I still vividly remember the first time I arrived in Cuba in March 2008. My first impression was that Cuba looked and felt forlorn. From the air, the landscape looked vast and empty. This heightened the sense of anxiety. I felt unease traveling into a world so vastly different from […]
Camagüey, Cuba’s third largest city, has retained its reputation as the quaintest and least known of Cuba’s big cities. Camagüey barely registers on the average tourist’s itinerary. This is perhaps because it is located right in the middle of Cuba, in tierra adentro; a good nine hours from Havana in the west, and […]
Ah the heat of summer beckons. It’s about time to get out of the rut. I finally had the temerity to sign up for a golf lesson at Havana’s one and only golf course, the nine-hole Havana Golf Club, which I had been angling to do for the longest time. […]
In the realm of amusing signage, Cuba’s lack of mastery with the English language (which is totally understandable, by the way), while not in the same category and magnitude as those in China (gotta love those funny Chinese signs), brings us some amusing stuff as well. Here are some funny […]
The western part of Cuba’s old Oriente province, which is now divided into the provinces of Holguin, Granma and Las Tunas, has been a hotbed of dissent since Spanish colonial times. This was the region were Cuba’s first call to arms for self-determination was proclaimed at the Cry of Bayamo. Three generations of rebel leaders have emerged, […]
I was watching Robert Redford’s flick, Havana, which is a fictional yet enlightening portrayal of Havana’s socio-economic situation in the throes of the 1959 Revolution. In the movie, the two American lady tourists, clearly looking for sleazy fun, pleaded the fictional character Jack Weil (played by Redford) to show them the real Havana. […]
The Havana Times, that ever reliable information source on Cuba, alerted me on the holding of the Alamar Winter Rap Festival. Initially organized in 1995 as an underground music festival by Cubans who were influenced by the rap and hip-hop movement in the United States in the backdrop of the […]
Baracoa, Cuba’s La Primada, is the site of the first Spanish settlement where the famous explorer Christopher Columbus landed in 1492. Established as a settlement in 1511, the place is so remote that it was technically reachable only by sea until a road was constructed through the picturesque Sierra de […]
I found out about the Las Parrandas Festival a few years ago when I had my first glimpse of Cayo Santa Maria in Villa Clara province. Despite wanting to see the festivities for the longest time, I could never find the time to visit as I usually spend my Christmas […]
