Family Travel Files

Day 4: Science and a View

This day had the highest chance of rain, so we made our reservations for the Museum of Science. I had only been there once while living in the area, and even then it was to see a temporary exhibit, so I was glad to check out the permanent exhibits.

Having been to the Ontario Science Centre a couple of summers ago, our crew was making some comparisons. Overall, OSC edged out the Museum of Science by a little bit, but that doesn’t mean that the Museum of Science wasn’t worthwhile. There were plenty of interactive exhibits we enjoyed, such as the ones on optical illusions. We also enjoyed their sense of humor in the bird exhibit with their plastic flamingo specimen.

The one area where the Museum of Science seemed to have more than the OSC was with live talks. They had several throughout the day. We attended two. The animal talk, where a herpetologist showed us a prehensile-tailed skink, was fun and seemed to appeal to a broad age range. The talk about states of matter ended up being more basic and aimed towards littler kids. If you go, I highly recommend the animal talks. As for the other talks, maybe a museum staffer could give insight on the target age group.

The skies had cleared up once we were done at the museum, so we went to the Prudential Center. When we lived here, DH and I went up once to the restaurant at the top to take in the views with drinks and desserts, so this was our first time going to the designated viewing platform. We enjoyed some great views of my old workplace (BU),

MIT,

and Boston Common.

Day 5: Love that No-Longer Dirty Water

Today we started with the last activity on our City Pass: a cruise of Boston Harbor. I was most excited about this activity because we had never done any kind of boat ride in Boston before. It was also interesting to see how much development has occurred in the harbor area in the past 18 years and how much of it involved filled-in land. A lot of these buildings sit on what was water when I lived here.

That said, it’s not too surprising given how much of the city, like the Back Bay, was built on filled-in land. While we're on the topic of water, the narrator explained all of the Boston Harbor clean-up efforts in recent decades.

We also had some great skyline views.

I had not been able to convince my family to walk to the USS Constitution (Old Ironsides), and once we saw it on the cruise, that walk definitely was not going to happen, lol! So much for my goal of taking the kids on the entire Freedom Trail!

After the cruise, we visited the Holocaust memorial, also built after we moved. The six clear columns represent the six major death camps and are etched with numbers that were tattooed on victims’ arms.

It was a moving remembrance.

After lunch, we went to the JFK Library and Museum to learn more about his life and take in more harbor views.

DH and I were happy to make a return visit and it was a good match for DD1’s interest in international affairs, but DD2 was a little bored.

In all, we were happy with our decision to use City Pass. The choices were more constrained than they were for the Toronto version of the pass, but it still allowed us to do things that interested us for a discount: once we did our fourth activity, we came out ahead of the à la carte pricing.

Day 6: Ancestors and the ride home

Years after leaving the area, DH discovered that his 9th great-grandfather is George Phillips, a minister who sailed on the Arabella and helped found the city of Watertown, MA. He seems to have been a decent guy, especially in comparison to some of his fellow Puritans. Unbeknownst to us, we frequently went grocery shopping and ate at restaurants in George’s old stomping grounds when we lived here.

We learned that there are some historical markers that mention George’s name, and we found the exact location of one of them. I had the idea to visit it in our way home. Of course, driving in the Boston area often gets complicated. Our GPS wanted us to cross the Charles River, only to cross it again, and there were some one-way streets, but we eventually found a place to park so we could get some pictures.

Allegedly, George is the guy on the right, speaking to other colonists about how taxation without representation is a problem.

The rest of the trip home went smoothly.

Thanks for reading! I’ll follow up with where we stayed and ate.

This summer was one where we didn’t plan a vacation far in advance, but before we knew it, we saw our summer carved up by various activities and obligations. Turns out, we would have 6 days for vacation, starting the day after the kids got out of school.

Next, we needed to decide where we were going. We decided on Boston. DH and I lived in the area from 2004-2006, and we always enjoy spending time there. Since moving away, we’ve been lucky enough to take the kids there twice for long weekends when I had conferences there. The unlucky part of that is that the conferences were in November, so it wasn’t a great time to walk the Freedom Trail or explore other parts of the city on foot. A trip in June would lend itself to that better.

Like on our trip to Toronto 2 years ago, we purchased City Passes that admitted us into 4 attractions. For Boston, the pass automatically includes the Aquarium and the Museum of Science: you choose the 2 others.

Day 1: Driving and Dinner

The plan for this day was mainly driving into Boston and getting some dinner. Our first thought had been the North End, but then we found out that the Celtics were at the nearby Garden for the NBA Finals. We went to the Prudential Center instead.

Day 2: Sea Life, but You Can’t Go Home Again

Today we had our admission time into the New England Aquarium. I was surprised how excited the kids were because they had been there before, though it had been years. My favorites, the seadragons, were not on display because their exhibit space was being updated, but we still saw a lot of cool things, like penguins,

a puffer fish,

And a moray eel that was very excited for mealtime.

Still, my favorite on this visit was watching the sea lions in a session with the trainers. They were lots of fun!

After the aquarium, we had lunch at Quincy Market.

Then we decided to show the kids our old neighborhood, Harvard Square.

We had often told them about the colorful characters that were there and in Brattle Square: the guy who stood in a life-size paper puppet and had tip baskets as a poll for whether to “Legalize Hemp”, the Cambridge Council for the Arts (always represented by the same guy, who warbled songs from before the days of rock and roll), assorted breakdancers, and so on. We were disappointed to see that the only folks trying to get our attention were people with religious pamphlets.

It was also disappointing to see that several of the businesses we remembered were no longer there. In all, the neighborhood felt more corporate and less quirky, but I was glad we stopped by.

Day 3: Pride

We were missing our town’s small Pride parade, so we thought that it would be fun to show our support at Boston’s Pride for the People parade. We definitely got a bigger parade, with lots of joy and color!

We also got lots of little goodies, like stickers, potato chips, and a bunch of Biscoff cookies (Delta Airlines marched in the parade).

Some of those snacks sustained us as the parade lasted over 2 hours!

Our parade-watching spot was at the southwest corner of the Public Garden, so once the parade was done, we rode the swan boats.

We then walked down Newbury Street for a late lunch and headed back to our hotel.

First, I want to start with some gratitude for…

Sra. R. and Sr. K, the teachers at DD1’s school who organized our trip. Between multiple meetings, collecting payments, raising funds, and supervising everyone during the trip, it was no easy feat, yet they pulled it off admirably.

Alandis, the educational tour company that worked with us. Everything was great and they put together an itinerary that struck a good balance: we did many things , but we weren’t run ragged. They run trips to Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Spain. Here is their website: https://alandistravel.com

Dalila, the Alandis site director who did our orientation and kept things running smoothly behind the scenes.

Luis Fidel, our guide who accompanied us at every stop with smiles and an easygoing personality. He shared a wealth of information about Cuban history and culture with us.

Giovanni, our bus driver. There were some very tight spots that he had to steer our large bus into, but he was a pro and got us everywhere safely.

Our hosting families in Havana and Viñales for their warm welcome. We got to know our Havana family in particular and appreciate their help in meeting my cousin and the serendipitous meeting of my uncle’s friend.

My cousin and his wife for their hospitality. It may have only been for one evening, but we sincerely appreciated getting to meet them in person.

DD1, who when I expressed my doubts about going, said that she wanted to go so she could learn more about her culture because we have very little of it where we live. Her words made me realize that we should give this trip a chance. Also, she took many photos that I used for the blog entries (everything but the cans in this post).

Now I want to share some reflections that I gained on this trip, in the hopes that they inform someone’s thinking or plans for a trip to Cuba.

As a tourist, you will live better than many locals.

Yes, there is food scarcity on the island: as of this writing, Cuba was receiving food assistance from the UN. However, with the purchasing power of foreign currency, you will not go hungry. That holds even if you change your money to Cuban pesos because of the exchange rate favoring the US dollar so much.

I have mixed feelings about this. It’s hard knowing that your casa hosts are giving you their best and that they may not be eating as well when you’re not around… or that, even if they have food security at every meal, they probably know someone who doesn’t. But as a tourist, my choices are to visit Cuba, go elsewhere, or stay home. Not going to Cuba means nobody there gets whatever boost I give to their local economy. And Cuba is not the only country where the tourists tend to live more comfortably than the locals. So, for now at least, I feel that visiting was a good choice for me.

You can’t buy your way out of every inconvenience.

No matter how much money you have, you may find yourself dealing with an apagón. Or you may go to a fancy restaurant, like La Barraca at the Hotel Nacional, and see that the bathroom has no TP. If you don’t think that you will be able to roll with the punches when these issues pop up, I can’t recommend Cuba to you.

Cuba is in contact with the rest of the world.

Seems obvious, right? But it can be easy for those of us living in the US to forget that our country is the only one with an embargo. For residents of other countries, Cuba is another option for a Caribbean vacation, which means that it hosts tourists from all over.

Overall, Cubans know more about US culture than vice versa.

I know that, in general, people in the US have an earned a reputation for not knowing about other countries. So the surprising part for me was just how much the Cubans knew about US culture despite the embargo. Some examples:

Talking baseball with a Cuban at an internet café: He says he supports the Tampa Bay Rays. I say that I’m not a big baseball fan, but that I root for the Tigers, who haven’t won a World Series since 1984. He then names some Cuban guy who played for the Tigers in the 80s! For anyone wondering, it’s Bárbaro Garbey, who played on the 1984 team.

Talking TV with my cousin and his wife: They are fans of Grey’s Anatomy and Friends, and we talked about how sad Matthew Perry’s passing was.

US products still get into Cuba.

I observed this on two levels. First, there were products from US companies that were made in other countries, such as this Pepsi bottled (canned?) in Malta

And this 7UP by way of Mexico.

Second, we ended up with something directly from the US. We visited a store(mipyme) in someone’s garage. It was the kind of place with drinks and snacks behind a counter. I spotted coffee on a shelf and thought it would be fun to buy some for my mom. They had two different brands, so I asked the clerk which one he liked best and purchased it. After returning to our casa, I saw that the coffee was from New Jersey! I have lots of questions: is this a regular offering? Does the owner have family members who bring it by the suitcase, or is there another way they are getting it? How is it preferable to the locally grown and ground coffee? Regardless of the answers, one thing is true: there are at least some US products making it through the embargo.

The embargo keeps families and friends apart, which is sad.

I have known this at some level my whole life, but it hit home for me in a new way on my trip. Maybe what did it was looking at family photos with my cousin: even though I knew that my great-aunts and uncles and others had passed years ago, I realized just how many people I didn’t get to meet because I couldn’t go. (For anyone who cites family exceptions to the embargo, they do exist, but as I said in an earlier post, some administrations did not include cousins in the family exception, and the current regulations are pretty complicated.)

Meeting my uncle’s friend also made me think about friendships cut short or interrupted. Hearing the friend’s perspective, one day they were playing in the neighborhood like always, the next my uncle was gone. He missed his friend. I’m glad that he and my uncle are in touch again. In the first decades after the Revolution, it was more difficult to stay in touch because you didn’t know if your letters arrived, and phone calls were complicated events to orchestrate. I hope that more people are able to make similar (re)connections thanks to technology like email, WhatsApp, and social media.

In all, I’m no foreign policy expert, but all of this separation has been sad, and I ask myself why it had and still has to be that way.

For Cuban-Americans:

Our relationship with Cuba is even more complicated than our government’s. Everyone has a unique story about how their family got to the US and the different factors involved: when, what exactly made their relatives decide to leave, how the family members who stayed reacted, etc. So I’m not going to tell anyone what to do. I can only share my own experience, and I can tell you that everyone was welcoming to DD1 and me, and that nobody’s attitude towards us changed when they found out that we were Cuban-Americans whose immediate family had left in the 60s. I will also say that I was on the fence about this trip because it was not how I envisioned my first time there, but I am so glad that DD1 and I took the opportunity to go.

In the preparations for this trip, I learned more about the “Support for the Cuban People” exception to the embargo. In brief, you stay at casas particulares and eat at paladares, so you support private establishments. It might be a good way for my family to go without worrying about my kids being accepted under the family exception, so I will investigate that more in the future. I do want to return someday.

Thanks for reading! I’m already behind on blogging my family’s summer vacation, so I will get to that soon.

We ate wonderfully in Cuba! Some of our meals were included with the trip, so I am not always able to give an idea of prices. That said, everything we did pay for was very affordable by US standards.

===Old Havana===

Café Bohemia
We had lunch here twice during our trip. Both times, lunch for two came to about $25 including tip.

Cafe Bohemia's delicious and unique lemonade with honey, mint, and ginger is what inspired our return visit.

We shared a pizza both times we visited. The first time, we had the Sugar Baron, which has bacon and caramelized onions.

On our second visit, we had the Quattro Formaggi, which was strictly cheese and no tomato sauce.

Both pizzas were good, but we personally preferred the Sugar Baron.

We ate at Cafe Bohemia’s tables on the sidewalk facing Plaza Vieja,

but the inside of the building has a pretty courtyard.

Follow them on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cafebohemiahavana/

Museo del Chocolate

People in our group discovered this place on our first Old Havana lunch break, so we wanted to check it out. There are two entrances. One takes you to a room with a counter to buy pieces of chocolate. There is no seating. The second entrance takes you to a room with tables and waitstaff. It was really hot that day, so we chose the place with seating, thinking we could order the same chocolates from the counter. Not so! Instead they had a menu of chocolate drinks and desserts. We decided to stay there and order the cold chocolate. It was like a chocolate milk made with fancy chocolate. It ended up being a great choice for that hot day!

(E)star café(e)
This place is a couple of blocks away from the Malecon and the Museo de la Revolución. It was probably my favorite logo of the entire trip!

While they are channeling Starbucks, they do a lot more than their US counterparts. They serve alcohol and have a much more extensive menu of food with items like pizzas and pastas. We were on a short break between activities, so we only had time for drinks to go, but everyone in their group enjoyed their orders. I had a frozen lemonade and DD1 had a strawberry Frappuccino.

You can follow them on Facebook under "Star Café - Habana Cuba"!

===Vedado ===

El Jardín
This paladar (privately owned restaurant) hosted us for a spectacular welcome dinner. We started off with a tropical fruit mocktail.

I had croquetas (ham croquettes) for my appetizer.

On this meal and throughout the the trip, DD1 and I used the strategy of ordering different things so we could try a larger variety of dishes. My entree was langosta à la criolla (creole lobster).

DD1 had ropa vieja (shredded beef).

There were sides of rice and black beans served family-style as well.

For dessert, DD1 had a vegan chocolate brownie. It was very sweet and a bit less fudgy in texture than a lot of the brownies in the US, great for anyone with a sweet tooth.

I had dulce de coco rallado. This dessert has shredded coconut in a sweet sauce with a mild white cheese on the side. I’m finicky about coconut, but this was really good. The coconut wasn’t dry or overly sweet.

The atmosphere was very pretty here as well.

You can follow El Jardín on Facebook. They have a photo of our whole group there!

Restaurante Sofía

Several of us from the group visited this place. DD1 and I took the opportunity to eat Cuban sandwiches in Cuba!

I also noticed the name of the lemon-lime soda was the same as what it was when my mom lived here.

Follow them on Instagram! https://www.instagram.com/sofia_bar_restaurant

El Idilio

This was where we had our cooking lesson. In addition to our mock tails and appetizers,

we were served hearty portions of a main course (I chose ropa vieja), rice and beans, and veggies.

Dessert was chocolate cake with ice cream.

During our time there, they were playing Beny Moré’s greatest hits, which added a fun retro vibe to the restaurant. They're also on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/el_idilio_restaurante/

La Barraca
This is a restaurant inside the Hotel Nacional that hosted our farewell dinner.

Appetizers included stuffed tostones and croquetas.

My main was ropa vieja, rice and beans, and squash. Yes, I was taking pretty much every opportunity to eat ropa vieja while I was there!

Dessert was arroz con lèche.

In all, the food was good, but we had eaten just as well or better in other places. What you are really getting here is the atmosphere, which is worthwhile in and of itself.

Complejo Zapata y 12
We stopped here for some AC and hydration when we visited Colón cemetery, as it is just across the street from the main entrance. I believe it was a government establishment, as it seemed to be associated with a bakery around the corner, and there was no sign about their dollar exchange rate. (I looked online and learned that it is actually a public-private partnership.)

The menu included hamburgers, chocolates (bombones), and ice cream.

We ordered cold bottled juices. DD1 and I had tamarind, and our friend from the group tried a mixed-fruit flavor. Everyone enjoyed them, and they cooled us down at a great value (120 pesos each, approximately 60 cents US).

We also saw the ice cream. DD1 and I had recently learned that a 5-scoop sundae is called “una ensalada de helado” in Cuba, and we thought it was hilarious yet fitting: ice cream salad! We were all set to order one with 5 tropical fruit flavors that are hard to get at home when the waiter informed us that all they had that day was mango: another sign it’s a government-affiliated shop. Our all-mango ensalada came with a strawberry sauce and was still great on a hot day.

DelaCrem
This gelatería became an unofficial hangout for many in the group: it’s across the street from Complejo 12 y Zapata and a few doors farther down (away from the cemetery gates). This place is privately owned, as it had posted an exchange rate for dollars. They had better quality and much more than one flavor here, too! Their prices are more expensive than the complejo, but still great by US standards. If you’re looking for stronger AC and ridiculously good value, go to the complejo, otherwise head to DelaCrem.

Follow them on Instagram! https://www.instagram.com/delacrem_habana/?hl=en

===Viñales ===

Our dinner in Viñales was at the home of one of the host families. I haven’t found any information online about whether she operates as a full-fledged paladar. However, the reviews of her casa suggest that you can purchase dinner service. If you’re at Casa Marisol, I recommend her dinners!

Unfortunately, I did not get the name of the place where we had our second lunch in Viñales. If I ever get it, I will add it here.

That leaves just one place:

Finca Paraíso

In the US, “farm-to-table” has become such a buzzword that we don’t always know what people mean when they say it. Well, Finca Paraíso is one place that can legitimately claim “farm-to table”: you see the gardens all around the restaurant.

Like the place whose name I didn’t get and the dinner at Casa Marisol, lunch here was served family-style. They served us soup, a variety of proteins (ropa vieja, pork, chicken), vegetables, and ice cream for dessert. I didn’t remember to get pictures of food, in part because I was getting pictures of the scenery with the mogotes.

I definitely recommend it!

Follow them on Facebook or Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fincaecologica.elparaiso?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR0qbquBDovu7w5XN8DQpgfqzOta_aQ12j-4tvlt2HPcf7AU12iVJZysH9c_aem__OfjKiNHhNSIx_5JadiBBA.

Some casas particulares are a room and bath in a house, whereas others feel more like a mini-hotel. Villa Benito, where we stayed in Viñales, was one of the latter. It has 3 rooms with private baths, each accessed from the common courtyard.

I shared this room with DD1.

The courtyard was very photogenic.

We spent time there during the apagón to have some light and breeze that weren’t currently in the room itself. Our hostess promptly brought us delicious mango juice.

As the sun started setting, the family hooked the house up to a generator, so we didn’t have to sit in the dark.

The night we stayed, people from our program were staying in all three rooms, so we were all at breakfast together. Our hostess may have hung back a bit for that reason. She didn’t converse with us much, but she was kind and attentive to us at breakfast. She had a spread of coffee, juice, fruit, ham, cheese, and bread, and cooked eggs to order for anyone who wanted them.

If you’re ever in Viñales, Villa Benito is a great place to stay!

They are listed at this website: http://villa-benito-vinales.maxicuba.com/en/about.html
Email: [email protected]
Cell phone: 53-52446361