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Published: November 22nd 2007
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Cuba
Havana City Well logically the next trip to follow Canada was.....Cuba....naturally!
I was thinking the same thing but Lonely Planet got there before me with a great description of Cuba...
"Controversial and just a bit conflicted, Cuba is a nation like no other rhythmic, colorful, sophisticated and whimsical all in one sumptuous breath."
A quick History...... In 1933 a group of army officers, including army sergeant Fulgencio Batista (nasty facist man), overthrew President Gerardo Machado. Batista became president in 1940, running a corrupt police state with the help of the US Mafia.
In 1956, Fidel Castro Ruz launched a revolution from his camp in the Sierra Maestra mountains. Castro's brother Raul and Ernesto (Ché) Guevara (Irish roots in Galway), an Argentine physician, were his top lieutenants. Many anti-Batista landowners supported the rebels. The U.S. ended military aid to Cuba in 1958, and on New Year's Day 1959, Batista fled into exile and Castro took over the government.
The U.S. initially welcomed what looked like a democratic Cuba, but a rude awakening came within a few months when Castro established military tribunals for political opponents and jailed hundreds.
"Cuban Missile Crisis"A Soviet attempt to install medium-range missiles in Cuba—capable
Cuba
Havana City of striking targets in the United States with nuclear warheads—provoked a crisis in 1962. Denouncing the Soviets for “deliberate deception,” on Oct. 22 John F Kennedy said that the U.S. would blockade Cuba so the missiles could not be delivered. Six days later Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev ordered the missile sites dismantled and returned to the USSR, in return for a U.S. pledge not to attack Cuba.
The Bush administration tightened its embargo in June 2004, allowing Cuban Americans to return to the island only once every three years (instead of every year) and restricting the amount of U.S. cash that can be spent there to $50 per day. In response, Cuba banned the use of dollars, which had been legal currency in the country for more than a decade.
So I arrived in Cuba on the 27th of October and met up with a partially drunk PJ, Brian and David in Havana city centre at 3am....good start😊 For the entire trip we stayed in private houses instead of hotels...They only cost about €20 a day and you could get a great dinner and breakfast for dead cheap. The owners were on the whole very nice and advised
Cuba
Havana City us on where to go and where not to go. Their advise turned out great for us as we went to places such as Trinidad and Remedios; places we would not have even looked at normally.
More on Havana later....On Sunday we took a 4hour taxi journey to Trinidad (taxi's and buses are same price...now if only that was the same in Ireland!) Trinidad is a beautiful town on the south coast of Cuba. We spent 4days here during which time we drank a little rum (everyone drinks rum), went to a club in a cave, trekked up to a waterfall and natural pool, and took a lazy day out on a catamaran to a Island where we met a "famous" Norwegian tele presenter..to have two famous people on a island! How lucky were we.....the other of course being PJ who came a respectable 2nd on TG4's passion fashion😊
The next stop was a trip up north to a town called Remedios. Unlike Havana and Trinidad, Remedios sees a lot less tourists and thus there is little pestering from the locals looking to sell you stuff. Just north of Remedios is a 100 million peso! (Dr Evil time)
Cuba
Havana City road out to a set of islands perched in the Golf of Mexico. Probably the most visually stunning part of our trip these islands house five beautiful beaches. We were told by the family we were staying with to find the most northerly beach. At this stage we had hired out a car and over the course of the next half hour we got every penny from the 900cc engine as we took it through roads only a 4x4 should go. It turned out well worth the bumps as the beach was everything the family had detailed to us..
After four great days in Remedios we said good bye to the beautiful beaches, the friendly locals, too much rum and a rental car which was glad to see the back of us. The final part of our trip was another 4hours back to Havana where we would spend the last two days of the journey. On the way we got the taxi driver to stop off in a town called Santa Clara. This is where Ernesto (Ché) Guevara and a band of rebels used a bulldozer to stop a train occupied by a large number of fascist leader Batista's
Cuba
Havana City soldiers. The soldiers surrendered after a short battle. This victory was a key event in the overall success of the revolution as it stopped reinforcements joining up with a soon to be defeated Batista army. Also in Santa Clara is the final resting place of Che Guevara, celebrated by a massive monument in his honor.
Havana city is crazy to be honest. Cuba is filled with so many contradictions - It contains a world class education and health system only to be offset by poor living conditions and a lack of freedom of speech. None of these are more evident than in Havana. Loads of schools and hospitals contained in buildings that you tippy toe past just in case they fall down and a situation where a number of locals were recently given long term jail sentences for speaking out against certain aspects of Fidels government.
This is not to say that the city isn't beautiful. Old Havana has some stunning buildings dating from the early 1800's and the Capitol Building where Batista held office can be seen from all around the city. The food is super tasty and the people (once you get used to locals trying
Cuba
Havana City-Tribute to Jose Marti..José Julián Martí Pérez (28 January, 185319 May 1895) was a leader of the Cuban independence movement against the Spainish who had earlier invaded the country. to sell you anything and everything) are very friendly and with a very low crime rate you get a real feeling that the city is very safe for travellers.
Well that's all from Cuba. It's hard to describe what Cuba is all about in just one blog but suffice to say we had a great holiday in a country that i would strongly advise people to visit before Fidel dies and things "change"
ps: Sorry for the mass amount of pictures and t
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Michelle Thomson
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The Beard!
We want to see more of the crazy travelling bearded Paul....!!!!1