Getting to Cuba was kind of funny. As I was working in Florida (only 90 miles north of Cuba), you'd think getting there would be easy. But what actually turned out to be the best and cheapest way for me to get there was to take a couple flights to get me to Winnipeg on a Thursday and then fly to Cuba via Montreal on the Saturday. Seems the Americans still aren't very accommodating when it comes to travelling to Cuba (even if you happen to be a Canadian with a US Visa). Well, at least I got my points...
The first week in Cuba was in Varadero in an all-inclusive. Not totally my thing, but nice at the same time. The 2nd week was more travelling around including a couple days & nights in Havana, a couple days up north in Vineles and Pinar del Rio, and then 3 days/nights in Trinidad. All travel was bus, and being Cuba, nothing goes too fast, so we didn't accomplish what we had initially thought about, but were happy with the final outcome none the less. Here's a few photos:
Highlight of the trip was Trinidad (which is a city in Cuba rather than the nearby country). I overheard some people talking about it at Tropicana in Havana and it fit our schedule so off we went. Turns out its a very nice town about 10 km from the beach with cobble stone streets and low key yet very interesting. There are a couple hotels, but not a tourist mecca. We stayed in essentially a bed & breakfast run by a doctor (actually his mother and sister live in the house) with a private entrance, private patio and great food. We were only going to stay 1 night, maybe 2 at most, but ended up staying three. Anyway, if anyones interested, I have the contact info.
Was a bit of a shock to get home to Winnipeg after Cuba (snow and all you know...), but is always nice to be home with the family for the holidays. Fortunately I had done most my shopping in Cuba, so I essentially managed to avoid the Christmas shopping boondoggle. Sweet! I never took my camera out of the bag during the holidays, so please just use your imagination (charlie brown christmas tree, 4 nieces and nephews, too much food).
I'm back at work now in North Carolina at the moment. Though I think this will be my last job for a while. After this I'm headed to San Francisco and LA (maybe a few days of work, but no more barring some serious begging). I should have about a week there (assuming this job finishes somewhat on schedule) before the family shows up on ~Feb 2 in Long Beach for a week-long cruise. Should be lots of fun and good family times!
After the cruise, I'm 95% decided that I'll buy a one-way ticket to London (might even just leave right away from LA). One-way doesn't necessarily mean I'm staying forever, but if I'll stay for XXX or where I'm going after (have also been pricing out round the world tickets, but don't feel like that much travelling right now). The only thing stopping me is some unresolved stuff and getting my UK Ancestry Visa in place. If I don't get real work with my company I'll need a UK Visa to work (i.e., if I decide working in a pub is more enticing than geology). I'm trying to invest or lock up all my cash over the next few weeks (cash that I had been keeping liquid in case I wanted to buy a house or something silly - but the stock market really looks too unpredictable to invest) so that I won't be tempted to sit around thinking about working while drinking beer in pubs and spending ridiculous amounts of money. I'll probably get work in a limited number of cities with my current company as long as I work things properly (I'm going to contact a few people in the next few weeks), but chances are I'll show up without too many commitments and we'll see if the work is what I want (one can't always be too picky when you just show up and say "hey, do you have anything for me to do?"). I'm really not sure what I'm doing, but I'm just going to do it.
WARNING FOR FRIENDS: I also have thoughts of visiting friends in Scotland (Pat & Stef) and the Netherlands (Darran & Jenny and Jen), Vietnam/Thailand (Ben threatening to tie the knot in Thailand), Egypt (my old friend / roommate Laurel) and maybe other places in between? So maybe I'll settle down and work in the UK or maybe I'll just travel until I feel like settling down to work or maybe a bit of both or somewhere in between? If I quit or go contract with my current company I'll have to give up the laptop, phone, healthcare, etc., so will be some decision making (I do have 6 weeks of vacation time though to help). As funny as it sounds, I've been homeless for so long (coming up 2 years in April), I'm more looking forward to getting roots somewhere rather than travelling endlessly, but time will tell...
So one last thing with a request for advice...
I'm thinking about buying a new camera. I have a Canon G5 right now and I've really enjoyed this camera. I bought it right before my trip to Europe in 2004 and it's gotten a lot of use since. It's still a great camera, but I haven't been taking it on trips lately because I've been travelling light and find it big (it's smaller than an SLR, but bigger than your standard point and shoot, and the charger is big w/ 2 cords). So they just came out with the G9, which is the more recent version of the camera in a 12 Mpixel variety, with image stabilization, with a much smaller charger, and the camera is much smaller (essentially it's a rectangle with no lens protrusion). Still not point and shoot small, but much better. Should I drop the $500 on it? The money isn't as much of an issue (it is but isn't), but I hate being a consumer when my current camera is still working fine. But for both the Peru/Boliva and Cuba trips I didn't take the G5 with me because of size and ended up missing some good shots. And I worry that I won't want to take it to Europe because I want to be light and mobile (laptop is going to be enough of a limiter as to where I can go). Anyone ever watch Suzie Orman (spelling?)? She has a section where people call up and she tells them whether they are "allowed" to buy XXXX. Did I mention the G9 also takes way better videos (XGA!), which is important as my sister tells me my videos from my camera are pretty well the only videos her family has of her family. So what's the verdict folks?
Happy 2008 everyone!
2 comments:
Suzie Ormon says "don't buy it if you don't NEED it"
Carole says: "If you end up not taking your other camera because it is too big, then you should buy it"
Nice pixs by the way.
OK, tha made me laugh:
"but chances are I'll show up without too many commitments and we'll see if the work is what I want"
Dave not wanting to make any commitments, that's a shocker!!!! Hahahahaha.
You're right though, just go and see. Fair warning: If you live in London I'm going to come and visit.
Just so everyone knows, I ignored Carole and bought the camera. To hell with it I figured and I got the high speed 4GB SD card as well! And then took some great movies on the family cruise that made it entirely worth it.
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