July 30, 2007

The End of a Vivid Cuban Dream

For Sale at the Havana Airport

On Sunday of my dream, day 5, I basically came to the point were I became totally and utterly broke. Nonetheless, I still had a very good time and made the most of my broken experience. I felt what it must be like to be Cuban (at least the not having any money part of being Cuban). This is a much different experience then the tourist vibe. The differences are vast. By and large, I spent the last three days of my trip in my Casa Particular watching movies, working on ideas for future projects, and walking to and from cheap places to get food.

Read more

Popularity: 5% [?]

Cuba, South American Trip (2007) Comments ( 0 )
July 27, 2007

A Vivid Cuban Dream- Part Deux

Vivid Cuban Dream Days 1-4

Washington DC.. Or wait a second… Havana, Cuba….

I started out my dream (for those of you that know me well) in true Dave Ford fashion at the five star Parque Grande Hotel in the best part of Havana.

Sidenote: This proved to be dumb. Not just a little bit dumb but extremely, idiotically dumb.

Everything in Cuba revolves around money. When you are American everything revolves around you “NOT” having access to any money.

So, in the first four days of my dream I spent a ton of money. I brought $1000 bucks (in my dream) thinking that it would plenty. After traveling for the last 6 and a half months in South America I though that I would have some sort of an idea about how much everything would cost. I was “as wrong as the day is long”.

Read more

Popularity: 3% [?]

Cuba, South American Trip (2007) Comments( 3 )
July 25, 2007

A Vivid Cuban Dream- Part One

I had a dream I was in Havana Cuba.It was remarkably vivid. It was almost as if I was actually there. So, I decided to write about it. Everything that you read in these next three posts were all a part of a crazy dream. I met so many people, smelled the air, walked through the streets, smoked the cigars, drank the Mojitos, went to a museum, and got a tan.

This amazingly vivid dream lasted for 7 days. The first few days were much different then the last three. Mostly, because during the last three days of this dream I did not have “ANY” money.

Honestly, I had a lot of trouble writing these posts. Most of my extreme hardships came while trying to figure out how to divide my experiences with the history of Cuba. In the end, I decided to split it up into three posts.

Post 1: This one… My Rough interpretation of the recent and not so recent History of Cuba

Post 2: The first four days of my dream in Havana

Post 3: The last three days of my dream in Havana “broke as a joke” in my hotel room.

Read more

Popularity: 6% [?]

Cuba, South American Trip (2007) Comments ( 1 )
July 14, 2007

Sleepy seals and expensive deals in the Galapagos Islands

The Galapagos Island is one of the worlds most treasured places. It is a one and a half hour flight from southern Ecuador. In every guidebook you come across its listed as one of the most important places in South America. However, let me be clear, this trip was wicked expensive. The three of us all threw the budget out the window when making the decision to make this trip a reality. We each paid $2100 US for an 8 day cruise. I think thats more moolah than I spent in 2 months in Bolivia.

Our faithful vessel. The Spondylus

Read more

Popularity: 19% [?]

Galapagos Islands, South American Trip (2007), Wildlife Tours Comments( 9 )
July 5, 2007

Mancora Peru = Surfers Paradise

After successfully vacating the black hole that is Bolivia, the BV Show, The Weapon, and I landed successfully in Lima.

Sidenote: I received quite a bit of interrogation from the airport security in the La Paz Airport as apparently I look like a Coke smuggler.

I had spent four days in Lima months ago but the boys had not been yet and wanted to check out the nightlife in town. It proved to be very strong :). We met a lot of really good people in our short time there. Once again, we stayed at the Point Hostel which is franchised throughout Peru. Although it was nice to to be in warmer weather, a heavy fog loomed over Lima for our entire time there. We all were in need of some sunshine. Three months in the mountains can really grind on you.

So, we decided to jump on an 18 hour bus to Mancora on the northern coast of Peru. After getting settled in, we realized that we were living in a Jack Johnson song (I think I might have used this analogy before when talking about Florianapolis, Brazil). This place was amazing and just what we were looking for.

Read more

Popularity: 1% [?]

Beaches, Peru, South American Trip (2007) Comments ( 1 )