islam.


 The Mezquita was going to go through further stage of construction and modifications, with each follower of Abd ar-Rahman I adding new aisles and extending its walls. And in 1236, when the Christians (King Ferdinand III called El Santo)  reconquered Spain, the temple was to go through further transformation.  And so, Christian styled chapels, transepts, choirs and chapels were amalgamated into the mosque with an extraordianry result of an exquisite beauty. 

After spending many hours in the Cathedral, we were drawn outside and enjoyed a couple of drinks on a little Plaza close to a restaurant El patio de la Juderia where there were nightly Flamenco shows...that evening, we made our way to that restaurant in order to celebrate our last evening in Cordoba with a wonderful dinner and a very good flamenco presentation.  

On Saturday, we went on the look out for a dynamic market place....we decided to look for the Feria Mercado but were disappointed in the lack of atmosphere..nothing to compare with what we had experienced in Malaga...nevertheless, we had discovered yet another barrio of Sevilla: la Macarena with  its massive Roman walls and its pittoresque shops..like this sombrero shop.


Coming back to the city centre, we stopped at one of our favorite outside bats located just in front of the marvelous Iglesia Salvador.(Here, saints and even the Virgin Mary are part of daily life...Photographs, or sculptures often ornament restaurants and even bars). The beer was cheap (1euro) which expleins the crowds, at any given time of the day...except Sundays...Saints and bar owners must take a little break, once in a while!

As for the marvelous baroque church of Salvador (the second largest church in Sevilla after the Cathedral) , it was erected on land occupied by the first mosque  in Sevilla (829-830).  We found its interior stunning.

Another interesting visit was at the General Archives of the Indies. an impressive site located close to the cathedral.  This beautiful example of Spanish Renaissance architecture was designed by Juan Herrera and is the repository of extremely valuable achival documents illustrating the history of Spanish naval expeditions to the Americas and the Philippines.  Basiclaly, original documents such as mariners logbooks, crew lists, boat rations, EVERYHTING is kept here in their original format...The exhibition on display was entitled Pacifico: Spain and the adventure of the South sea: we were fascinated by the documents themselves and the building hosting them!

And then it was Sunday...In Spain, Sunday is family day and all the stores close in the afternoon ...streets become unusually quiet..On Sunday morning, after our first breakfast, we elected a visit at the Museum of Fine Arts as well as the Art flea market - basically, artists bring their paintings or sculptures in the garden close to the museum and hope for buyers.  There was a realxed atmosphere and we enjoyed looking at local artists and their work.  We expected more of the Museum itself, espcially after reading that it was the second in importance in Spain after Madrid's Prado. Oh well...Another later, we were back on the street in search of our second breakfast.  Their coffee -doble espresso con leche sin azucar - is so good! as a breafast special, one is offered half a toast (longish bread) with puried tomatoe  and olive oil...we chose the croissant option!

Undeterred in our artistic Sunday expedition, we then proceeded to walk to the Museum of Contemporary art, housed in another Carthusian monastery...this was located in an area that we had not yet explored. 

 We found the site intriguing...with its massive monastery and the orange gardens...hundred of orange trees loaded with big fruits. And once again, irrigation canals, moorish style, giving an element of distinction to the gardens.  Did we eat oranges? YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In the mean time, it was about 14h, and local families were entering the grounds of the Cartuja with children and dogs..all sampling the fruits. When in Spain, do like the Spaniards...the fruit tasted wonderful! We got enough vitamin C for the rest of our stay!

We also discovered that its intriguing chimneys and its numerous mosaics were related to its past (or present?) vocation as a manufacture of ceramic products.

Anyhow, the sun was warm, the oranges tasted good, and we decided to skip the museum itself...prefering strolling in its gardens.

And so, our visit of Sevilla had come to an end...

 All these sevillan impressions will stay with us a long time!

Adios!