Blogs from Cuba, Central America Caribbean - page 17

Geo: 23.1168, -82.3886Breakfast was OK. A bit like a cross between a continental breakfast and an English one. Only Cuban style with lots of egg, rice, beans amongst other things.The hotel is in a great position in the old part of town. It's quite alien from Basingstoke with people everywhere and buildings that have mostly seen better days. We waited for a guide that we'd booked to have our introduction to the city. Although Millie was late, she was brill. Full of info and really pleasant to be with. She led us around the four main historic squares taking about the building and history as well as giving us an insight into what it's like to live in Cuba. Although obviously less advantaged than us she was really happy and painted a good picture. A well ... read more

Wednesday we went to Caya de Juatia, a beautiful beach 2 hours north of Vinales. There were 7 of us in the collectivo taxi, a thoroughly beat up 49 Chevy. Our driver had to stop once to top off the radiator with water, as there was no radiator cap. The roads were awful, with little population along the way. We met a very nice German dentist Lora on the ride. On the way back our driver was constantly playing games with another collectivo taxi, passing each other, racing, etc. We went out that night to the town’s dance club, and sat with Lora and her friend. They both danced with local guys, and were really good salsa dancers. Robin and I stayed firmly rooted in our seats. The music and dance acts were really good, and ... read more

Cadillac, Ford, Chevrolet, Buick, Pontiac, Dodge and DeSoto Yank Tank is a nickname for large American cars made in the 1950-ies and 60-ies. For anyone who likes those cars visiting Cuba must be like coming to heaven because there are many such cars in use there. One of the things we knew about Cuba before we set off on this trip was that many of the cars they drive are American cars from the 1950-ies. Before the Cuban Revolution in the 1950-ies almost all cars in Cuba were Made in America. After the revolution United States put a trades embargo on Cuba. The embargo stopped American car makers from selling new cars to Cuba. Another result of the embargo was that the Cuban economy plummeted. So they could not afford to buy new cars from other ... read more

Touring Cuba When we were in Cuba we also wanted to visit several places outside Havana. It turned out that it was slightly more difficult to get around than we expected. Bus tickets were often sold out several days in advance and trains in Cuba are most of the times scarce, unreliable and slow. Therefore we often had to take so called collectivo when we went from one place to the next. Collectivo is when people go together and arrange transport by sharing a taxi. It can also be someone who has a private car and is going to drive from one city to the next and pick up paying passengers to share the costs for the ride. Whenever we wanted to go from one place to another it was a constant struggle to try to ... read more

Havana We have for a couple of years been thinking that Cuba might be an interesting place to visit. During Christmas and New Year we had some time off and we decided to go there and figure out if Cuba is interesting or not. We started and ended our visit in Cuba in the capital Havana. Havana is a city with large contrasts - The old town and the historical city centre - In this area there are plenty of high end hotels, restaurants cafés and other facilities with the main purpose to as efficiently and painlessly as possible ensure that tourists are separated from their money. It is a typical tourist ghetto and that is where tourist tend to hang most of the time. The old historical buildings are in beautiful condition or are awaiting ... read more