Gran Caribe Plaza Hotel Havana

... bread. We spent the previous night on Calle Obispo where we heard a great live band and bought two CD's from a guy that looked a bit like Ronaldinho.

Next few nights spent wondering along Calle Obispo and the art galleries. Found some Moroccan food for good value which was a treat and decided to eat there for 2 nights. Could not believe that hummus and pitta bread were available along with a nice meze platter.

List of what makes Cuba, Cuba!

1. Che Guevera ...

... sleep too well anyway. This whole trip's way over budget thanks to that flippin' ferry in Suriname and the generally high cost of rooms in the Caribbean in high season. Thank God for the low-budget Melbourne Inn chain in Barbados and Port-of-Spain! If Cuba had wi-fi I could balance my budget here over the next three weeks, but I can't go incommunicado for that long. That's not negotiable. Cuba's starting to get on my nerves anyway, and I'm sick to ...

... br>A breakfast of fruit and a roll later, we were off on a mission to book our bus tickets to Trinidad. Everyone had raved about this place and Nicki and I were looking forward to being based in one place for a longer period of time. After walking what felt like a hundred miles, we found ourselves at the Centro Stacion, and stumbled upon the University of Havana. Again we had to wrangle our way out of situations where men followed us down the road or where they ...

... we had to meet at the gate. Very few people showed up there after check-in. Turns out other people had different ideas and what made matters worse was that we did not receive any instructions. Some people went to a restaurant to eat. I don't know what else was done. Needless to say we didn't leave until after 12 p.m. We landed in Cuba around 4 pm. The Pastors for Peace are well-known and ...

... Cuba into the U.S. But did this stop us? Nope. We ended up buying a few cohibas. There's nothing more exciting than knowing that living on the edge. Ooooh!!! Scary!!! Ok, it's not at all uncommon for people to smuggle in cohibas. You just have to change the little band on the cigar and the customs officers have no way to prove that they are Cubans. Easy enough. At any rate - we made it to Old Havana. A familiar site since we've ...

We´ve been in cuba a week and although it has been very interesting, we will probably not leave with an overall positive view of the country. This is due to the rudeness and unfriendliness we have been met with by most of he people in the service industry. The people we have stayed with in the B and Bs have been really lovely and we have bumped into a couple of interesting people on the street, but in the stalls, shops, banks, restaurants, bus and ...

... another word he pulls out a large knife and begins to strip the cane of its bark, exposing the white pulp. He then splits it lengthwise, breaking off a carrot-sized portion. Next, he holds it up in front of us, to draw my attention to it, then places it in his mouth and bites a small piece off, chewing it. He then hands me the sticky plant, gesturing for me to do the same. I do, and begin chewing. The firmness of the plant forced my mouth to place it ...

Havana is like no place on Earth. It is hard to describe. The people have nothing, yet they have everything. They are so happy. Give them some rum, a cigar and music, and they don´t need much else else. The flight over there was on a Cuban airline called Cubana, and the plane was a YAK 42. Now for those who are unfamiliar with this type of plane, to paint you a picture, it came directly from the 1973 USSR discard pile. The seats not only went back, they went forward ...

... rice (liar). Plus that for the beer. The correct price was around 3 dollars, plus the rice she was adding up came up to 3.5, so she gave me back the money. Still were missing a few national pesos, so I asked for that. It became difficult, they were not happy at all, that I'd fight over such a small amount, and that I was so clearly pointing out their dishonesty. I let them go away with a fallacious explanation that the beer was to be paid in convertibles and the food in ...

... And that was that. I pretty much gave up on doing anything else outside Havana after that. On my last night I decided to wander the Malecon one last time. I got the usual, "hey amigos..." as I was wandering along, and eventually I stopped and talked to one guy who liked like he wasn't trying to flog me something. Turns out the guy's name was David too. He was with his wife and his sister-in-law and one of his kids, and we spent the next few hours just chatting ...