Just 40 minutes from Puerto Vita is Holguin, which is a town with 800,000 people per our guide book. The drive is easy and fun with a great road that wasn’t busy and lots of people, fruit stands and houses to look at on the way.

We were a little nervous about going to Santiago due to its reputation for having large numbers of jinateros which translated means hustler. The lonely planet guide even suggests that people will either love or hate the city. So far, for us we haven’t had that experience, except for our first 20 minutes in town.

We went to two different restaurants in Holguin, the first was called Aviles which was five blocks from the house and recommended by Mirelis, our casa host. As we walked, the locals kept smiling and pointing at the boys, Ethan in particular. They don’t get to see a lot of white blond “tow heads” in…

After our first night in Cuba I headed up to the Marina office to chat with Janet, the resident liaison, for marina guests and Cuba. She would arrange cars, rooms and laundry for us while we were here. The boys came with, and being little boys started to tear the office apart… after the drawer…