Ayisha
Contributor
[FONT=&] I've been meaning to get around to posting about my trip to Cuba, so here goes. It was fabulous! I included more detail for people who are planning a vacation, but it's probably too detailed for casual readers, sorry. 
We went to Cuba not only in the rainy season, but prime hurricane season, but our weather was great over the 10 night trip. It rained a few evenings, and spit or rained for a few minutes twice. So just welcoming cooling breezes here and there, warm to hot every day, mostly sunny, sometimes a little cloudy for part of the day.
We went to Havana in mid-September and explored for a day and a half. Our resort provided free hop-on hop off bus tickets and our Sunwing guide provided a map of Havana and recommendations and tips in our briefing. I had already been touring around Havana almost 14 years earlier, but off we went to explore. I had already been to the cabaret dinner and show at Tropicana before, so we didn't go again, but saw it is much more expensive now. We hopped off at Revolution Square, walked over to the Jose Marti memorial tower, took pics of an old cathedral, and marveled at the beautiful old architecture and old American cars. We hopped back on the bus, took pics of monuments along the way and passed the new US embassy, and went to old Havana in a market area and walked around, taking pics, chatting with locals, and browsing the hand made artful merchandise, cigars and rum, lots of rum. We had a meal at Bodeguita del Medio, one of Ernest Hemingway's favourite restaurant/bars, and the food was good, some Creole style, and each of our meals were about 16 CUC (Convertible pesos for tourists which are even with the US$), and there was a mariachi band playing. [/FONT]
[FONT=&]The next morning we were picked up for the 2 1/2 hour drive to the Bay of Pigs and found the diving there decent, but not fantastic. There are a couple of dozen entry points, so not sure how the one we used compared to the others. The cenote didn't have a lot of stalactites or stalagmites, but it had interesting rock formations and colours. It turned into a cave really fast. The guide, Osnedi, and his casa (bed and breakfast) that were recommended to us were great, and the authentic Cuban home cooking by Yaquelin and her helpers was delicious. We stayed overnight in their wonderful casa, "La Casa del Buzo" in Playa Larga The Diver House, Playa Larga. Excellent lodging in Cuba. | Cubadivingnow After a hot multi-course breakfast, we continued on just over 3 hours further to Jucaro, where we met our liveaboard company Avalon to Jardines de la Reina. Cuba Diving. Best Scuba Diving in Cuba and the Caribbean
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W[FONT=&]e were upgraded to Tortuga, the huge floating barge, and it was awesome. We took a fast, comfortable boat 60 miles offshore in 3 hours to Tortuga. Excellent dives and customer service. They remembered all our names from the first day, and accommodated any customer food restrictions or preferences. We decided as a group what our schedules and times would be for the coming days, with recommendations from the Avalon dive leader. The wake-up call was at 7 AM with coffee/tea and orange juice to our cabin, then breakfast both ready and made to order in the dining room from about 7:20. First dive departing at 8:30 each morning. The very first dive was a check out dive to 75 feet or so. Everybody was comfortable and had pretty good buoyancy, so all was good. Returned to Tortuga after the first dive each day or an uninhabited island to wet facecloths as we got off the boat and pastries, fruit, coffee and tea. They fill and switch tanks at their dive shop across the mangroves. Forty-five minutes later off for the second dive. Return and have a good lunch about 20 or 30 minutes later, then relax or siesta. [/FONT]
[FONT=&]3:30 departure for the third dive each day. Return to wet facecloths as you get off the boat, and shortly after, a mojito or cuba libre, and home-made pizza. They remember which drinks you like and how you like them, and bring them each day. At around 7:30 is dinner time daily. Again, fresh, home-made, tasty food. We got to know the other passengers, and had a fun week, sitting around, chatting, drinking, joking. In the package, everyone was allowed a mojito/cuba libre welcome drink each afternoon, 2 glasses of wine with dinner, water on the boat, tea/coffee plus 48 other drinks over the 6 days for no extra charge, whether they are water, pop, or alcohol. They also put a bottle of rum on our table each day, but not sure if that was because there was a group of frequent customers there as well.
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[FONT=&]The diving was excellent, very healthy and colourful. The coral, sponges and sea grasses covered the sea floor, not just in patches. From the second dive day on, the first dive each day was to around 90 to 100 feet; and then the second and third dives were a little shallower, averaging between 60 to 75 feet. They were all multilevel dives of around one hour with lots of time spent shallower. Lots of life throughout the dives at each dive site. Four out of 15 dives used a bait box or bait placed in a sponge, which I wasn't thrilled about. We still saw good size sharks and grouper on every single dive without baiting. There were tonnes of Caribbean reef, silky, nurse, and one hammerhead shark, plus some green moray eels, hawksbill sea turtles, eagle rays, tarpon, barracuda, and tonnes of varieties of other fish. There is no question that there is an abundance of healthy life in Jardines de la Reina. The sea conditions were like glass, totally calm and very warm, 30 - 31 C, which is about 86 - 88F.
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After we returned to shore, we were dropped back to our resort in Havana on a comfortable large tour bus, with a couple of stops along the way. We had a pina colada (3 CUC) at a place that touted itself as making the best pina coladas in Cuba, and they were good.
The following day, some of us went sightseeing around Havana again and had a daiquiri (overpriced at 6 CUC) at Floridita, "the birthplace of the daquiri", another of Ernest Hemingway's favourite bars, and watched a female band play.
We wanted to eat at the hottest new restaurant that just opened (can't recall it's name), but the line-up was 1 and 1/2 hours, so we went to a beautiful fine dining-looking restaurant (but shorts were fine) called Los Nardos on a different floor of the same building, and the overflow line-up was half an hour. It was filled with locals, so we knew the food would be authentic, and my huge delicious meal that I could only eat 1/3 of cost a total of 9 CUC with tax and tip. We had a mojito on a rooftop hotel bar overlooking the malecon and old Havana, listening to a mariachi band. We then went back to the resort and got picked up by our tour bus to go back to the airport and home.
Someone on our trip took excellent pics and I was right near him and am in quite a few of his pics, so here they are: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...1&l=bc67872d11
I have a lot of u/w pics as well as land pics, so you might want to just skim them. They're with an old point and shoot without strobes, but they'll give you an idea of the variety and health:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...1&l=8b4f0103e6
---------- Post added November 1st, 2015 at 01:20 AM ----------
Here are some short videos from Jardines de la Reina:
Arriving at our floating hotel Tortuga, with the "dive shop" fill station in the mangroves to the right:
https://www.facebook.com/ayisha.hassanali/videos/10153465450051998/
The welcoming/defence committee of iguanas, hutias, and hermit crabs when we had surface intervals on an uninhabited island:
https://www.facebook.com/ayisha.hassanali/videos/10153464583676998/?l=4683784368251234464
Hermit crabs retreating from an uninhabited beach:
https://www.facebook.com/ayisha.hassanali/videos/10153464590111998/?l=689546661727030171
Little Nino, the croc that we went to visit in the mangroves: https://www.facebook.com/ayisha.hassanali/videos/10153463633961998/?l=1177631940706843504
We went to Cuba not only in the rainy season, but prime hurricane season, but our weather was great over the 10 night trip. It rained a few evenings, and spit or rained for a few minutes twice. So just welcoming cooling breezes here and there, warm to hot every day, mostly sunny, sometimes a little cloudy for part of the day.
We went to Havana in mid-September and explored for a day and a half. Our resort provided free hop-on hop off bus tickets and our Sunwing guide provided a map of Havana and recommendations and tips in our briefing. I had already been touring around Havana almost 14 years earlier, but off we went to explore. I had already been to the cabaret dinner and show at Tropicana before, so we didn't go again, but saw it is much more expensive now. We hopped off at Revolution Square, walked over to the Jose Marti memorial tower, took pics of an old cathedral, and marveled at the beautiful old architecture and old American cars. We hopped back on the bus, took pics of monuments along the way and passed the new US embassy, and went to old Havana in a market area and walked around, taking pics, chatting with locals, and browsing the hand made artful merchandise, cigars and rum, lots of rum. We had a meal at Bodeguita del Medio, one of Ernest Hemingway's favourite restaurant/bars, and the food was good, some Creole style, and each of our meals were about 16 CUC (Convertible pesos for tourists which are even with the US$), and there was a mariachi band playing. [/FONT]
[FONT=&]The next morning we were picked up for the 2 1/2 hour drive to the Bay of Pigs and found the diving there decent, but not fantastic. There are a couple of dozen entry points, so not sure how the one we used compared to the others. The cenote didn't have a lot of stalactites or stalagmites, but it had interesting rock formations and colours. It turned into a cave really fast. The guide, Osnedi, and his casa (bed and breakfast) that were recommended to us were great, and the authentic Cuban home cooking by Yaquelin and her helpers was delicious. We stayed overnight in their wonderful casa, "La Casa del Buzo" in Playa Larga The Diver House, Playa Larga. Excellent lodging in Cuba. | Cubadivingnow After a hot multi-course breakfast, we continued on just over 3 hours further to Jucaro, where we met our liveaboard company Avalon to Jardines de la Reina. Cuba Diving. Best Scuba Diving in Cuba and the Caribbean
[/FONT]
W[FONT=&]e were upgraded to Tortuga, the huge floating barge, and it was awesome. We took a fast, comfortable boat 60 miles offshore in 3 hours to Tortuga. Excellent dives and customer service. They remembered all our names from the first day, and accommodated any customer food restrictions or preferences. We decided as a group what our schedules and times would be for the coming days, with recommendations from the Avalon dive leader. The wake-up call was at 7 AM with coffee/tea and orange juice to our cabin, then breakfast both ready and made to order in the dining room from about 7:20. First dive departing at 8:30 each morning. The very first dive was a check out dive to 75 feet or so. Everybody was comfortable and had pretty good buoyancy, so all was good. Returned to Tortuga after the first dive each day or an uninhabited island to wet facecloths as we got off the boat and pastries, fruit, coffee and tea. They fill and switch tanks at their dive shop across the mangroves. Forty-five minutes later off for the second dive. Return and have a good lunch about 20 or 30 minutes later, then relax or siesta. [/FONT]
[FONT=&]3:30 departure for the third dive each day. Return to wet facecloths as you get off the boat, and shortly after, a mojito or cuba libre, and home-made pizza. They remember which drinks you like and how you like them, and bring them each day. At around 7:30 is dinner time daily. Again, fresh, home-made, tasty food. We got to know the other passengers, and had a fun week, sitting around, chatting, drinking, joking. In the package, everyone was allowed a mojito/cuba libre welcome drink each afternoon, 2 glasses of wine with dinner, water on the boat, tea/coffee plus 48 other drinks over the 6 days for no extra charge, whether they are water, pop, or alcohol. They also put a bottle of rum on our table each day, but not sure if that was because there was a group of frequent customers there as well.
[/FONT]
[FONT=&]The diving was excellent, very healthy and colourful. The coral, sponges and sea grasses covered the sea floor, not just in patches. From the second dive day on, the first dive each day was to around 90 to 100 feet; and then the second and third dives were a little shallower, averaging between 60 to 75 feet. They were all multilevel dives of around one hour with lots of time spent shallower. Lots of life throughout the dives at each dive site. Four out of 15 dives used a bait box or bait placed in a sponge, which I wasn't thrilled about. We still saw good size sharks and grouper on every single dive without baiting. There were tonnes of Caribbean reef, silky, nurse, and one hammerhead shark, plus some green moray eels, hawksbill sea turtles, eagle rays, tarpon, barracuda, and tonnes of varieties of other fish. There is no question that there is an abundance of healthy life in Jardines de la Reina. The sea conditions were like glass, totally calm and very warm, 30 - 31 C, which is about 86 - 88F.
[/FONT]
After we returned to shore, we were dropped back to our resort in Havana on a comfortable large tour bus, with a couple of stops along the way. We had a pina colada (3 CUC) at a place that touted itself as making the best pina coladas in Cuba, and they were good.
The following day, some of us went sightseeing around Havana again and had a daiquiri (overpriced at 6 CUC) at Floridita, "the birthplace of the daquiri", another of Ernest Hemingway's favourite bars, and watched a female band play.
We wanted to eat at the hottest new restaurant that just opened (can't recall it's name), but the line-up was 1 and 1/2 hours, so we went to a beautiful fine dining-looking restaurant (but shorts were fine) called Los Nardos on a different floor of the same building, and the overflow line-up was half an hour. It was filled with locals, so we knew the food would be authentic, and my huge delicious meal that I could only eat 1/3 of cost a total of 9 CUC with tax and tip. We had a mojito on a rooftop hotel bar overlooking the malecon and old Havana, listening to a mariachi band. We then went back to the resort and got picked up by our tour bus to go back to the airport and home.
Someone on our trip took excellent pics and I was right near him and am in quite a few of his pics, so here they are: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...1&l=bc67872d11
I have a lot of u/w pics as well as land pics, so you might want to just skim them. They're with an old point and shoot without strobes, but they'll give you an idea of the variety and health:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...1&l=8b4f0103e6
---------- Post added November 1st, 2015 at 01:20 AM ----------
Here are some short videos from Jardines de la Reina:
Arriving at our floating hotel Tortuga, with the "dive shop" fill station in the mangroves to the right:
https://www.facebook.com/ayisha.hassanali/videos/10153465450051998/
The welcoming/defence committee of iguanas, hutias, and hermit crabs when we had surface intervals on an uninhabited island:
https://www.facebook.com/ayisha.hassanali/videos/10153464583676998/?l=4683784368251234464
Hermit crabs retreating from an uninhabited beach:
https://www.facebook.com/ayisha.hassanali/videos/10153464590111998/?l=689546661727030171
Little Nino, the croc that we went to visit in the mangroves: https://www.facebook.com/ayisha.hassanali/videos/10153463633961998/?l=1177631940706843504
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