Blogs from Trinidad, Centro, Cuba, Central America Caribbean

I cry not for you and not for myself, I cry for the helplessness of mortals who live on the sufferance of life. In order to avoid this bitter end, we would all have to be born again, and born with the knowledge of alternatives. This is my second trip to Cuba. There are many different lenses you can see through when considering to visit Cuba. My cursiosity is to see how a communist/socialist life is actually lived. In North America we hear very little, if any, about Cuba or it's people. Us Americans are so busy and kept engaged with the domestic political masquerade that it does not leave us any time of interest to know whats going on in the rest of 98.3% of the globe (United States covers 1.87% of the earth). For ... read more

Day 9 Cuba 2019. 30 miles. What another glorious day. Our luck is changing. The last two days had 50% cloud and warm breeze. Today it started off with a clear sky and 28 degrees again. We cycled to the location of an old sugar cane processing plant and went up the tall tower built by the plantation owner in 1815 which gave great views of the surrounding countryside. Because it is visited by many tourists the road up to it was full of people selling their wares. Bananas, reversible black and white dolls and white cotton tableware forever, flapping furiously in the wind. As usual we were pestered to buy at every step. I thought we were in Marrakesh. This area was the second largest sugar cane production area in Cuba and several large houses ... read more

Sun-Mon-Tues 8, 9 & 10 July Day 3-5: Trinidad We had 2 ½ days to enjoy this beautiful colonial UNESCO city of Trinidad which is home to numerous churches and many colonial buildings. Nearby are the Valle de los Ingenios (Valley of Sugarmills) which we visited on the way out of Trinidad and Playa Ancón, where we enjoyed long stretches of white sand beaches. Nowadays, Trinidad's main industry is tobacco processing. The older parts of town are well preserved, as the Cuban tourism industry sees benefit from tour groups. In contrast, some parts of town outside the tourist areas are very run down and in disrepair, especially in the centre. Tourism from Western nations is major source of income in the city. The Plaza Mayor of Trinidad is a plaza and an open-air museum of Spanish ... read more

Well we found internet, but still no cameras. However, I have a strategy - when we see obvious tourists, we ask them to take our photo and to email it to us when they return to their respective homes... we will see how that pans out. Stats to date: -approximately 400 KM covered -approximately 10 pizzas/each consumed -lots of local music under the night skies -lots of soda (super weird because I hate soda at home) -score on flats 4(Alyssa):0(Andrew) -score of crib games 4(Andrew):0(Alyssa) - so wrong! That's about it. It's hot, the food is edible, the towns and rolling countryside spectacular and the people incredibly friendly and welcoming. Oh and sorry Janna - happy birthday yesterday! Alyssa and Andrew... read more

I am still not 100% from the cold ass weather in Amsterdam. Feels like a slight cold. Soooooo I know the drinking didn’t help, but I had a hard time getting out of bed. But my time is so limited I carried on and got up to catch a classic car to the beach. Playa Ancon is the name, clear blue waters is the game. I had a great time lounging in the sun like a lizard basking on a rock and some Cuban who lives in Miami bought me a beer cuz he stole my chair. Lol. I took a walk down the beach and ran into an Israeli dude and his Belarus girlfriend of whom which we shared the car from Habana. Woa!!! Cooool!!!! We had a fresh coconut with the top lopped off ... read more