Havana continued...
After our lunch break, we walked to the Kid Chocolate boxing practice. It was a fairly small room, not very well lit, and no air conditioning but it was a fascinating experience! The boxers rarely stopped moving and were clearly in their element.
It actually felt less awkward taking pictures of them (maybe because they were moving more and they seemed more okay with us taking pictures.) It was mainly men in the group with one woman and one child.
The kid was cute and our tour guide said that the coaches think he'll go somewhere in the boxing world if he continues down this road.
It was hard to get pictures here because of the lighting but I think the ones I'm posting are the best that I got.
We walked through Old Town Havana and got some good pictures there!
Through our tour of the town we kept on seeing ladies and occasionally men dressed in all white. Our tour guides said that when people are dressed in all white, it means they're training to become a priest in the Santeria religion.
These bicycle taxis were pretty common to see around town!
I like this picture of Alfredo giving Heather some pointers on photography angles.
On our tour we visited a lady who allowed us into her home to take pictures. This was in the courtyard of her apartment.
Heather found a kitty to pet!
Up two flights of stairs, on the level where Vida lives. No railings, dilapidated apartments, and an uneven walkway.
This was on our way to Vida's apartment.
Although we could not speak to Vida, because neither of us spoke each other's language, we could tell she was a happy, lively soul!
She made some coffee for Alonso.
You had to climb up these stairs to get to Vida's apartment.
I think it was at this point that my camera ran out of battery (and I forgot to bring my spare off the ship) and Heather ran out of memory on her SD card and forgot her spare on the ship. Heather also forgot her phone (on the ship) so I gave her my phone to take pictures (until we got to a place where she could delete some photos from her SD card).
So until we got to Casablanca on our tour, these pictures were taken by Heather on my phone.
We walked past a dance school and there were a bunch of children and their parents outside preparing for their rehearsal.
Some more pictures from the streets of Old Havana!
This guy gave us a good laugh. When he saw us taking pictures of him, he flipped us off. We seriously laughed about it for like 5 minutes afterwards.
Aren't these kiddos adorable?!
These type of cars were all over the place...
And I have my phone back! We took a boat ride from the main part of Havana to a place called Casablanca.
Casablanca!
Casablanca felt different from the part of Havana that we had been in. It was definitely quieter and calmer there. This was the view from Casablanca.
These kids were hanging out on top of this structure. At one point, they were doing some dance moves up there. :)
We went to Casablanca to take some pictures of fishermen.
I noticed some snorkelers in the water and was wondering what they were doing around there. I never found out exactly but they did have a boat nearby.
These were the snorkelers.
Alonso and Alfredo, our awesome tour guides for the day! We met up with them at 10:30 AM and I think we parted ways around 7:00 PM. Thank you for the fascinating and beautiful experience in Havana!
After our tour was over, Heather and I went back to the ship and met up with Mom and Dad, ate dinner and rested after our long day.
Since Heather and I were on our tour all day, we didn't have time to look for souvenirs. So after dinner, Mom, Heather, and I went back to the city and tried to find a souvenir shop that was still open at 9 PM.
It was actually kind of cool to see the city at night! There were quite a few restaurants and bars open and quite a night life.
Most of the souvenir shops were closed at 9:30 at night but thankfully we found one still open! We were happy about that. :)
Some sights we saw along the way.
And we're back on the ship!
The pilot boat helping us out of harbor.
We had quite the experience as we were leaving harbor at midnight. While we were still close enough to shore, there were people on shore waving to us (with the lights on their phones) and yelling "Adios Amigos" and other things that I couldn't understand since they were yelling in Spanish.
I was happily waving back to them and I was grinning from ear to ear the whole time. It was just such a unique experience and an awesome way to end our time in Cuba!
Out of the harbor!
Visiting Havana was a fascinating experience and I loved it! Now a day at sea and Belize...
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