Well, I'm finally back from a very long and tiresome new 24 day trip to Camaguey city while hanging with my Cuban friends and family members. Almost everyone I talked with there had contracted the Chikungunya previously and of course gone through that living nightmare with the extreme symptoms. And although I didn't contract the Chikungunya virus after still being bitten by mosquitoes several times (LUCKY), my entire time there in Cuba was still spent sick as a dog with a very bad catarro (cold) that I somehow brought with me to Cuba. Of course I inevitably gave that bad cold to everyone there too - still recovering now back in Canada with just a very bad cough - although I smoked so many Cuban H.Upmann cigarettes while there that it's likely half of the reason why I'm still coughing my guts out now. Just the same, my chancleta was used every morning to spank the mosquitos dead in the bano before shaving and showering - I stopped using the OFF bug spray after my 3rd day there - call me a maverick - or just stupid. But the weather changed to be much cooler and no rain - and the use of our ceiling and wall fans aided by our generator for electricity kept whatever remaining mosquitoes lurking about in our casa at bay.

Anyway, we all managed to have a great time together regardless as usual. Fun facts about Camaguey city - my street exchange rate began at 440 CUP to $1 USD when I arrived back on December 18th, and finished at only 400 CUP to $1 USD just before I left yesterday January 10th. The reason for the difference is the same as always - many Cuban/Americans visiting with their wads of USD to exchange too driving down the rate. A case of Cristal in cans at the local mipyme cost 6960 CUP - a case Bucanero cost 9mil. The cost for a ticket to the baseball game has gone up again - once only 1 cubano peso pre-pandemic, it went to 3 pesos afterwards, and now it's up to 5 cubano pesos. Inflation is rampant with everything there now though - 6 loaves of suave pan (fresh soft bread) now costs 2mil. Loco! All fruits, vegetables, and other food-stuffs are far more expensive now too - but the selections of everything are better as well. I bought a bag full of Red Delicious Apples at 350 CUP each - and even scored enormous Yukon Gold potatoes every other day for baked papas on the barbacoa. Excellent quality too.

Anyway, if you have questions for me about anything else, shoot me a response and I'll try to answer for you. I'll post some new fotos later too. Happy New Year to everyone! It's good to be back! Terry

Glad you are still kicking Terry. Sorry to hear that you were sick for much of your trip. Does this mean that you behaved yourself? How was your New Years party? I'm currently on my WestJet flight and getting very close to Havana. I'm meeting CubanWaters tomorrow.

Behaved myself, Simon?? NEVER! But I consider any trip to Cuba a great success if I can return without suffering any new drinking injuries. And with that - I had no problems this time. But now I have to dry out. I must have plowed through 20 cases of beer when there... and 6 large bottles of rum too. I didn't drink all of that alone though - just to be clear. Anyway, YES! The New Years Eve party with the pig roast was another success story... although when taking the pig off the spit when ready, the meat was so tender and well done that a huge chunk of the pig fell off into the fire - that was a trick rescuing that meat without suffering 3rd degree burns! But everyone had a great time and ate well... all of us later dancing in the street while dodging motorinas, motorcycles, and horses. And of course at midnight, we set the strawman sitting in a metal chair on fire and continued dancing around him through the smoke and flying sparks with the stiff breeze blowing. It was a HOOT!

Simon, you have a great time there in Havana soon. Don't worry so much about the Chikungunya - that threat has calmed down now... but stay vigilant. And take care of CubanWaters there when together too. I'm sure you'll both come back with more great memories of Cuba. Have FUN! And please TRY to stay out of trouble. Naaaaa! What fun would that be?? Terry

CCO Terry, I am currently at the Habana Libre hotel waiting for Simon. We are going to load up a couple of pillow cases full with stuff to hand out willy-nilly while walking down the malecon.

Half-way through my trip and have mostly dropped my worries about the mosquito virus. My first couple of days here I was covered up like a Canadian in winter but realized that I was sweating so much that I was going to attract every mosquito in town. Things are cool here although I will avoid any skitters whenever possible!

Glad you endured another trip to Cuba. I don’t have wifi where I am staying so y’all will not here much from me.

Where is Simon? Late like a Cuban… !!!

CubanWaters, don't forget to hand out the scrunchies, pencils, condoms, and gardener gloves to those Cubans while walking the malecon! God knows they can't find any of those things in Cuba! Yea, right!!

Glad you've been there for awhile already and realized that the threat of those little buggers has now greatly diminished - although, keep your chancleta at the ready like me to smack 'em dead whenever you see them. I kept my right chancleta in a holster on my hip when there, and regularly had to go all Clint Eastwood on their good, bad, and ugly little culos. Unlike Cubans, us Canadians understand that the best form of defense is a strong offense.

Did Simon finally show up, CubanWaters? Hope he did and the two of you are now humming that tune together... The Boys Are Back in Town! Try to be good there! Dying to hear your stories when you get back about your escapades. Just so you know, I had a good conversation on the phone with Miguel before I returned to let him know that you'd both be there in January and to make sure that he provides you with electricity around the clock in La Habana. Hope Miguel has come through for me on your behalf - otherwise, I'll have to tell him that he's no longer mi amigo. Cuidarte mucho! Terry

I've met CW the last couple of days and will again later today on his last full day here. Can't believe how much quieter Havana is these days. We were the only ones in El Zoro jazz club. The only ones in our restaurant and at 23:00 on La Rampa we passed maybe a half dozen people. Walked around Centro and Old Havana yesterday. Lots of Cubans out and about, but the tourist numbers are way down.

Totally different vibe here at the beach than in Havana. More skitters too. The beach will be nice for a few days but the buffet and free drinks will hurt the waistline in the long run.

I was able to visit Cojimar and Fusterlandia and do a 4 hour bike tour in Havana. Also new restaurants and music bars were discovered.

Simon and I visited the top floor of Cubas newest tallest building for a drink and I will attempt to post some fotos I took overlooking Havana.

You certainly covered lots of ground on your trip CW. Come back again soon. I'll be here. Lol

As promised, some new photos from my recent trip to Camaguey city for 24 days over Christmas and New Years.



My wife, Yudith, had her birthday when I was there - she's now 36 years of age - an old woman now. jaja Note the "Birthday Girl" ribbon that I brought for her from the Dollarama.

Yordani again turning the pig on the spit early on New Year's Eve (fin de anos). Note that my wife has been busy having our front courtyard wall rebuilt much higher out front of our casa for more privacy - I like it. Still needs some paint to finish it.

My 17 year old Cuban daughter, Delenys, and my best amigo, Maikel, sitting in our back terrace / kitchen in the morning.

View up the side of our casa - my wife had a zinc tile roof built over the entire length of our casa on one side to keep the rain off of our generator (covered) and everything else there too throughout that passageway.

A couch for the dogs to sleep on and a garden of various potted plants within that same now covered side passageway.

Wood burning cook top where my wife cooks the food for our 4 dogs - she uses wood for that rather than using our more precious propane - that's reserved for cooking our meals and making our coffee.

Another shot of our New Year's Eve piggy just getting going - a good size. Around 100 lb. pig this time for our fiesta. It cost 4mil at the local butcher's place to have it harvested, gutted, and shaved to make it ready for the spit. My days of doing that myself are over - much easier now. 4mil CUP is nothing.

More fotos to follow later. Terry

Terry, that looks like the same guy turning the pig as the fotos from years past.

Sorry if you already posted but what was the electricity situation like while you were there?

And the skitter situation in general? I have been bitten a few times here on the beach compared with almost never while Havana.

Hey! Hey! Cubanwaters! Yes! That's Yordani turning the pig again... same tipo (guy) as last year. Note the muscles on that dude - built like Arnold - but no steroids involved - all natural.

The electricity situation over in Camaguey city daily was a case of 3 hours on, and 4 hours off - all day long. At night after 10:00pm, it was the same thing, but a bit different - more like 4 hours on, and 3 hours off. Sometimes we woke up with electricity, and sometimes not - it kinda alternated every other day. If we didn't have electricity after waking up, we didn't need to start the generator to turn the big ceiling fan above the back terrace / kitchen until much later after things began to heat up - it was mostly very cool in the mornings - but still lots of flies about. They made for easy targets with my chancleta in hand... they weren't moving too quickly due to the cold. Can't stand it when a fly lands on me while trying to enjoy my first coffees of the day - had to go all Bruce Lee on those buggers each morning until my right arm was ready to fall off - I was killing perhaps 200 per day. Later, either the electricity would come back on, or with the use of the generator, we'd kick the big ceiling fan on and the flies would disappear with that stiff downward breeze blowing.

That big ceiling fan would also keep any threat of the mosquitoes away too. As I explained earlier, the only place that I would regularly see mosquitoes in the casa was in our living room, and in our bathroom. They loved to park themselves on our flat screen television and on the drapes and artificial flowers in the living room, but mostly, I'd have to go into the bano each morning with my flip-flop in hand to kill as many as 30 mosquitoes at a time in there before I could even think about standing still in the bathroom to shave, brush my teeth, and shower in peace. Over the course of 24 days there, I got bit by mosquitoes 7 times - and then of course waited the 3 days after each bite to see if I'd get sick with the Chikungunya virus - but that didn't happen, thank God. I think the threat of Chikungunya infected mosquitoes has now run its course for the most part there in Camaguey city. It only rained twice during the entire time I was there - the new skitters hatching would be clean, as although most everyone there had contracted the Chikungunya back in October, November, and early December, they were no longer infected, nor able to continue spreading the virus. I didn't hear of anyone else coming down with the virus while I was there either. I believe that crisis is now over.

Cubanwaters, you continue to have a great time there in Havana area. Like in Camaguey, I think you can relax a bit more now regarding the mosquitoes. I think they're just back to being their annoying and itchy little selves if you scratch. But if you see one - kill it dead in an instant with your chancleta! I'm Bruce Lee - you can be Kwai Chang Caine! Terry

More fotos from my recent trip to Camaguey city... some goofy shots too during our New Year's Eve celebrations.



Maikel exercising his racing pigeons late afternoon before sunset each day - his Team Canada. jaja He painted that on the side of our pigeon coop up on our casa roof. That's Maikel sitting up on top of the coop - you can also see some of his pigeons racing by too. Good way to end the day with a beer and the breeze blowing up there.

Part of my haul of HC 7 year, HC Seleccion de Maestros, and cases of Cristal that we enjoyed drinking together. You can see the price tag still on one of the cases of Cristal from the local mipyme - 6960 CUP per case.

Chico, our enormous male Boxer dog - damned thing is built like a lion with hug jaws - stands almost 6 feet tall when only up on his back legs. Scares the bejeebers out of everyone in the barrio. He's our best line of defense when guarding our casa from would be intruders and thieves.

A look down inside our casa from the front door all the way to the back terrace / kitchen where we mostly hung out each day - an endless conveyor belt of friends and family visiting with us to hang out too, especially when there was no electricity. We have the generator to help with that of course.

Delenys posing next to our palm tree in the front of our casa that was all decked out in Christmas lights over navidad. Ours was the only casa on our street with Christmas lights - and the electricity from the generator to light them too.

My wife, Yudith, had all of these goofy fake eyes that she came out with and gave to everyone on New Year's Eve for a laugh. jaja Good times!

I brought the pig nose from the Dollarama - Yordani never looked so good! jaja

OK, that's it. I didn't take any more fotos of our New Year's Eve celebrations because I was too busy drinking, dancing, and playing DJ with all of the special fin de anos musica coming from my phone via bluetooth. Lot's of Cuban salsa, casino, son, timba, bachatta, merengue, and discoteca. It was an absolute blast for everyone. You all should have been there too! Terry

CCO, I like your liquor cabinet!

And how was your wife regarding being sick with the mosquito virus?

Are you now drying out at home? I am back on the wagon tonight, my last night. I could never live in Cuba with all the free AI / cheap booze!!

Great pics Terry. CubanWaters and I were talking about how cool it would have been to attend your New Year's party. I just took a quick look at my pathetic liquor cabinet. 1 bottle of 8 year old Santiago de Cuba rum (and it's not even full) and no beer. It pales in comparison.

Hey there CW and Simon, my wife, Yudith, still wakes up every morning with a lot of stiffness and pain in the joints of her hands, fingers, and feet. But after getting up and moving around a bit, everything seems to loosen up and she's fine for the rest of the day. Yudith's mother has made a full recovery now from the Chikungunya - no more muscle or joint pain of any kind. If she's experiencing any pain, it's the heartache of having her 3 year old Boxer dog die while I was there - the dog licked up some rat urine and got infected with some kind of rodent virus. Yudith, as a vet, tried desperately to save that dog for a week and a half with her stash of saline drip and other medications she keeps on hand in the casa. She was visiting her mother's casa to work on that dog 3 times per day - but alas, it's kidneys and other organs began to shutdown. Maikel quickly dug a hole the backyard and laid her dog to rest there. Yudith's mother was devistated - like losing a child.

Yes, I'm drying out now back here in Canada. I drank a couple of bottles of beer yesterday, but that's all that I've had since getting back a week ago. Cubanwaters, enjoy your last day and night there in la Habana! Have FUN! And safe travels coming back too.

Simon, that was no joke of mine about others attending our New Year's Eve fiesta too - you guys would be welcome to attend any time of course! Love to have you both demonstrate your dancing skills to bachata, salsa, casino, and merengue. And about my dancing skills?? Just remember that the more you drink... the better it will seem I can dance! We could have a dance off together in the calle! jajaja Everybody would be a winner! Terry

Terry, I'm assuming that you have no plans to visit Camaguey until the end of this year? Are you having your people there come up here?

Hey there Simon. That's right. I won't be visiting Cuba and Camaguey city until late December of this year for Christmas and New Years again - I'm now only a "once a year" visitor to Cuba. However, my wife will be visiting Canada for 3 or 4 months this summer to live here with me again - we haven't decided on the exact timing for that yet.

And it'll be just my wife, Yudith, coming this summer. We're putting the finishing touches on her permanent residency application now for submission through my lawyer by the end of this month. We've decided to not get the visitor visa (TRV) for our daughter, Delenys, as she's also on the PR application as a minor. So next year when Delenys finishes high school there in Camaguey at the end of June, 2027, both my wife and Delenys should have their PR status by that time and will come to Canada together for the Canada Day celebrations on July 1st. Later this year we'll put through the application for the TRV for Yudith's mother. I'll be able to fly all 3 ladies up here to Canada together next year at the end of June on the same flight. Yudith's mother can stay in Canada for 6 months on the multiple entry TRV before she'll need to return to Cuba... which would then be?? You got it! Late December. That's when all of us will return to Camaguey together for Christmas and New Years to be with the rest of our friends and family there. That'll be a 'rinse and repeat' annual event for all of us each year at that point going forward - always back in Camaguey for the holidays. Terry

Sounds like you guys had a good and safe time in Cuba. Good to hear. We will most likely visit Cuba in a couple of months. Friends of ours currently in Varadero say that nobody seems to be worried much about mosquitoes.