Remedios, Santa Clara

I'm finally getting around to organizing some photos from our last trip to Cuba. In the meantime, here are a couple of videos I took on our tour of Remedios and Santa Clara.

This is a pan around the Remedios town square.The large yellow church is Iglesia Mayor of San Juan Bautista, which contains 13 stunning gold altars inside (no inside photography, unfortunately). It is a feast for the eyes inside, I will tell you. Constant pirate attacks in the colonial era meant that they painted the gold over with white paint; in the early 50s, the interior was restored to its original golden splendour.


And this is a view as we drove through the town of Santa Clara.* It's a bit chaotic, as things flash by quickly on video cam as opposed to watching with your own eyes. But I think it gives a good sense of the architecture, the people, and the incredible variety of vehicles you encounter on your drive through any of the Cuban towns we've visited.

Bonus points if you catch the classic Korda photo of Che Guevera painted on a building. You can't walk a couple of blocks in Cuba without seeing one.
More to come,
ronnie

*I initially thought this was video of Remedios as well, but a viewing by me and Husband together convinced us it is Santa Clara.

I sing teh goggie electric.

see more Meme Animals

I should clarify that this is Condescending Literary Pun dog. Hence the condescending literary pun. Which made me laugh.

ronnie

It's Christmas Eve. You know what to do.

NORAD tracks Santa. I've written before about what this means to me. Enjoy. Merry Christmas. ronnie

Drive-by Mojo

Christmas has, as I posted on Twitter, not so much snuck up on me since returning from Cuba as it has snuck up on me in a dark alley, beaten me up and given me a wedgie. However, I will be taking the week between Christmas and New Year's off and expect to catch up on a LOT of online stuff then. Until then, enjoy this video Husband took last night as we were putting up the Christmas tree. He was throwing Mojo's little catnip toy and Mojo was... well... being Mojo.
I'll probably post some "NORAD tracks Santa" posts between now and Christmas too. 'Cause, you know, it still just kills me.

ronnie

Cayo Ensenachos, Santa Clara, y Remedios

As some of you have surmised, we have been away for awhile (last week to be precise). This time we stayed on Cayo Ensenachos, part of the Jardins del Rey Archipelago which we have now visited three times. We noticed big, big changes to the region and the towns we visited and passed through on this visit.

We also hired a car and spent some quality time in Remedios and - finally! - two years after the sprained ankle fiasco, I made it to Santa Clara.

I'll be posting photos of those two bustling, amazing Cuban towns on flikr over the weekend but for now, this is a picture of a can of Cristal beer, my favourite beer in the world which tastes like Cuba and which I am drinking while writing this blog post.

I see I have a lot of catch-up reading of my favourite blogs to do!

Mojo stayed at The Cat Spa, where the owner is well-qualified to deal with his current health issues. Unfortunately, he had a bit of a bad spell on Monday night and she had to call the on-call vet, and take him to his own vet on Tuesday. The consensus is that he now needs sub-q fluid more than once a week, and that smaller doses several times a week will be better for him. That saw Husband and I trekking over to the vet this evening after work to learn how to administer them to him ourselves. If he is going to have to have this done three times a week, we are not stressing him out by putting him in a carrier and trucking him to a semi-strange and unpleasant environment to have it done. I won't lie. Neither of us wanted to learn to do this and both of us hate it and are enormously nervous about it. But there you have it. I know some of you have dealt with this already and your encouragement that it will become quite routine is much appreciated.

He also had more bloodwork done when he visited his vet last week and we consulted with the vet on the results today. She says his kidney functions have mostly stabilized but she feels something else is causing his recent weight-loss and vomiting. So after laying out a number of options, from doing nothing to sending him to the veterinary school on Prince Edward Island for a complete work-up, we settled on having an ultrasound done here in town, which might show nothing or which might reveal some source of trouble which we can work on alleviating. It's worth a shot.

ronnie

Kittens. Rocking kittens.

Oh boy. Just this: Classic album covers reimagined with kittens. The "London Calling" cover may become my new avatar, everywhere.

ronnie