Bibi, Goly and Kasia in CUBA. Below the photos from our 10 days trip. Enjoy!

For me there are 2 parts of Havana - the touristy and the real one. Let's start with the TOURISTY one.

VEDADO -is the part of Havana, where we stayed. Our Casa Particulares was next to the one of the best hotels in town - Hotel NACIONAL.

From our place we took COCO TAXI enjoying the view along MALECON - 8 km long seawall - to OLD Havana.

OLD HAVANA is the very touristy part. Its beautiful, clean, colorful, safe and full of tourists of course.

Havana Vieja is World Heritage in UNESCO classification. After the huge renovation project it has been generating up to US$160 million a year in profits!

Around PLAZA VIEJA there are plenty of beautiful buildings, patios and great restaurants like Taberna de la Muralla.

On PLAZA DE LA CATEDRAL tourist business is booming! For a peso you can take a photo with folkloric mulattas in polka-dot dresses...

...or with Cuban ladies smoking cigars - and better prepare before you take a photo cause if you miss it and need to take another one you need to pay again :-)

You can also take photos of Cuban men with cigars and listen to Cuban salsa - don't forget about the tip of course!

There is few more tourist MUST DO's
apart from taking Coco-Taxi.

You need to drink Mojito at LA BODEGUITA DEL MEDIO,
where Hemingway used to drink and

buy T-Shirt with CHE image.

Buy & smoke original Cuban cigars,

buy some local art and..

stand in line to have a strawberry ice cream
in famous COPPELIA

Don't miss a photo of CAPITOLO - this US Capitol "brother", which was built by 5000 workers, for 3 years and for US$17 million!

Finally tourists can have a lot of fun in Havana as there is plenty of great bars, clubs or amazing apartments like the one we had New Years Party in.
BTW - TOBY - thanks for organizing this fantastic party - great people, great food, great music!

But next to this fabulous touristy life there is REAL HAVANA - for normal Cubans!
Its less clean, less rich and less safe...

Most of the buildings are beautiful but very damaged and people are very poor.
In Havana Cubans spend most of their time hanging out on dirty streets; playing domino...

..

...repairing over and over very old cars...

...cooking what they found (like this pig for example)...

...playing on the streets.

And these streets, where there are no tourists, are not necessarily safe - we experienced that once our camera got stolen!

But Cubans still have always smiles on their faces and seem to be happy!

Maybe because there are completely brainwashed...Anti-American posters can be found all over the city!

And when the American Embassy tried to protest and placed ticker with some true statements about freedom and human rights on their building,
Fidel Castro put 138 Cuban flags in front of it so no one can read what the ticker says...

Our next destination was Trinidad and Ancon - South- East of Havana - where we got by bus (Viazul).

After few days in the city first thing we could think of was the beach - so we went to PLAYA ANCON - 15 min from Trinidad. Nice....

I guess we all had too much energy to lay and do nothing for too long, so after couple of hours and couple of Pinacoladas "Girls gone wild".
First Goly started to jump, than Kasia and than me. God knows how many crazy photos we took!

Finally we ended the day with couple of photos of an amazing sunset.

TRINIDAD is spectacularly wedged between the Sierra del Escambray and the Caribbean. What more can you ask for; mountains on the left, sea on the right :-)

Trinidad - declared World Heritage by UNESCO - is Cuba's oldes and most enchanting outdoor museum.

Around PLAZA MAYOR in CASCO HISTORICO there are beatifuly restored houses and cool, tiled, colonial countryyards.
There is also plently of street markers & souvenirs stands for tourist. They have really some nice stuff!

Trinidad is much more cosy and cleaner than Havana. Not only is the city clean but also the cars :-)

Breakfast at Cesar's
Casa Particolares...

...and that's CESAR himself!

If you decide to drive a car in Trinidad - good luck1 There are no rules, no traffic lights, no lines or signs.
And more importantly ANY vehicle is allowed; old cars, horses, donekys, and other vehicles that don't have names in English as they exist only in Cuba!

Have you ever thought of what Cubans park in front of their houses? While you park a car, maybe Vespa or a bike some time,
Cubans park - horses, tractors & "Cuban's vehicles".

The city is quiet and relaxing.

Shops are ....empty...

but it gets hectic when there is a new delivery!
Line can get loooooong!

Cuban's favorite activity next to smoking cigars and dancing salsa is definatelly hanging out on the streets
and what I call it "sitting, waiting and watching".

It feels really cosy and homy there. Everyone is super friendly, town is small so after a day or two people on the streets start to recognize you!

These are some of my favorites and most cute photos from Trinidad.
Cuban version of Vespa, airconditioning and a taxi :-)

Colorful houses are so beatiful that we could not resist a small photo session. We started at 7 am to avoind too much attention :-)

On top of all the nice things I alredy wrote about Trinidad,b there is a great night-life. In the center every night there is an outdoor Salsa party,
where both locals and tourists dance till the morning.

We met some really nice people - actually quite a lot of Americans despite the travel ban. And on the right the owner of other Casa Particolares we stayd at.

VALLE DE VINALES is another place in Cuba that made it to Unesco World Heritage list.
Its dramatic rocky outcrops together with architechture of traditional farms and villages make it definatelly worth going.

Owners of Casa Particolares we stayed in.
Over 90 years old!

A bit different than "Big Apple"

Amazing sunset

Best way to explore Vinales is to go Horseriding as so we did. On the way few stops for Coco with Rum :-)

We enjoyd the Cuban countryside a lot, especially that in NYC we never see so much green at the same time!

We flew to Cuba via Bahamas. On the right wonderfull Patrick's family who invited me to stay with them as it turned out all hotels were full!

That is the end of our trip. If you planning on going to Cuba check out my traveling tips HERE.