Blogs from Cuba, Central America Caribbean - page 12

In the early 1960's Kennedy stopped all trade agreements with Cuba due to the world weapons agreement. The problem then came cars ? no more would be available to them from the USA. The Goverment then put a restoration facility in and from then on and still they keep the old ones going.... read more

Headed through the tropical tourraine with our guide Jannout and his classic 1955 Chev Belair, we crossed the highest bridge in Cuba the Mantanzas the city of many bridges. Crossed over the Rio Caminar into Veradaro. Visited market place and the beach but being a socialist country all the outside Taxis are not allowed to stay long only workers within the city limits can take you around. Even the tyrones make history visiting Al Capones Casa was rather exciting to see how the bad boys could live in luxury..Passed through yet another fishing town Canaradu full of friendly happy people. Stopped at the reef p excellent for playa de corral for diving. Visited Rio Caminomor the local favorite for swimming in the summer. Returned back through Matanza passingthe Canadian oil refinery taking crude oil from Venezuala ... read more

Adventure to thd by of the pigs is an inlet of the gulf of Cazones on the southern coast of Cuba. By 1910 it was included in the Santa Clara province. The invasion was a failed attempt from the CIA April 1961. The invasion was defeated within three days by the cuba revolutionary Army. We left the hotel on a beautiful sunny day on coraterra centro libre highway rd running north to south. Plentiful farmland of lush crops, oranges, corn, bannanas, onion, yuka,beans, sugar cane, guava, lemons, peanuts, coffee, beef, dairy, pigs, chicken, and egg farms. Also soap factories, bio medical labs for human and animals medicine development. The town of Cornia was an army training center every male after graduation must take 2 years in the army. Drove through Colesel, Isabel, and San Marco's and ... read more

Today was another long travel day. We bade farewell to Trinidad early in the morning. I felt sad to leave this vibrant, colorful town as I would have liked to explore it in more depth. Today was the final day of our tour, and we were to drive back to Havana, with two stops en route - The Valley of the Sugar Mills and Che Guevara's memorial in Santa Clara. The Valley of the Sugar Mills is located just outside Trinidad. There, we visited Manaca Iznaga plantation. The former plantation owner's house was relatively intact, as was a tower on the premises, and some former slave quarters (now used as residences). This tower was used to view the operations of the plantation, which was staffed by slaves. I thought of the tower as an evil panopticon ... read more

Here I was with my Dad, waiting to see if we'd be getting on the flight from Montreal to Toronto. I had never flown standby before. My brother Shawn is a flight attendant with Air Canada and we were trying to meet him so we could catch a connecting flight to Havana, Cuba. With one seat left it wasn't looking good, so right before the doors closed, it was decided that I would board the plane and my dad would try for the next flight, about an hour later. After witnessing an argument between two boarding staff, I was off. Shawn and I arrived in Toronto at about the same time. Once we met up we headed straight for a flight lounge, compliments of his Amex card membership. We got drinks and dug into food until ... read more