It has been a very busy year here at the studio and at Jackies insistance, Mark and Jackie managed to take a short break between weddings and visited the island of Cuba for a much deserved break.

The following gives an insight into our recent trip. I’ll post more of the photographs on the online viewing section early next week when I’ve had a chance to catch up with my work.
They spent a couple of nights at the Hotel National de Cuba followed by a bit of RnR at the Seebreezes Jibercoa.
We left the UK bright and early Sunday morning up at 4.30am for a 5.30am depart for the airport. The nice clear skies of the UK…………………………….

where soon to be replaced with about 9hrs of on and off turbulance!

For those of you who know how much I enjoy flying you can imagine what a treat that was for me.
We finally arrived in Havana where we transferred to the Hotel Nacional de Cuba an imposing yet charamatic stop for a couple of days sightseeing.

Getting around old Havana is really easy, there are numerous taxis and tut tuts or your very own stretch Lada !

Local bus which always seemed to be jammed to the rafters.

Tut tut

Or the ultimate stretch Lada !

There is some fantastic architecture here particularly so in old Havana

The Capitol building is well worth a visit with its surprisingly ornate interiors

as is the interior of the Presidentail Palace

The streets around the Capitol Building work on an American style grid system so it’s very easy to navigate around some impressive buildings

Cuba is famous for its cigars - Any cigars bought at the State shops will be exactly the same price no matter which state shop you visit - the only real difference we found was what stock each would carry.

Not sure where the myth (?) that the cigars are rolled on the thigh came from but this was the best we could come up with.

All over Havana and the surrounding area are classic American cars -stand on any street corner and you will see a wide range of them pass you by in a very short space of time. Many are used as taxis and are available to hire by the hour.

As we were only in Havana for two nights we decided to go and see the show at the Tropicana (a sort of Cuban version of Carmen Meranda) but throughly entertaining.The ticket included a half bottle of rum per couple !

From Havana we travelled to the Seabreezes resort at Jibercoa to spend the rest of our stay with the intention of just chilling out on the beach.

Probably the two most visited spots during our stay here were ;

The Pool and,

the Pool Bar !

We did take a trip out to Matanzas and Valerado resort for the day and I’ll post some more photographs here (and on the online viewing section) a bit later in the week, as you can imagine there’s quite a bit of work to catch up on.