Well, after weeks of missing my other half, I’ve finally arrived in Washington DC and have gotten over my jet lag and am settling into my 5 day holiday. I arrived early Saturday morning. The day before I took the bus to Seattle and caught my 10pm red eye to Newark with connection to DC. Long and a little drawn out but cheap, which always works. Arrived at the Baltimore airport to seeing my smiling love waiting for me behind the security doors. Boy was it great to see her. Its only been a little more than a month since Laurence [View Full Entry]

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Well after nearly 3 weeks in Colombia, I have finally found time to add a new blog. It has been somewhat of a change of pace since leaving Cuba and we now find ourselves quickly approaching the end of our trip. That said, much has been explored in Colombia and some adventuring remains. We arrived in Bogota from Havana on April 12th, one month after leaving Lima, Peru for this fabled island. Cuba was an incredible experience but one that was hard on the pocketbook, therefore it was with some relief that we landed back on the southern continent to [View Full Entry]

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After the rest and relaxation of Viñales, we returned to the livelier and more chaotic buzz of Havana. Returning by taxi with an Italian/Israeli couple was pleasant and we were delivered right to a decent, and cheap casa particular on the Malecon, Havana´s seawall. However, after one night in this only slightly dirty place, Laurence decided that it would be best if we searched for other accomadations. After a lengthy morning of visiting one casa after another we finally ended up taxiing to the first place where we had stayed in Havana upon our arrival nearly a month before. Unfortunately [View Full Entry]

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After an amazing week at Maria la Gorda, Laurence and I made our way to the small town of Viñales. We were excited for a change in scenery and some time away from the beach and eagerly awaited some hiking and biking in the countryside. Viñales is a burgeoning tourist town with loads of places to stay and things to do. It is situated amongst impressive limestone formations called Mogotes which are supposedly some of the best rock climbing in the western hemisphere. We were dropped of at Casa Benito by our van driver who sugested this small and friendly [View Full Entry]

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hhhhhmmmmmmm, now this is the Cuba we have been looking for. After taking a taxi from Trinidad to Piñar del Rio with a British couple, we spent the night in this small provincial capital waiting to transfer to Maria la Gorda the next morning. This town, Piñar del Rio seemed to be as close to reality in Cuba as we could get. Buildings were in varrying states of disrepair while 1950 chevy´s plied the streets alongside throngs of bicycles. People carried live chickens from coop to dinner table and lines formed for all sorts of regular civic activities. Hearing about [View Full Entry]

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After Veredero, we headed to Cuba´s best preserved coonial town, Trinidad. I should have known not to expect much since I have now seen dozens of well preserved colonial towns but we decided to go nevertheless. travelling by bus in Cuba i soemthing else. There are two systems, one for locals and the other for tourists. Once upon a time the tourists buses provided extra luxury and air conditioning, however since the introduction of new chinese busus to the locals only system, there seems to be little difference between the two other than the price. This is just one example [View Full Entry]

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Arriving in Veredero was a lot like being transported to a sunny Quebec town. The streets were filled with Quebecers covering there burned red winter bodies after spending their first days under the strong cuban sun. Arriving at our resort, Villa Tortuga was like entering another mini-world within Cuba where beer flowed from everywhere, the food was over abundant and mojitos were easier to find than water,not to mention the thousands of European and Canadian tourists soaking up the sun. Bizarre to say the least but needed after 7 weeks spent in the Andean highlands in wool toques and fleece. [View Full Entry]

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Holy Smokes! Trying to re-cap a month in Cuba is like trying to describe a painting to someone over the phone, difficult at best but I´ll try. Couple of words must first be put out there that I thought about aften when thinking in Cuba, they are.... Incredible, amazing, wonderful, spectacular, frustrating, annoying, overwhelming, complicated, lower middle class, equal, unfair and expensive. These are just some words that provide a sense of the diversity of expereinces happening in Cuba and the richness of this country. While it was by no means an easy trip, although days at the beach with [View Full Entry]

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After a terrible, windy and delayed 21 hour overnight bus from Cuzco, oh why didn´t I pay the 25 bucks more for a 40 minute flight, we arrived in the city of Lima and its beautiful summer weather. Yes after nearly 6 weeks of travelling throughout the Altiplano, from northern Argentina, through Bolivia and into Peru we have finally returned to sea level. The thick ocean air is a sweet treat after weeks of wheezing and waking up breathless at night in the thin high mountain air. Definetly great to see the pacific ocean again too! Lima is great, with warm [View Full Entry]

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After 4 days in Cuzco, enjoying some of the best food of the trip at a german haunt call Grade Heidi, Laurence and I boarded a train from the town of Ollantaytunbo for Aqua Caliente, the town adjacent to the famous Incan ruins. The atmospere at the train station was electric as hundreds of foreign toursists waited for the gates to open and their own Machu Pichu adventure to begin. Vendors lined the queue of people selling all sorts of travel goodies, like snickers bars and Coca-cola. in addition to this, it seems that HEART is also something of a street [View Full Entry]

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