Apr 7, 2007 - topes de collantes

we then moved onto topes de collantes.. this was a mountain range just outside trinidad. There were limited hotels there and the only one that allowed foreigners was rubbish... we went for a hike that was quite nice. There was a cave at the end so we went exploring there... not much else to say about here... although we did have to run away because they tried to charge us for breakfast even though when we checked she told us it was included.. I think there may have a translation issue.. oh well..

Apr 19, 2006 - Cuba - Central

Central Cuba After a quick stop in Habana, which primarily consisted of getting up at 6:30am to join the visa renewal queue, we headed to the mega-resort of Varadero, just east of Habana. According to the Lonely Planet, 1 in 3 visitors to Cuba come here just to visit this place. Package tourists galore. Many independent travellers are horrified at the thought of going to 'one of those places', that the LP describes as 'really not Cuba', but we decided that it was compulsory. We wanted to see what the majority of tourists to Cuba come to...

Mar 26, 2006 - Cienfuegos & Trinidad

Last sunday we went by bus to Cienfuegos, we were planning to spend our time on the beach for a couple of days. However the city was further away from the nice beaches than we had expected, so we went on to Trinidad allready the next day. Also here the beach was suprisingly far from the city (very small city), but it only cost $2/pers. to get there! Additionally we were so lucky to pick a host that had attended 2 years of hotel school in Sevilla/Spain. Silvio was his name, and he was a very friendly host and an excellent cook!(see...

Dec 22, 2005 - Cuba - Cienfuegos - Trinidad

¡Hola, mi amol! This will be our last entry for this unforgettable trip. Our last week of travels was spent in Trinidad, a beautiful small city on the south coast of Cuba. Trinidad is like Havana and Viñales in the sense that houses are painted in all the colours of the world and old soviet crowd inhabit the streets while the scent of cigars flows in every nook and cranny, but Trinidad is ever more so!!! Just wandering along its cobbled streets was a gift to the senses. Adding to this the fact that there is an amazing beach nearby where we...

Nov 25, 2005 - Trinidad

Gisteren, via Santa Spiritus (waar we gestopt zijn voor een kleine lunch en wandeling), aangekomen in Trindad. We verblijven in Villa Dolores net buiten het centrum in een mega groene omgeving! Vandaag zijn we de stad ingegaan en zijn verrast door de mooie koloniale gebouwen, de muziek en het internet dat werkt... Morgen rijden we naar Topes de Collantes waar we gaan 'hiken'. Vanavond is er bij het hotel een feest. Dus een toppertje hier! Hasta luego!!!

Nov 11, 2005 - Trinidad - ahh

Finally. A place where Theo and I have fallen in love with. The rest of Cuba you could give or take but Trinidad is great. No excellent. Maybe it is because there is so much to do or maybe it is just because they cater to the tourist (yes, we are quite happy to call ourselves "tourists" and not "travellers"). Diving, mountains, salsa bars, markets, waterfalls... it's a tourist paradise. That explains why the bus loads of people come through - but it's worth it. Trinidad is an older town a little bit like Antigua, but not as preserved....

Oct 6, 2005 - How do Cubans get by?

Many Cubanos told us "no es facil." We were stymied by the double economy, and the more we learned, the less we understood. Put plainly, most Cubans don't earn enough to live. Over and over people told us salaries range from about 8 to 20 dollars a month. a big mango or avocado costs just about a dollar, soap costs 1.50, and shirts can cost 5-10 dollars. woa. Between the 1959 revolution and the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, Cuba grew increasingly dependent on Soviet aid and subsidies. In 1990, the Cuban government began a...

Sep 22, 2005 - Cuba - Habana and beyond

Hola amigos, Well, here we are, as they say. this time it's Cuba. We had about 10 days in Habana, where it's hot as h*ll, and now we're in a pueblito outside of Trinidad on the south coast, where it's hot as h*ll. Habana started frustratingly with run-ins with jineteros, ie, hustlers or touts, who fairly batter tourists with offers for restaurants, cigars, music, taxis, etc. This happened a bit in Guatemala, too, but the difference we feel is that the folks there just tried to sell us things and walked away when we politely said no. Here,...

May 10, 2005 - Trinidad and Cienfuegos

From Havana/Vedado we bused down 5 hours to Trinidad, one of Cuba's oldest towns midway down Cuba's southern coast. Trinidad was once a wealthy sugar town, and as a result the streets are lined with the mansions built for the wealthy sugar mill owners and merchants, most of these colonial houses have been restored and painted in different pastal colours. However Trinidad is no longer a wealthy area (hard for Cuba's sugar industry to compete when the main form of rural transport is the horse and cart!) and most people make a living off the...

Apr 20, 2005 - Trinidad

Caught the 8:20am bus for the 5 hour journey to Trinidad passing through both cultivated farm land and scrub country on the journey. Arriving at about 1:30pm the bus was met by an army of touts offering `Casa Particulars` accommodation in private homes - luckily we had pre-arranged accommodation through our `Casa Particular` host in Habana so Jesus, our Trinidad host, was waiting for us at the bus terminal. We were situated only a couple of minutes walk away through the cobbled streets to our Casa - very well situated in the Old Centre and...

Feb 15, 2005 - Camaguey - Trinidad

Trinidad es una ciudad preciosa, que merece visitar y parar en ella varios dias...y sobretodo merece parar en la familia en la que estuvimos, la mas agradable y familiar que tuvimos! Despues de que en Camaguey no tuve ningun problema con mi estomago..nada mas llegar a Trinidad empezo la historia de nuevo:( ya el viaje a Trinidad me costo mogollon...el peor de todos. Pero gracias a esa familia enseguida me puse bien:) Me dieron de todo...ah, y me volvieron a sobar, pero esta vez por la barriga jiji Me mandaron un medico a casa, para que me...

Dec 26, 2004 - Trinidad

Cuba's public transport harldy deserves the word "mess"- in lots of places it's simply nonexistent. There isn't even a bus from Remedios, so we were looking at a taxi to take us back to Santa Clara to catch the bus down to our next stop, Trinidad. Then Steve and Annie stepped in to save our bacon- they decided that they would go on a day-trip to Trinidad and take us with them. Trinidad is supposed to be one of the musical hotspots of Cuba and certainly there was a lot going on. You could even go a whole evening without hearing anything...