Blogs from Centro, Cuba, Central America Caribbean - page 7

Next morning we ate brekky, Dario went to the bank while I packed and at 9am a bicitaxi with built in stereo system picked us up to take us to the bus station to catch one to Santiago de Cuba. The bus was 30 mins late, but we got on and arrived in Santiago at 12.30pm. A driver was waiting for us with a sign as Lidia´s sister runs a Casa in Santiago and we had organised to stay there. The driver drove us in a tiny little fiat with our bags tied to the roof to our grande casa. It was much bigger than any we had stayed in before, and really nice! We organised everything then headed out in search of lunch. After trying a few places we ate at a small place called ... read more

Cuba surprises, on occasions frustrates, and sometimes just completely takes your breath away. After Vinales, we spent a week in the beautiful colonial city of Trinidad located on Cuba’s southern Caribbean coast. It is stunning – cobblestone streets, both restored and crumbling stone houses, and of course a beautiful stretch of Caribbean beach. It was once a wealthy Spanish town built on slavery and the sugar industry. It also has the apparently normal history for towns of this region of being plundered repeatedly by English pirates; some like Francis Drake were later ‘rewarded’ by the English with knighthoods. We managed to rent a whole house to ourselves – mainly to have some personal space which is not really something you have when staying in a normal casa particular (you are in the middle of a Cuban ... read more

I assume many reading this will have some idea about Cuba and its system. Obviously, it's a Communist system, one of the few left. The economy, or at least the official one, is state run, and this creates an interesting set of circumstances, ones that you are unlikely to encounter anywhere else these days. I don't propose here to go into the pros and cons of such a system – this is supposed to be a travel blog, not an economics lesson after all, and having just finished my economics degree I've had just about enough of them for the time being (yeah, you heard – I actually finished something!) There are, however, some interesting quirks of the Cuban version of communism. Thus we heard the stories of people getting married in order to transfer property ... read more

Hello again beste lezer, ondertussen zitten we in Trinidad! Dit is een prachtige koloniale stat die in veel betere staat verkeert dan Havana. Mooie huizen met hoge plafonds en prachtige inrichting; luchters, 18de eeuwse zitbanken, pianos, ... echt heel mooi! Nu we dit gezien hebben, beslissen we om ook hier 2 nachten te blijven en pas morgen ochtend door te reizen naar Camaguey. Alweer een heel gezellige casa met rustige patio om wat te relaxen en bijzonder vriendelijke oudere uitbaters! s Avonds trekken we er nog even op uit en genieten bovenaan de trappen naast de kerk van een Cubaans optreden. Salsa dansen kunnen ze echt wel bijzonder goed, al goed dat wij kunnen toekijken vanop onze stoel. we keren terug, Anouk ontspant wat op de patio en ik zet me naast de oude man om ... read more

Question: Where in the world can you visit a beautiful early 19th Century Italian styled theatre, recently restored by UNECSO, where you expect to buy paraphernalia about the building in its lobby and find only books on revolution, posters about revolution, pictures about revolution, postcards showing revolutionary figures and revolutionary music. Not a theatre program in sight ! Answer: Only in Cuba ! Flying to Cuba from The USA was a long convoluted process, not being able to fly direct of course. Amy and I parted for the first time since we met up in Borneo and it felt odd to say bye bye, if only for a short while. We both flew into Mexico City airport, 2 hours apart. I flew in first and waited for her at her arrival gate. Having met up, we ... read more