Cuba: Amazing people on a beautiful island

My sister is a young 17 year old girl who is addicted to her iphone, like most of the people of her age. Her life seems to happen on a phonescreen. Since her 12th I am taking her on adventures to the most beautiful places on this planet. For me it is important that she discovers the world and it's people. Traveling will give her great memories that last a lifetime. It makes you understand people with different customs and traditions better and you are becoming less judgemental. Creating a positive mindset is my gift as a brother to her.

Last summer we visited Cuba together and it was an amazing experience. We traveled from Varadero, to Havana and Vinales. When we arrived in Varadero I did not have a clue how to get to our hotel. We were planing to take a taxi, until we saw a woman from a travel agency. We asked her if she knew the cheapest way to get to our hotel, which was near the beach. We were lucky, because we were allowed to come with the bus of the travel agency for a small amount of money. In our hotel we enjoyed the swimming pool and the beautiful beach. There was still enough luxury (read:. wifi) for my sister.

After two days in Varadero we took the bus to Havana. From the bus stop we walked to our first casa particular. A casa particular is like a guesthouse owned by local Cubans. The family also lives in the casa. This was the start of our guided tour.

The same day we met the tourgroup and our guide, who gave us a briefing about the trip. After the briefing my sister and I walked around the city and it was amazing. The people were all outside enjoying their time together. A beautiful thing was that there was no internet on the streets. Internet cards were expensive and only sold in hotels. This was hard for my sister, but she was strong enough to survive without internet.

Havana itself was beautiful and the people were very nice. The Cubans were helpful and sincerely interested in us. We had nice conversations about life in Cuba. I also loved all the old Spanish colonial buildings, that are a memory of the city's wealth (in the past). At the end of the day we saw a beautiful sunset.

During the tour we learned a lot about Cuba and it's history. The guide was Cuban himself and he answered all our questions. We drove to Las Terrazas and we had a nice day there. We swam in the San Juan river, which was a location with many locals. After this day we stayed in another casa.

We had a nice evening with the family and played the card game 'UNO'. It was sad that we weren't able to communicate with this family. Besides the people in the most touristic places Havana en Varadero, we actually didn't meet locals who spoke English. The next day we went to Vinales where we stayed for 2 days. This place was really just like an painting. All the green hills were a lust for the eyes.

The last destination before we went back to Havana and Varadero was El Callejon de Hamel. This was a neighborhood full of Afro Cuban streetart. We walked around and loved what we were seeing. This was a nice end of our tour.

After the tour we stayed for one more week in Havana and Varadero. Then we had to fly back to Amsterdam. My sister and I had a nice time together and I can not wait to take her on a new adventure.