May 8, 2017 - Cienfuegos to Havana

Last day in Cienfuegos. We enjoyed breakfast at 8 and were pretty relaxed as apart from changing some money, we don't have anything planned for today apart from catching the bus at 4:15. We thought we might see about going to the beach....Rancho Luna. A few days ago lady in the tour office told me the cost is 10CUC each way for a taxi, about 18k and takes about 20 minutes. We walked into the city and found a bank. There was a huge line outside and people were being let in as someone came out. I tried the ATMs around the corner. The two I...

May 7, 2017 - Cienfuegos

We are off on the tour to El Nicho (the niche....we go up into the hills and then down into a lower area) today and arranged for our breakfast to be ready at 7:00am as we are being picked up in front of the radio station just down the road. Breakfast was a plate of fruit (mango, banana and paw paw), omelette with cheese and ham, little pastries with our coffee and toast with jam. We haven't eaten so much that early in the day since we left home. We had an interesting chat about Cuba, it's people and anthropology with our host Luis Manuel...

May 6, 2017 - Trinidad to Cienfuegos

More packing up not that we have too much to pack as we are only carrying our backpacks around. We settled up our bill for beers and water with our hosts and walked up to the bus station. Tried to buy tickets for the trip to Cienfuegos. The ticket man didn't want to know us at the time and I assumed it was because they were getting another bus off on its journey. Then one of the other guys indicated that Peter and I go with him and hustled us onto the bus. Pete asked about tickets and were told we could buy on board. Hmmmm...unusual....

May 5, 2017 - Trinidad

About 7:30, Pete decided we should go out for a quick walk before getting into things for the day. We walked to the tourist office as it opens at 8, got our map and some information about buses to Cienfuegos for tomorrow. I also asked about tours and was told for a tour today, we needed to organise it yesterday. So much for that idea. We went to the bus station as directed and then went looking for the alternate bus operator to see what times and how much for them. On the walk there, we decided to take the bus from the bus station as it's...

May 4, 2017 - Havana to Trinidad

Up early and made sure I allowed enough time to get to the bank to change some money and the hotel a few doors down to buy some internet cards. One ticked off...internet cards bought. Was at the door of the bank about 8:25 ready for 8:30 opening expecting to be one of the first there and found 8 people were there before me. Damn! Thought this would be a quick exercise. Two ladies went up first and both appeared to be doing commercial banking so we were waiting, waiting, waiting. I then realised I hadn't taken my passport so quick run back...

May 3, 2017 - Havana PHOTOS TO BE ADDED

The owner of our apartment said she would be here to collect our data at 9:30am and I was well and truly awake when she arrived. She was very helpful with connecting to wifi (even though there is wifi to the apartment, you have to buy a card from a shop that has a user name and pin. You use your own wifi password first and then add the user name and pin). She is also arranging to take us to the bus or shared taxi tomorrow. Apparently shared taxis go from the bus station. It was then time to hit the streets. We are in the old town so just...

May 2, 2017 - Tijuana to Havana PHOTOS TO BE ADDED

Big day today as we fly from Tijuana to CUBA however we spend a whole day doing it. We fly out of Tijuana at 9:35am and arrive in Havana at 10:15pm if all goes to plan. We were up early as Bibi had ordered her friend with a taxi to pick us up at 7:00am. We were ready, the price was agreed as US$7 and off we went. It was a reasonable length journey and it was interesting to see the city along the way. A car in front of us looked as though its left back wheel was going to fall off. The roads are in pretty bad repair however seemed a bit...

Apr 23, 2017 - Trinidad to Havana

Trinidad to Havana An early start this morning due to a long 370 km trip. We left Trinidad with a light rain falling. This was the first rainy morning since arriving in Cuba - usually it started raining at about 2pm. After an hour or so we drove to a restored Hacienda belonging to a sugar plantation owner. This was located in the 'sugar valley' as it was known when Trinidad was a major export port for the product. Apparently up to 11,000 slaves were used to sow, harvest and process the sugar. In the grounds there stood an impressive tower...

Apr 23, 2017 - Vinales to Cienfuegos to Trinidad

Vinales to Cienfuegos to Trinidad At 8:30 this morning we were all packed and ready, waiting for our bus. As we waved goodbye to Vinales the long journey to Cienfuegos stretched before us. As soon as the bus reached the highway where the road was no longer winging and undulations, Abel put on a film about Fidel Castro. I was expecting something jingoistic and propaganda like but this seemed to be a very fair and straightforward biography. Fidel was certainly an impressive man and he did thumb his nose at the US. It is quite amazing that a...

Apr 18, 2017 - Vinales

Have I told you about the cars? Cuba is famous for all the old 50's and 60's Fords, Dodges, Chevys, Beetles, Oldsmobiles and other makes both convertible and coupe/sedans. For many years that is all that was available and the cars were maintained, repaired, cannibalised and renovated. These days there are plenty of modern cars but the old ones have become a tourist attraction and are used almost exclusively as taxis and hire cars. Some of the cars are in superb condition while others look as though they were repainted using a paint brush....

Apr 16, 2017 - Havana

Our first full day in Havana started with breakfast on the patio. Soon after we headed up to some shops to try to source an internet card but to no avail. People kept giving us detailed instructions in Spanish (or perhaps they were saying 'get lost you bloody foreigner') which didn't help us in any way. We followed some instructions that I had downloaded along Calle 17. This street was full of mansions in various states of repair. Some were suffering from genteel neglect, others were ready for demolition while yet more were being restored,...

Mar 3, 2017 - making comparisons

To our guide Havana is a big city. And indeed compared to the rest of her country it is. But 20% of the only 12 million Cuban people live here, a city that is significant, but not overwhelming. Marialina keeps warning us about crowds and bad traffic, but compared to London, Paris, New York, there's no comparison. There are few traffic lights and our bus driver zips through intersections with impunity. He's not a risky driver; he knows that there is never anyone coming the other way. We had a great lecture from a musician who taught us 500...