Finally home after 107 days of traveling around the world!

Phil's version of our final travel day: Day 107/31 May

Happy team after successful flight in Peru

On schedule to reach Madrid, perhaps even a little early. We have a tight connection to London so every minute helps. The sector from Havana is marred by late service of the evening meal after take-off, though maybe it just reflects the Hispanic habit of dining at midnight. A good Rioja helps me to sleep but Allie is disturbed by clomping feet in the aisle.

Trailer landing in Namibia

And what have we achieved?

At the very least we must have tested human tolerance. Well, there can’t be many couples in recent years who have spent 24 hours a day together for 107 days – 2568 hours without a break.

Although we had moments of irritation with one-anothers’ personal habits or whims, we balanced needs and wants with physical and emotional stresses without more than occasional raised vocal tones.

 

Ladies in Peru

The journey was, by design, a combination of places one or other of us knew with others which were not only unknown but culturally challenging. We had to keep up variety and interest, mix urban frenzy with rural peace without succumbing to travel fatigue or information overload.

The face of Cuba: not much in the way of transport or good roads

Times spent renewing friendships in more than half-a-dozen places were not entirely stress-free (nor cheap by the time we took them out for meals or brought gifts of duty-free), but injected an element of stability to a journey of over 60,000km by land, sea, and air. Because Allie forgot to take her driving licence I did all the driving in Namibia, New Zealand, Australia, Costa Rica and Chile, amounting to well over 5000km on roads ranging from motorways to mud-tracks. It was a salutary experience.

Driving through beautiful New Zealand

The political systems we encountered could not have been more disparate and anyone spending over a week each in North Korea and Cuba, regardless of their view of George W’s ‘Axis of Evil’ policies, would be hard-pressed to want to live in either place for much longer. How the inhabitants can still be persuaded they live in paradise by either Mr Castro or Mr Kim is a mystery.

a rare photo of North Korean workers in the countryside 2007

Five weeks in a Spanish-speaking world stretching from mid-Pacific to mid Caribbean makes one realise how much of the globe had its origins in the Iberian peninsular and how important Spanish is as a lingua-franca.

 

Meeting friends,Teresa and Tim in Hongkong

 The rapidly changing face of China was a surprise to me, though less so to Allie with more consistent experience, but it is clear that whilst Putonghua is the medium of communication for a big swathe of people in Asia they are being overtaken by the tide of English which flows even to Cuba and DPRK where it is replacing Russian and German as the preferred foreign tongue.

Phil relaxing on Easter Island

It is of course fashionable these days to rack up a carbon conscience when you travel. I believe this is both superficial and short-sighted, encouraging insularity and discouraging the dispelling of xenophobia which is a far greater danger to our future than staying at home. Transport certainly needs to be made more energy-efficient and cleaner, but not strangled in a fit of environmental pique.

Allie's version of DAY 107: Thursday, 31^st of May

Flying over the sand dunes in Namibia

Home sweet home!

Our flight out of Havana left on time and we arrived well in time for our connection in Madrid. Coming into Heathrow we had to do a few waiting loops before getting clearance for landing, but it allowed us fantastic views right over downtown London. The visibility was stunning and London looked ever so green and beautiful.

On arrival we tried our new eye pass immigration and to our surprise it worked! The camera recognized our eyes and in we were without having to queue or to show a passport. That’s modernization in the right way!

In Sydney

We were lucky to catch an earlier bus then planned (5pm instead of 6). But coming out of the terminal our faces dropped when we realized that we had just hit a huge traffic jam on the motorway. A reminder that we are back to the madness of traffic – wish we were back on those empty highways in Cuba! 

Flying an amphibian microlight in Cuba

Nevertheless we heard that we still had been lucky: just moments later there was another accident and we would never have gotten back home on that evening if we had been on our original bus.

So that was “Glueck im Unglueck” as a German saying goes (luck in unlucky times).

great horse riding in Costa Rica

Climbing up the steps to our flat in Bristol with the fresh smell of rain on the pavement made me feel like coming home. Indeed it was wonderful to be back in our little apartment, everything being there as it was before, but a bunch of fresh flowers on the table and the fridge full of goodies. 

vintage aeroplaning in New Zealand

We pop in to say hi to Phil’s mother and suddenly it feels like we have been here just yesterday. Did we really travel 60.000 kilometres around the world? Did we indeed enter the empire of the “Dear Leader”, ride horses on Easter Island, fly balloons in Bolivia and Peru and drive through Castro’s Cuba? It all seems to be surreal and unrealistic.

dancing with the locals in Peru

But then there are over 2000 pictures to prove that it was true. We DID do all this and it truly WAS the trip of our lifetime. 

But then, sitting over our first Gin Tonic we look at each other with a smile knowing exactly what the other just thinks: where are we going next?

Phil giving his blessing to the world!

Highlights of the trip:

South Africa: Climbing Table mountain

Flying over the desert in Namibia in balloon and microlighting

Hongkong: walk and meeting Teresa

snow in North Korea

North Korea: Mausoleum of Kim Il Song and the mass games training

China: balloon factory in Nanjing, meeting Jing laoshi

Australia: Sydney city, the opera

Phil in contemplation mood at Aitutaki

Aitutaki: snorkelling trip

Thaiti: Morea trip

Easter Island: sunset and horse back riding

Chile: Meeting Victor Mardones' family

Peru: Machu Picchu, Urubamba valley, Cusco city

flying a home-built hopper in Bolivia

Bolivia: hopper flight

Ecuador: talk at British School

Costa Rica: ballooning, white water rafting, horse riding

Cuba: Havana city, old cars, microlight flight over bay        

unforgettable sunset at Easter Island

A visit to Havana's Chinatown and a final chill at the Hotel National before leaving the Cuba

Phil's version of Day 106/30 May

View over the old town of Havana

My father would have been ninety today if he had lived a bit longer. I expect Mum will be having a private weep in Bristol.

 

aboard the ferry

Trying to effectively use the day around our hotel’s inflexible check-out time and the check-in for our flight is resolved by taking the tiny cross-harbour ferry to the fortifications on the eastern shore. 

Once a target for invasion by British naval forces, the impressive lines of star-fort ramparts and ditches are still home to the Cuban military, but now mostly patrolling to prevent their citizens escaping rather than foreign infiltration.

On the way to investigate Havana’s Chinatown, presided over by a typical Chinese dragon-gateway, we pass Hemingway’s other weakness, the ‘Floridita’ daiquiri bar, but it looks too refrigerated and has a black-coated doorman checking arrivals. 

Hemingway's famous drinking hole: La Floridita

Chinatown has all the street signs in Chinese as well as Spanish, and lanterns bedeck the restaurants, but there is not a single ethnic Chinese in evidence and we wonder if there was some kind of ghetto purging or if the Chinese simply left when their commercial lifeblood was drained away by the Revolution.

the lovely bar at the Hotel National

The weather has turned dull and stormy, though still warm and dry, but it still seems the best option after lunch is to drop in at the historic Hotel Nacional which has a pool for Allie (at least) to while away the intervening hours. 

Phil relaxing over final mojitos whilst Allie cools off in the pool

A grand pile in early 20^th-century neo-colonial style, this was one of the central pivots in the struggle for power between former dictator Machado and his successor Batista in the early-‘30s.

More recently, according to photographs in the lobby bar, it was host to China’s Hu Jintao and his host Raul Castro. As the weather becomes more miserable two rusty freighters ride at anchor off the Malecon, no doubt awaiting better conditions to enter the narrow harbour mouth. Havana is losing it’s romantic glow in the gloom, but the airport road enlivens departure with a sequence of anti-Bush slogans. 

view to the Malecon with a war memorial

The Cuban version of a business lounge has stale peanuts and crackers but very tasty gherkins. I warn Allie that she has probably just devoured a Cuban family’s annual allocation. There are, in compensation, lots of blaring televisions with Spanish-language soaps. Mustn’t taint the proletariat with anything as dangerous as world news.

Allie's version of Day 106: Wednesday, 30^th of May

Across the bay in a ferry, Chinatown and last mojitos at the Hotel National

across the bay

I awake dizzy after another one of my bad nights and feel very bad all through the rest of the day. What a shame. We walk out towards the harbour front in search of the local ferry across the bay. The fare is one peso and we dig out our last peso national (saving 50times the value as if we had paid this in the CUC!). The ferry is packed with locals. There are no seats, but the journey only takes about 5minutes and we arrive at the other side of Havana.

 a huge statue of Jesus...

Walk up towards the big statue of Christ and then on towards the ‘Castillo de los Tres Santos Reyes Magnos del Morro’ – have you ever heard such a long name for a castle? We pass some of Castro’s glad to say never been used missiles and watch the Cuban army playing football. 

..and worrying reminders of the cold war

The view to old Habana is quite impressive with the capitol and the revolutionary monument sticking out predominantly from the skyline. 

the new tunnel underneath the city

A taxi brings us back to the city via a tunnel underneath the bay.

After a proper coffee at the Plaza Vieja we check out and wander towards Chinatown. 

We find street names in Chinese, Chinese restaurants and some other things Chinese, but what we can’t find as the Chinese themselves. Not a single soul. All the restaurants in Chinatown are run by Cubans. 

Chinatown without Chinese

Thinking of it, we actually never saw any Chinese around town at all. Where are they? Obviously relations between Cuba and China are pretty good since the Cubans just have bought 2000 Chinese busses and imported new Chinese cars, but you don’t see them anywhere around.

Leaving our hotel downtown we grab a taxi and set ourselves down at the neo-colonial-style Hotel Nacional.

It hosted famous visitors like Winston Churchill, Ava Gardner, and Frank Sinatra (who according to my guidebook attended a Mafia reunion here in 1949). I for my part couldn’t care less about politics at this moment and happily dive into the cold and empty pool whilst Phil is working on his mojito score. 

my last swim in Cuba at the Hotel National

The weather is grey and dull today, and very windy. Time to say goodbye to Cuba and Havana. I look over the rough coast and think how lucky we are! 

Here these people have no chance to get a passport to travel across the straights (with Key West, Jamaica and the Bahamas only being 100km away such a close temptation) but are confined to live in one of the least developed countries of the world with rising crime, corruption and a rapidly plunging economy.

It makes me grateful for what we have got in the UK: freedom of choice, decent food, proper transport (even though it might not always be on time) and in general a safe environment. 

Travelling always makes you appreciate what you have got at home. I had learnt this lesson on my first year away as a high school student in the States. Home has never been sweeter then after that year away and I had never been more proud to say I am German then at that time.

decorative paintings at the Hotel National

Reflecting on our tour I definitely would say that we have achieved everything we wanted. We didn’t have any major delays on our flights, no real problems with immigration or loosing things (except that robbery in Namibia), we flew with a balloon in the countries as we had hoped and we met a fantastic range of interesting and hospitable people and old friends. I would definitely do it again, but not right now. My body tells me to take a rest, the trouble being that I won’t get it. I have only 6 days back home and I start working with touring around the UK again.

I am dead...ready to go home!

But this trip proved that I had chosen the right man for life and for travelling. Phil was a wonderful partner to share all this with. 

He was ever so patient when I was impatient, he made all these great arrangements to meet his friends and he suffered with me, when I couldn’t sleep. 

Even though I made the mistake of not doing this round-the-world tour with him before we got married, it did show, that love can grow stronger and that we are real soul mates, in sorrow and in joy. 

The sorrow of course being when Phil missed a great shot of an aeroplane and I didn’t get a swim or hike and the joy..? Well I shall leave that to you to figure that out!

Back to Havana and indulging in good food and drink - finally!

Phil's version of Day 105/29 May

I spend the early daylight hours trying to minimise the visual effect of the attempted break-in to our hire car before returning it at Santiago airport. I fear we will still attract a CUC300 penalty. I am also concerned, though I haven’t told Allie, that the Cubana domestic flight may either be delayed or cancelled. Yesterday we were close to the airport at the same departure time and no aircraft moved.

departing from Santiago de Cuba

Dropping the car off is less trouble than expected and I manage to distract the hire receptionist from the damaged areas with cheerful chat and careful camouflage.

Phil stepping out of the Aero Gaviota

Just as remarkable is that the Cubana flight to Havana operates ahead of schedule, so though it is a long and bumpy ride over the flatlands of central Cuba it leaves us back in the Hotel Florida by mid-afternoon. Iberia’s reservations girl is offhand to the point of rudeness when I ring to reconfirm and ask about lounge availability. I guess she has caught the Cuban service syndrome.

Phil enjoying a good glass of red and a cigar

As it is the final night of the great tour, after mandatory mojitos at the rooftop bar in Ambos Mundos, passing Hemmingway’s room 311 on the way, we decide to treat ourselves to dinner at El Patio, an attractive restaurant in the shadow of Havana cathedral. Prices are at European levels (well, Bristol, anyway) but they actually have most of what is offered on the menu and, with a little careful steering by the sommelier, the wine list too. 

An Undurraga Cabernet Sauvignon is the very same which we tried on Easter Island. 

After eating we are fleetingly tempted by El Bodeguita del Medio but decide instead to walk along the Malecon to hear the firing of the 9 o’clock cannon, initiated by the Spanish to announce the closing of the city gates. It seems an appropriate gesture tonight.

Allie's version of Day 105: Tuesday, 29^th of May

Flying back to Havana and our last mojitos in Cuba    

After a relaxed morning at the pool – it was wonderfully empty but the noisy Salsa music drove us mad – we dropped our car off in front of the Santiago airport. For three days now we have been discussing our plans how to hide the door damage or what to say, when they would find out. But Phil was clever enough to engage the guy in our wheel problems and so the guy did not notice, in fact he literally said: “the car is in perfect condition”. 

Well, compared what the rest of Cuba’s cars look it, ours was as posh looking as the president’s of the United States would be! Still we were glad to disappear behind the security check and into the waiting hall.

Phil was as excited as if it were Christmas, but only because he was hoping that our aeroplane would be one of the rare old Russian types. But of course as it turned out, it was only one of those ‘usual’ French ATR’s. He was really disappointed but I was quite happy, not at least because they are more modern but also because it arrived early.

Taking off from Santiago

We were up in the air 20minutes before our departure time and flew right across the castle and the coast. Otherwise the 2hours flight was very boring. 

Not much to see on the ground and the service consisted of soft drinks or soft drinks or coffee. Nothing to munch at all. The toilets didn’t flush and had no wash basin and the seats couldn’t be reclined the slightest inch. Funny enough the stewardess announced on landing: “Please put your seats in the upright position!” Well we’d love to do that, but…

Anyway arrival in time if not early in Havana’s domestic airport. We don’t give in to airport taxis trying to cheat us on the fare into town (because by now we know the rates!) and after 30minutes we check in back at the Hotel Florida. It feels like coming home. 

roof top view over Havana

We get one of the nicest rooms in the hotel, a junior suite with a two sided balcony and a reception hall and finally a bath tub for my husband. What a feast! 

And there is internet and walking around the streets doesn’t feel that dodgy as it did in some of the other places we have been to. We were certainly bribed by Havana’s up-market style at the beginning of our Cuba tour and we now appreciate even more that there is a wide range of great restaurants, bars and shops. 

So for our farewell drinks we indulge at the roof top bar of the Hotel Ambos Mundos, a hotel that is famous for its link with Hemingway. 

For dinner we enjoy a great meal (why does Cuba suddenly have good food again?) at the ‘Restaurante del Patio’ overlooking the lovely cathedral square. 

It has been a fantastic 105 days and we had the most amazing experiences. But best of all: we still love each other crazy and that after nearly 4 months and 24 hours daily of being together without a break. Not many people could do that we reckon. Something to celebrate, Salut! 

 a final good dinner!

A visit to Cuba's most venerated basilica and a stroll around the fortress of Santiago de Cuba

Allie's version of DAY 104: Monday, 28^th of May

Santiago's main attraction: the old fort overlooking the sea

Some disappointments, a look around Santiago, a fortress and a holy basilica

A nice bright sunny morning and I have the chance to indulge in a huge pool on my own. Great. We have an early breakfast because the plan for today is, to drive out to Guantanamo and visit the Mirador – the lookout towards the US naval base and the famous prison. But luck strikes hard, especially on Phil, when we are told by the tourist lady that the mirador has been shut since September last year due to an incident with an American women. According to the story her son was imprisoned and she booked a tour to go out as a tourist but then started some kind of protest or whatever. Anyway this happening must have been so upsetting that the Cuban military decided not to allow any more tourists near that border. What a great shame! Phil was really keen to see it and he was in a quite sour mood for the rest of the day – which I can understand. I for my part wasn’t all that keen and in a way even glad that we didn’t have to face another long and tedious road journey without proper signs.

downtown Santiago

So our plan to end up at the equivalent to the DMZ in North Korea has failed! What a great pity. Quite often during this trip I compared in my mind the two last strongholds of communism. In many ways there are totally similar: the complete lack of any form of public transportation, empty shops, grey micro brigade housings, empty highways in quite good condition but everything else that calls itself a road in total shambles. Then the huge hand painted propaganda posters and some modernist and patriotic statues and monuments (here I think would Castro loose out against Kim’s monstrous creations).

More propaganda linking Bush to Hitler

The ‘revolucion’ is praised everywhere and so are Castro and Raul. America is condemned openly as the ‘aggressor’, the ‘imperialist’ and the ‘murderer’. These are just some of the distinct similarities between the two countries. The differences are that in North Korea you feel totally safe (well, you can’t walk much on your own anyway, but I am sure there would be zero crime against foreigners) whereas here in Cuba, I felt as insecure and unsafe as I did in Africa. 

not many smiling Cubans, not even the statues

And the other thing I miss here, is a smile! People hardly give you a friendly welcoming smile and when they do, it’s because in the next minute they hold out their hands and ask you for money. 

We really got fed up with this mentality of people doing absolutely nothing but still expecting money for it (like the car-watching practise and the toilet women). All in all: Communism, whether it be in North Korea or here in Cuba, doesn’t seem to do anything good for anything or anybody! 

Now you call this a materialists view, but then you must ask yourself why people can’t travel because there are no cars, why all the houses are in a total derelict state and why there isn’t anything to buy? Is that egalitarian paradise? Well, it’s definitely not for me.

The famous Basilica de Nuestra Senora del Cobre

So now that we found we that we couldn’t go to Guantanamo we had to come up with other plans. We decided to drive downtown (more hands open for the parking guys and boys trying to wash you car which you don’t want!) and finally check our emails at the Etexa place.

Whilst Phil is at the computer I have a quick wander around the streets only to find it polluted, crumbling and absolutely dodgy with grim looking faces. The shops have the usual display of baby milk combined with light bulbs and plastic shoes. The cathedral is a refuge but in the front of it beggars just wait for you to come out. We had enough and want to get out of town.

So we drive 20km westwards to look at the famous Basilica de Nuestra Senora del Cobre. This church is Cubas most sacred pilgrimage site mainly for its little black Madonna that is supposed to do miracles for the faithful.

People come from all over the country to donate flowers and little ‘thank you’ notes or curiosities like baseballs, T-shirts, a TV, a stethoscope or badges of all kind. Since Pope John Paul II’s visit to here in 1998 religion has become more free and popular with roughly 400.000 Catholics and 300.000 Protestants.

religious memorabilia

Next to the basilica we climb up a hill with a monument commemorating the 17^th century copper mine slave revolt. Of course we have to pay again somebody to look after our car and when we get to the top, another guy wants to be our guide. From the top it’s nice view across to the Basilica and over the copper mines with it’s deep blue lake. 

view to the Copper mine lake

But the next annoyance just waits because when we get back to the car there are at least 3 more black guys holding out their hands and pointing to the car. I get really angry and that somehow seems to work, but you never know. Next thing is they pull a knife or try to throw something at the car.

canons on the fortress

Back to the city we decide to finish our sightseeing by going to the UNESCO World Heritage site, the Castillo de San Pedro del Morro near the coast. El Morro was designed in 1587 by the Italian military engineer Giovanni Bautista Antonelli to protect the town from pirates. It’s a impressive structure with lovely views across the steep coastline and the harbour. But not even here after having paid your 4 Dollars entrance fee you are free from people hustling you. Nearly at each corner is somebody who tries to tell you something and then wants money for it.

We are really exhausted and retreat to the Restaurant del Morro. Situated at this fantastic location overlooking the sea this was our choice to come for dinner tonight. But we are told they don’t do dinners and they don’t have a menu. We can only have the package group lunch which we don’t want. What a shame again. All the really nice places, hotels, restaurants that were mentioned in the Lonely Planet as to be good places only four years ago, seem to have gone bust. We despair over the though of having to put up with another expensive and boring hotel dinner since we clearly don’t want to drive into town at night.

Back at the hotel, it’s time for the pool and a cool off. We spend the rest of the day planning our time in Habana and with reading and writing. It’s really time to go home and get back in touch with the world again. If there was a plane straight back to London from here tonight, we both definitely would be on it.

 Of all places that we have been, I find Cuba the most disappointing and stressful. It’s a shame that a quite beautiful country has been ruined by it’s government and made the people miserable, corrupt and lazy.

 

Phil's version of Day 104/28 May

This is the day which should have been, for me at least, the climax of our long eastward journey through Cuba - the 100km trip past Guantanamo city to the viewpoint overlooking the controversial US base of Guantanamo Bay. I had read details of how to organise it all in Lonely Planet, but what I had failed to discover was that, as a result of an American tourist  using this facility to make some kind of political protest in October 2006 the Cuban Army was now forbidding further civilian access to the border area. I feel particularly bad as my main argument to persuade Allie to put up with the interminable driving through mostly uninteresting country (to say nothing of major additional costs) was to peer over the Guantanamo fence as we had done at Panmunjom in Korea.

Our consolation prize is a very brief tour of Santiago’s historic centre, overshadowed by concerns about car safety and the generally threatening attitude of many locals. Castro’s Communism (like other brands before it) seems to have taught the population to expect others to feed and clothe them whilst doing very little for themselves. Tips for little or no service, ‘protection’ money to look after your car, and a profusion of disabled beggars suggests that it may be an egalitarian regime but at the lowest and most envious level.

 

view to the Basilica

Outside the city the miraculous monastery at El Cobre, a copper mine until 2000, is also surrounded by youths trying to sell posies and candles for the Virgin, whilst within is the most amazing collection of unconsidered trifles from signed baseball balls to Army uniform insignia left to bring blessings upon the donors. 

more bizarre religious donations including baseballs!

At the nearby monument to martyred slave-miners we are dogged by more touts wanting money for ‘guide’, watching the car, lumps of copper pyrites. We have had our fill of it and at this point decide, perhaps a little vengefully, that Cuba deserves to wallow in its present tourist decline caused by high prices, poor service, and general avarice.

 

Santiago's old lighthouse

The Castillo el Moro at the harbour entrance is another pretty location on the tourist trail but the sole restaurant there now closes at 4 p.m. and offers only two courses with no ‘extras’. Names such as Henry Morgan, Frances Drake and even Alexander Selkirk (of Robinson Crusoe fame) laid at anchor here but it would be interesting to know if the reception they got from the Spanish was any less hostile than today’s Cubans. We are the only guests in the soulless hotel dining room to which there is no nearby alternative. The staff offer beef or pork. There is nothing else available. Our views are jaundiced and we are ready to go home.