Tag Archives: Caribbean
I Mean Business – Santiago de Cuba
Caribbeans have a reputation for being laid back, personified by reggae & weed. Cubans definitely buck that image as hardworking & resourceful citizens, although of course they love their music & dance. However Cuban dance is far more rigorous than its Jamaican counterpart. Salsa owes much of its roots to Cuba with rumba, cha-cha-cha, pachanga, mambo, and many […]
Chocoholic – A Cuba Labour Of Love
Chocolate Production in Cuba “It takes ten large cocoa pods to make a lump of chocolate the size of a cannonball,” so said the nice lady with her English speaking interpreter, demonstrating the art of chocolate making at Arquimides Borges in the countryside just outside Baracoa in Eastern Cuba. This wasn’t Hollywood ‘Chocolat’ style sickly-sweet chocolate […]
Trinidad & Not Tobago
Trinidad de Cuba There is another Trinidad in the Caribbean – the subject of my post is the Cuban city situated on the South East coast. Trinidad de Cuba is a UNESCO World Heritage site and a more colourful place is hard to find. Its cobbled streets are awash with bright American classic cars, its […]
Trinidad Train Tracks
Cuban Trains I wanted to take a scheduled train in Cuba, but as they were said to be extremely unreliable our itinerary with G Adventures did not include one. Travelling by train from Havana to Santiago rather than flying as we did would have been my idea of fun, but at just under nine hours […]
Cuban Music & Dance
Cuba’s got rhythm. Being a race made up of African, Spanish, Latin American, Cajun & indigenous Caribbean blood, that is hardly surprising. Think reggae meets flamenco meets jazz meets gospel meets tribal meets Latin and you start to get the picture. Modern Cuba has its roots mixed in with the Spanish colonialists and the slaves […]
That Condor Moment – Cuban Cigars
Cigar Production 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 consumption, […]
Hasta La Vista Havana – Part Four
Casablanca Having visited the three main districts of Havana, it was time to cross the water to Casablanca. Not the iconic Moroccan city but the settlement on the small island across Havana bay, home to the city’s former fortifications and Cuba’s Estatua de Cristo. We walked through the old town, past the cruise ships (a […]
Hasta La Vista Havana – Part Three
Having embarked on a wonderful tour of Cuba taking in Santiago, Baracoa, Trinidad, Bayamo, Camaguey, Cienfuegos and Santa Clara, we returned where it all began in Cuba’s mesmeric capital. Cuban Casas We were staying in a Casa Particulare in Old Town Havana. Casas were the staple accommodation of our trip, a cross between a State […]
