Islazul Pasacaballo Hotel Cienfuegos

... enough resources to supply building materials etc. When we were in Vinales Sandra showed us a family that has been living in their kitchen (in Cuba the kitchen are separate from the houses because they use open fires to cook which smoke out the room) for the last year with no end in sight. They are waiting for the government to give them the materials to rebuild their house. <br><br>Bus to Trinidad - surely we can find some beach there???

... und detailli**ten Fliesen leicht in diese Zeit zurueckdenken), d** nun seit d** Revolution 1959, stetig v**faellt. Heute ist die Fassade des Hauses schick renovi**t, ab** fu** die Arbeiten innen scheint noch das Geld zu fehlen. Die Zuck**barone von Cienfuegos waren vor allem Franzosen, die nach ein** Revolte ihr** Sklaven aus Haiti geflohen waren und sich hi** nied**gelassen haben. So ist das Stadtbild auch ein wenig franzoesisch gepraegt - sogar einen ...

... time left on the phone card after about 6 calls. I really don't like the place I am staying at now and didn't want another in Trinidad like this one where I think I'll lay over a bit longer. Michael is off to the Bay of Pigs area for some photo shooting if the guy he entrusted his camera with manages to fix it. He negotiated a rate of 15CUC for tonight for the both us in the same room. I really didn't care that much to lose my privacy but he is running low on ...

... when I swam out from the beach to an old wrecked landing pier. It was mostly submerged and only long metal poles were left but the amount and variety of coral on it was amazing, much more than any of the surrounding area! There were many shoals of 50+ fish hanging around, some of them so dense you couldn´t see more than 2 deep. It seemed ironic that most of man´s activity around the island such as boats propellers churning up stand, coral killed when ...

... us through the tunnel under the harbour over to La Cabaña fortress. We had been planning to see the nightly 9pm cannon firing ceremony and, after sprinting through the fortress, managed to make it right as the military theatrics were coming to an end and a volley of cannon-fire rang out over the city. <br><br>After having paid the admission price for a performance we&#8217;d almost entirely missed we weren&#8217;t keen to ...

... each meal as delicious as the last. Abel also organised all our onward accommodation for us, put us in touch with Margarita (the most amazing Spanish teacher), organised trips to local attractions and salsa lessons for us, and generally made our stay very easy and enjoyable. We spent most of our days studying Spanish, having Salsa lessons (well...Emily having lessons and David watching ...

... thing about Cuba is how early they marry. The normal mattying age of the Cuban woman is 16 or 17. Which means that by their 30s (so at my current age) they already have teenage children. The family in Cienfuegos had 2 daughters - one married a Cuban guy at 17, the orher Canadian guy at 18... Our landlady of Trinidad married at 17 and she has a 10 year old daughter. Another interesting thing are family pictures. I'm ...

... the rum kicks in. By far the highlight is Casa de la Musica - set outside on an immense staircase in the town centre, and easier to succumb to than to head home and try to sleep through the reverberrating bass that invades the entire town. The band plays mostly Salsa, and while the locals take full advantage of the dancefloor, the tourists mostly watch on and take in the upbeat atmosphere. Plenty of Cuban blokes at hand to give free Salsa lessons to ...

... also extremely limited (most stalls offered some or all of: sweets, toothbrushes, pens, basic household items) and it is a real treat for the kids to be able to have a few sweets. The Cubans simply don`t have the money for anything more luxurious - even at a once a year carnival. The luxury for the adults is being able to drink lots of cheap beer and the kids get to have a few sweets and some rides at the funfair. The funfair section was made up of generally ...

... related to the characters or events of 1959. Additionally, "guides" will follow you around occasionally providing such helpful information as, "a floor tile", thereby apparently earning a tip for expanding your experience of the museum. Gallery, theatre and museum attendants will often try to sell you an "old" peso, with a picture of old Habana on it, actually just a national currency peso, for a convertible peso. We visited the art gallery in Trinidad ...