Avant-Garde Modern Furniture Blog: Cuba Days 4 and 5...

About Alexander Calzadilla

Alexander Calzadilla is a Cuban male originally from Philadelphia, who has happily called Miami his home since moving here at the age of 15. He attended Southwest Sr. High School and Florida International University, ultimately receiving his Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration. While in college, he began working as a paralegal for the Law Offices of Jeffrey E. Reichenbacher, a position he kept for seven years after graduation. He subsequently worked at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius Associates before landing at Costa Nursery. After distinguishing himself with many accomplishments, he was promoted to the position of Director of Specialty Products, which included the orchid, bonsai and lucky bamboo departments. When Alex was first put in charge of the three departments, they ranked near the bottom. By the time he left Costa after seven years, Alex had transformed the floundering departments into unqualified successes, posting record earnings, sales and profitability. In 2008 Alex was named the Costa Employee of the Year. Alex now puts his formidable prowess as a businessman into his newest venture, Avant-Garde Home Furnishings, LLC, serving as Managing Partner.

About Avant-Garde

We offer home furnishings and decor for every area of your home,both inside and out, always striving to bring you the most current design elements being used by today's top designers, at a fraction of their retail cost. Whether you are completely redecorating an area of your home, looking for the perfect accent piece to finish off an existing room, shopping for a unique gift, or simply "window shopping" to get design ideas, Avant-Garde is the place to go for everything modern & contemporary for your home.

Monday, June 20, 2011

Cuba Days 4 and 5...

Cuba Day 4 and 5
The Keys..
Part 1

You will all be happy to know that my Grandmother's birthday turned out great.. The party was a huge success and the family enjoyed themselves to the bitter end which was a little after Midnight.. It hardly seemed like we were in the island nation celebrating with a mariachi band and the entire family at a restaurant that overlooked the entire city. It was a magnificent site... Everyone was happy and had a great time.. The drinks flowed, the food was fantastic, and the cake was absolutely amazing...

Today we are in the tourist rich Keys... An area that immediately looks different then the entire island.. From no where large foreign and cuban owned hotels that are every bit as nice as any in the states pop up, air conditioned Chinese made copies of Toyota busses everyehere and everyone seems happy and content, not to say thats not the case elesewhere because from what I have seen it is.... This is a beautiful place where we packed up 15 of our family members and came to the beach for a full day of all inclusive activities inclusing drinks, food, rentals of equipment, beach equipment, and everything you can possibly think about.. and of course lets not forget about the reason for coming here the pristine beaches that seem like crystal glass filled with water.. Its a beautiful unexplainable site that one must be here to fully grasp the way this place looks...

We will be here modst of the day and even eat a late dinner at 600 PM before we leave back to the city.. On the way back we will pass the same citiues and provinces we did on the way here but the lack of almost 1,000 people waiting for rides into the touruist areas.. I actually thought they were waiting on the bus, that s until our guide explained that there are no buses and rides are searched for by the locals on the side of the road.. we later saw one such bus, a huge cement truck packed with people who had been on the side of the road earlier..

So you see, even if you work in these areas getting here and then getting back can be a real mission.. But all and all, the Cuban government does a very good job of maintaining these places, with an airport, good roads, and even great accomodations and tourist rich activities. With what little they have they have managed to create tourist rich zones on the island and even to paint most cities so that tourism continues for many years to come..

Until tomorrow when hopefully I will be able to send some pictures...

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