I had wanted to visit Cuba since the summer of 2005 when my friend Natalie and I were drinking mojitos at a Latin bar along the Mediterranean in Glyfada, Athens, Greece and she was telling me what a fabulous place it was. Americans have always gone to Cuba – just in roundabout and secret ways. I was willing to do that, too – but was excited to be able to join a week-long tour of Havana with Friendly Planet. Sean and I both felt that the time to go was now (or maybe even a year or so ago) before the cruise ships started really pouring in and flooding Havana’s limited infrastructure and restaurants with tourists. While we want to see more of the country, we felt that Havana was changing the fastest and wanted to get a glimpse of history in the making with our first (but not last) trip to this mysterious island.
The flight from Miami was only 40 minutes. As my mother-in-law says of such short flights – “here drink this! We’re landing!” 🙂 Me, being the sap I am and in awe of this tiny country’s resilience, history and completely different economy and government, cried during landing. But hey – American Airlines leaving a U.S. airport and landing in Cuba is definitely a piece of history and one I found made me emotional.
That’s right – my brother and sister-in-law are following their dreams and living at the beach! It’s so incredible and I’m so happy for them. They saved, stuck with it through setbacks, swallowed their pride and landed same-day job offers for each of them at The Outer Banks Hospital. They moved at the end of March and with me knowing I was going to be starting a new job mid-April, I had to get out there to visit them and see their new place the first few days of April. They have an adorable little house in downtown Manteo on Roanoke Island. They can walk to shops, restaurants, grocery stores, movie theatre, barber shop, waterfront, marina, lighthouse, etc. We had such a blast during my visit and I’m already looking forward to my next trip. Here are some photos.