Peter Bragiel‘s (aka pdrop on YouTube) may not have the massive subscriber base of other travel vloggers online, but that hasn’t stopped the creator of the series In Transit from finding sizable audiences for his well-shot worldwide adventures. In his latest expedition, Bragiel embarked on a new journey to learn Spanish. He then headed to Cuba to test his skills and brought the language-learning software company Rosetta Stone along for the ride in branded series #HolaToHavana.
In a promo video for #HolaToHavana (which is part of Rosetta’s Embrace Conversation campaign), Bragiel notes how Cuba has always fascinated him, but because of the country’s rocky history with the U.S., he was never able to visit the Caribbean island (at least not entirely legally). In December 2014, however, when the U.S. officially restored ties with Cuba, Bragiel decided it was finally time for him to head to the country.
The travel vlogger says in the #HolaToHavana promo video he’s a firm believer that in order to better understand a nation’s culture and connect with locals, you need to speak their language. Bragiel contacted Rosetta Stone’s Creative Director Andy Steenberge about partnering for one of the young adventurer’s travel series. Steenberge and Bragiel settled on the idea of learning Spanish and going to Cuba, and the language-learning company used Bragiel’s trip to initiate the Embrace Conversation ad campaign to encourage consumers to delve into a culture through that culture’s native tongue.
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Four months before he embarked for Cuba, Bragiel started learning Spanish through Rosetta Stone. The vlogger decided to test the efficacy of Rosetta’s teaching software by using Spanish around Los Angeles before his Cuban trip. One documentary-style #HolaToHavana video shows Bragiel ordering a meal from a food truck and fruit from a stand, both completely in Spanish. He manages to order correctly both times, and even impresses the fruit stand lady who tells him, “Your Spanish is very good.”
Bragiel’s trip to Havana officially started on October 6, 2015, when he flew from his home town of Los Angeles to Little Havana, Florida. From there, Bragiel wanted to take a sailboat to Havana, but had to resort to motoring to the island instead as the weather patterns during this time of year meant there was no wind to fill the boat’s sails. When he got to Havana, Bragiel documented his experience in the city through breathtaking, wide-angle shots of the city’s beaches and streets, intimate one-on-one interviews with the locals, and close-ups of some of the city’s delectable cuisine. The YouTube vlogger also spent some time in the Cuban countryside, filming slow-motion shots of the landscape and learning how to roll his own Cuban cigar after helping his host family till their fields.
You can watch all of Bragiel’s current videos for the Embrace Conversation initiative on the campaign’s dedicated site. You can also find short clips and photos from Bragiel’s Cuban travels on Rosetta Stone’s Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook.
