Islazul Hotel Libertad Santiago de Cuba

Santiago was an altogether different experience. Fidel's town is another colonial gem. A city that makes the finest rum in the land. We went to the Casa De La Musica for a night of drinking and dancing and once the MC asked where we were from, we were surrounded by new friends. The curious students made a nice change from the usual touts and the conversation was stimulating. We received free drunken salsa ...

... en er rest ons niets anders dan weer terug te keren naar onze casa's. Na onze paspoorten te hebben opgehaald en het tonen kunnen we uiteindelijk aan de steile klim beginnen. De Lada laat geregeld van zich horen en onderweg moeten we een aantal malen stoppen om de motor te laten afkoelen. Even hebben we het idee dat ie het niet gaat redden maar na een aantal keren uitstappen en een stukje lopen bereiken we ...

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...!!!

Virginia's Casa is a little twee, but with a patio shaded by a huge grapevine (and I reckon over a hundred bunches of grapes) on which to drink coffee and read, I'm almost in heaven. Klaas and Annelies have arranged a taxi for the day to take us to the sights around Santiago: The cemetery that's home to the most revered revolutionary, Jose Marti, other famous revolutionaries from the second (Castro's) revolution and Compay Segundo of Buenavista Social Club fame El Cobre, a ...

... Union, before 'The Special Period'; which is what appears to have killed the spirit of most Cubans, many of them referring to life being better "before", though they tend mean before the rationing and embargo, not the revolution - most Cubans are very patriotic and follow the mantra of liberty and unity. As a people they seem broken and you can only wonder if it's reparable. Paula and Yolanda have drinks on the local steps before rushing to a Paladar as a storm approaches ...

... awake for ages, the last thing i wanted to hear was the story about how a vicar stole his girlfriend. Yeah, probably because she was bored of his bloody stories! Anyway, we got on our flight to Santiago de Cuba, which was on some old Russian military plane, wh**e the air-con meant smoke coming up through the floor. We took off and landed through thund** and lightning, and I swear even the Cubans w**e saying their pray**s ...

... the journey, and things went downhill pretty quickly. Ross really started to feel unwell, and the bus started stopping ALL the time. The highlight was when one of the bus drivers (the one who had driven earlier in the day) decided that he needed something to drink...namely, a six-pack of beer and a couple of big bottles of rum. The bus drivers and a few of the passengers had a bit of a party at the front of the bus. I gotta say, it's a bit ...

... town in Cuba - it just had a cool vibe and definitely had much more stuff going on than in Havana - and it was far less touristy. I went to the Carnaval Museum on my first day (since I wasn't going to be able to stay for the real thing) which was great - very interesting and inspirational - their costumes are amazing!! I had lunch in the park and chatted to a couple of Cuban rasta guys, who seemed fine (by this time my dodgeball antennae were ...

Paid about 50 quid for our ticket to Santiago from Havana by train (tourists get charged a fortune for travel). It turned up an hour and a hlaf late, then took 2 hoursa longer than expected so 18hrs after getting to the train station we finally arrived in Santiago de Cuba. I had a fever on the train as well so wasnt ion the best of moods and its much much hotter at this end of the island. Went to Casa de la Musica for a live cabaret show ...

... uniforms in the scorching heat. Our TM asked us if we were hungry yet. We hadn't eaten breakfast and it was almost noon, so yeah, we were hungry. We got on the bus and headed to a place called La Maison house to have lunch. Our TM said that if we were in the United States, we'd be eating at the Ritz. Well, it wasn't the Ritz, but possibly the Cuban standard of it. It was a large white house in the rich (government) area of town. We walked inside and I was immediately amazed by the ...