Blogs from Cuba, Central America Caribbean - page 100

Ok, so we have lost our bikes and need to get the hang of acting like normal tourists and use public buses to get around. It´s quite unlike bus travel in Australia. For a start, the bus drivers here do quite a bit of their own business during the journey, making unscheduled stops to pick up cigars and beers for passengers, and bananas, chicas and family members. In a country where there is very little motorised transportation, it makes sense to use (value add to?) these buses that are being paid for by tourists who are rich in comparison to Cubans. Our first stop was at Sancti Spiritus, a sleepy provincial capital with quaint cobbled streets and an air-conditioned ice-cream parlour! In the heat, this was a real blessing. An eleven hour bus journey later, we ... read more

Le 27 juillet, depart de Santiago pour Baracoa, dans un vestige d'automobile qui, a notre grande satisfaction, a reussi a nous mener a la station d'autobus. 5 heures de route a travers les montagnes qui entourent Baracoa et qui creent son microclimat, et a travers une vegetation particulierement dense, l'acceuil que nous reservent les bici-taxiset autres travailleurs (harceleurs) de l'industrie du tourisme, est digne des grandes stars de ce monde. L'accueil de nos hotes Natasha et Fernando, cependant, est tres chaleureux. Ici nous sommes restes 6 nuits dans un appartement independant de la maison des maitres, c'est donc tres relax. Nous avons escalade une montagne qui a la forme d'une enorme enclume, El Yunque, et quelle montee cefut! Chaleur, humidite, mille-pattes, moustiques et surtout boue rouge, en voulez-vous, en v'la, voila le resume de cette journee ... read more

Le 22 juillet, 2006. Apres 4 heures d'avion, 6 heures d'attente a une station d'autobus et 852 km d'autobus (le trajet a dure 15h30, de nuit...assez penible), nous avons abouti a Santiago de Cuba! Chose plutot rare dans ce beau pays, toutes les reservations effetuees du Canada ont ete conservees et l'autobus est parti a l'heure! Nous sommes donc arrives a Santiago de Cuba pendant le grand carnaval qui dure une semaine et qui coincide avec les festivites du 26 juillet, journee de l'independance. Originalement, le carnaval symbolisait la fin de la zafra, la recolte de la canne a sucre, mais aujourd'hui c'est plutot une competition de congas, de costumes, et surtout une raison de faire la fete. On dit de ce carnaal qu'il est le plus important et le plus etincelant des Caraibes et qu'il ... read more

Vedado, La Habana, Cuba, Caribbean Sea, Western Hemisphere, The World WOW!!! That is about the only way to start talking about La Habana. My flight from Cancun landed around 5:20 EST in Habana on Monday. The flight itself was quite an experience alone. I believe the plane was purchased in a garage sale from Slovakia. As the air condition kicked on the cabin filled with white fumes which seemed to worry no one on the plane. The flight itself was not so bad, but as we landed the entire cabin boomed with cheers of joy. We´re we not supposed to land, what was expected in this landing that not crashing was celebrated to such extremes. Regardless of what it meant, I was just happy to be on the ground. That was step one. Step two, bus ... read more

Every year for the past 14 years, the United Nations General Assembly has voted overwhelmingly in favour of a resolution calling on the United States to end its trade embargo against Cuba, originally introduced in 1961, several months after the failed Bay of Pigs invasion. Every year for the past 14 years, the United States has ignored this call by up to 182 nations. While I don't want to go into the rights and wrongs of the embargo and the government of Fidel Castro, the embargo did influence our travels: In order to get to Havana from Los Angeles, we had to fly via a third country, as no direct commercial flights exist between the US and Cuba. On Friday evening we left the United States on an Air Canada flight to Toronto. I was surprised ... read more