Cuba finale

All beautiful things come soon to an end and so did our Cuba trip. For my last post, I’ve decided to show you some interesting and/or mostly funny things we’ve experienced over there… You have to bare in mind that Cuba was and still is largely isolated from the Western world and most of the people are poor… but still – you have to see it to beileve it.

Most modern MTB frame in Cuba… but I’ve seen some full-suspension ones as well… but primitive compared to the bikes we ride in Europe or basicly elsewhere…

From time to time, you can spot a strange vehicle on the road – unfortunately too late to have a better shot but this bus reminded me of the old Serbian movie “Ko to tamo peva?” and all I was missing was “Krstic i sin” logo painted on the side of it… The bus was missing the engine covers as well… The yellow things you see at the front are Coco-taxis – motorbike taxis for two people…

Che is watching you everywhere in Cuba – literally

Cuban electricity standard – I guess their electricians must be acrobats and puzzle solvers as well to work on such gems.

There is no hot running water in Cuba, apart from the hotels. So people mount electrical water heaters in the showers – it was kind of scarring looking at those exposed 110V/220V wires running centimeters from running water while having a shower… after a few days we got used to being so close to death – anyway at least we’d die clean

Rowing to Florida? Probably not, but these two local fisherman probably can’t afford a new boat so they made their “floating” device from pieces lying around…

Weird angle of photo? Nope… Weird angle of truck – it is driving straight towards me, just got twisted a bit… But until it still runs, it’s good for the road.

Poor mans bus – trucks like these are driving all around Cuba taking locals for a few pesos along…

Shock in the departure hall of the Havana airport – there are rows and rows of world flags hang below the ceiling, but in the first one, by an unknown coincidence, Slovenian flag is making company to the Cuban one – I guess we are popular there

Bended wing of the A330 on our flight back to Madrid – Boeing is just making lemons into lemonade since 1916

Last view of our Airbus after landing …

Cuba; Cars

Before our Cuban trip, I’ve heard and read that there’s a bunch of old 1950s American cars still being driven all around Cuba. I took it for granted and expected to see a few of those old cars, probably parked by some exotic buildings and their owners bragging about them. And boy, how wrong I was. Actually about a third of the cars driven in Cuba are those old Oldsmobile, Chevys,… The other third would be Soviet Ladas and just around ten percent are newer modern cars.

First introduction to the old cars was the area in front of Capitol… Lots of cab drivers to choose from.

Looked like a mafia car… well it still does…

Well, this was the one and only old carbriolet that I’ve seen there… must have been lucky I guess

Another taxi… check the dude on the right

Not all of the cars are in a good state though… In fact most of them are powered by Lada engines…

Speaking of Ladas – can you count how many of them are on this photo?

A beauty from Cienfuegos

And another one from Vinales.

Frecce Tricolori 50th Anniversary airshow, Rivolto; Part VI

We often see photos from the airshows… But we seldom see the photos of a reason for airshows existence – the people! Here is a humble try to represent a part of the feeling among the crowds – and Italian ones being very specific. 

 

Most convinient transport across the vast expands of the public areas of the airfield. For a kid anyway

Italians second most worshiped thing behind the God, must be food. A reason powerful enough even to stop the flying display and take 1 hour of launch break.

Identity Crisis???

It is good to wear some head cover under the burning hot sun – add a few national coloured ribbons and you have a winner!

Italians are also famous for the love of cell phones – this guy was not lonely in his doing

Never question the Italian fashion! If an Italian wears a shirt with raised collar, then it must be fashionable. Period!

When it’s hot, Italians are not shy to strip their clothes off – and showing off their bodies to the female crowd…

Attending the airshow in Italy, it’s a family get together and a daily trip… with everything that makes them comfortable…

Frecce Tricolori 50th Anniversary airshow, Rivolto; Part V

Tornado IDS

AMX International AMX

Eurofighter F-2000 Typhoon

Frecce Tricolori 50th Anniversary airshow, Rivolto; Part IV

Beside the rich display team schedule, there were also 6 solo displays of the Italian Air Force, flown by the pilots and the aircraft of Reparto Sperimentale Volo/ Italian flight test squadron.

Alenia Aermacchi Mb.339CD

Alenia Aermacchi M.346

Alenia Aermacchi/Lockheed Martin C-27J Spartan

Frecce Tricolori 50th Anniversary airshow, Rivolto; Part III

Patrouille de France

Country: France

Type of aircraft: 8x Alpha Jet

Red Arrows

Country: United Kingdom

Type of aircraft: 9x BAe Hawk T.1

Frecce Tricolori 50th Anniversary airshow, Rivolto; Part II

Patrulla Aguila (Eagle Patrol)

Country: Spain

Type of aircraft: 7x Casa C-101 Aviojet

Patrouille Suisse

Country: Switzerland

Type of aircraft: 6x F-5E Tiger II

Frecce Tricolori 50th Anniversary airshow, Rivolto; Part I

Frecce Tricolori, Italian Air Force display team celebrated their 50th anniversary this year and invited a number of display teams to the anniversary airshow. A number of Italian solo displays were also shoed, most memorable being the Tornado and Eurofighter.

The show opened with the flyby of the Italian flag by an AB-212 utility helicopter.

Bialo-Czerwone Iskry (White-Red sparks)

Country: Poland

Type of aircraft: 7x TS-11 Iskra

Krila Oluje (Wings of Storm)

Country: Croatia

Type of aircraft: 6x Pilatus PC-9M

Royal Jordanian Falcons

Country: Jordania

Type of aircraft: 4x Extra E300

Cuba – Day 14; Havana Aquarium

Last day in Cuba, we spent in Havana and since we had an evening flight back to Europe, we had to kill most of the day in the city. We’ve seen most of the central attractions and we’ve been sick and tired of jineteros so we headed towards the calmer part of Havana, full of embassies and a location of national aquarium.

Dolphins are the biggest attraction of the aquarium.

Sea lions don’t fall much behind by the popularity

But this pelican didn’t get bothered by the shows and was stretching its wings.

Some exotic carribiean fish

This little bugger has a perfect camo

Fearsome looking green mooray