charli livingstone
vuelvo a latina america! a year on after a year in mi querido hoduras, i'm heading back there via Nueva York and Ecuador... even a last miniute ankle sprain can't stop me!dustyfoot
Travel Blog Posts
August 7th 2008
Brazil Equally as briefly... 1 month in Fortaleza in the North East of the country where i was a first completely overwhelmed by capitalism, communist, the big complicated city, inequality . To distract my broken heart (from Cuba) i got my initiation to Capoeira in the country of Capoeira itself. There i was with the group, GCAP, Fortaleza and Mestre Amandinho.... At first it was hard doing something that i associated directly with La Habana and my network of irreplacable friends there, but the small but lovely group of ppl in GCAP helped. I found a little volunteer work with an NGO linked to Action Aid, ESPLAR, and with them i went out into the sertão (the semi-arid interior of the country). There was a complete contrast to the LA like Fortaleza, much more poverty. We ... read more
Update.... // rewind!
Published: August 20th 2008Central America Caribbean » Cuba » Oeste » La HabanaJune 3rd 2008
Update on adventures... Six months in Cuba and Brazil cant be easily summed up in 1 diary entry... Briefly then... I was in La Habana until the beginning of June. In that time my rents and Firas came to visit (not at the same time, that wouldve been way too crazy) which was great, got properly spoilt, went on a road trip with the folks and Jenny, my awesome Canadian friend... with Firas went diving, to a communist mayday march, drank many mojitos and chilled out in Habana and Viñales... introduced them all to my daily life in Habana, but it was sometimes complicated to juggle their touristic desires with my mixed feelings towards parts of the tourism industry there. It was also six months of goodbyes, first to the germans i made friends with in ... read more
Adios a Castro, adios a amigos
Published: February 29th 2008Central America Caribbean » Cuba » Oeste » La Habana
February 29th 2008
Its been a week of departures. It seems the press in the outside world were fixated with Castro’s retirement and the consequent “elections”. “Elections” in a loose sense of the word, in that we are not living in democracy. It is not the people really who chose their new president. They had to vote for the new representatives in parliament but they are all from the same party. It was no big surprise to anyone here that Raul got chosen as the new leader. And whereas the outside press seems to think that this signals a big change, the ppl here don’t see it that way. They think that yes, things will start to change now but only very slowly. A good friend of mine pointed out that when things do change, there will be problems, ... read more
Eternal Youth
Published: February 10th 2008Central America Caribbean » Cuba » Isla de la Juventud » Nueva Gerona
February 4th 2008
Random coincidence - Corinna (my flatmate in Centro Habana) and I share the same birthday. We chose to spend it, together with 2 other German friends (Tomas and Katerina) on la Isla de la Joventud (the isle of youth). Perhaps ironic now we r starting to feel old, or perhaps a hope that bathing in its sweet waters would bring us the secret of eternal youth! Compared to past experiences with the Cuban travel system, the journey was smooth, easy and cheap as we were able to take advantage of our Cuban student/residence carnets. We got there by ASTRO and then the high tech catamaran. Life in la Isla is basicly the capital, Nueva Gerona and most of the rest of it is agriculture (sugar cane or citrus plantations) or protected nature reserve and military zone ... read more
January 22nd 2008
Aventuras en el Oriente Part 2: Baracoa We arrived to Baracoa by a combination two of my favourite modes of transport in Cuba: camión(truck) and luck. The crazy evangelist Jorge took us to the truck station and busybodied us on to the right one, waving us goodbye with a cry of “que Dios les acompañe!” (may God be with u) and a gesture of praying hands toward the sky….! Another of his classic moments. The truck to Guantanamo, (yes, where the US nanal base is, tho its apparently so hidden away that the telescope tourist trap isn’t really worth it) was 5hrs of chilly early morning-squeezedinsoyourarsewillachetomorrow-dust-strewn-bumpiness. Like the legendary chicken buses in Honduras, it’s one of those exhausting and uncomfortable but also unforgettable travel experiences, when u r suddenly in such intimate proximity and comradeship with ... read more
Adventuras en el Oriente part 1
Published: January 11th 2008Central America Caribbean » Cuba » Este » Santiago de Cuba
January 11th 2008
So, on the eve of the 25th, when u folks in the UK were already asleep with bellies full of turkey and mince pies, we (Patricia, Corinna and I) set off on our adventure eastwards. We arrived in Camagüey rather disorientated after the 7 hr bus journey and went to the casa particular we had reserved. As soon as we got there we got our introduction to the way some “business” people try to squeeze every possible cent out of the tourists here. Unfortunately this became a theme for the early part of the trip.. we may be experienced at daily life in La Habana but not at travelling thru Cuba. This particular woman was panicked about letting the 3 of us stay in room (technically illegal here) and started telling us at 2am that she ... read more
Feliz Navidad Cuba style
Published: December 24th 2007Central America Caribbean » Cuba » Oeste » La Habana
December 24th 2007
Happy Christmas! Feliz Navidad desde Cuba! Not that I have the slightest Christmassy feeling… today is xmas eve and its basicly like a normal day! We r pissed off coz we wanted to go to the beach but the weather (which has been glorious for the past few days) is shit! Also our Cuban mama, Lily, is doing a special meal tonight and my stomach has not been behaving itself for nearly a week now… grrrr! Here, most ppl celebrate Navidad in some form with their family, tho apparently they mostly do a meal - rice, beans, meat (probably pork) and yuca… so in other words, what they eat pretty much everyday! We r lucky, gonna be treated to some Italian influenced cuisine. I’m thinking off u guys snuggled up inside against the cold, huddling round ... read more
November 20th 2007
So… after lots of false starts the Viñales adventure eventually takes place! Other adventurers joining the tenacious little English blonde: an equally tenacious German, (housemate of aforementioned blondie), suffering from a sore throat but determined not to let that stop the fun; another German who should be nicknamed “que lindo!!” for frequency of usage of said phrase, and completing the pack - the Denmarkian, único hombre who packed in such a rush he forgot toothbrush and anything warmer than a t-shirt. Viñales could be another country from Habana. Its is a small countryside town which benefits from the tourism which the natural beauty of the area attracts. Its in the Valle de Vinales, a UNESCO wolrd heritage site and a national park. Almost every house on the main street is a casa particular, yet it ... read more
La Habana Journals 6: Diseased
Published: October 22nd 2007Central America Caribbean » Cuba » Oeste » La HabanaOctober 22nd 2007
The European colonizers of South America wiped out entire indigenous populations with what we know in the UK as the “common cold”… well now it seems those ghosts of the Americas past are eventually getting their revenge on an innocent group of European students in La Habana. Almost everyone has had some kind of flu-stomach-fever virus… I wont go into too much detail but several of my friends have tested out the highly acclaimed Cuban health system… Corina was “lucky” in that she got to go to a private clinic (basically for tourists, in Miramar, the district where all the embassies are) although this was in the middle of the night with a fever and after being rejected from a Cuban hospital. Tomas on the other hand got to stay a couple of nights in a ... read more
October 9th 2007
Trinidad Road Trip Wow, what a weekend… its gonna be a mission to try to fit in all the stories but I’ll give it a shot. After much indecisiveness and guilt, I abandoned 2 sick friends, missed another friend’s (possible) afternoon birthday dancing outing, hopefully made it up 2 her by going out 4 peso pizza and getting her a cute prez, missing my 2nd yoga class in a row… I finally decided to go to TRINIDAD on another “excursión” which seemed ridiculously cheap with a group of other European students. (Not my usual lot, they were all very ill, hospitalised or chasing a Cuban girl). The ridiculously cheap bit of course had its reasons as we found out… actually seemed ridiculously expensive at times as some of the following stories will reveal. The craziness all ... read more
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