Flynn’s Travelog

Hey all,

So I made it to Belize and it’s awesome.  A little pricey, but awesome.  I’m on Caye Caulker now and enjoying what might as well be another Carribean country.  The English/Spanish/Who-Knows-What-Else pigeon is crazy to listen to.  Yesterday I went on a snorkeling trip with Austin and Kevin and we had a lot of fun.  We got to see a ton of fish, hawksbill and green turtles, an eel, some fatty stingrays, and a few nurse sharks (no manatees though).  Unfortunately, the weather hasn’t been the best, it’s just kind of overcast and windy everyday (which turned out to be great for sailing however).  I can’t write long, as I’ve only got 18 minutes for $2.

Tomorrow I make my way all the way back to Cancun.  It’ll be a long day and I can only hope everything works out since I have my flight on Sunday.  I’m very much looking forward to getting back stateside.  I would love to spend more time here and around the neighboring countries, but I’ll have to save that for next time.

For those of you I haven’t seen in a few months, I’ll see you soon.

Hasta luego,
Austin

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Saludos,

Well there’s nothing like coming to Cancun, the veritible Las Vegas of Mexico, to remind you of what capitalism’s all about.  After arriving at the airport and clearing customs, one van took our luggage to our hostel, while the rest of went to go eat in town.  Of course, all of us having anticipated this moment for quite sometime, we all had plans of what we wanted to eat.  The group I was with went to Outback Steakhouse, a restaurant I don’t think I’ve ever been to in the US, but nevertheless sounded delicious.  After we all had our fill of steak and burgers, we returned to the hostel.

Yesterday, we went to the ruins in Tulum, which were excellent.  After touring through the Mayan villiage, we spent some time on the beach and it was the first time, in a long time, that that didn’t mean drinking a lot of rum with all the rum-drinking Cubans around us.

Now I’m just trying to figure out what I want to do with myself until the 6th.  I will probably stay in Cancun one more night, then make my way south into Belize with some friends.  Unfortunely there’s not a lot of time left, but Belize is comparatively expensive, so it’s for the best.  We’d all like to check out the barrier reef there, which is the second largest in the world.

That’s all I know for now.

Hasta luego,
Austin

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Hey all,

Looks like we’ll be cutting our time here in Cienfuegos short; we’re going to Viñales tomorrow, which is the same place I spent my break between classes. I’m happy to be going, Viñales is a very tranquil place with some incredible verdant scenery. The town is pretty agricultural in nature and doesn’t get the hordes of tourists like other places. At most, tourist groups descend from there “excursions” to look around the minuscule plaza for half an hour, then hop back on the bus en route to Havana. Last time I was there, I missed the opportunity to check out the Cavernas de San Tomas, which is a huge cave system, and I’m hoping maybe this time around I might be able to go. Time’s short, however, so it may not be possible, but then again, there’s always next time.

At this point in the trip, I’m getting pretty excited about getting out of the country. I’m glad we’re here and this has been an incredible trip, but Cuba is expensive, the food isn’t all that good, and I’m constantly paranoid somebody trying to swindle me, which, if you were here, you would know is true about 85% of the time. I’m trying not to walk around in a state of disenchantment and just accept this place for what it is, out of its mind, which isn’t all that hard to sympathize with since these people live in an incredible propaganda vacuum, many of them desperate and disillusioned.

The creepy 50-something year old European dudes, whom look like George Hamilton, walking around with their 15 year old Cuban girl “escorts” doesn’t inspire much in the way of confidence in the human condition.

I can say with great confidence, however, that the rum, cigars, and fruit are of top quality, the women are gorgeous (lest those suffering of burly unibrows, happy trails, and mustaches), and I’ve seen the most beautiful beach of my life (on Cayo Santa Maria, think: Corona commercial).

Back to Cancun on Friday the 27th. Until then,

Quedo con Uds. muy atentamente,

Austin Flynn

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Hey all,

After about a week now, I´ve been able to fix my little website situation, which was no easy task to do from Cuba, but all look´s to be good.  On to more interesting things. . .

I´ve been here in Cienfuegos for a while now and I can´t tell you how nice it is to be set in one place.  I´m living with a nice family, although we don´t speak all that much.  Strangely, I´m pretty talkative with my friends ¨host families¨, but not so much with my own.  Oh well, we´ll surely talk more over time.  We watched a Cuban telenovela together the other night.  The production reminded me of the videos I made with my friends in high school for the closed-circuit TV system; the audio level was different for every camera angle and camera movement was awkward.  The family really was into the story though and brought me up to speed on what was going on.

The city itself is pretty nice.  It was the third place the Spanish establish here on the island, so it has a long history and a very colonial look.  Life here is less hectic than in Havana and I like that.  After dinner, everybody seems to go out to the Parque Marti, the Boulevard, or just sit in the rocking chairs they bring out to the sidewalks in front of their house.  I´ve been getting into the habit of going out for a walk after dinner (otherwise I feel like I´ll just fall asleep).  I like to go to the malecon (boardwalk) and read until the sun sets, then go do a little people watching in the park until I get burnt out and head home to do some reading.  It´s really nice.

I still need to write a little about my last five weeks, so what I think I´ll do is outline all the places I´ve been and my memories from there and then write some posts from the dates that I was there.

That´s all I´ve got for now.  I need to go study for my Spanish for the Professions midterm I have in a few hours.

Saludos,
Austin

PS, the new iPhone just came out!  Even in Cuba, I can´t abandon my Apple fanboyism.

PSS, I´m listening to MC Frontalot´s ¨I Hate Your Blog¨.  It´s sort of uninspiring.

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To all those who have been emailing me, no worries, I´m still alive and no where near becoming a communist.  I´m here in La Isla de la Joventud right now, which is an island south of Cuba.  It´s called Island of the Youth because of all the adolescents around the world brought here to work the farms and learn about Socialism.  I couldn´t work in this heat.

The plane ride here had to be one of my most horrific ever.  I got sketched out coming on the plane to Havana from Cancun, in an ancient airplane with its vintage Soviet-era fire extinguisher on board, but I realize now that was nothing.  We got on a plane the other day in Havana with a total of about 6 windows, the thing was about 110 degrees, and I´m guessing was made in the 70s.  We taxied around for about 15-20 minutes, just baking, when we finally got ready to take off.  The plane began to shake, in what I can only modestly describe as, violently.  I´m familiar with the usual shakes and vibrations that come from turbo-props, like the ones used by United in Durango, but this was something entirely new.  So, we were barreling down the runway at what I´m guessing was 60% of takeoff speed, when the pilot hit the brakes.  After about 10 minutes, we taxied back to the terminal.  Some people were sick, some on the verge of tears, but mostly everybody was just scared.  Anyway, it turns out one of the tires under the wing was losing pressure rapidly, so we are at least happy the thing didn´t take off and then pop the wheel on landing.  Needless to say, I´m not incredibly pumped for the return trip tomorrow.   Oh, I should add, Cubana, the national airline, has the worst safety record in the world.

Other than that, everything´s going well.  I´m havng a hiccup with my money situation.  I forgot to packet one of the five envelopes I split my money between before comeing here, and this portion of the trip has been, by far, the most expensive.  I´m hoping the envelope will make it´s way with the other Fort Lewis College professor who will be here in a week.

Oh, here´s some news: I´ll be back in Mexico sooner than expected.  Turns out, we can only extend our tourist visa here once, for another 30 days, so we´ll have to go back to Cancun on the 27th of June.  We´ll continue classes there until they officially end on the 2nd of July.  To be honest, this was good news for me.  It´ll be nice to have access to good food, money, and the rest of the world again.

As to my adventures from before the Isla, I´m hoping to have some time in Cienfuegos to write about that.

Hope everybody is well.

Hasta,
Austin

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