Two very good posts, let's throw some pics in here.

Very. nice!!! I hope this forum gets more lively, about Cuba and all the other islands as well.

I do wonder about those risqué photos, though!?!

Hey! Hey! Jibacoa! Chris! Good to see that you reconsidered and posted some fresh new fotos - good on ya, socio! I'll get back to those in a moment.

ek, I didn't want to say too much more about the fotos of mine that got deleted. But to tell you the truth, I was a bit offended that fotos of my Cuban daughter and her half-sister could have somehow been found to be risqué. I didn't understand that at the time - I still don't. But as I told Chris via WhatsApp, I guess only fotos of us OLD FOLKS are acceptable. jaja

However, I know there was another foto that Chris tried to post that got the hook too... even before it got posted - Chris sent me that foto via WhatsApp so I could take a look. YEA! OK! I can understand why that foto didn't make the cut. Although I told Chris that his "tad risqué" foto is actually incredibly artistic - it looks like it should be hanging in an art museum somewhere. Perhaps "hanging" on the wall in the wing dedicated to the appreciation of the "moon" - if you follow my drift. jaja

Anyway, getting back to you, Chris, great fotos of you, your wife, Aime, and of your absolutely beautiful casa there in Jibacoa. I've told you many times before - your place is certainly much more polished than ours is over in Camaguey. Much BIGGER too! I love that colour of ORANGE that you, or perhaps Aime chose to paint the outside of your casa. Unusual? YES! But somehow it works! It's beautiful, really. I like it!

I think only 1 of those dogs pictured is yours - the one in the middle. And I see that you included a foto of one of the many go-carts that you've built to give away to the Cuban kids living in your area there. jaja You're a good man, Charlie Brown! But I wasn't supposed to say anything about that as you're also one of most humble guys I know. You also clean up well, muchacho! Your wife, Aime, is just as industrious as you've proven to me before in the past too - good with a brush! That woman is a machine! Didn't know you could catch crabs in Cuba - other things, sure! I don't understand that foto of the guy with the slab of meat on his lap as if it were a TV tray - what was going on there with that foto, Chris? Gotta run! Some of us still need to work. Terry

*I don't understand that foto of the guy with the slab of meat on his lap as if it were a TV tray - what was going on there with that *

Quite simple actually, when the locals are gonna slaughter a pig for sale, they ask around as to who may be interested in what portion ( pre sell).
this way the meat doesn't sit for days waiting on a customer, straight from the cutting table to the buyer, in this case we purchased ribs, once had a hind 1/4 delivered tied to the cross bar of a bycycle, just gotta wash the dust off....🤣...'Es Cuba...

I imagined the risqué photos were of a group of heavily imbibed mustachioed men, thick necks roped with gold chains, slouched over a table littered with broken bottles of Havana Club and Cohibas smoldering in the ashtrays.
Maybe a couple of scantily clad mujeres de la noche sprawled on the sofa in the background, stilettos dangling from their prettily painted feet.

Ok..we keep things nice and clean...thank you for letting me know.

Hay Dios mio!! You really need to get to Cuba as soon as possible, ek! jajaja I think you'd be extremely hard pressed to find anything there in Cuba that resembles what you described. jiji Bueno, perhaps the "slouched over a table" is the part that fits best - a table with a dominos game ensuing outside on the sidewalk. That's a regular sight all across Cuba. Generally speaking, mustaches are not the rage in Cuba though, nor are there a lot of gold chains around necks anymore because they've been sold to buy food. Hence why those guys would also be a little bit slimmer these days too. And for most cubanos, rum is now a luxury - at least the better blends of rum. There's always the gut-rot variety of Cuban rum available, but personally, I can't stomach that crap. jaja I prefer my Havana Club Seleccion de Maestros o siete anos ron. Many Cubans have now given up smoking altogether too - both cigarros (cigarettes) y tabaco (cigars). It all comes back to the food dilemma there now - or more accurately, the lack of money to buy it. There's still lots of food available if one has the dinero por eso. I'll pass on commenting sobre las chicas - but absent the stilettos, YEA, they're everywhere, con sus chancletas en los pies. Terry

Time for a couple of more fotos of mine too, with the back-stories at the bottom.



My wife on our lithium battery made in Japan motoria - that thing is super fast and scares the heck out of me when I ride it through our barrio there. Also, a foto of my wife with our pig from last New Year's Eve (fin de anos) before lighting the carbon (charcoal). I have another pig already there for this year's festivities. I bought that as a piglet 3 months ago for $130 USD - they ain't cheap! My best friend, Maikel, is feeding it in his pig coral each day to fatten him up for our feast! YUM!

I wish I could join the fiesta! I'm getting hungry thinking of that crackly skin and the tender meat!!

That's so interesting that you buy it well in advance and fatten it up!

You gave an excellent correction to my image, which is obviously one from the 1950s. xx

Bueno, ek, I always tell everyone... mi casa es tu casa. Not for sleeping over, of course, but certainly for a visit to fiesta anytime. You'd be welcomed to join us if you can ever make your way to Camaguey city in Cuba during the holidays when I'm there. And YES! Maikel always cuts off hunks of that crispy crackled skin to pass around to all of us to munch on when the pig is ready - that guy knows everything about roasting a pig to perfection. Over the course of the 8 to 9 hours of roasting, he regularly plunges his knife into the pig, pulls it out, and then intensely smells the blade as if he's Yukon Cornelius sniffing for GOLD & SILVER. jaja But seriously, Maikel can detect when the pig is perfectly done and ready with his nose - tender meat and all!

ek, years ago, I could wait to buy a fully grown pig for the spit in late November or early December - there were always many pigs available in Camaguey, and the price back then was much less too - only $80 to $100 USD for an adult. But times have certainly changed in Cuba. Pigs are in such short supply that it's almost next to impossible to find and buy a fully grown pig because of the shortage of them everywhere across the island. The adult pigs are now mostly kept for breeding stock, which means that buying a piglet to raise to adulthood is almost the only way to insure that we'll have our cerdo for our fiesta. Plus, if I ever WAS given the opportunity to buy a fully grown pig these days, that would cost a bloody fortune too... perhaps $300 to $400 USD or more. Gracias, pero NO! jaja

That image of 1950's Cuba - would that also include Ricky Ricardo by chance?? jajaja I'm just kidding with you! I'm assuming that you know who Ricky is too. jiji No hay problema, ek! Mi placer. I'm just glad knowing that I haven't offended you with helping to bring more clarity to the Cuba of today for you in advance of you hopefully visiting. Cuba is still a magical place to visit - but just to visit now. I had dreams of actually living there with my wife in Camaguey city a few years ago. But that dream has changed now given the deteriorating conditions there in Cuba - especially with the lack of electricity daily. That's where I've drawn the line in the sand. No electricidad - no Terry! And no Yudith either! We'll all be much better off living in Canada now as soon as that can be arranged. Terry

No back story on the croc?! You’re crazy canuck to share a pool with that. Your fotos are fab but you seemed to take great offence that others didn’t want to do the same. And what happened to the guy who hired you? Have a great and SAFE trip Terry to the center of Cuba. I’m sure the mosquito problem is giving you stress like it is me.

jaja I was DYING for someone to say SOMETHING to me about the baby crocodile in my pool there, CubanWaters! GRACIAS! But that was just a GAG! Something that I came across by accident and bought on Amazon to take down for our pool - it certainly looks life-like, painted to perfection, but it's just the head and it's only made out of styrofoam. Shocks the heck out of newcomers to our casa though, especially when they first approach our pool at night, because the eyes glow in the dark too. I've had to resuscitate a number of cubanos from heart failure over the last few years - but no mouth to mouth. jaja

About my so called taking great offense that others haven't also posted some good Cuba fotos too (other than the new guy - he no scaredy-cat) - I had also mentioned earlier that nobody has to necessarily post fotos showing their faces if they want to remain anonymous. But certainly even you, CW, must have countless good quality fotos of the sights you've seen in Cuba over your many years there that would help add some interest to the forum and provoke comments and questions - again, livening this place up. I don't think posting some of those kind of fotos would hurt anyone. Just saying.

Glad to know we're both feeling the same about the mosquito / virus problem there now, CubanWaters. Yea, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't feeling a bit nervous. But into the lion's mouth we go soon - well prepared too, of course. It won't be the first time I've run the gauntlet in Cuba. Thanks for your well wishes. Same to you as well, amigo. Terry

Go-karts! Better than crocodiles! One of my prized possessions as a kid was the go-kart my Grandfather made me. The neighborhood kids must think that you are hip! This is playa Jibacoa? Is it difficult to find materials in Cuba to build such vehicles?

And the lady with the pink top and azul pants, that’s a nifty go-kart she has!

Over the years I've brought down a lot of tools, one of them being a 110 volt arc welder, not a great choice of materials, but rusty re-bar is readily available.
The old girl ( neighbor) makes her living picking up and delivering other folks Libreta items, so made her a buggy rather than see her struggling with multiple bags.
I collect broken lawn mower wheels when in Canada, nothing available in Cuba, unfortunately I'm stuck in Canada this winter ( other than a couple weeks in Feb) so no time for puttering.

How the heck did you get that crocodile head through Cuba customs?? Did they ask about it? I love the homemade go cart photos and the scooter looks too big and powerful for the girl! I will look at my photo s when back for Christmas break.?

Sgt. Pussycat patrolling the rafters at the Camaguëy airport, 2014.

dale, the crocodile head is made of styrofoam. It wouldn't show up on X-ray at customs. It's also extremely rare for me to have to open my suitcases in secondary for any reason - they seem to cut me a lot of slack on the hundreds of dollars of things that I'm always bringing down for my wife and our casa. I think the last time I had to open my suitcases for a second look was approximately 7 years ago. Perhaps they know that I have a Cuban wife there and that's the reason why they tend to turn a blind-eye to what I bring - I'm not sure. Terry

El Commandante behind the desk.

CW, what Cuban office is that? Was that at the airport? Sending you pm about your Fidel foto, as what more I have to say about that can't be posted here. Terry