Cuba

February 10, 2014

Cuban Paradise

Finally it was beach time! After a week and a half of touristing our way around rustic Cuban cities it was time to ditch the backpacks and walking shoes for flip flops and sarongs. Cuba has no shortage of beaches but we decided to steer clear from the super popular resorts and avoid the all inclusive crowd – opting to go to Cayo Guillermo, in the north part of Cuba.

As it turns out, you can’t really avoid the all inclusive crowd if you want to stay in a resort, so we opted for a 2 day stay in the Hotel Iberostar Daiquiri. It was my first all inclusive experience and I have to say I was super excited about it. I got the wristband and pretty much starting jumping up and down – do we got to beach? the pool? the buffet? the bar? Or do we hang out in our only 4 star room of the trip? Ahhh I just wanted to do everything.

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February 8, 2014

Paying Homage to El Che

There is one reason and one reason only people visit Santa Clara and thats if they are a Che Guevara fan. Not only is it home to the triumphant statue of him it is also his final resting place, along with the 27 soldiers who died alongside him in the revolutionary war of Bolivia.  Similar to all the other tourists there, we visited Santa Clara because James (my boyfriend and co-traveler) is a massive admirer of the revolutionary and has read about every single book about him.

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February 5, 2014

Rum and Coca Cola

As soon as we were on our way to Trinidad I couldn’t stop singing “Rum and Coca-Cola” by the Andrew Sisters. Doesn’t matter that it was about a completely different Trinidad, all I knew was that I was going to be drinking lots of Rum and Coca-Cola by the beach in this coastal town.

Before all the drinking and beaching we had to do the tourist thing and we wandered through the cobbled streets of the central plaza area checking out the plazas, bright buildings and poking our heads into shops. We went up a bell tower and got great views over the city while a local salsa band played below.

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February 3, 2014

Viñales Valley

Our next stop in Cuba was a much more laid back place than Havana. The minute I got there and saw people sitting in rocking chairs out the front of their houses watching the world go by – I knew I was going to like it.

As bad luck would have it – it poured and poured and poured with rain on our first afternoon there. Determined to see as much as we could we hired a taxi – a lovely 1950’s car – to drive us to the outskirts of town to see the only undercover tourist attraction in the area – some Indian Caves. From there we braved the rain and went to look at a ‘prehistoric’ mural. While it wasn’t quite from the prehistoric period it was definitely worth a look. We gave up not long after that, preferring to head back to our casa and relax.

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January 30, 2014

Hola to Havana

Havana – what a city! Without a doubt it is the most charismatic city I have ever travelled to. As our first stop in Cuba it didn’t disappoint and served as the perfect gateway to exploring this different country.

We flew into Havana and once we are arrived my eyes were glued to the window of the taxi. There was so much to see and take in it was almost overwhelming. We had booked to stay in a Casa Particular – a kind of mix of home stay/b&b style accommodation that is one of the cheapest and most authentic ways to travel around Cuba. I was so grateful to the Casa owners at Hostal Peregrino as they welcomed us into their lovely home, gave us as much information as newbies to a city and country could use and promised us that they would feed us later.

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