Month: January 2019

After a ten hour delay we finally got on the plane to Honolulu. We got in at 10:00pm. We got put in a flash hotel because we missed our flight to Kona because of the delay. We then flew to Kona in the morning. We picked up our rental car and headed off.

Dolphins 🐬

We picked up the car and drove to a snorkeling place. I dived in to the semi tropical waters. And we headed out. Suddenly we saw some dolphins 🐬 in the distance. I quickly swam in the direction. And then I saw the amazing dolphins. They got so close to us. It was so magical.

Turtles 🐢

I walked backwards in my flippers to the water. I fell back ward and turned my camera on. I turned around and saw a rock swimming toward me. I then realised it was a turtle!! It was so beautiful. They were feeding on the rocks it was so awesome.

Surfing 🏄‍♂️

We arrived back to Honolulu and picked up another rental car. We then drove to the famous north shore. The waves there were so massively big. There was even a competition there so we got to watch the worlds best surfers!!

I used up the rest of US dollars 💵 on what is called a Dole Whip. It is basically a pineapple 🍍 soft serve 🍦 ice cream. It was really nice.

Over all I really enjoyed my time in Hawaii.

J.K.CORNEY™️©️®️

We have finally made it back home after one hundred and ten days over seas. It was an easy ride back and we watched lots of movies on the plane. We stayed at the north shore last night and had an easy and uncomplicated ride to the airport. We got back to gran and grandads at one o’clock in the morning and then all of us just crashed out on the bed.

The day before, Jake and I went to the Dole Plantation and did the 2008 worlds largest maze. It was fairly easy and we completed it within fifteen to twenty minutes. It was cool seeing all the pineapple farms on the drive there. And all the big waves of the North Shore.

By Mia.

Imagine going on a boat and landing at a isolated beach in Cuba 🇨🇺. Suddenly you get ambushed by the army. Out of the 83 who left Mexico you and eleven others survived. You split in to tiny groups and fight for you freedom.

Che Guevara was born in Roario, Argentina in June 1928. Guevara played rugby in his younger ages. He then Graduated from the university of Buenos Aires with a medical degree. Che then traveled to Guatemala. He then continued to Mexico.

In 1955 Che meet with Fidel Castro in Mexico City. They began to form an alliance called the Gurrillers. In 1956 Che and 81 others set sail for Cuba to fight against the government. When the Granma sailed to an isolated beach in southern Cuba they were attacked by the army. Out of the 82 on the Granma only che and eleven others survived. The Gurrillers then split up in to tiny groups and then stated to invade army bases. Che proved to be a good brave leader. Fidel then gave him the rank of a commandant in July 1957. In December 1958 he outsmarted the enemy that lead to the victory. Che then derailed an armoured train. To seal the victory. He was granted Cuban citizenship by the new president Fidel Castro.

Che then went to Bolivia to overturn the Bolivian government. He got captured by the Bolivian army and the CIA October 8 1960. The next day he got shot dead. Now he is a world wide symbol of revolution.

Jake™️©️®️

Mexico and Cuba are two completely different worlds. Mexico is all built up and Cuba is built down. Simplifying that is that Mexico has big city’s, lots of people and big grocery shops with a variety of food. These are just some of the differences between Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula and Cuba’s Old Havana, Vinãles and Trinidad.

First of all the grocery stores and the queuing. I noticed it straight away. When we walked into the central square for the first time in Old Havana the first thing I noticed was the long queues of people outside shops or bakery’s. The reason why you see everyone queuing is because there shops are so small with limited stuff. We went into one of the supermarkets and there was one isle of rum and alcohol, one isle of dry foods such as pasta, one isle of biscuits and chips. Also when we were walking around the streets we would see one shop full of eggs, one shop full of meat, one of bread e.t.c. When I say shop I really mean a room with a door and a counter and whatever they are selling. Mexico is very different. No queuing and about five big supermarkets in each city.

The next noticeable thing would be the local transportation. One of Cuba’s transportations is old American cars. You see them absolutely everywhere. Blue ones, lime green, and we even saw one which was white with pink polka dots. It is amazing how they keep all these old American cars going. We went for a ride in a bright yellow nine seater fifty one Chevy from Vinãles to Old Havana. It was cramped and hot because the car didn’t have air conditioning and the windows wouldn’t open or close so if you were cold you would stay cold and if you were hot you would stay hot.

Another mode of transportation is the old horse and cart. If you were a local and couldn’t afford an old car, you would get around by horse and cart. It’s amazing how fast some of the horses can go. When we were biking in Vinãles a horse and cart raced past us and we reckon it was going 40kmph!! Auntie Bron and Uncle Ross went on a four hour tour of a Tobacco farm on horse back. They got from our house to the start of the track by horse and cart. Auntie Bron had a really sore bum after that.

Mexico is so different. It has all the newest model cars and flash local buses. We got culture shock going into Mexico because of their flash buses. Coming from Guatemala and Nicaragua and all the other countries with there way over crowed chicken buses, then the cheapest local buses in Mexico are first class coaches.

The third and final most noticible thing about Cuba would be the old colonial buildings. It’s cool seeing how much effort and detail that are in some of these buildings. Some of them are so huge and still standing but most of them are crumbling. The government is now restoring them to there original glory. Vinãles is different to Old Havana and Trinidad. It has one big church in the centre but that’s all. The rest is all colourful one story buildings attached to each other. It reminded me of Granada, Nicaragua. Mexico is just a different story again. All modern buildings and with each new building trying to be more flash than the last one.

As you can see Cuba is very old but unique in its own way and is very, very different to Mexico. With transport, buildings and shops Cuba is its own little country.

The door opened slightly, shouts went out from people in the crowd. The impatient shoppers surged forward in anticipation. I was almost at the front. Two people, one person, then I was in! Through the door, bag open, money on the counter, then 20 freshly baked bread rolls in my possession. I felt like I had just won 100 dollars! But you may think that that is strange because I was only buying bread rolls. Well, no this is Cuba. I had waited almost two hours.

Shopping in Cuba has many similarities to other Central America countries that we have visited. Food is cheap. For example a small pizza is $1.48 NZD, a mojito for $1.20 NZD and the twenty bread rolls that I bought were only about $1.00 NZD. They have similar souvenirs like keychains, magnets, painting and other knic knacs. However buying groceries is a very different experience.

Cuba does not have large supermarkets that we found in other countries. There are many small shops that only seem to sell a small range of items. For example, the small shop down the road from our casa in Trinidad only had pasta, rice, candles, cigars, matches and eggs. You will often see the locals walking around at all times of the day, bag in hand doing their daily shopping. It might take them a couple of visits to the local shops to get all they need-milk in the morning, bread at lunch time then maybe some meat or veges in the afternoon.

This appears to be a really inefficient system that seems to be part of Cuba’s communist way of doing things. In the bread shop it was quite chaotic with people pushing in line, shouting, waiting, before finally getting their allowance (I couldn’t buy more than 20 rolls). You also have to go to many different places to get all you need. However, there are some positives-the locals seem to enjoy chatting with each other while they wait in line and there is no excess packaging. Everyone brings their own bag (or bottle for milk) so this reduces waste.

Grocery shopping is all part of the travel experience, especially if you are on the road for over 3 months. Cuba certainly provided us with some challenges in this regard – we couldn’t even buy cornflakes here! But great to experience this unique country.