In San Jose

So, we just arrived in San Jose, Costa Rica. Tomorrow morning we are going to take a three hour bus to the Carribean coast, where we will be working with the project to save the turtles for two weeks. We return home April 29th.

Just minutes after we posted our last blog entry in Havana, we met this guy named Sam. He is from London, England and just happened to be using the internet at the same time as us. We started talking and decided to explore the city together, as he was by himself for the day. However, our first stop was the bank, as Tova and I had almost no money left. MAJOR CRISIS: no banks in Havana accept debit cards without a Visa or Mastercard symbol (which includes BOTH of our debit cards) and our credit cards were both maxed out for the month because we had used them to pay for the plane tickets to Cuba and Costa Rica! We were freaking out, running around the city from bank to bank, trying to figure out how we cuold get money. Plus it was a riday, and no banks in Havana are open Saturday or Sunday. We tried calling our parents, but the line to Canada wasn't working for several hours (we didn't even know this was possible). Finally, after several hours (with poor Sam sticking by our side) we sorted everything out and were able to enjoy the rest of the day.

We walked aroud the ols part of the city and found the Rum Museum. We went on thr tour, which was led by this guy named Piero, who was really fun. Also, there were these three guys from Colombia on the tour who asked Tova and I to take all these photos with them by the rum bottles to show their friends at home, but they didn't even know us and we had nothing to do with the museum and aren't even Cuban! It was pretty funny. Piero, the tour guide ended up going for drinks with Tova, Sam and I after the tour. He was such an interesting guy and was so open about the Communist regime and how he feels about it. He is dying to get out and even had a boat ready a few years ago to escape in. Piero ended up inviting Tova and I to his house for dinner. Tova and I actually ended preparing the dinner and we ate with his family. After, we went out to a local Cuban art show in his neighbourhood, and after there was a performace of local young musicians, rappers and singers, which was really amazing. We met a lot of really interesting local artists there. Piero himself is actually an amazing photographer and has an amazing collection of pictures he has taken of the people and places of Havana.

On Saturday we went to the beach with our friend Miguel, who we met at the "Casa de la Musica". It took so long to get there because we took the local Cuban transport. Plus, when we got there, because it was a beach for locals and not for the foreigers who stay at resorts and hotels, the beach was rocky and small, with dirty water, and absoutely packed with people. Still, we had a good time and came back into the city in the evening to meet Sam at the movies. We saw "Flight Plan", which is about a year old! Plus it was an old theatre that is now used as a cinema and the screen was horrible. But it cost about 15 cents Canadian to see the movie! We noticed that Cubans are really noisy during movies, always making noises and yelling at the screen.

On Sunday we met Sam and his Cuban friend, Danieski at the Aquarium. The aquarium itself was so bad: there were anly a few tanks of fish, ad the tanks were tiny and dirty. Plus, most of the fish didn't even have signs saying what type of fish they were! But the dolphin show was really amazing. The funniest part was seeing the dolphins dance and do all their tricks to reggaeton (the music they are obsessed with here... we have already bought several CDs!).

Unfortunately we have to go because the internet cafe is closing. e will try to finish the update soon, but it might be impossible until we are dine with the turtles. Our love to everyone reading this.

Tova and Alice