Time machine to 2018!

So here we are August 02, 2018. Motherhood happened between my last post and now and I hope to go back and fill in the missing blog pieces with what has happened since then. But for now, nothing like an intense experience to get my writing juices flowing again! Once a journalist always a journalist I suppose? Anyway, here we are. The 3 merry Maldonado's on their first "crazy" trip. Since becoming parents hubby and I have put our wild travel adventures on hold until baby girl grows more and have been sticking to places where we feel secure in such as Hawaii, NY, a couple places in Mexico, with the farthest being Puerto Rico once a year to visit my mother in law. But the travel bug bit us and we took the plunge and here we are in Havana, Cuba! Our first day was pretty intense. Getting off the ship and crossing Cuban immigration was exactly how I imagined. Cold, unfriendly, strict. When we exited the building it was a little nerve wracking because the rules and laws are so strict and the ship made sure to remind us of it. It wasn't until a few months ago that Royal Carribean even sailed to Cuba so they had a bunch of seminars and booklets to remind us of the strict laws that Americans must follow, what kind of money we could and couldn't use, which products we could and couldn't buy. What we could and couldn't talk about with the Cuban people. Pretty intimidating to just walk out of the building and explore especially with our precious cargo of a child! But we did it, we explored Habana vieja, heard an awesome band playing to we stopped for some drinks and snack at a little paladar in one of the plaza squares. We relaxed for a few hours and just soaked it all in. The smells. The heat. The people. The accents. The customs. The construction. The tourists. The food. The drink. All of it.. reigniting that love for exhilirating traveling I had squashed to the back burner for so long. Awakened and refreshed we finally get up and decide to explore more. Cuba is just like I imagined. Untouched but sadly deteriorating and in desperate need of restoration. We decide to let E pick our last adventure of the day and she points to the dangerous but cute looking Coco Taxis (little motorized taxis that look like little lemons but they are called Cocotaxis) and we ask one of them what he can show us for $10 as long as he brings us right back. So in we jump and it's kind of one of those parenting fail moments as we zip off smelling the exhaust fumes and realizing here are no doors, no seatbelts, and no helmets, and here we are with our precious cargo!! WHOOPS! But she's having a good time so we let loose and enjoy the ride. Our driver was pretty rad and real. Nothing hokey around here. He zips us through the malecon at impressive speeds that makes my mama heart pound in fear my baby could fly out at any second. But all I could do is pray and soak it all in. The drivers words about his country, his opinion and shock about our country and leader asking "is it true? Is that man for real?" To which we shamefully confirm, yes man, it's all real. We commensurate in our optimism and desire to help Cuba move forward with money, tourism, to restore and show the world what a beautiful magical place it is full of amazing smart intelligent people. He tells us now that we're here to go home and tell all of our friends that Cuba is fine and a good place to visit. We promise to do so and he seems content. We talk about other things but for his safety and maybe ours I won't mention it here but let's just say... communism is real and respected by all parties involved here. I will leave it at that and sign off anxiously awaiting our private tour tomorrow with some awesome scholars in the area. Gracias Habana, hasta manana!