Category Caribbean
Monday Morning Blues – Spot the Birdie, Cuba
I took this shot in 2017 in Cienfuegos in Cuba. Look closely and you will see a pelican, a common sight on the Caribbean’s largest island.
Monday Morning Blues
This week’s Monday morning blues comes from my 2017 trip to Cuba. The waterfront stretch of Caribbean in Havana is known as the Malecon. The 8km long road is a perfect location for a drive in a classic American car, to Cuba what the gondola is to Venice (about $70 and very touristy!). Join us […]
Cigar Production In Cuba
Cigars in Cuba What is the first thing you think about when somebody mentions Cuba? I wager that cigars will feature top of many people’s list. When Christopher Columbus reached Cuba in 1492 , he discovered the locals “drinking smoke” from an early version of a cigar. It was very much a local production for local […]
Monday Morning Blues – Dancer With Attitude in Santiago de Cuba
Happy January 2017 memories for me for this week’s Monday Morning Blues. We visited the Carnival Museum in Cuba’s second city and were treated to a fabulous music & dance jamboree. This lady was a fabulous dancer whose expressions told a thousand stories. Why not join in the Monday morning fun over on Twitter? See […]
Friday Photo – Che Guevara Monument, Santa Clara, Cuba
I visited Che’s monument in 2017. Santa Clara was where Che masterminded a defining victory in the Cuban Revolution against the corrupt leadership. He and a small band of comrades managed to blow up a train carry munitions down south to Santiago where the revolutionaries were based. If the train had arrived, the government forces […]
Sweet on Cuba – Sugar and Rum Production
A Brief History of Cuba’s Sugar Industry You may not know it but Cuba used to be one of the most prosperous nations on earth. The prosperity of the nation was transformed in the 1790s when sugar traders fled the slave rebellion in Hispaniola (modern day Haiti and Dominican Republic) for their much bigger neighbours. […]
Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara, from Asthmatic Doctor to World Icon
Before I visited Cuba I had of course heard of Che Guevara. Now I feel I know him. Che was born in Rosario in 1928, Argentinian but part Irish through his paternal grandparents. All his life he struggled with asthma, but this did not stop him loving and playing rugby and qualifying as a doctor. Ernesto […]
The Varieties of Road Transportation of Cuba
Classic American Cars Think of Cuba and Havana or Trinidad in particular and you will probably think of classic American cars. The types of gas guzzlers that you saw in the movies transporting Peggy Sue to the drive-in or turning evil and crushing its victims (Stephen King’s Christine). Cadillacs, Chevrolets, Fords, Plymouths, Mercurys and Lincolns […]
Friday Photo – Santiago de Cuba Cathedral
Santiago is Cuba’s second city and was the centre of attention following the Revolution, as it was here that Fidel Castro announced that they had won the power struggle, in front of enthusiastic crowds. The cathedral dominates the main square where Castro made his proclamation and is a fine example of colonial Spanish architecture.
