Back to Mexico

OK... so in the last 2 week, after i came back from Cuba I went to a nice island called Cozumel which is one of the best sites for diving in the world.



I met Dekel, and we did 4 dives together, it was awesome.

One of the dives was to a wreck battle ship, we went inside the rooms in the ship, the bathroom and saw many lobsters and barracuda (1 meter giant fish with teeth). We also swam trow millions of millions of tiny little fishes that you couldn´t even see for 20 cm further.

That was the best dives in my life. Well I have only 9 dives so far.

From Cozumel to my favorite place in my whole trip, Playa Del Carmen. We met Idan and Sigal and we rented a great room with kitchen, TV and Air-Con in hotel, it was fucking great room and cheaper than the dorms so we stuck there for a week.

While my staying over there in Playa I was doing the SKYDIVING !!!!

Oh yeah baby.... I fucking maid it, I was all nervous before the jumping, so Sigal came with me and try relaxed me but with no success. I even left a note to my friends to call my parents in case of something bad happening.

The jump was crazy, with great amazing view and fucking great adrenaline. It took me more than an hour to relax and realize I'm back on the ground.



We watched the champions league final game between Chelsea and Manchester United on big giant screen with dozens of English drunken guys and girls. Unfortunately the team of Avram Grant, lost :-(



And some parties... of course.



From there we went for couple of nights to my second favorite place Cancun. We took a tour to one of the 7th world wonder called Chicen Itza. It was nice but only to say been there done that and mark a V on it.



In Cancun we split and I went to San Cristobal, a nice colonial city with the real Mexican side of life and not the rich and fancy as I knew so far in Cancun.

The town was to small and very very cold, so I had to walk with long shirts and to leave my Crocs and use my Nike shoes again.
The cold was one of the reasons I left so fast and went to Puerto Escondido, small town on the Pacific Side, and so far it looks great.
up until next time, adios,
EK

P.S: Finally I have a flight ticket out from Mexico-City to Miami on the 09/06/2008 and from Miami to Tel-Aviv on the 24/06/08.

Back to the Future

OK...so by the title you probably guessed I traveled in time like Michel J. Fox in the movie ¨Back to the Future¨.
Well it´s not my first traveling in time since I already been in Japan, which means 10 further.
But this time, oh boy..... it wasn´t 10 years traveling in time it was more like 50 years back to the past.



Well... my first experience with the cuban people was in Cancun airport, the minute I showed up and found my line some idiot cuban worker came and said the flight canceled because the plane crashed down. What the fuck... ?!!!! but after few moments another more normal worker came and said the original plane had a technical problem so they only have a small plane, which means some people will have to stay the night over, and come for the morning flight.

I were the first to volunteer since they offered a room in hotel, meals and transportation. One more party night in Cancun and in a private room and bathroom after who knows how many nights in dorms. So who would say no to that ?!




The hotel was really cool and the day after I took the flight which also delayed. After 5 hours in the airport finally we were in the air on the way to Havana. During the flight, suddenly out of no where lots of smoke came beneath the seat next to me, I was thrilled for the dramatic scene but someone relaxed us very fast and said it´s a smoke from the air condition and it´s totally normal, the smoke stopped after a minute.

Some things you should know about Cuba, that took me a while to understand are:
Casa - In cuba they don´t have chip hostels, only big expensive hotels or the other option is a casa particular, which means you go to family house and they renting you a room in their house. Normally the rooms are big with furnitures, TV, fridge, Air-Con, private bathroom and breakfast for 20 CUC (a bit more than 20 bucks). So what you need to do to find one is to walk in the streets with your big giant bag untill someone will offer you a casa or to look for the sign that means room for rent.



CUC - Convertible Cuban Pesos, they have 2 kinds of money, the cuban pesos money for the locals and the CUC for the tourists. 1 CUC = 25 Pesos.
For example a horse carriage taxi on the streets will cost the locals 1 peso, but for me as a tourist it will cost 1 CUC.
Sometimes I managed to get by just like a local, for example I paid 2 pesos for haircut and tipped 5 more pesos totally 0.35 cents !!!
I even managed to get my self food in local restaurants for 1 dollar. So yeah you can live chip over there but the casas are real expense, especially when you travel alone.

Jinoteres - buggers people, the cubans are really nice and they will take you and show you famous places but then they gonna ask you a mojito, a beer, dippers for the baby, or just some money. Well yeah... they kind of poor (definitely not like in Nicaragua since all the cuban has something to eat, a place to live and clothes to wear) but the way they are doing it to get the money from you is disgusting. Their nicest eventually will cost you money. One more thing is that they always do is trying to full you up with the change, put more things on your bill so you will have to pay more.

I spent 4 nights in Havana which I hated, 3 days in the lovely city Varadero that has more tourists than cubans and great awesome beaches almost like Tulum in Mexico. Over there I met Shelley (same name like my sister but she spell it different), a Canadian girl (yeah, she doesn´t looks like since her parents from Korea). She had a motorcycle and we explored the peninsula together.









I also met there Alberto Argentinian guy that his parents from Syria, we had a few drinks and smoked cuban cigars.





At night I moved to a small boring town called Santa Clara, that all this town has is some Che Gevara monuments.
And as always, I got arrested by the police, this time I had a copy of my passport on me but it wasn´t enough for them so take took me to the station, and after explaining and making a phone call to the family in my casa they let me go. The police officers were really nice compare to the other police officers I met in central america, but not as nice as the Japanese police officers.



My next stop was Trinidad small town but ugly like Havana. The streets looks like the market (SHOCK) of Netanya, everything is dirty and the building looks like wrecks. Near Trinidad there is some beautiful nature I checked by riding on a horse, and there is a nice beach, 12 km far called Playa Ancon. I took some local train to get there, but it pulled for like in the half way so I had to walked in the desert till a horse carriage came and picked me up all the way to the playa.
Since I lost my World-Cup hat, I got myself sun burn and at night I was dead sick with puking and diarrhea.











A day after I felt better and moved to Cienfegus a big really nice city with some great parts that wouldn´t be ashamed to compare to Paris. I found casa at some old grandma who took care of my sickness, she gave me rice, fruits and even ice-cream. I recovered fast and started drinking again.



From there I moved back to Havana and catched my flight back to Cancun.