Palco Vinales

... br>An einem Vormittag fahren wir mit Raider zusammen im quietschgruenen Moskvich (mit weisser Sportzeichnung und Spoiler) seines Bruders zur Hoehle Santo Tomas, dem groessten Hoehlensystem Kubas. Es erstreckt sich ueber 7 Ebenen und etliche Kilometer. Ein waschechter Hoehlenforscher fuehrt uns fast 2 Stunden lang durch einen kleinen, aber extrem beeindruckenden Teil dieser Hoehlen. Er erzaehlt dabei immer mal wieder ein paar Geschichten aus dem ...

... inch thick mud stuck to my shoes made it a little more of a heart stopper as this Canadian negotiated the crossings. At one point we actually had to find a tree to ford a small river which had swollen overnight. Oh man .... I didn't want to get wet LOL. The paths were very slippery from the rain last night and lots of red mud stuck to my shoes so that made it a little more than I anticipated but everything turned out OK and it was a wonderful experience ...

10 October 209 - Friday

We finally arrived in Vinales at about 10pm. Just to mention again this was supposed to be a 3 hour trip, not 7!!! Cheating, lying gits. At least we had arrived the same day we left. It was on our first day in Vinales that we found ourselves riddled with fleas... These were from the the cab ride down...

Once we found our casa, we were very grateful to be shown our room and just finally to be there. In retrospect the whole taxi drive from ...

... an exchange value of 24 to1 USD. You can imagine the confusion this creates. After moving though the luggage claim area and into the main airport terminal, I got my first glimpse of the primitive state of things. The terminal, with walls of plain unpainted concrete, was sparse compared to other international airports I've been in. The front ticketing area only had a small liquor store, bar and restrooms. Although the ceiling was adorned with flags from ...

... that she will arrange it all and see us when we return. Our 'walking tour' starts outside the hotel, with a taxi ride into the main city area, where we are shown the line of the original city wall before expansion. Two million people live in Havana, out of the total eleven million population in Cuba. We see magnificent buildings which were the old senate before the revolution and a theatre where the Cuban ballet is based. Here we are approached by an old woman who had been sat ...

Spät abends kam ich in Havanna an, in einem Charter Flug von Quito, vollgepackt mit ecuadorianischen Touristen. Die erste Nacht verbrachte ich im schicken Miramar, ein Stadtteil im Westen Havannas, ein Kontakt den mir Freunde aus Deutschland verschafft hatten. Da dies jedoch etwas weit vom Geschehen entfernt war, machte ich mich am nächsten Tag mit Sack und Pack auf den Weg Richtung "Centro Habana". Nach eineinhalb Stunden ...

... Bus number 1. After about half an hour of waiting (and trying to snooze despite insects) at Cheers, our second bus turned up! Hooray! We drove the second bus all the way to the Belize-Mexican border. About an hour from the border, the near total destruction of the hurricane became quite apparent. Trees were uprooted, even big trees, many trees were snapped in half and bent right over. There was flooding by the side of the road and most trees were affected. Some houses ...

Buenos tardes todos! what an eventfull 24hours! its quite hard to get on the internet here in havana, and a bit pricey so you may not hear much from me this week, but cuba so far . . . had a quiet night on the isle saturday, dozed off in a hammock bout 1130pm, woke up for the band and midnight, then went straight back to bed! got up at 7, had me brekkie, got the boat to cancun, a collectivo to the bus station, and a bus to the airport! phew! i was there ...

... of getting wrongly charged for damage after returning the car (especially as we had just been charged, unfairly we thought, for supposed new marks on the sides of the already well scratched van we hired in Grenada), and so I watched the car hire employee closely as he sought to mark down the countless blemishes on the Hyundai’s bodywork. He wasn’t overly precise, and when he had finished without marking any of the scratches on the roof or ...

... downpour. I managed to do a little cycling in between showers, but I soon gave up waiting, got myself a sandwich at a nearby hotel and read my book for a few hours. I rode back to the village via El Palenque, which was another cave amidst spectacular scenery. Soon after I returned it started raining again, so I drank rum and played cards with Juan and his posse.

The next morning was a shocker. It was bound to happen ...