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Many people considered that our last one-month trip to Mexico and Cuba has been a hard-core one. Meaning that people think that it is such an impossible journey, that many people would think many many times before actually committing into it. But I suppose traveling is so much our passion that we're willing to take risks and plan such trip. If money is not an issue, we'd like to travel all over the world!

And why are we bringing our little one? Many (Indonesian) parents would think that toddler wouldn't be strong enough to endure such travel. But we want to experience the world as a family, and we're confident that we would be sensible enough to travel with considerations of our toddler's needs and wants. We hope that Noe would be bitten by the same travel bugs that bite us.


Indi+Noe against Carribean sunset in Havana, Cuba

So, some people have asked us, how do you manage to do such a major travel with a toddler. Our answer would be one word: planning.

Well, planning our trip is a separate article altogether. We've also been sharing our travel plan spreadsheet with several people, and they agree that it is so detailed that it looks like a "persiapan perang" battle plan, as you can see in our previous entry.

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The Basics for Traveling with Toddler

The first and foremost requirement to travel with toddler is simple, you have to know your toddler very very well, knowing his ability and limitations, so that you could incorporate your toddler's habits and life-cycle into the travel plan. How? Spend time with your child as much as possible, build trust between you and your child, and finally, test your child's limit by allowing him to be independent and learn from his own mistake.

Secondly, plan your trip in great detail including incorporating the toddler lifestyle into it. This includes timetable, detailed itinerary, and logistics. Having planned our trip in great details, we know that there are some limitations imposed by bringing our toddler. For example, we won't be able to go out to the night scenes. If we truly want to go to night scene, one of us would need to stay with the toddler to babysit as a compromise, for example, Indi would go to a dance club in Cuba while I watch over Noe. Also, we know that we have to constantly allocate time to buy snacks and tidbits for Noe. We would also simulate travel time by calculating distances in Google earth, so that we could allocate traveling time by car and allow rest stops so that Noe doesn't get bored in the car. In terms of logistics, we need to know what would be available or not in the destination. For example, we knew that antibiotics is difficult to get in Cuba, so we had to take our supply of children antibiotics, just in case.

Thirdly, take precautions to reduce risks. Travel insurance is a must, and we spend time comparing different schemes in order to get the cheapest but best option. Also, we talk about our plan to our pediatrician. She would then suggest us to take necessary vaccinations and prepare prescription medicine as our first aid kits. She would also brief us on first-aid basics and how to use the medicine. Lastly, we had planned to take first-aid course but didn't do it. We were lucky that we didn't have to do any first-aid measures during our trip.

Fourthly, during the trip itself, be flexible with the plan, constantly watching your toddler. During our trip to Cuba, we had to cancel our plan to go to the provinces because Noe had Roseola Infantum viral fever.


Traveling with toddler means traveling light, because you need to be prepared to carry the toddler anytime

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Some Tips for Traveling with Toddler

The following are travel tips that had greatly helped to ease our trip:

• Travel light and don't overpack. You need to be able to carry stuff AND chase/carry your toddler when needed.
• Ziplock bags, the sturdy type (freezer type), are useful for many things! Mainly they're used to organize items in the backpack. Quart size to bring leftover food and on-the-road snacks, to pack medicine and toiletries. Gallon size is used to compress clothings for easy packing (Tip: Sit on the filled ziplock and zip them! This makes it into a pseudo-vacuum bag. Use this cheap option rather than getting the expensive special vacuum plastic bags). But don't throw them away hastily. Reuse them as much as possible, and recycle when disposing them.
• Breastfeeding! For me this makes traveling with toddler really easy. No bottle feeding kit to lug around. It also helped Noe to recover from his viral infection faster.
• Wash your clothes during trip. This is how we get by with only bringing a few clothes.
• Make it into a habit to sleep with lights off at night. This has been our habit before our kids were born. And this has helped the kid's transition with the timezone better. There has been very little jetlag despite traveling halfway around the globe.
• Make the most of the surroundings to entertain the toddler without toys. We're also glad that Noe doesn't need much toys. We can amuse him (and he can amuse himself) with things that are available on the spot. For example, Noe would have real fun looking at airplane pictures in the seat pocket. Anyways, the airline would most likely be giving toddler toy kit also. So, we didn't bring too much toys. I think we only brought one Elmo doll, that's it.

Breastfeeding really make things become more convenient

The following are things we should've done or should've bring

• Toilet training (we truly are a failure in this aspect, even up to now. HELP!). This causes us to have to bring disposable diapers, and to buy disposable diapers in the destination. And we make the earth a dirtier place because of it :( Unhappy.
• First aid course. This can be handy not just for vacation. Should take this sooner or later
• Dog tag pendant necklace or anklet for Noe. Just in case if he goes missing (knock on wood), this would help. Even better, if we could put signal-emitting implants on Noe's body that can be tracked using GPS. Just in case, you know. Thank God we've managed our trip without having to put these things.

The following are godsend items that had really helped:

• Lightweight sturdy umbrella stroller. Lightweight is very important.
• Baby Bjorn baby-toddler carrier (for toddler under 12 kg) or a sling. Carrying my toddler using this had freed our hands to do other things.
• Ziplock bags, the sturdy type (freezer type). As mentioned above.
• Waterless hand cleaner solution like Purell
• Baby wet wipes. I know, this is not eco-friendly. But convenient nevertheless. Probably during the next trip we would change this with small lightweight microfiber towels.
• Pacsafe Waist Bag. Safe secure and provide additional space in the packing system.
• Pacsafe bag protector and steel wire security lock. Although people think that this is not useful, the pacsafe protector has provided us with the peace of mind. For example, we protected our bags by putting pacsafe on it and tying it onto solid column, while we spend time chasing Noe around the waiting room in Manila airport..

This is typical carry-on-bag situation on the airplane. The big backpacks are checked in. BTW Noe never had his own seat because he's under 2 year and we want the air tickets to be cheap. Another reason to travel light.

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What To Bring for the Toddler: Our List

What did we bring for our toddler for one month? We try to travel as light as possible. Sometimes we were tempted to bring more stuff than we need, but we kept reminding ourselves that we need to travel light. And if we actually need more stuff, we could try to buy the thing once we arrive in our destination. However, this is rarely the case. So far, what we have brought for the trip has been enough (note that we need to allocate time to wash clothes every other night).

The list is actually quite simple

Noe's Clothes

• 6 trousers
• 2 pajama pants
• 3 socks
• 2 shoes / sandal
• 6 shirts / tshirts
• 1 jacket
• 1 long sleeve shirt
• 1 hat

Noe's Toiletries

• 1 Kiddy toothbrush
• 1 Kiddy toothpaste
• 1 Kiddy bath liquid, also for his hair, the no-tear type
• 1 Waterless hand cleaner
• 1 Baby powder
• Baby wipes, buy one pack containing 80 pieces every 10 days (should think of a more eco friendly strategy)
• Disposable diapers, medium size, buy every 10 days (should've toilet trained him and use cloth diaper instead)

First aid kit for Noe

• Paracetamol
• Oralit
• Ibuprofen
• Malaria pills
• Children's amoxillin (antibiotics)
• Cough medicine
• Insect repellent
• Zambuk for itch and insect bites
• Vicks vaporub
• 3 Syringe to give medicine when needed

Others

• Sippy bottle for Noe's water
• Spoon, fork, knife, just in case
• 10 piece gallon ziplock
• 30 piece quart ziplock
• Ikea clip to secure food bags or plastic bags
• Flash light
• Book with static stickers, sticker book
• Small toys for Noe (as little as necessary): Elmo doll, a few metal toycar
• Our PDA phones with Sesame Street videos for Noe and also our laptop with some videos in the harddisk (rarely need to use these though, but just in case)
• Pacsafe waist bag and pacsafe bag protector

You can imagine that the above consists mostly of small items and all can fit into tiny backpack. We could do better by eliminating the disposables (diapers and baby wipes). Maybe next time.


YOU can do it too!

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A Scenic Drive to Matanzas

We got in quite early for breakfast buffet and then left hotel for more adventure.

Yodhi hurried to Barracuda for a diving trip to Bay of Pigs. We decided to the bus terminal to catch a bus to Matanzas, which is just a short walk from behind our hotel.

 

     

Unfortunately we missed the bus, so we had to hire a taxi to Matanzas for 20CUC. The driver was an old man in a 4 year of Renault. He was proudly introducing us to different scenic spots along the way such as Rio Canimar and the Tropicana auditorium.

 

   

First Taste of Cuban Town

After a 30 minute joyride we arrived in the Parque Central of Matanzas.

 

Noe seemed to enjoy the abundance of public spaces with large trees. That is something that we don't have in Jakarta unlike Matanzas that offers shaded areas for people to hang out and play.

 

Just when we got out of the taxi, jineteros offered us their help to show us around town. We politely declined but managed to buy from Moneda Nacional (which is the currency not meant for tourist) from one of them.

 

One could tell that Matanzas was once a very pretty town with narrow streets and sidewalks where intimate encounters among the dwellers took place. We saw many shops with people lining up neatly outside waiting to buy merchandise. In other places, we saw panaderia selling bread with croquetas. We visited the Union of Architects and Engineers of Matanzas and it was reported that there are 1800 engineers in the area but with little work. We hope there will be more investment in the future so they could apply their skills.

   

         

Stroll Around Matanzas City

We tried to get in El Retablo, a store and theater of puppets, but it was closed.

 

When we continued walking, I had to breasfeed Noe, and managed to do so when the lady from Radio Cuba office gave us space for breastfeeding.

   

We had hamburguesas and  Tropicola (not TuKola this time) for lunch at La Vigia near the Teater Sauto. Initially we wanted to take a tour in the theater as well, but it was closed due to the liberation day holiday on the week of 1st January.

     

                   

We then bought two handmade books from Edicion Vigia as souvenirs. Guevara took us for a tour around the production area of Edicion Vigia, as well as patiently showing their collections for sale.

       

Soon after we walked for about 1km south to the bus station so that we could catch 2pm Viazul bus back to Varadero. We walked through steel bridges which is one of the landmarks of Matanzas city.

 

             

Back to Varadero

The bus was nice and clean. Indi met with Marie Jollie, a Dutch woman who has been traveling alone all over Cuba. She suggested we spend more time in Trinidad that in Santa Clara. Perhaps we will reschedule if everyone agrees.

 

We got back in hotel at 3pm and waited for Noe to complete his nap. Afterwards we walked to beach and swim again. Noe at this time was not in the water but he was busy watching passers-by. There is something about Noe that attracs people's attention. Maybe it was because Noe had curious look in his face that makes people want to talk to him.

For dinner we went to La Vicaria 8 block away from our hotel and then we ordered fish, steak and shredded meat with rice and fries. Rani ordered 7 year old Havana Club rum and it was great!

Tropicana-like Show

When we get back to the hotel, there were a tropicana-like show. Even though the show only took place in a hotel, and even though the band was only using an electric keyboard rather than full big band, the performance was really professional and quite good. Those dancers were really athletic.

     

       

We slept late after packing and will try to wake up at 6am tomorrow.

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Breakfast and A Stroll around Varadero Downtown

We woke up a bit late, and the breakfast buffet was almost finished. The hotel staff really adored Noe, and we had a conversation about toddlers and babies. One staff had a 25 months old baby named David, and she breastfed the baby for 6 months.

         

We went back to the room to prepare ourselves for a walk, and I watched Cuban TV channel. It has the feeling of the old-time TVRI. There were four channels. One channel has governmental meetings shown on TV. The other two channels are educational channel, with programs ranging from science, technology, open university, language course, mathematics, and of course, the politics of cuba, in which a lot of statements by Fidel are quoted.Then we walked outside. The weather was not really good, with very thick cloud and drizzles. We decided to walk around Varadero, but the drizzle made everything so gloomy and ugly. Nevertheless the beach still looked beautiful with nice turquoise color. Indi was amazed with a lot of the cars of the 50s scattered around the street, with a shiny good condition. The streets in Varadero is surprisingly clean, the residents seems to have a sense of belonging to the place, that even without direct economic incentive, they keep the place clean.

       

                         We saw a school bus donated by the American students.    

Lobster Lunch and Great Live Music by "Gala"

Finally we went to Barracuda Diving Center so that Yodhi could make an enquiry about the diving program.

       

After that we went to the next door restaurant. But we were afraid of mediocre food, so we had to ask other tourist first on whether the food is good. Luckily, the tourist that we met there were quite satisfied. So we decided to just eat there.

 

When we enter the restaurant, a live acoustic music was playing Guantanamera, and some senior tourists were dancing to the tunes.

I ordered small grilled lobster, while Indi got roast chicken and Yodhi ordered grilled calamari. We decided to just have cervezas, because they cost the same as water. It was bucanero cervezas and produced by the government, but they tasted quite OK.

   

     

Before we got our meal, the band approached us, and we made a request for them to play classics of Cuban music. And it turned out that they played really beautifully, with four parts harmony and great "tres" solo. They brought "tres" instrument which is a modified guitar, with three rows of double strings, each row is tuned to the same note. It has a twangy sound. We really liked the band so we bought their CD. The band is called Gala.

To the Beach

After lunch we decided to take a taxi back to hotel so that we could spend the rest of the afternoon on the beach. Unlike Cancun where the access to the beach was limited by resort development, it was very easy for anyone to walk from the street to the beach. Our spot was only two blocks away from the hotel and the weather was splendid!

The water was only waist deep from the shore to about 200 meters outward so it was very safe to just dip yourself in the turquoise water. We put Noe in some floatation cuffs we got at Wal-Mart in Mexico but he was completely terrified with the sound of waves crashing on us.

While we took turn swimming until sunset, Noe was busy playing with whatever he could find around our mat. He was not moving much from where he stood but he kept throwing sand against the wind and got himself covered with sand.

After sunset we jumped into shower and later had dinner as La Casa de la Miel. Indi was completely disappointed to find tasteless Pollo Asado, unlike what Yodhi enjoyed the night before. We met Oscar and his wife who waited our table and also a couple of French Canadians who were visiting Cuba for the 20th time!

It was quite a tiring day so we went to bed quite early as we wanted to do something special tomorrow.

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Last Minute Stroll around Playa

We woke up early to finalize our packing and then head out to the center of Playa del Carmen to buy some cheap breakfast from the stalls. We managed to see the last phase of the sunrise. Dang, I wished I had woken up earlier to catch the sunrise exactly when it began. But still it was a beautiful sunrise with rays penetrating the clouds giving a magical sensation.





We saw a Royal Caribbean Cruiseline at the deep end of the Playa del Carmen bay, and it seemed that the passengers are getting off using a small boat, rather than directly at the pier. This is because the sea depth at the Playa del Carmen port is too shallow to cater for cruise ship. Half an hour after that, we saw a group of tourists with stickers on their chest strolling down the fifth avenue. Yep, they're the cruiseline passengers. We saw a lot of Chinese cruiseline passengers who were traveling with their extended family members. It's apparent that China is doing well economically, because we saw Chinese tourists everywhere!

We bought tortilla con camarones with fresh salsa near the central park for 8 pesos each (about 1 SGD). It was totally delicious, albeit cold. Then I bought a glass of fresh orange juice, for only 5 peso! TOTALLY DELICIOUS! It is squeezed fresh from the oranges.



We saw tourism policemen riding all terrain vehicles.



Then we strolled towards the pier and saw the boat that ferries passengers to Cozumel. I wished that we stayed longer in order to visit Cozumel too.





Indi bought some Tshirt for souvenirs and gift.

We rushed back to the hotel and checked out. Then we had breakfast at the Carboncito restaurant. During breakfast, Noe passed motion, so I had to return to the room (luckily it wasn't locked yet) and clean him up.

To Airport

At exactly 9am, after I took note of the brand of the special tequila in the funny bottle with a shape of pistol, we drove to the Cancun airport.



During check-in we found out that our flight schedule has been changed, luckily for later timing. If it had been an earlier timing, we would've missed the flight. Our mistake, we should've checked the schedule the day before, reconfirming our flight.

Lesson Learned: Do reconfirm the flight a day before.

After check in, we had to report to immigration to get our visa form stamped.

Since we had to wait for about two hours before boarding, we decided to have a big early lunch. We were not sure that we would get food on board, and surely food wouldn't be easily found in Havana. I had a big hamburger, while Indi had a veggie burger, both served with fries. Alberto, the waiter, got us a small bowl of habanero salsa. For an overpriced airport food, it was quite good.

Since Noe was too excited about flying off in an airplane again, Indi had to take him to a park to let him run around in the open, while I was finishing my burger and delicious big flan (creme caramel). Noe got introduced to Sophia, a 3 year old Mexican girl who was really shy. Noe also broke the water bottle by throwing it around.

Flight to Havana

Then we went to the boarding area. The security check for Havana was really lenient. In the boarding area we saw a lot of really fat people, so big that they might just occupy two seats on the plane.



Then we boarded the airport bus and get into the click Mexicana flight to Havana! It was a very nice clear weather and during take-off we could see clearly the zona hotelera in Cancun, and the lagoon where Fernando took us on a boat trip. The color of the Caribbean sea was so beautiful, we could see the coral reef with its distinctive color.



Arrival in Cuba: The Adventure of Passing through the Immigration

After about twenty minutes flying above the sea, we began to sea a stretch of land that is Cuba. First we saw Maria la Gorda beach and Pinar del Rio province. We could see how pristine the Cuban landscape is. Too bad the weather was rather cloudy and the clouds masked the landscape. We landed in Havana after 45 minutes of flying.



We were surprised that they have the aero-tunnel (or whatever the name is, in Indonesian it is called Belalai Gajah (Elephant's Trunk), which is old but is quite well maintained.

Our first impression of Cuba is that there is no billboard that greeted us at the airport. Everything was just barren except for some public service advertisement. The lack of billboard became a break for our eyes.

Then we arrived at the immigration area that resembles the room with thousand doors in Alice in Wonderland. It looks like a dead end, except for the doors that has the same color as the wall.

There are many queues for foreigners visiting Cuba, with two dedicated counters for mothers with child and disabled people. There is one counter for diplomats and crews, while there is only one counter for Cuban nationals. I guess this means that Cubans do not or can not travel outside their home country.

We obediently lined up on the designated counter. As a group with a toddler, we lined up behind the child counter. However, when the officer called us to the front, Noe and I had to be separated from Indi, because the counter is only for the child and the mother. So Indi had to go to the adjacent counter. We noticed that on top of the counter there is a mirror in an inclined position. We guessed that it is for the purpose of seeing people who are shorter than the counter height, or people who trying to sneak into Cuba by crawling under the counter.

The immigration officer was quite friendly, and I spoke to her using my very broken Spanish. This is my first time listening to a conversation with strong Cuban accent, which I find is harder to understand compared to the Mexican or Spanish accent, because Cuban accent dilutes many consonant. For example, the final "s" in each word is not read, and "b" is strongly pronounced as "w", and many consonants are diluted to speak a word or sentence in a more flowing manner. Also, Cubans talk fast. Really fast. Anyway, after about ten minutes of Q&A and scanning of my passport, I was let in by the officer. Let me illustrate the scene in slow motion. The officer handed me the passport and press a button in her desk. A buzzer buzzed, which means the door to the Cuban world is unlocked, and I had to reach the door handle and open the door. But right after the door there are two XRay machines. This is the first time that I had to be scanned before entering a country. Our Targus bag which is full of electronic equipments attracted the officer attention, and we had to open the bag and showed her that it is a real laptop. Luckily she just wanted to see whether it is a real laptop or not. After this Xray scan, we were 90 percent in Cuba (We had to pass by customs before it became 100 percent). While waiting for the luggage we changed our Euro cash into Cuban pesos convertibles (which is tourist's currency). We were surprised that the rate for Canadian dollar is much better than euro. We should've brought Canadian dollar. Then we went to the "Nothing to Declare" lane and voila, we were in Cuba officially!

First Taste of Cuban Culture: a Long Wait for Service

We reported to Havanatur reps to get our hotel vouchers. But then the car was broken and they had to get a replacement car, and it was unclear when the replacement would arrive. Nevertheless we patiently waited.



A janitor approached us and offered to exchange money with black market rate, but we politely refused this illegal proposition. In the airport shop, I saw the Havana Club Gran Reserva which is aged for 15 years, this is a must have!

Drive to Varadero

After two hours, we finally got the car. We were in a same car with a couple from Cayman Islands who were staying in Hotel Nacional, perhaps the most luxurious hotel in Cuba. During the drive to Varadero, our impression that Cuba is a country without a billboard is confirmed. But there are a lot of graffiti and billboards of government messages such as about the revolution, victory, and liberty. We saw a lot of pictures of Fidel, Che, and Marti on the roads.Too bad we had to drive at night, so we couldn't see much thing around the road. The road was totally dark, there was no street lighting and the houses were only dimly lit. The driver was very enthusiastic to show us around. Although he only speaks Spanish, we (try to) understand him. He showed us the Havana Club factory, and suddenly the air in the car smells like molasses.

Got a Huge Apartment Unit in Hotel Mar del Sur Varadero

We arrived in Varadero around 10pm. When we gave 10 CUC tip to the driver, he was totally elated. We thought that such amount of tip is quite reasonable, considering the long drive from Havana to Varadero, and also, with such a bad weather and in such a dark street. But for him, it was a lot of money. The average salary of people in Cuba is about 10 CUC, while the president's salary is just 40 CUC. So, we just gave him enough money to take a vacation for one month.We checked into our hotel, called Mar Del Sur. It was quite a big hotel complex with twenty four-storey blocks. The building was apparently really old, like, from the 60s, which is characterized by its concrete construction. Although the building's facade and physical appearance were not well maintained, the interior is amazingly clean. We got a whole apartment unit for ourselves, with two bedrooms and two bathrooms, with kitchen and living room.

After putting our stuff in the room, we head back to the reception to ask for recommendation for a place for dinner. She recommended the restaurant La Casa de la Miel about 5 blocks from our hotel. So we decided to just walk to the place, although we're very tired. We were surprised that the street was totally different to Cancun and Playa del Carmen. There were very minimal street light, and only few restaurant open, and not many activities on the street. Perhaps because it's quite late at night. When we got to the restaurant it was about to close, but luckily they're still willing to serve us food. Indi and I got an overly salty spaghetti bolognaise while Yodhi got a very delicious roast chicken with generous amount of rice. For the drink Indi and Yodhi bought state-produced soda in cans, which tasted quite nice, like pepsi, while I bought mineral water. This is the first time we went to a country where we can't find Coca Cola! Even when I went to the himalaya, Coke was already there before me. But in Cuba, there's no Coke.We were quite satisfied with the service and the food was quite good too. We walked back to the hotel, took a shower, and had a good night sleep.

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Our Impression of Mexico Megacity

When descending to Mexico City, a land at 2500m above sea level, we saw the city light from above, which was very very very beautiful. Too bad we didn’t have camera ready. We won’t be seeing this beautiful sight again. Such glitters are unique to this city of 23 million!

We arrived at dawn in Mexico City. The immigration officer talked really fast, somehow I felt that the effort I made in learning Spanish has been futile.

When we took our luggage we found out that Noe’s pack of diapers was torn up. But amazingly the officer returned the scattered diapers into the conveyor belt.

After clearing out the Douana we met Carlos Peralta! He is such a crazy gringo loco who is very skinny and eccentric. He told us a lot of story about when he was in Indonesia and traveling around the world learning arts, including glass blowing art. Carlos stayed with Indi’s family in Jakarta from 1992 to 1993 and has kept his Indonesian lingo polished since then.






We were amazed on how clean Mexico City is. Definitely much cleaner compared to Jakarta (Indi calls Jakarta a big dumpster!). Everywhere you see, there were signages on the walls, most of them are hand painted with vivid colours and rustic in appearance.

We also had a taste of how Mexican drives, which is very… daring but polite.





To Cuernavaca

We drove for 90 minutes (or 60km) to Cuernavaca, a hillside town at the southern outskirt of Mexico City in the province of Morales. This is the town made famous by the Zapata.





We arrived at hotel Las Rosas, a bungalow styled accomodation at the main road of Cuernavaca.





It is owned by Lupita who is a friend of Carlos’ family. She speaks English very well and was very hospitable. Lupita informed us that the Mexico City airport was closed at seven due to fog. We were lucky to arrive before that.

Then we gave Carlos the Batik shirt from Ibu.





Mexican Breakfast and to Cathedral

We had a shower and washed our clothes before taking off to have breakfast at the main square. We went to this alfresco café and had Mexican breakfast. I had Asada something with Mole and Tortilla. Noe had rice. Indi had enchiladas made extra spicy. The food were served with green and red salsa. I thought salsa were like the bottled salsa that we could find in Singapore, but no, we were wrong! Salsa were just like sambel ulek, finely ground and juicy. It’s just more tangy and less spicy than sambel, but equally hot! It adds the oomph to the delicious food.







When we were having breakfast, a football match was screened on TV. Noe chose to watch the match and claps hands accordingly. He was so cute!





After such a great big breakfast, we continued to the cathedral to take photos. Carlos told us about the history of the place. How the natives (Aztecs) were forced to pray outside the cathedral. They are forced to convert to Catholicism.

















Noe was really happy in the cathedral compound. He could run around as much as he likes.

We then took a walk around the area (a bit touristy for us). It is a pleasant walk. Again, we saw how the city is very clean, despite having a lot of poor people and despite having such a narrow sidewalk. I can’t understand why Indonesians are so difficult to be clean.











We returned to the hotel at 3 pm and took a nap until dinner time.

Pozole Dinner

After siesta, we drove to downtown again for dinner at this great place called El Barco. They are selling Pozole, which is soup from Aztec origin, served in clay bowls and wooden spoon. Originally this meal was served for Aztec kings, which contained human heart and brain especially made for the king. Today it was made either from chicken, meat, or tongue, and was served in three style: white (no chili), red (red chili), or green (green chili).





















We called it Mexican Soto because it was served just like soto. The soup is steaming hot, containing meat pieces and corn pieces and topped with avocado slices. The corn did not look like corn at all, but rather, like some kind of vegetable. Carlos told us that the corn is just like pop corn, but are popped inside boiling water thus making it soft like noodle. Then we mixed in onion, lettuce, and radish and sprinkle oregano to our liking. It is really fresh and great tasting. The waiter told us that the broth is cooked for eight hours on top of small fire. I really had to learn how to cook this! Even Noe loved it.

We drank local Mexican Cerveza that is reputedly much better than Corona. I had a black one. Noe drank cold sweet flower tea from local flower. Indi tried the Montejo, which was supposed to be less popular than Modelo.

The waiter asked where we are from. He thought that we were from Philippines. But when we said that we’re Indonesian, he immediately said: Tsunami! We had to say that the Tsunami es muy lejos.

After dinner we took a walk around the city. We bought some hotdog with fries for Noe later if he’s hungry. On top of the hotdog place there is a dance school which teaches salsa.

Then we went to pharmacy to buy some more stuff such as moisturizer and the like.

Then we walked towards the park, passing by the castle. Carlos told us about the conquest history, and how the castle was built on top of the Aztec temple.

Under the bridge there is a taco seller, so we bought taco with rice which was very warm and nice. Noe likes it so much. But since Noe did not want to finish it, we gave it away to a boy who was asking for it. He looked like an Aztec and very poor. I told Noe that I had to give it away for someone who needed it more than he did.

Then we walked through the park.

We ended at a small market by the park which sells all kinds of food, from hot dog, to boiled corn, and juices.









Apparently Mexicans like to drink fresh juice. So we ordered one, for 15 pesos (2 SGD) we got like one liter of juice. Carlos bought a alfalfa orange juice, while Yodhi bought cactus-pinapple-orange combination. Yodhi was told that it has potential to cure diabetes.

We came home and put Noe to bed, while the Yodhi and Carlos were watching Victoria’s Secrets live show from Argentina. Single boys love things like that!

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Ready

Everything was set by 10 am and we called taxi to go to the airport. Noe was really excited about going and he kept saying "wee wee wee", which means, airplane (and cars, and boats).

In Changi

The check in lady in the Phillipines Airlines counter was very slow. It took us half an hour for the check in process. She cannot even read the year that I was born, she thought that I was born in 1958! Gosh, do I look like almost fifty year old?

So, to keep Noe amused, I played football with Noe while the boys do the check in. After that, I went for last minute haircut at EC Terminal Two, and Indi took Noe to the SkyTrain for a ride.

Then we entered the terminal. We look for a place for Noe to play. But then I started to have a headache because I didn't have my morning coffee. So I went to Spinelli for a cup of iced coffee, and continued to the pharmacy to buy Aleve (which is stronger than Tylenol).

Then we boarded the plane. The security check was not very tight, perhaps because we were heading to Manila rather then directly to LA.

On board to Manila

The Philippines Airlines Airbus 320 economy class is unbelievably crammed. Usually, I could walk from window seat to the aisle without troubling the guys sitting at the aisle to step out of their seat. But this time, this is impossible. And also, I could not cross my legs even though I am considered petite.

The lunch in the SG-MN flights is fish with rice. I think PL flight food is just too bland to my liking, but luckily, they are still quite edible. Then I took Aleve and the headache was fast gone.

The overall flight to manila took us three and a half hour, and we kept Noe amused by looking out of the window and read books.

In Manila Airport

We landed in Manila close to dusk, and we think that the airport design is quite weird. First, there is no dedicated path for international transfer passengers. So, transfer passengers could not go directly to the gate, but rather, they have to report to transfer counter and be escorted by to go out of secured area in order to re-enter at the departure area on the second floor. The transfer process is also quite funny. We had to hand out our boarding passes and passport to the immigration officer at the desk, who then hand them over to the officer who took us to the elevator area (right after immigration), and then hand them over to the officer who is riding the elevator with us, and lastly, to the officer to do the final check at the entrance of departure terminal. We didn't really understand why it can't be done with only one officer who is assigned to be mobile to accompany transfer passengers, but nevermind.

Secondly, there is no dedicated boarding area. The departure terminal itself is quite small, perhaps only 100 meter long with about four gates to the aircraft with a common waiting room. We were amused and thought that there wouldn't be any further security check, because, we didn't see the area to do this.

How we were so wrong! Just two hours before departure, the security officers rearrange the metal benches to form barricades and hence creating an impromptu secure boarding area. The borders of the area were just: the metal benches and ribbon fences, we don't see how that can be very secure.

Then the passengers were asked to line up along the ribbon fences and are not told to have physical contact with the people inside the fence.

The security check was really outrageously tight and too damn crowded. We had to take off our shoes. Even Noe had to do this. Since I was carrying Noe, I had to hand Noe to the officer while being searched. Then, all the liquids in our toiletries bags, without exception, were confiscated. Partly this is our fault, not checking the policies to fly into USA. But also, the security was unreasonably tight, even my tiny bottle of perfume were confiscated where the US policy did not require such. Perhaps the officer just wants that Calvin Klein perfume of mine.

Actually I can't think how this anti liquid policy would be effective. It's a lose-lose situation for everybody. Why don't somebody invent a test paper to indicate whether a liquid is volatile or not?

After the hustle and bustle, and stressed out security check situation, we did the final documentation check. The PH airlines officer gave us a small present to pay for the tight security stress that we had: a PH airlines desk calendar! Gosh! Just when we had to travel light they forced us to bring calendar. We just had to refuse this.

I was pretty disappointed that I could not find balut in the airport terminal. All that are available in the departure area were just cakes, breads, and deliverance. There is no way we could be adventurous enough to try Filipino food such as balut. There is even no money changer, so we had to exchange 10 US dollar with a Filipino man in order to buy Noe's dinner.

On board to Los Angeles

Then we took off with our LA bound flight. Right after take off is a fierce competition for the empty seats in the airplanes. That competition is just too harsh for us toddlers with parents.

Noe spent most of the time on the LA flight sleeping. I tried to sleep too, but cannot, because I had to always adjust my position to Noe's liking.

The movie was Scoop by Woody Allen, continued with Everybody Loves Raymond, and Just for Laughs. We were lucky to have a seat right below the TV screen (there is no individual TV channel in the flight, definitely not like Singapore Airlines' on-demand entertainment system with 80 movies to choose from!). Then the food was again, bland. Throughout the night, the crew did not walk around to offer water but rather we had to call them and it took us perhaps 15 minutes before they arrive, just to ask for water. But then again, we were not expecting much from a low fare of a third world country carrier. Perhaps even PH is better than Garuda.

We sat next to Noelle, a nursing student who is going to visit her mom in LA.

Then we got our last breakfast which is warm and nice, just before landing. We landed at 5pm in LA, and it's a long walk from the arrival gate to the immigration area. The immigration part was quite OK, there is no hassle. We just had to have our fingerprints and photo taken, linked to a central database. Apparently they have the photo of each visit to the USA.

Los Angeles

Welcome to America! Our first impression of USA is that there is a lot of obese people and obese cars too. Little kids, old ladies, all are overweight. We then waited in the International Lounge area. Noe really liked a sculpture that looks like a machine with balls running from top to bottom. We then bought spaghetti with meatballs and caesar salad. We also got really delicious sourdough bread! Both are the Amercan size, that explained why they are so fat. Those two meals can feed the four of us comfortably.

Then I took a nap at one corner while waiting for the check in time to our flight in Mexico. Internet in the Airport is outrageously expensive, 1 USD for four minutes. I'd rather not be connected than paying that much. I also ended up buying some stuff that were confiscated earlier, but now, we were more well informed, and had everything ready in order.

Then we proceed to check into Alaskan airlines. Just when we exit international lounge we saw a Korean man fighting with security officer.

The check in officer in Alaskan airlines is very friendly and communicative, which has always been the case with American officer. Then when we did the security check for our luggage we saw a sign that really undermines the airport security of Indonesian airports.

Then we had to proceed with security check into the boarding area. The officers were quite helpful and they are not excessively strict.

US Transportation Security Administration made it very clear to us on what sort of liquid we could bring on board. Unlike the Filipino officers who were too dumb to give reasonable allowance, the Americans told us the concept of 3-1-1. It means we are allowed to bring small bottles/containers no larger than 3 ounces, packed into 1 zip-top plastic bag. The combined volume of the liquid could not exceed 1quart (almost 1 liter in metric). Drinking water is definitely not allowed although there were vending machines available near the departure gates.

Then Noe played with other toddler in the waiting room area. We were really hungry, and the cafe were all closed. We hope to have warm food in the plane.

On Board the Plane to Mexico City

Then we board the plane. One hour later, after taking off, we found out that there is no food at all on board because this was a red eye flight (departing 15 minutes after midnight). We ended up eating complimentary gingerbread cookies over and over again (chewy and yummy!). Also we drank lots of juice. Noe slept all the way.

Social networking site for travelers: There should be one site that to travel planning, travel tips, and social networking. Would you recommend one to us?

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We are getting one step closer in the preparation for our upcoming Christmas trip to La Habana. When we were in Indonesia last week for our cousin wedding, we managed to obtain our Cuban visa (tourist card). Yay!

Initially, the outlook of smooth application of the Cuban visa has been quite bleak because it has been very difficult to talk to the embassy secretary over the phone. Ms. Yuli, an Indonesian lady who's also the secretary is always unavailable and always goes home early, so by that time I call the embassy at around 4pm Indonesian time, she would have gone home already. We spoke to her over the phone prior to our departure and she would say, "Just come over to the embassy". Basically, we got the impression that she is a kind of lady that needed to be asked a lot of questions before giving out necessary information, and she won't spend any effort to proactively assist visa application. Sort of typical Indonesian civil servant. Nevertheless, we were hopeful that visa application would be easier once we visit the Cuban embassy.

On Friday 8 September, we rushed to the Cuban embassy after attending Santi's wedding ceremony. We really had to rush because Ms. Yuli told us that the embassy would close early on Fridays. It turned out that the embassy building was just a simple house in a housing estate inside Permata Hijau. It looked just like any other houses nearby, only simpler. If there's no cuban flag at the front porch, we wouldn't know that it is the embassy building.

We enter the tiny office on the ground floor of the embassy and finally met Ms. Yuli, who seemed to be all set to leave the office and was barefoot. We told her that we intended to apply for visa. Her response was, "You know, I was about to go because now is my lunch time, from 11am to 12.30pm. Also the office closes at 1pm on Fridays". I don't know what that means, so we just apologized that we disturbed her (long) break.

Then we asked her whether it is possible to get the visa on Monday, because we would need the passport for our flight back to Singapore.

She said, "I dunno, it is up to the ambassador. Right now, the ambassador is away and will only come back next month. Why don't you just apply through mail?"

We said, "Well, there must be a deputy that takes care of visa application?"

She said, "Hmm yes, but she very busy and fairly new, and not very familiar with the visa procedure. Also I don't know her very well yet. Right now we're very busy with Visa application for government officials for a summit in Havana, so we prioritize on that. It's unlikely that your visa would be finished on Monday. Why don't you just apply through mail?"

We said, "well, you said that we can just come over to the embassy, and that the procedure would only take two days. Your website also said that"

She said, "Yes, but still I cannot promise that your visa would be finished on Monday. We are very busy"

We said, "It's OK, we just try to apply for visa and we'll come back on Monday regardless the visa is finished or not"

Ms. Yuli finally relented to our persistence. "OK, up to you, but I doubt your visa would be finished on Monday. When do you intend to go to Cuba?"

We said, "27 December 2006"

She said, "What? 27 December? It's too long! Why don't you come back closer to the date, like early December? The visa would be valid for only one month."

We said, "Well, there is nothing in the website that says that the visa would be valid for only one month! Also, you never told us about this over the phone. We spoke to you several times about it already, do you remember?"

She said, "Yes. But the ambassador won't issue any visa if the departure date is too far"

We said, "But we emailed the ambassador already and discussed with him about our problem"

She said, "Yes but now the ambassador is away. You won't get any visa, the departure date is too long. You better come back closer to the date or apply through mail"

We explained that we live in Singapore and it would be difficult for us to come back and forth. We said, "Well, we won't be able to fly back to Jakarta again. Anyway, we have emailed Mr. Ambassador about our intention to come to apply for visa here directly, and he welcomed us. Also since we're in Jakarta already, we just want to try to apply for visa. If we can't get it this time, then we will apply through mail. We have emailed the ambassador about this visit. Obviously you were not informed by him about this. Can we meet with consular official??"

She said, "Yes, but the ambassador is away right now"

We said, "Since he's away, can we meet with the deputy so that we can explain to her about our situation?"

She said, "The deputy is very busy and does not like to be disturbed. And also you don't have prior appointment"

We said, "Well, please book us appointment with her on Monday morning"

She said, "Let's see, hmm yes she is available on Monday morning... you know, why don't you just email her directly and set up appointment with her? Doesn't have to be through me"

We said, "Well, we don't have internet access here, so we'd like to just do an appointment with her through you" (anyway we didn't see the logic why we should go home and email the deputy for the appointment, whereas it's obviuosly the duty of the secretayr to arrange appointments for the deputy. Was she just lazy to deal with us?)

She sighed and relented to our persistent request.

We said, "We still want to submit our visa application today"

She sighed again, and said, "It's not my responsibility if your visa wasn't approved. I have warned you about it. Anyway, you haven't got the required documents, right? If you do the application by mail then you can send the documents together"

We were getting tired with all the circular arguments that she brougth forward, and we finally said, "It's OK if it's not finished on Monday, at least we tried. Also we have all the required documents ready. Can we have some blank forms?

She reluctantly handed the forms to us and looked at the clock, indicating that she really couldn't wait to leave the office much longer. So we filled up the forms really quickly. We handed the filled forms and documents to her. She wasn't interested in being chatty and friendly to us. We could feel the negative aura that exerted by her unwillingness to help us.

So we went back and pray that she would despatch our application to the deputy.

On Monday morning, we went back to the embassy. It turned out that Ms. Yuli was out of the office. So the helper in the house asked us to wait in the living room.

A few minutes later, the deputy walked into the room. She was a beautiful young cuban lady, and really really friendly, really unlike what Ms. Yuli negatively described about her.

Indi and Yodhi stood up, greeted her and introduced ourselves, "Buenos Diaz, Senora Rodriguez! Como esta usted?", and she said, "Muy Bien, Gracias! How can I help you?".

After proper introduction in jibbrish mixed with Spanish and English, we finally sat down.

We said, "We'd like to find out the outcome of our visa application on Friday"

She said, "Ah, Si, not a problem!" and she quickly ran upstairs to her office to get our passports and visas. In less than 15 minutes, we got our visas in form of  a Tourist Card (so you don't have to have a chop in your passport that shows you are going to or have been in Cuba for practical and political reasons). Evidently, there is nothing in the Visa that says that the Visa only valid 30 days from approval. What's true, is that, the visa is valid 30 days after our arrival in Cuba. So all along, Ms. Yuli had been informing us with false information, and has been reluctant to help us.

We learned that her full name was Senora Liurka Rodriguez Barrios and that she had been on a humanitarian mission for three months in Yogyakarta area alongside Ambassador Leon and dozens of medical doctors and surgeons from Cuba. We expressed our sincere appreciation for what the Cubans have done to Indonesia.

We were so relieved.

Additional note:

After returning to Singapore, I found out from Google that Senora Rodriguez had written this touching story about Cubans serving Yogyakarta people right after the massive earthquake.

Also, we begun to take a quick course on Latin American Spanish, by borrowing tapes from library and buying course set. I bought Latin American course set (books and CD) published by Oxford as Indi's birthday present. Also, we use Pimsleur Latin American Spanish tapes and CD borrowed from library, which I think the best method of teaching languages through audio.