Blogs from Centro, Cuba, Central America Caribbean - page 4

The tour began by bus to Cienfuegos with the heat and humidity forcing our first (but not last) stop at the ice cream store. We’d heard of the ice cream stores (government subsidised – brilliant!) and treated ourselves, only to find out later we’d paid in Cuban Convertibles (matched to the USD) instead of Cuban local Pesos (24 = 1 Convertible). We were very happy with our icecream until we realised we’d paid 24 times too much! Henceforth, we carried both currencies and used local pesos where appropriate – tourist mistake #1. A language lesson the next morning in a beautiful Moorish mansion helped build our Spanglish before we headed to Trinidad, on the Southern coast. It carries a reputation of beautiful buildings, classic cars, salsa, sun and parties in caves. It didn’t disappoint. Just driving ... read more

Geo: 21.8, -79.98Vandaag laten we de auto langs de kant van de weg staan. Trinidad is een mooi authentiek koloniaal stadje. Het is daarop ook UNESCO werelderfgoed. Het oude centrum is verkeersvrij en heeft allemaal straatjes met kasseien en gekleurde huisjes, gezellige pleintjes en overal muziek natuurlijk. De foto's spreken voor zich.We hebben ons ook een stukje laten rondrijden op een driewieler, dat moesten we toch eens meegemaakt hebben. Het hotel Iberostar Grand Trinidad is top en het eten is bijzonder lekker hier.... read more

Geo: 21.8, -79.98Have you ever had a desire to experience Colonial Spain but your time machine was in the shop? Trinidad, Cuba, a UNESCO World Heritage site might just bring out your inner Spanish Conquistador. For the non Veradaro/Holguin beach crowd, Trinidad is the second most important stop in Cuba after Havana. And rightly so. Preserving, restoring, and promoting Trinidad actually predates Castro and his band of not-so-merry men. Batiste recognized the historic and tourism value of the city and supported restoration efforts. After a long pause, the Cuban government, realizing the hard currency value of tourism, and with the support of UNESCO dollars, has restarted restoration efforts. The result is a very attractive town centre that eliminates the need for much imagination in order to envision a time in which the Spanish empire had outposts ... read more

May 7th - May 13th 3 days of pure leisure were ahead of us - a good book, relaxing by the pool, drinking numerous amounts of cocktails and enjoying the sunsets. We booked ourselves in Hotel Sol Cayo Coco, which was a perfect decision – good food, nice garden, friendly staff and two really nice beaches. As we are not really the lazy bunch, we took a day exploring the cayos on a bus that takes you all the way to Playa Pilar – which is definitely the nicest beach we've ever seen (and we've seen a lot). On the way there we even stopped at the Dolphinarium, where I had my dream come true and swum with the dolphins. If you ignore the fact that they don't really have all that much space, they are ... read more

We have just returned from 2 weeks at an all-inclusive resort in Cayo Coco, Cuba, a great way to escape the miserable November weather at Sauble Beach. After the hardships of the last crossing to Cuba in Gust O'Wind last March, this was a piece of cake! A 3 hour champagne flight from Toronto took us from -5c weather to the 30+ temperatures we would enjoy for the next 2 weeks. The weather was great, the resort very comfortable, well maintained and low rise and the staff were attentive and friendly (since they make more in tips in a couple of days than a doctor makes in a month, they should be happy!) I tried to show our location on a map but found that you may need to zoom out to see where the resort ... read more