All quiet on the Western Front…

VaraderoNo matter where in the world you go, beaches are always amazing! To me at least. Some are worn and ragged while some are as soft as a babies bum, but they are all amazing in their own way!

We had the opportunity to take a little trip 2 weeks ago, and had the pleasure of experiencing a totally different kind of uniqueness. We managed to get ourselves to Cuba for 8 days and boy did we enjoy it!

Cuba is like stepping back in time, from the architecture of the late 1700’s right up to the 1950’s, everywhere you look you are surprised by what you see!

Of course, no trip to a foreign country can be complete without visiting at least one marina, I snuck in 3 ;-)!

Havana Fishing FleetAnd of course everyone likes to talk about the old cars and how well they have been kept…

Our hired car for the dayBut I think what most people forget to talk about is how necessity is the mother of invention. The Cubans have had to make due with what they had for many many years and it has brought them to a whole new level of resourcefulness. Take our hired car in the picture above. It is a 1955 Chev Bel Air and it appears almost mint! The interior is immaculate, although it is missing one door handle, and the paint more than passes the 2 foot test. (As in from 2 feet away it appears flawless.) What is fascinating about this car, which is prevalent through all of Cuba, is the lengths Cubans will go to in order to preserve it. For instance, the original engine died completely a long time ago, and rather than scrap the car like we would, they pulled the engine and transmission out and somehow got a Mercedes Diesel and 5 speed manual transmission installed. It is a column shift by the way!

And when you look at the working boats, you can see that they have been repaired more times than you can count! Probably more repair material than the original boat now.

We could stand to learn an awful lot from the Cubans. Think about that the next time you are about to throw out that thing that does not work. Does it really not work, or are you just too lazy to make it work? I know I will.

I tell ya, visiting Cuba made our project of breathing new life into Akupara a walk in the park! I can go to a store and buy what I need to fix her, and yet people still think we are nuts for undertaking such a massive project!

We have nothing on the Cubans at all! They are the true masters of keeping old things running and looking like new, I can only hope Akupara looks as good when we are done!

BTW, if you get the opportunity, Cuba is an amazing place. We plan on going back and just spending a week in Havana alone!

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