Today we arranged to go on a tour of a cacao plantation and a coffee plantation. Coffee and chocolate, my two favourite things. Our tour took off around ten (scheduled start 9.30) and we made our way to the plantation. Now in my mind we were going to see two plantations, however, they grow the coffee and the cacao on the same plantation. As it turns our both plants prefer the shade, so to shield them from the Cuban sun they also grow palm and banana trees around them. The end result is the plantation looks like a thick tropical forest, which explains why the area around Baracoa looks so beautiful. Our guide, Benny, started talking us through the growing and harvesting of both plants. While he was talking I felt some pain in my stomach. ... read more

So today our host found us a nice driver, Robbie, to take us for a drive out of town. We started off heading towards Valle de la historico. It’s a fun park is about 4 acres of dinosaur statues. T-rex’s, mammoths, brachiosaurus’ etc. And quite a few others I couldn’t name. Very cheesy but fun anyways. The park was originally built by inmates at a nearby prison and in its heyday I could see it being a great family attraction. These days some of the statues are starting to fall apart and are in need of a little TLC. There was a little lake area where they had the heads of some water-living-sauruses coming up out of it and a disused slide. Jo decided it would be a great idea to build a wave pool there ... read more

The only word to describe today was exhausting. Not because we did so much, but because everything in Santiago de Cuba is a lot harder than anticipated. As I write this I am sitting at our casa, it is only 6.30 and I am completely done in. We walked into the city centre which is about five blocks away. We found the town square no problem, but then the town square found us. We could not walk 5 meters without someone offering us a taxi, or cigars, or a cheap place to buy rum. If the answer to any of these questions was “No gracias” they came back with “what are you looking for?” Everyone wants to help but everything has a price and there are no rules. For lunch we walked into an alfresco café, ... read more

So the plan of attack today was to catch the bus down to Playa Ancon (beach) and just chill for the day. However, Cuba had another idea. Miss Jo had a terrible night. She woke during the early hours feeling very queasy. As the morning progressed matters seemed to get worse. She could barely get down any breakfast. Just a cup of coffee and a little bread. I grabbed the Mylanta and hydrolytes from my first aid kit. Hydrolytes and some rest seemed to help but by late morning she was not up for anything involving moving too far from the Banos. So beach day was scrapped. I went for a wander into town on my own. My first stop was the new town square. I wanted to see if I could log into the internet ... read more

Today we started with a walking tour of Trinidad. Our tour guides name was Carlos (actual name not one I made up) and unlike our walking tour in Havana which was a nice slow meander through old town. Carlos however, had lots of energy and lots of things to say. We started with the new town square. Trinidad was the third town to be established by the Spanish, hence its name, Trinidad, or the holy trinity. It has a very long history tied to sugar production. It was actually French settlers who brought sugar cane to Trinidad. The old town square is bordered by palaces built on the sugar boom. Most of them were abandoned after Carlos Cèspedes revolution. Today they are all museums, Art, architecture etc. On the edge of the old town square is ... read more