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

Old Dog, New Tricks Cuba At Last! I’ve been wanting to go to Cuba for quite some time, but somehow it’s never worked out. url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/whereissteve/6032782275/" title="My New Home by WhereIsSteve, on Flickr"img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6192/6032782275_c8e6092921.jpg" width="450" height="419" alt="My New Home" align=right It’s become more of an urgent need recently because I’m sure that the isolation of Cuba won’t last much longer. And when its isolation ends, Cuba will lose a lot of what makes it unique and it will become like a lot of other Central American and Caribbean countries. I guess it’s quite hypocritical of me wanting to see Cuba in its current state. Whilst a lot of tourists might enjoy the sight of the 1950s cars still on the road, I’m sure many Cubans would like to buy a ... read more

Blog Feb 1st DISCLAIMER: THIS POST WAS SUPPOSED TO GO UP TWO WEEKS AGO. WE WILL SPARE YOU THE LIST OF COMPLICATIONS AND EXCUSES. TO AVOID FURTHER DELAYS, REPORTS ABOUT OUR RECENT TRIP EAST, THE WONDERFUL TIME WITH OUR PASTORS KEN AND NANCY AND THE GIRLS ONGOING CUBAN EDUCATION WILL COME LATER (THOUGH YOU WILL SEE A FEW PICTURES). School I have been going to school for a few weeks now. I like it a lot. I have a very nice teacher. Everything she says she says to me another time slowly. Now Joy is going too. I am excited to walk with her every morning. The school is one block down the road. Also, every morning all the students get together and chant three songs about our school and Cuba. I have not done that ... read more

Every time I’m traveling to a new country, I form opinions beforehand that are subsequently remade and mixed around in my head until they’re almost completely unrecognizable in their original state. In Cuba, however, I don’t believe that will be the case. Not because I’m not open to new conceptualizations of the country, but because I didn’t develop many opinions at all before coming. In some ways, this is a positive because I haven’t gone through the trouble of waxing philosophic about the Cuban system and the state of the country, but in others ways, I feel it leaves me behind many of the other students on this program, who have spent the past months formulating their thoughts. Without having done research, I am a bit afraid that the opinions I learn will be from the ... read more

Two weeks in Havana, Cuba. Internet very slow, limited and expensive there so posting this from Mexico. Very different to anywhere else. Still many pre 1959 American cars on the roads. No traffic jams but air pollution bad as the only cars that dont spew out smoke are the broken ones. People friendly despite having a tough life. Low wages mean some cubans try to earn a little extra from the foreign tourist. Travel very difficult, ended up hiring a bike to get around. Highlight of the holiday was the train to Matanzes. The conducter invited me up to the cab to drive the train, what an experience. Goats and other livestock do the track maintenance, keeping the grass short and only jump out of the way last minute. The headlight is the trains only working ... read more

Whilst in Cancun, I had assumed that I could purchase a ticket through Cuba´s national airline, Cubana, without any problems. Prior investigation revealed that flights are normally fully booked up for the next couple of days. However, their website is a little behind as I discover that the next flight is 8 days away when arriving into Cancun, and I don´t want to spend 8 days in Cancun! Fortunately, Cubana has a sales office in Cancun which are very helpful in finding me two cancellations - departing on the 20th and returning on the 24th. I´m wary that this might not be enough to see Havana, but it turns out to be just right. Prior planning is required as you can only take one of four currencies to Cuba - Canadian Dollar, Swiss Franc, Euro and ... read more

In just 6 days, we'll be heading off to spend 3 weeks working on, and hopefully improving, our Spanish skills in a language school in central Havana ... Last year at this time we had the good fortune to be in the high altitude surrounds of lovely Cusco, Peru, learning about Incan culture and studying Spanish. We learned an incredible amount of vocabulary and "verbos" and even tasted the delicacy Guinea Pig ("Cuy" en espanol)...we came to know some warm, generous, wonderful people whose lives have been spent entirely in the mountainous Andes...now it's time to move forward with additional practice in Spanish while enjoying the great architecture and culture of Cuba. We've visited Cuba previously but we're hoping that in this 3 week sojourn that we can get a slightly better feel for the culture, ... read more

Set in a beautiful valley surrounded by limestone peaks and growing much of Cuba’s world renowned tobacco crop, Vinales has the reputation for the slow life; verandahs creak with rocking chairs, horses lope slowly through town and campesinos lope even slower. However a bit to our surprise beneath the tranquil surface lurks a major party town. The three nights we were there – Friday, Saturday and Sunday – are clearly the time for the town’s many muchachos (youth) to kick up their heels which involves dancing to very loud music until 3 am in the morning on Friday and Saturday, and in a brief nod to the looming work week - to 1 am on Sunday. Generally the music would stop just in time for the town’s gaggles of roosters to kick in, which in turn ... read more