Gran Hotel Escuela Santiago de Cuba

... Cuban people.  It is so easy to be discouraged travelling through the country as it is somedays a constant hassle from touts pulling your heart strings and then asking you for clothes, money or just about anything you possess and they don't and the guilt lies with the truth that a  lot of people don't have anything besides a roof over their head and basic food yet we seem to have cupboards of possessions and ...

... bij een andere vorm van amusement waar muziek de hoofdrol speelt. Verder staan hier ook een aantal gebouwen van cultureel en architectonisch belang zoals hotel Casa Granda, de cathedral de la Asuncion en het stadhuis waar Fidel Castro zijn 1e toespraak hield voor het cubaanse volk. Verder een bezoekje gebracht aan de Plaza de Dolores (gezellig pleintje met wat terrasjes waar wat muzikanten staan te spelen), het ...

Le pire trajet en bus de ma vie: 9h et malade comme un chien... un mec monte je ne sais plus dans quelle ville et s´assoit à côté de moi, peux pas lui parler, enfin si je lui parle mais pas très bien! il s´appelle Christian. 2 jours à Santiago ou j´ai un peu planée mais bien quand même. je recroise Christian dans la rue. Départ pour Baracoa à 7h lundi 18 matin, je recroise Christian à la oficina Viazul, décidemment Viazul...!!!

... that Carnaval was just getting going and that K&A were there partying 'til 3am! I spend the day chilling in Santiago feeling ready for my 14hour bus journey. K&A join me for a while before getting an earlier bus and I meet Alex and Aurelie, a Belgian couple who say they've seen me in every place they've been to in Cuba! They've even given me a name - Charlie - their equivalent of Wally - i.e. Where's Wally! It's quite funny to think you're being noticed and aren't even ...

... are no glass windows here, just shutters and then iron bars, but not the kind that we have in the UK to protect our houses, this is just how the colonial houses were build - though perhaps security was in mind at the time). I see people cooking just inside their doorways and serving food to locals on the street. People are sat around on pavements chatting and taking in the cool air now that the sun has set. I hear televisions from multiple houses all echoing the same channel ...

Sunday 6th July What a bloody long day!! Me and Ben had no problems having a be** first thing at Gatwick before the 9 hour flight (just und**) to Havana. We then had to wait around in Havana airport to catch an int**nal flight to Havana. Again, this involved sinking the first of many Bucan**o be**s, before we w**e acosted by the most annoying Cuban guy ev** - Hector!! This guy talked, and talked, and talked and talked... aft ...

... writing in the lovely courtyard. We also noticed that our clean clothes were drying in the mango tree in the courtyard - very cute. In the evening, we ate a delicious dinner at our casa (fish and soup and cake!) and then went out to listen to some music and have a drink. Nice evening in general, although it came to a quick end because neither of us were feeling super great, and the heat had pretty much wiped us out.

... new friend Jim - an Australian guy with Scottish, Argentinian, Lebanese descendents. We met him first on the bus to Camaguey, he went to Holguin. We were onthe same bus to Santiago de Cuba. We envited him to Franco's, because Franco is a man who knows everyone (well we didn't know that at the time....) The three of us had a really nice night out, drinking mojitos and dancing salsa with our own bartener(who gave us also some private dance lessions) in Casa del Ron.

... a few seconds more beggars came (and I only had one bottle of water), so I decided to just stay put. Our next stop was a military grave yard to watch the changing of the guard. During our drive there I realized how big Santiago was. Pretty huge. The houses and buildings were the same as the others I had seen - very run down. Because of the American boycott of Cuba, they are no longer able to do much importing or exporting, so it is almost impossible for them to get materials to fix their ...

... really, really funny. At the end of the tour we got to second a week at the Hotel Las Brissas. This wasn't bad, but the experience was marred a little by the fact that a 2star hotel down the road had unexpectedly closed so the tour operators housing them had upgraded them to the 4star Brissas. Unfortunately, they brought all their pikey 2star habits with them - yeaugh. The other horror was "La Mcarena" a god-awful peice of europop that ...