Back from Cuba Nov 4th

Hi Everyone,
We are now back from Cuba and will make our way down to Belize over the next couple of days.
We had a fabulous time in Cuba and had some travelling companions on this leg, which made it all the more enjoyable. Jo S from home (NZ) and her friend Alicja.

Where to begin? Cuba is such an complicated country and one that I don't think we will ever be able to understand!

We arrived in Havana and spent the first couple of days in the city checking out the sights.

It really is a country stuck in a time warp of sorts. A trade embargo with the US since the early 60s and the Socialist government of Fidel Castro has prevented any real change to the country since then. The cars are lovingly restored Buicks, Pontiacs and Chevrolets and pose quite a sight and you move along the streets of Havana.
We should mention the encounter with the 'little green men' when we walked up to a monument the wrong way lets just say we had to give over passport numbers and about an hour later after their superiors had visited us we were let on our way Klesson learnt and a lot more weary of 'little green men'!
We got into the local national peso currency early (Cuba works with the dual currency basically one for tourists and the rich (Convertible Peso CUC) and one for the rest of the nation (National Peso CUP)). With one CUC set at the equivalent of GBP 1.00 it was a very expensive place to be in. The National Peso helped us considerably this was set at 24:1 and we were able to take bus rides for less than the equivalent of one cent and eat a pizza for twenty cents and a soft serve ice cream for five cents Vic's kind of heaven!
The diet here has been well interesting because of the two hurricanes that hit late August and early September there has been a very limited supply of fruit and vegetables the local markets that we visited were pretty much empty. The national dish consists of beans, rice and root vegetables. All of this we were not able to buy without a ration card. Yes it is a ration card state. It doesn't matter if you are a newborn or 60 years old you have your monthly entitlement of coffee, rice, beans, milk, bread, meat and sugar. For us to get any of these products from the shops you needed a ration card. We were however in most cases able to buy bread you had to time it right and be flexible with what sort of bread you wanted the round buns were often off limits for us, they were only available to card holders. We did all right but are really over bread now and looking forward to the selections on offer at the supermarket in Mexico.
After a couple of days in Havana we took an overnight bus down to Santiago de Cuba and worked our way back up the country from there. We took in lots of sights and got into the local transport, however between states we were limited to the tourist buses. One of the highlights was being able to stay in local families Casa Particulars (like a bed and breakfast but for us without the breakfast because it wasn't included). Our Spanish is improving as little English is spoken in Cuba it has been really good for us in this respect. Our favourite city has been Trinidad. Nestled between the Sierra del Escambray and the Caribbean a wonderful natural setting. The town itself is quaint and compact with cobblestone streets filled with horse and carts. The houses are all beautifully restored with locals relaxing in rocking chairs under the leaves.

We had our best beach day here too. We took bicycles out for the day and headed to the beach was a lot of fun. Our other beach days were hindered by torrential down pours (Varadero) and wind (Cayo Levisa) - not a lot of fun!

To be fair we have been very lucky with the weather considering the season just unfortunate on those occasions. We also took a tour from Trinidad into the Topes de Collantes national park and did a hike to some waterfalls as well as learning about the native flora and fauna of the area.
The most scenic part of Cuba for us was the Vinales region (the tobacco county). Wedged spectacularly into the Sierra de los Organoes mountain range this valley highlights not only the dramatic rocky limestone outcrops (mogotes) but also typifies the architecture of Cuba's traditional farms and villages. This area had been particularly damaged during the recent hurricanes so we left it until the end of our trip. The people have bounced back and a lot of the farmers we saw were slowly rebuilding their houses and most getting back into some sort of normality. The tobacco was being planted and we took a walking tour around the valley and got to visit a farmer's house and see how the cigars were made. We also took a horse ride deeper into the valley, which was awesome.

Just to let everyone know we have also done a bit of rearranging of our trip plan. We have decided to cut out most of Brazil and Venezuela. This chops two months off our original itinerary we were perhaps a bit optimistic with our original plan and are a bit worried about the moolar lasting the distance. It means we can leave the northern block of countries in South America for another time.
Well that is about enough from us for now, hope you made it this far. We hope all is well with everyone.

Happy 80th Birthday Grandad Booth sorry we were not there to celebrate with you we were thinking of you from Cuba! xxoo
Love Victoria and Marcus
PS Photos are up under Cuba and hopefully a movie under Movies check them out - http://www.travel.rameke.com/