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Published: February 18th 2010
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Che Guevara Memorial
The iconic image of the Cuban Revolution...also on every postcard and T-shirt in Havana Last week, Berm and I arrived in Havana, Cuba, for the start of three and a half weeks of travelling around the largest island in the Caribbean. During our first few days, we stayed with the family of a Cuban doctor who rents out rooms in their grand colonial house, right in the heart of Old Havana. Being in Havana is like experiencing a time warp into the past - the streets are filled with a strange mix of classic 1950s cars and beat-up, little Russian ladas, Minsk motorcyles and Soviet-era trucks. The architecture of Old Havana includes an incredible mixture of sixteenth century fortresses and plazas, nineteenth century colonial mansions and grand storefronts, and postcard-perfect Art Deco edifices. We began our immersion into Cuban culture with a few days of wandering the city, making visits to such important Cuban institutions as the Partagas cigar factory and the Havana Club Rum Museum. Berm bought a few of Cuba's finest cigars from the factory to try, but it seems like every few blocks, there is an enterprising Cuban offering us a great deal on 'top quality' cigars. Havana takes its cigars and rum very seriously!
The other thing that
we have noticed is that everyone in Havana is a musician - every restaurant and bar has a great band to accompany your drinks or meal. We've enjoyed everything from caribbean classics over snacks at the local brewery, to a fantastic flamenco performance complete with stomping dancers.
After a few days acclimatizing in Havana, we travelled to the Vinales valley, one of the premier tobacco growing regions of Cuba, also renowned for its strange geological formations, known as 'mogotes'. We walked out into the countryside to get a close up view of the Dos Hermanas (Two Sisters), the largest of these boulder like hills that rise straight up from the floor of the valley. Even in the middle of nowhere, we were spotted by a local farmer who slyly offered to sell us the 'best quality cigars' on the cheap!
The other highlight of our stop in Vinales was another ecological wonder, the caves of Santo Tomas, which at 46 kilometres and eight levels, are one of the largest cave systems in Latin America. We trekked for an hour and half through various caverns, including one with a resident owl population and a floor
Ali on the Malecon
Relaxing on the Havana seawall, with the sun shining and the waves crashing around us. littered with tiny mice bones to prove it, and another with hollow stalactites that sounded like an eerie zylophone when they were tapped. Our guide played them well enough to get a round of applause from our little group.
Our next stop was Maria La Gorda, a point on the farthest southwestern tip of the island. There is almost nothing there except for a hotel, diving centre, a few restaurants and a great beach. The place was designed for relaxation, and our planned one night stay quickly transformed into three nights. We did some diving and walked the beach and shoreline trials, which were scattered with conch shells, beautiful chunks of coral and other great finds. We had many wildlife sightings during those three days, including Cuban bee hummingbirds, which are the world's smallest birds, huge brown pelicans crusing along the shoreline, and a metre and a half long Marlin-like fish that one of the boat staff caught on our way to that morning's diving site. The irony of the catch on our way to admire sealife was not lost on us, but I have to admit that the fish at dinner that night was fantastic. We
Berm and a friend
The other guy didn't have much to say, but they seemed to get along pretty well. also ate every meal under the matchful eyes of the hotel's 14 cats! We finally convinced ourselves that we should move on to other destinations, and yesterday we headed back to Havana to plot the next leg of the adventure...
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krista
non-member comment
yay for travels!
hi berm and allisson, looks like a blast :) my friend was just in cuba and took the same shot of her with that random stiff looking friend you found, berm. :) great shots!! love the flamenco capture :) safe journeys, krista