Saa var vi braatt paa Cuba da.. Eller, etter to netter i Guatemala city hvor vi ikke gjorde saa mye annet enn aa oppdatere bloggen og aa slappe av, ankom vi Havana den 12. mars. Vi gleda oss veldig, spesielt med tanke paa at vi skulle moete Hege, Mette, Kristin, Nina og Hilde her.. Vi ble foerst i Havana i 3 netter, vi hadde booka hotell gjennom Kilroy, hvor det var ogsaa inkludert en sightseeing tur, noe som var veldig greit for to desorienterte norske jenter som stod i Havana uten noen form for info/guidebok.. Vi hadde ogsaa en veldig morsom [View Full Entry]

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We caught the tourist bus to Cienfuegos, since we're not allowed to take the local buses between provinces, and the organized hitch-hiking system all the Cubans use is forbidden for foreigners. [View Full Entry]

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After several days in Havana, we went to the western province of Pinar del Rio, where we were just in time for the biggest festival of the year in Vinales. [View Full Entry]

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Since Lana had to return to work in the Great White North and wasn't too excited about backpacking around Cuba anyway, just the three of us flew to Havana from Guadalajara the day after Lana flew from Puerto Vallarta to Calgary. [View Full Entry]

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We’d enjoyed five fantastic days in Habana and our aim now was to get out and see more of the island. This, however, didn’t prove as easy as we’d assumed and numerous obstacles limited how much travelling we could actually do. Arranging transfers and accommodation turned out to be a real eye opener in terms of how this country operates - or, in many cases, doesn’t operate. Where to start? Initially, we were going to hire a car to get around but quickly dropped this as an option for a number of reasons. Firstly, it is expensive and costs around £50 [View Full Entry]

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This was the most relaxing spring break. [View Full Entry]

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So, via this circuitous route, we landed in Cuba and it would take a far more eloquent scribe than yours truly to even begin to paint an accurate picture of it. I should say at the outset that we haven’t had enough time here to do any more than scratch the surface of this intensely complex country whose political and cultural values are cause for heated and bitter debate. The aim is to give a flavour of the place, not justify or condemn the Castro regime that is patently flawed - so was the one it replaced almost fifty years [View Full Entry]

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Cuba was fantastic. We arrived without our luggage :-( When we checked in there was luggage every where. Understandably, Cubans go on a shopping spree in Mexico. That is if they are fortunate enough to be let out of the country. There must have been about 30 bags that where going as unaccompanied luggage. Our one backpack must have got lost amongst it. After it dawned on us that our bag had not arrived, we grabbed a cab and headed for Centro Havana. It was all a bit scary. It was now dark and the streets looked like a war zone. [View Full Entry]

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CUBA Cuba is een verwarrend land. Nog steeds duizeld het enigzins als ik terug denk aan mijn belevenissen. Overigens heb ik met een positieve indruk het land verlaten. Het begon direct goed. Met de neus in de boter. Tijdens de tocht met de vliegveldbus naar het toestel groeide mijn angst. Voor ons doemde de Yakovlev YAK-42 op. Zo´n Russisch toestel waar iedereen je voor waarschuwt. Het zag er afschuwwekkend uit! Antiek ook. Zelfs de verf was al aan het afbladeren. Het interieur was niet veel beter. Vreemd was ook het feit dat de rugleuningen vd stoelen allen naar beneden waren geklapt [View Full Entry]

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Its been a week of departures. It seems the press in the outside world were fixated with Castro’s retirement and the consequent “elections”. “Elections” in a loose sense of the word, in that we are not living in democracy. It is not the people really who chose their new president. They had to vote for the new representatives in parliament but they are all from the same party. It was no big surprise to anyone here that Raul got chosen as the new leader. And whereas the outside press seems to think that this signals a big change, the ppl here [View Full Entry]

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