Just as Nicolas had told us, his mate Paco was amongst the mob of touts as our bus rolled in at 0630. His father had a Peugeot waiting for us and we headed off to our casa, located 8 blocks south of Casco Historico - the old town. We signed in and had a couple of hours sleep to recover from the overnighter and had walked up to the focal point of Casco Historico - Parque Cespedes - by 1000. The main square is dominated by Cathedral de Nuestra Senora de la Asunction almost as much as it is dominated by touts for taxis and cigars. We headed away from the hustle (and hustlers) towards Plaza Dolores - or so we thought - finally finding refuge in a small cafe. As is customary in Cuban restaurants ... read more

I woke about 0700 and made my usual assortment of random morning noises and Jo didn’t stir. I thought it best to leave her alone until breakfast at 0800. She did get up but pretty much just stared at her food before returning to bed. I went to the main street to buy bus tickets to Havana (CUC12) but was stopped in the street on the way - “Amigo - Amigo Fuckoff” - I turned around and recognised one of the blokes that had tailed Jo and the girls home. To my surprise he immediately apologised for the noise and shook my hand - No problemo. I bumped into Juan again and we dropped in on the newly awoken girls for an hour or so swapping emails and travel stories as is customary amongst budget travellers. ... read more

Our taxi showed up at 0710 - 20 minutes early - so we hurried our packing and shot out the door, collecting a list of Nicolas´ friend’s casas in various cities on the way. Rebecka and Karolina, two Swedes staying in the room next door, had the same plans to go to Viñales so we shared the CUC5 cab. The rain was coming down heavily and the roads on the way to the station were under anywhere between six inches and a few feet of water. Additionally - just to keep things interesting - the windscreen demister on the taxi wasn’t working. We managed to get tickets on the 0900 bus for the three and a half hour trip for CUC12 each but had over an hour to spare. The cafe was located upstairs from the ... read more

We had arranged a CUC3 breakfast with Nicolas and were met at 0800 by a huge bowl of fruit, scrambled eggs, a loaf of bread, a glass of grapefruit juice and a jug of coffee. By 0830 we were pounding the pavement on the Malecon, the waterfront road heading towards Habana Vieja - old Havana. Cuba is just how I imagined it would be - beautiful but decrepit architecture, locals fishing off the rocks, kids running through the narrow streets and old Yankee cars spilling exhaust fumes into the air as they rattle past. We’d barely been walking 30 minutes when we stumbled on Plaza 13 de Marzo and the impressive Museo de la Revolucion - the former presidential palace and home of Fulgencio Batista the infamous president overthrown in the revolution of 1959. The museum ... read more

We were awake too early for the hostel breakfast so - keeping with our “safe foods policy” - we had bacon and egg muffins from McDonald’s along with “real” coffee from McCafe. This was to be our last day in Peru and we really had nothing planned. To be honest since the incredible few days at Machu Picchu and my bout of food poisoning we had both started to switch to Cuba mode. Once you’ve seen Machu Picchu everything else is decidedly average. At 0830 we struggled through our prepaid hostel breakfast and headed back to the market, this time to buy a couple of souvenirs and gifts. Rather amusingly, having spent so many leisurely hours walking through markets during our stay in Peru, when we were ready to buy we struggled to find anything worth ... read more