Cuba Travel Blogs

Roses are red, violets are blue...
Jan 13, 2007 (13 photos)

... exactly. it's something like this - a few years ago, mel's cute pharmacist's wife's cousin's mother's television repairman visited Cuba and met this random old Cuban poet dude in some random cuban town. They became mates and mel's cute pharmacist's wife's ...

The third cuban instalment...
Jan 22, 2007 (37 photos)

... the inevitable post-Fidel future - especially given the already growing attraction to capitalism?  Whatever the answers, whatever the future, Cuba has left a lasting impression on me. My parting message - Cuba is wicked. Go there... So - to the ...

Slipping into the tempo
Jan 21, 2007 (7 photos)

I start out Sunday in what I hope will be the routine of the day: up at 6:00, swing open the small door above our metal patio doors, and let the cool approaching day flow away the stale, air-conned atmosphere of our dim room. Itīs still dark out. The sun ...

Cuba in Mind
Feb 10, 2007

... , in spite of its problems, that what this country is doing is right. I'm sure we're on the right track.'" -- Cuba cooking personality Nitza Villapol, author of what has been reproduced in English (without permission or payment) as the best-selling The ...

Parental Leaving
Jan 17, 2007 (7 photos)

... is willing to pay me to take Parental Leave, I ask "When are we leaving and where to?" Cuba seems a perfect destination for travel with kids: no rampant tropical diseases, a great health system, a reputation ...

Backwater
Feb 2, 2007 (5 photos)

Politely described as tranquil, and impolitely as boring, Remedios may be a bit quiet even for us. One of the two churches in town is closed for renovations. When we go to the music museum next door, it too is closed. Frequently, these places are shut for ...

Feliz in Cuba
Jan 27, 2007 (10 photos)

Julie and I both celebrate birthdays while in Cuba. Mine is today, but "celebrate" is too strong a phrase for what I anticipate. Our three days so far in Trinidad have been pleasantly relaxed, with nothing more exciting on the schedule than occasional ...

Adrift
Feb 28, 2007 (4 photos)

... our last night -- her previous guest has appendicitis and can't checkout. This means we have no place to stay our last night in Cuba, and no chance to hear for a last time the music that is Centro Habana after dark. Many calls later, we relocate to a ...

Recouping
Jan 18, 2007 (3 photos)

... , cold remedies, allergy and asthma medications, etc. Thankfully, some is in powder form, or the weight would be brutal. Cuba has a famous medical system -- the largest number of doctors per capita, I believe -- and an equally famous lack of medical ...

Chickens
Feb 7, 2007 (5 photos)

"Deseo la muerte de todos los pollos en Vinales." My Spanish is good enough to convey my feelings to my hostess this morning, but bad enough to get it jumbled. I originally say "por" instead of "de" thus implying a wish for a death by chicken, not the ...

Complications
Jan 19, 2007

... subsides and sleeps, but it's an eon before we do. Julie is crying a lot, so concerned for "my little girl, my own." And me? Cuba was my idea. My campaign. I think maybe it's time to end this trip. I promise to call the airline in the morning and find ...

Lost photographs
Feb 12, 2007

For every memorable photo that captures something of Cuba, there are so many missed. Sometimes we want a camera-free day -- to ensure we're seeing where we are with both eyes. Sometimes a camera just seems too personal. Or impersonal. Below are moments we' ...

Mas Tranquilo
Jan 26, 2007 (6 photos)

... the house is full of marble floors and al fresco wall paintings. Spaniards shipped all the marble over from Italy, not realizing Cuba has its own plentiful and varied supply. Julie aborts the attempt to climb the bell tower after the ascent to the first ...

Farewell, Trinidad
Jan 30, 2007 (5 photos)

... īs impression is that the austere conditions havenīt inhibited learning. Small classrooms, small library, small resources, but happy learners. Cuba has the best literacy rate in the Americas.You canīt walk many blocks without hearing a classroom or spotting ...

Rebel with a Cause
Feb 25, 2007 (14 photos)

... make it to Pan.com for lunch. Julie has been keen to sample the shakes and burgers here since reading the Lonely Planet description "Cuba's answer to Subway." I suspect one of the foods she's craving this far into the trip is a pizza sub. We're in the ...

Hemingway's Cuba
Feb 26, 2007 (13 photos)

... Cuba. The resulting photograph is on the wall of Hemingway's old haunt, the Hotel Ambos Mundos in Habana Vieja. Whether Hemingway ditched Cuba for mental or political reasons, I don't know. His gift of the villa to "the Cuban people" saved Castro the ...

Remedios
Jan 31, 2007 (7 photos)

... main transport options in Remedios (along with walking, of course). Up to four people at a time wheel past on old bikes. Cuba imported thousands of bikes from China last decade and is now producing its own lighter versions, but most of those passing are ...

Full Friday, afternoon
Feb 23, 2007 (12 photos)

... , we cab to one of the many fine private restaurants that lure people into the further districts of Miramar and Playa. Cuba's paladares, as these restaurants are called, were illegal until the 1990s. As a result, they're often strategically invisible from ...

Havana time
Jan 23, 2007 (5 photos)

... would have been insufferable; thanks for urging us to bring it, Mom) along the edge of the street, where most people walk. Cuba's spastic mix of '50s Chevy's, Ladas, bici-taxis, horse-drawn carts and bubble-taxis tend to give way to pedestrians. If ...

My best walk in Cuba
Feb 9, 2007 (12 photos)

... odd artsy still life's, it's the only time this trip I haven't felt compelled to include people in my photos (the idea of Cuba without its people is bizarre), but they're still there in many, even at this hour, driving oxen through paprika-coloured earth, ...

Havana
Jul 18, 2008 (12 photos)

... (small privately run restaurant). They are in peoples homes and are restricted in size to only a dozen seats. Finding these restaurants in Cuba can be difficult as they are not allowed to advertise. But, we found one in the Lonely Planet. Asked a guy on ...

Vedado
Feb 4, 2007 (4 photos)

Never accept "no" in Cuba. At the bus station, we reject several cabs which have no seatbelts, despite assurances that all cabs here will not have them. Once it's clear we're resolved, suddenly everyone is helping to get one rigged up for us. Same on price ...

Rain
Jan 28, 2007 (7 photos)

... Jorge that it only rains at night, I was delighted to see a few big drops fall and prove my weather foreguessing works in Cuba as well. In the middle of breakfast today, it spatters again, then gets more steady. Food tables are moved under cover. Warm ...

Tour guides in Havana
Feb 19, 2007 (10 photos)

Our car habits are becoming more Cuban all the time; we stuff everyone into a small cab for a quick trip to the head of the Prado, taking about half the trip along the still barricaded Malecon. We arrived yesterday to a cold wind creating spectacular ...

Night in Havana
Feb 23, 2007

I dream of Cuban winds. Warm gusts carry me of a sudden, lift me over failing balconies. At night outside our apartment, the traffic sweeps past the Hotel Nacional in a rush like wind. I cannot discern whether old cars or new nor'easterlies move beyond ...

Full Friday, morning
Feb 23, 2007 (17 photos)

... la Revolucion Cubana" overnight to see if the price ever dropped. Our walk south from the plaza follows the Lonely Planet Cuba walking tour for Habana Vieja. I've been really happy with this guidebook. The publication mere months ago means the info ...

Winding down
Feb 27, 2007 (8 photos)

The Malecon calls to me. I spend the early morning (pushing Lucy in the stroller) and late afternoon walking miles along the waterfront, drinking rum with university students who are diving off the rocks, chatting with patient fishermen who catch nothing. ...

For the record
Feb 24, 2007 (3 photos)

... when I read in the guidebook that a couple of places might have old 33s, a bit of that obsession got brought down to Cuba with me. Visions of the carry-on that was filled with diapers on the flight down being stuffed with albums for the flight home keep ...

Travel by night
Jan 30, 2007

... for private cars to carry foreigners. The cop planted by the door of the station required discretion. Lots of things are prohibido in Cuba. As far as I can tell, it stops absolutely no one from doing any of them; things just take a little longer, become ...

Departure
Mar 1, 2007 (2 photos)

I can't imagine a day more exactly split between pleasure and discomfort. Everything before mid-day is a joy. We luxuriate through a final Cuban breakfast of fresh fruit and coffee at our semi-outdoor dining room, followed by a farewell tour to our ...