I couldn't have planned a better time in my life to visit La Habana. Feeling a little midlife crisis-ish, Havana screams rebel & non-conformity. My kind of place. To add to the overall experience, I just happened to be reading the Dirty Havana Trilogy by Pedro Juan Gutierrez. Sorta like eating a dirt sandwich, and liking it. While traversing across Cuba on a twenty-two day odyssey, I was in Havana three separate times...and an unexpected thing happened. I actually craved Havana! So badly, that it caused me fleeting thoughts of 'dropping out' of my own cruel world for a six month sabbatical here. Why? Well, I found Havana to be a fascinating melding pot for all of Cuba. It's not just those old crumbling buildings and smiley malecon dwellers. There is something quite ingenious about this ... read more

The best part of seeing all of Cuba from East to West was discovering how incredibly different every single square inch is from the next. Not only were the Cuban people diverse, but the terrain of Cuba too. So far we have traveled through jungles, deserts, forests, cane fields, and now these fantastic mogotes (limestone pinnacles) that jut sharply out of red soddy earth. Breathtaking! Vinales isn't just eye candy, it's a soul stealer. I was already on a high from visiting a famous orchid nursery on the way in. Okay...yah I know. Yawn for most of you, but for me...crack! I won't go into morbid details, but it is worth the stop, even for the non-horties. This garden is perched precariously on a hillside, and the endless flora from around the world are so well ... read more

Just like someone clapped their hands together, the humidity suddenly broke as we arrived into the city of Camaguey. Cool and breezy, I figured a nice stroll around the town to get my bearings before the sun dropped behind the buildings would be a good idea. I walked about three blocks before I realized, maybe not. As I was staring blankly at my trusty map trying to figure out the general direction of one of the town squares, a local man approached me smiling and said Camaguey was like taking a dinner plate and smashing it on the ground. He pointed at my map. See how the pieces look? All scattered? His toothy, well weathered grin, knowingly proud. This is Camaguey. He wishes me luck before limping away. Suddenly my map looks like a broken dinner ... read more

Odd how one song can make up the soundtrack of your life? Soundgarden just happened to be playing as I peered down from the plane window to see the blackest sand beaches desperately trying to flee dense jungle. The song seemed weirdly appropriate. My seatmate asked, "There is going to be a runway some time soon, right?" We were only about two feet off the turquoise ocean when we suddenly hit pavement. Hola Baracoa. ....or should I say Holy Baracoa? Hurricane Ida came in right behind us, unleashing her torrential rain for days. Angry ocean blasted over the measly malecon seawall, and the Baracoanians went about their lives without batting an eyelash...they'd seen this all before. Me, a diehard Vancouverite*, for the first time in my life, was caught without an umbrella. *Vancouverite: proper noun (Vancouverites) ... read more

Greetings from Sydney! This 'Canuck' couldn't possibly come all the way down unda without seeing Sydney could I? After a glorious six weeks of Queensland and the nuclear Outback, a small stopover in Sydney seemed reasonable. Not a huge fan of cities, but Sydney is lovely, a mass of skyscrappers with flocks of business suits frantically navigating the midday city streets with cell phones stuck to their heads. Lucky for me, I met a really nice kiwi named Steven who offered to show me around. We were both crammed into the back of a share-ride van with a Norweigan inbetween us (there's a joke in there somewhere), chatting up a storm on our way to our hotels. Mine was the "Vulcan", not the live-long-and-prosper kind, but the trendy-boutiquey kind. It was charming. Whew. (You never know ... read more