pictures coming! [View Full Entry]

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Hi all Time to update you on the thrills and spills from Cuba. I think Amy last wrote on our last day in Trinidad. Reluctant to leave Trinidad but feeling we should move on we continued east to a city called Camaguey which is the biggest city in central Cuba. Camaguey was again very different to Havana and Trinidad. The most obvious difference was the lack of other tourists and to be honest, after a quick whizz round the city´s few sights, there wasn´t a huge amount there to do except to soak in the Cuban way of life such as [View Full Entry]

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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 [View Full Entry]

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Hei alle sammen! Da har jeg funnet en pc som virker temmelig bra (i forhold alt annet jeg har vaert borti her....) saa jeg tenkte jeg skulle skrive litt igjen! Det blir litt info dere faar google videre hvis dere er interessert... dette er jo ikke noe undervisningsforum! Var i forrige uke i Vinales (som tidligere nevnt). Vinales ligger i provinsen Pinar del Rio som blir kalt "the garden of Cuba". Det er den eneste provinsen med to Unesco biosphaerer. dalen Vinales inneholder kompliserte hulesystemer, mye jordbruk og flott limestone-klatring! Provinsen inneholder ogsaa noe av den fines [View Full Entry]

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I woke up at 5.30am and had asked for breakfast at 6.00am. I think Julia and Pena got drunk on the champagne last night because they were pretty rowdy and they didn't get up until 6.30am, the time my taxi was booked for. Julia wrapped up a tomales for me to snack on. I'd never been up at 6.30am in Santiago, it was definitely the best time of the day with the temperature just right. I literally spent all day in airports - from 6.45am to 8.00pm - Santiago de Cuba to Havana to Cancun to Mexico City. I was so [View Full Entry]

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I wanted to take a photo of my dead rat on the way to class but it was gone. I guess that's good timing seeing as it's my last day and I don't need its help with directions anymore. Today's class was another practical. Racquel took Amelia, Nana and I to the Cemetary. It's magnificant and has a changing of the guard of Jose Marti's grave every 30 minutes. It's pretty impressive. A lot of famous Cubans are buried there including Jose Marti, members of the Bacardi family (before the rest of the family pissed off to Puerto Rico after the [View Full Entry]

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Today we had a practical lesson and was really enjoyable. On Monday I told Clara how much I enjoyed a soup I tried in Colombia called 'Ajiaco'. She said they had a version of that soup in Cuba and we'd go to the markets and make the soup together. We went to the local markets where Cubans get their ration of vegetables from and found what we needed. Then the three of us sat around Raquel's dining table peeling corn, potatoes, plantains, etc. The process took three hours before we actually sat down for the meal. Of course the two male [View Full Entry]

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No class for me today as I went on a tour to the legendary Sierra Maestra mountains! I booked myself on an English speaking tour and I was told it would be me and two English speakers. They were a couple from Norway and very friendly. The rest of the group was made up of a dozen tourists from Barcelona. I've never seen so much jewellery worn on a tour. I thought it was in bad taste to flash so much gold around considering the poverty in Cuba. Obviously being robbed isn't a concern for them or maybe they're just too [View Full Entry]

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No class today as Clara has a medical appointment. I spent the afternoon at the Hotel Santiago swimming pool. Paula wanted to go to the beach but it would've taken forty minutes to get there and then only one of us could go swimming at a time so there would be one of us watching the bags at all times. Where's the fun in that? Instead I swam, drank lemon daiquiris and talked to another student, Melissa, and her Cuban 'boyfriend', Pedro. Melissa is 28yo and from Switzerland. She's in Santiago for four weeks Spanish college and then two weeks in [View Full Entry]

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Ask me about my day. I dare you to. Apparently today was another historical day so half of Cuba shut up shop early. Do these people ever work? The streets were packed by this stage and noisy kisses were being blown my way every ten minutes by sleazy Cuban men. It got to the point where I told every one of them to "fuck off". They probably didn't understand me with their limited English but it made me feel a hell of a lot better. I swear if I'm harrassed by one more Cuban man I will punch him in the [View Full Entry]

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