What a day last Tuesday was! We gave two seminars: one at 10am and one at 10pm; the first one in Sarasota, Florida and the second in Laguna Woods, California! We were staying at the Thousand Trails, Peace River and had to get up and be on the road by 8 in order to get to Sarasota to deliver a 10am presentation to the MiceKTeers computer club. I hate to leave any place that early - but I always hate to leave the beautiful Peace River.
Our parking spot on the Peace River
Had a good group for our Google Photos / Picasa Seminar for the MiceKTeers Computer Club in Sarasota.
Sarasota is on the west coast of Florida. On Wednesday we're booked at a computer club in Port St. Lucie which is on the East Coast of Florida, so, after the Sarasota gig, we got back in the RV and drove across the state. This time of year in Florida, you need reservations if you expect to get a site at an RV park, and we didn't even try. We found an Elks Lodge in Port St. Lucie who said, sure! We have room in the field out back. No hookups, but it was a nice field overlooking a pond and it had GREAT Internet service from a Verizon tower right next door.
Our parking spot at the Elks Lodge in Port St. Lucie
That was important because we were booked to give another Google Photos presentation on Tuesday night ... in California! We used Google Hangouts On Air to deliver the seminar remotely and, it went great. Their meeting was at 7pm - Pacific Time, which meant 10pm our time. Whew! What a Day!
Photos sent to us from the Laguna Woods, CA club where we did a remote seminar on Google Photos
Because we used Google Hangouts On Air, the whole seminar was recorded on Youtube.
It's a good thing we love what we do! And do we ever!
We are currently living part-time in my Mother’s townhouse in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. This means I am surrounded by lots of memorabilia. This newsletter that I wrote for our computer training center back in 1987 is so cool. I write how it is so overwhelming to deal with the speed of change in technology. We started this computer training center in 1983. My wish for 1987 is that there be nothing new!!
1987!
And, here’s another of my favorites. An article from WordPerfect magazine in 1989. I was one of the original certified WordPerfect trainers and they published a few of my articles in the WordPerfect magazine.
We did nothing special for New Year's Eve. I think we were asleep by 11. But on New Year's Day we met old Fort Lauderdale friends for lunch at an outside patio bar and grill. What a gorgeous day! And good long time friends!
By January 5, we had to be over on the west coast of Florida because we had a seminar scheduled for the Greater Tampa Bay Computer User Group. We booked a week at our favorite campground - Thousand Trails, Peace River. That would put us in the right place for another seminar scheduled for the Sarasota Technology User Group, and a third that we were asked to present while we are at the Peace River campground.
We love this park. The natural beauty is stunning. We've stayed here for many months all totaled over the years, but it's been about 3 years since we've been here. Glad to see it is still as beautiful, and we took a spot right on the river.
The seminars for the computer user groups went well. We taught Google Photos for both groups.
And, using Google Photos, we made little movies of the events. Here's the one from the Sarasota group.
Then, we did an impromptu seminar for the folks at Peace River.
The Verizon signal is good enough here to do our Sunday show, so we'll stay till Monday, then head back to Fort Lauderdale for a few weeks. We will be back in the RV and headed to Riverside RV park for a Geek Week, the first week of February.
Verizon speeds at Peace River campground are excellent at 23Mbps down, and 8.2 Up. This will work to do our Sunday web show.
We knew that Internet may not be available much in Cuba, but what we learned is a defining characteristic of Cuban life, the US embargo, and a communist government.
Years ago, when we took a trip to dive the caverns in Yucatan, we flew into Cancun and rented a car. Everything went fine until we got hot and tried to turn on the air conditioning. There were plenty of buttons labeled A/C and Fan, and Temp - but nothing worked. Luckily it wasn't too too hot, and the windows did work. We survived, but we made sure to tell the rental agency when we returned the car that the air conditioning didn't work. They looked at us quizically, and said,"Oh no Señor, there's no Air Conditioning!" Apparently we should have known that their cars were simply not equipped with A/C regardless of the buttons on the dashboard.
That has become our ongoing, inside joke ever since when something doesn't work! For Cuba, it has become, "Oh No Señor, there's no Internet here!"
To be fair, there was actually decent Wi-Fi in our hotel in Havana, the Havana Libre. We paid our $5 to get a password that would allow us to be online with one device for one hour. We actually used that to connect our cute little Hoo Too travel router - then both Jim's phone and my Chromebook could connect to the our own personal hotspot created by the Hoo Too. Pretty cool. If this is of interest to you in your travels, here's a link to buy one:
The hotel's Wi-Fi hotspot was on the 2d floor, period - no access in your room. We were pleasantly surprised at the speeds. Nowhere near as fast as what we're used to, but much better than we've experienced on cruise ships. There was one weird thing - we could not access our PayPal account. Access Denied! I thought maybe it was blocked by the government so as not to allow transfers of funds - and that may be the reason - but we were able to access our regular bank accounts with no problem. And, we seemed to have full access to any social media sites we wanted, like Facebook.
Our phones were working and Verizon greeted us with this message when we got off the plane
We did actually receive a couple calls and a couple texts during our stay in Cuba, but when we tried to answer the call, or reply to the text, it just didn't work. We really don't care about phone calls or texts, what we need is data - an Internet connection to manage our website and customer emails.
We saw people with smartphones everywhere, so we thought we'd investigate buying a local SIM card - like we did in Europe. Yes, indeed, we could purchase a SIM card with service from Cubacel. We were told the price was $40US - just for the card! Not for any service. We were still considering it - not that we NEED the Internet that much, we just consider it part of our job to do this research. But then we heard the final bad news - "Oh No Señor, there's no Internet here!" only voice and text. The cell towers in Cuba are only 2G. You need 3G or 4G for data/Internet.
Wow! So, what were all these people doing with iPhones and Android devices? Just voice and text? We learned that just outside the hotel, on a street known as the Rampa because it runs like a down ramp to the sea, there is a public Wi-Fi hotspot. You need to purchase an access code for $2-3/hour. So that's what all these people were doing, sitting on the walls next to the sidewalk, they were accessing their emails, facebook, and using Skype to make calls to the US. But as soon as the leave the immediate area of the hotspot ... Internet gone. They really have no idea what these phones can do since they so rarely have an Internet connection.
No signs were necessary to find where the local Wi-Fi hotspot was!
Other than the hotel, the Rampa, and the town square in Cienfuegos, we saw no way to get Internet in Cuba. We learned that the people do not have Internet access in their homes at all. One reason is the US embargo. Here is the map that we were shown during our US-Cuban relations lecture that shows all communications lines that go under the ocean bypass Cuba by law.
Although the US Embargo definitely limits the communication, the Cuban government also has something to do with it. According to this article from the Economist, in 2009 the Obama administration authorized American companies to provide internet services to the island but the Cuban government wasn't interested.
If you followed the events that led up to the re-opening of the American Embassy in Cuba you know that there was an exchange of prisoners between US and Cuba. The Cuban prisoner was a man named Alan Gross - they say he was in a Cuban prison for being an American spy, but do you know what he was doing? Installing equipment for Internet access!!
We have a passion for learning history! We just had to take a selfie in front of the recently re-opened US Embassy in Havana.
We learned that people who are desperate for Internet information have formed a type of 'sneakernet' called The Package. Someone with Internet access at a business collects a Terabyte of data from various websites and saves it to DVDs or maybe external hard drives? Then they charge $2/week to distribute this "package" to those who want it. $2 may not sound like much, but when a government worker (and most all Cubans are government workers) typically makes $20-30/month, that's a lot of money. A neighborhood might pass the package around and share the cost. I think I also heard this referred to as an IntRAnet. Here's an NPR story on the Cuban Internet Package.
We were only totally without connectivity for 4 days - I kind of enjoyed it. My phone was still in my hand most of the time, because it was my camera, and my note taker. I also wrote a few emails, knowing they would get sent as soon as we were back in the States. But, generally not worrying about email or business was nice for a few days. I'm sure going to pay attention to increased Internet access in Cuba though. We would love to go back and spend much more time someday - but we need Internet for that.
Speaking of my phone as my camera - I think I'll end with this little movie put together by Google Photos from pictures on my phone. And, remember, there's lots more pictures where these came from: Google Photos Album on Cuba Trip
After 4 nights in a Havana hotel, our tourbus took off for the countryside. We stopped at the Bay of Pigs, got a history lesson, a swim in the bay, and a fabulous lobster lunch while listening to a lecture on the ecology, wildlife, and wetlands of the huge National Parque Cienega de Zapata.
Playa Larga is on the Bay of Pigs. If you're our age - 60's - and American, those 3 words mean something very bad, and very secret. We were just kids when the Invasion at the Bay of Pigs happened, and it is tied, in my mind, to the Cuban Missile Crisis as well. So, hearing "Bay of Pigs" conjures up images of war, secrecy, and nuclear annihilation.
What a trip to go for a swim in this lovely Caribbean water called the Bay of Pigs!
On the Road, nearing the Bay of Pigs: "Here was a Decisive Battle for Victory"
Beach at the Bay of Pigs
Going for a swim in the Bay of Pigs
After our visit at the Bay of Pigs, our group (23 people) got back in the bus and headed toward Cienfuegos where we would stay for 3 nights. For accommodations, our group divided up into 5 groups of 4 to stay in “Casas Particulares” or private homes turned into B&Bs under the new guidelines for private enterprise. The proprietors of our B&B welcomed us with open arms, and cerveza! We had to struggle a bit with language since they didn’t speak much english and we don’t know much spanish, but you can feel warmth and friendliness.
The B&B - aka Casa Particulare - where we stayed in Cienfuegos, Cuba
From Cienfuegos, we took a day trip to Santa Clara and Che Guevara's tomb. A complicated man, revered and despised, but with statues, billboards and pictures of him EVERYWHERE! We heard that the movie Motorcycle Diaries is a good one about Che. We found it on Amazon and watched it as soon as we got back. It's about Che's early days - college age - with a wanderlust traveling thru South America. He didn't seem so different from many friends I know. I need to see a sequel to understand how he turned into a revolutionary.
Memorial to Che Guevara in Santa Clara, Cuba
New Challenges, New Victories, propoganda billboards
Cienfuegos city has a beautiful waterfront and town square.
Cienfuegos, Cuba has a beautiful waterfront
Church at Cienfuegos town square.
The crown jewel, at least in my book was the last day's trip to Trinidad, Cuba. This is an old colonial city with cobblestone - no make that just stone - roads, narrow streets, and mountain views all around.
Even the drive there was the prettiest. And there were good roads.
A rest stop on the way to Trinidad
Views along the way. Supposed to be good diving out there too! Gotta come back someday.
Typical street in Trinidad, Cuba
We climbed up these steps ...
To see this view of Trinidad, Cuba
Gotta have a selfie!
A special stop in Trinidad was at the Casa Particulare of Lia and Paci, the Cofradia Duo. They showed us their home, told us all about their lives - Lia spoke English quite well - and they even sang for us. Watch the video and enjoy! I LOVED them!
In case I forgot something, here are the notes that our tour manager, Jocelyn, sent us:
TUESDAY Dec 8th - departure at 8:30am... en route to Cienfuegos... lots of great commentary by Ilen Rodriguez-Chou!! Rest stop on en route (5 pilars of rest stop.... coffee, drinks, ice cream, shopping, banos). Playa Largo on Zapata Peninsula and lunch at Enrique's Casa on the beach. Lecture on ecology before lunch, on the terrace of Enrique's home. Time for a swim in the Caribbean! Playa Giron and Bay of Pigs Museum visit. Arrival in Cienfuegos' main square for start of Casa Particular Adventure. We were lucky to have some Spanish speakers on this trip to help bridge the gap with our Cuban hosts! Dinner at your casa particular.
WEDNESDAY Dec 9th - morning pick-ups by 9am, drive to Santa Clara (rest stop en route). More educational commentary by Ilen!!! After a stroll along city streets our first stop was at The Senior Center for a wonderful visit and interaction. We didn't want to leave!! Lunch was at Aldaba B&B and Restaurant. Afterwards we visited Che Guevara's Memorial. Siesta Fiesta en route back to Cienfuegos..... we strolled the pedestrian street and stopped in various shops, a visit to Union Hotel, then enjoyed an uplifting performance by Cienfuegos Childrens' Dance Group in the main square. We were lucky to be able to visit Roberto's Art Gallery (thanks to Helenmarie and John for sharing!!) before walking to El Largarto on the waterfront for dinner. Return to our casas in time to fall into bed.
THURSDAY Dec 10th - Early morning pick-ups from Casa Particulars... drive to Trinidad (rest stop en route, of course!) Tour of main square and cobbled streets of this quaint town. Visit to cooperative Crochet House. Time to explore Trinidad's sights. Visit to private B&B with Lia and Pace. Treated to a sample of their music and tour of their home. Before leaving Trinidad we visited a family ceramics business then returned to Cienfuegos. In another part of the main square, The Cienfuegos Choir amazed us with their talented singing voices...... We had (a little) time to freshen up before our farewell gathering..... thank you to Guest House Maguey for working with us on such short notice to plan such a special evening!
FRIDAY Dec 11th - Morning started with a visit to Benny More Arts School, with presentations from several music and dance students. We toured their art studios as well. Ilen took us through the Farmers' Market of Cienfuegos and we had more time to get those last minute purchases taken care of before heading to Finca del Mar for our farewell lunch.... celebrated Pat Cummins' birthday.... tasty cake, too!!
