Gran Caribe Club Atlantico Havana

... it by only allowing travellers to go to certain places, or at least making it very difficult to do anything different.

By about 6pm we were in the precarious stage of food poisoning sickness where you think you are hungry, or you feel very weak like you need to eat, but the stomach is still saying no no no. We decided to lash out and get some western food at a hotel, just in the hope that it would stay down. We got soup. It ...

... work as a computer technician to make ends meet. The computer parts which he owned were almost as old as the Cuban Revolution. The interior of their home was quite basic with a few old cupboards, a couple of beds and precious pictures hanging on the peeling walls. Despite their lack of wealth, they made do with what they had and were content with life in general. I enjoyed talking to them, and our conversations ranged from Bruce Lee movies to Cuban ice cream ...

... mecanismes de poder financer, el BM i el FMI) són cada cop més visibles, però gens publicitades. En canvi, ens bombardegen amb la informació dels suposats èxits i els comparen amb els fracassos de les nacions que no se'ls someten, com Cuba. Lo que a mi em resulta irresistible de Cuba és que és l'únic país del món que ha conseguit evitar, d'una manera o altra, la invasió dels USA, tenint en compte que els USA ha fet evident al llarg de la història el seu interès en Cuba. I ...

... after the revolution was spectacular. The improvements to the health and education systems were truly stellar and their positive effects are still felt today. What's more, they still compare favourably with the convoluted and litigation-hungry systems of the west. All this and much more from a country that the USA, through a ...

... rode as smoothly as an old radio flyer wagon. Once at the bank, we got into the usual cola. Exchanging my euros was a little disconcerting; the teller apparently didn't like the fact that I had an American passport, but was exchanging euros. Aledia stood next to me at the teller window, talking to the her in Spanish. The teller seemed reluctant to deal with me. Before leaving the states, shortly before my adventure here, I had purchased $500 of euros ...

... it has since been removed. We drank beer, as we are conscious of water loss, at least that's my excuse. Deciding to have a chicken sandwich, we watched 3 of the (male) staff sat at the bar, enthralled by the Cuban version of 'Eastenders' on the TV. In the corner of the lounge was a large, shallow, tiled pool in which a dozen turtles were swimming round or lazing on the rocks. A 50 cm long fish, similar to the pike style 'Gar' we had seen in Florida, was also cruising round the ...

... surpassed by that of martyrs CHe Guevara and Camillo Cienfuegos, the other two leading figures of the revolution. Which raises the question, again and of course, of their convenient passing out into martyrdom instead of staying in active politics (alive). After that I headed to the Museo de Bellas Artes. It comprises two immense buildings (immense like... museums), one devoted to Cuban art, the other one to the rest. I had decided to go ...

... Cuban man (a variation of George I believe his name was) who asked us the time! Yes, this is a common opening comment. We then (reluctantly) got into a conversation regarding where we were from etc etc. He told us about the salsa festival going on today, and then asked what we were looking for. We said not much, and in a desperate attempt to flee, having just passed an ice-cream shop, I said ice-cream. He said he'd show us, and then somehow started talking to us about ...

... all meeting up for lunch, deep-fried ham and cheese from a local street-side vendor near the Capitolio, Derek and I headed over to the tourist markets in Habana Vieja. I had been all over this area the day before but had somehow missed this particular precinct of clean and recently re-paved streets, exceptionally well maintained churches and forts, and large numbers of visitors milling around. There were a few old locals dressed to stand out trying to make some cash by having ...

... the beautifully positioned Baracoa. The return journey took us across surface-less mountainous trails to the nickel smelting plant and virgin beach of Moa. European dishes of freshly prepared Cuban beef await the tired Havana-bound traveler in Holguin. Proud Cubans have the same leader for the past forty years who does not allow dialogue with foreign folk (I'm told this is to protect me ...