Cuba, Nov 2008

Photos to follow.
For a Christmas present to each other, we went to Cuba at the end of November- a place I’d been wanting to go to for a while. We spent two and a half weeks moving around every 2-3 days. We have been to many countries around the world and discovered that Cuba is not our favourite country - probably because we have a lot to compare it to! We loved the old colonial architecture. Pity it was crumbling and very run down in many places that we went to. Imagining all the buildings restored to their former glory, it would’ve been an amazing place to see. Some towns were very quiet and there wasn’t a lot to do in the evenings, but when we encountered latin music playing in the which we discovered in the evenings just walking around town. We enjoyed going back in time seeing all the rundown 1950s cars - very cool! And the people in the Casas Particulares (like B&Bs) were super super nice to us and we had a great time interacting with them. We also had fun in a place called Vinales – in the countryside with lots of limestone pinnacles. One day we met a farmer, Miguel, who was SO nice. He had a moustache – mo – just like Martin’s, so here they are, the Mo Bros! We don’t speak much Spanish although we tried and managed to muddle through most times. Using very basic Spanish so we could understand, Miguel invited us to his home (shack) for coffee and a handmade cigar which he rolled for us right there and then! We met all his family over the next coming days, and they were super-grateful for the toothpaste, soap and clothes we gave them. On the whole, the people in Cuba in the streets and shops are not as friendly as other people we have encountered in other similarly oppressed countries that we've been to. Of course, they do want your money … so there was a lot of hustling.. "You want taxi?.. You want restaurant? You want cigar?" Like I said, not our favourite country, but we’re glad that we went, and now we can cross it off our list.