Sorry, that list is too long! I’ll write it down in an “about me v2.0″ section at some point in time but not now. (Yes, there are some background developments going on with regards to this website, so stay tuned!)

So, back to business. From city to city, bus to truck and the hills to the coast; time to complete the loop! After Bayamo (sshhh, be quiet!) it was time for some more coastal work; off to Trinidad! FInding a place to stay is easy as there are about 1200 rooms for rent and 400 tourists scattered throughout the city… so you’re pretty much being nailed to the wall by casa owners desperately trying to rent their place to you - lol! Having to deal with such a thing a 6am is all the more fun! Other than that, this has definately been the nicest city I’ve been to in all of Cuba, though I know a lot of people will argue this :) Trinidad forms a nice mix of Caribbean and Latino/Cuban culture, along with beautiful surroundings in the inland as well as a pretty beach. Quite the place to crash down for a couple days and get drunk so that’s what I did! The days merely consisted of city-viewing, beach-bumming, exchanging stories (and laughing my butt off) and dancing! Great to be there so go watch pictures like you always do!

Next up; a final visit to Habana! Since I knew I’d be passing through here a couple more times I decided not to visit all parts in one go so here’s part 3! You know, buildings, old cars and stuff… so on to Vinales; tobacco country, backed by limestone rocks and a lot less linear than the rest of Cuba - or so it seemed at first sight :) I got there together with this guy (you’re welcome Trav!) and went on cave visits, biking trips and some longer hikes, in the middle of the day while it was 33C (what were we thinking again!?). Visiting local tobacco farmers, discovering (well, sort of) a cave nobody told us about and going on bike trips is fun after a lot of city-flavour!

After Vinales it was time to crash down in Las Terrazas, a Soviet-style model eco-village (try to say that 10 times in a row), pretty much out of the way of most places. Pretty fit to chill out for a while and explore a little more nature, after all I now realise I like being near nature more than being in big cities :) Part of the fun was staying in a bird’s nest-style house but I forgot to take a picture, sorry!

Then, the final stop: Habana, getting ready for the return leg to Guatemala. This basically meant I re-re-re-reconfirmed my flight for the 5th time - although it was fun I didn’t want to go through this hassle again - and found the time to help Travis out trying to file a report for his stolen camera… NOT!!! A couple hours, three different police stations and A LOT of talking later, we were simply being told this: “Your story about this theft is strange, so how about we start investigating your story and hold you in custody until we sort this out?”. Ehmmmm… (sweat, tremble, gnawing for breath) … not quite what we need only 4 hours before our flight’s departure. Anyway, we eventually managed to get the hell out of the police station and subsequently the country :) Socialism, at some point it just gets to you… bye bye Cuba!

The next article will be posted on Wednesday night so stay tuned and come back soon!! Hasta luego!!

-René

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A church! After all it's been a while!

Trinidad's street "life"

Trinidad - unique rooftops and hills ;)

Yep, that’s exactly what’s being expected from tourists in Cuba. If linear tourism is being offered, don’t try to get off the track or Big Brother might not be happy. Yeah right… time to try things out!

So after a little bit of Habana (and again staying with my friend’s parents) it was time to explore more of the island; time to head east! Osmar left for his new apartment in Moa, quite eastward and asked me to visit him there instead of Habana (read the previous article if you don’t follow this). No problem… all it takes is an 800-km overnight bus trip - Vamonos!

As most of you know there’s a strict division between stuff available for Cubans (limited) and tourists (less limited, though still very linear). Being a good civilian you don’t challenge this and stick to whatever Castro & Co. set up for you, so you just see and experience the same stuff as everyone else. Just the thing for me - NOT! It’s an instant challenge to do things (and I mean everything) the Cuban way. There’s certain pros and cons to it, the pros being the price and the cons being quality, standing in line, going through a hassle etc). This article explains perfectly… and yes, most of you know about my (overly expressed) critics against Lonely Planet but this is something they pointed out really well!

Anyway, let’s take off! First stop: Holguin. Reason: transit. Means of transport to Moa: Cuban truck, commonly fit for cattle (unfortunately I’m not joking, again…). Despite reluctance of government-transport-company-whatever-kind-of-workers to tell me how to get on those locals eventually helped me out: pull a number! Cool, just like the butcher back home! Number 81 up to 119 would be let on the next truck, or so I was told. So I got in line, got a number, looked at the note and it said….. 341! See above to read what I said about cons ;) A lot of hassling, sweet talking, nice looks and a friendly local got me number 101 eventually - I like free trade - so I got on but won’t ever repeat this exercise; me getting on means a Cuban who can’t afford the “luxury” bus has to wait another 2 hours to catch the next truck. Yes, I felt (and plead) guilty…

Moa isn’t quite the place for tourists - and for good reason. A nearby mine causes severe pollution, local population suffers from a wide variety of health problems and the air is noticeably messed up - my eyes started irritating within 12 hours after my arrival. Anyway, it’s friendship that counts and the festival and families we visited to were nice. It was also interesting to see a market for Cubans only (notice the variety in the picture) and to have a look past the screen the beloved government put up (here’s one reason for not posting while still being there ;)).

As I’d like to get older than 32, I soon took off to Baracoa (lying I was a student so I could get into a Cuban taxi) - on the easternmost tip of the island. The surroundings are gorgeous and after a (relatively) big deal of city life I was up for some more nature. So here I go: biking, beach-bumming, climbing a hill (El Yunque - 563m) and generally hopping around and being unable to sit still. Check out the pictures I’d say! The easiest way to get around was by bike, which has been my best and closest encounter with Cuban quality so far; about 5km out of town, in the middle of almost nowhere, the chain broke (in 2 pieces, that is) - reason enough to see an afternoon going down the drain but locals brought the solution. How to MacGyver a bike back together: It’s simple; use a piece of iron from the asphalt, some grass, a rock, spit and… voila - you’re all set! I hereby claim being unable to remember this so you guys won’t start asking me to fix your bikes next time ;)

There’s one way to leave Baracoa; by national bus company Viazul, thus linear… so I linearly went to Santiago de Cuba. I apologise once again for being sour, but I don’t understand why everyone’s so lyrical about the place; although music and nightlife are nice and the city features the funkiest shop I have ever visited (and probably will ever visit) there isn’t that much to impress me with. One day was all it took to continue my linear route to Bayamo where I stayed in a linear family house (vomit!) and visited linear stuff (barf!) - if it wasn’t for Labour Day! Thank heaven for that - another local festival and no tourists around! Since Bayamo seems to be even more quiet than Baracoa this is a welcome alternative to … linearism :) Labour Day might be (yet another) socialism-flavoured party in Cuba, but it’s definately worth to get out there and meet a lot of people. After receiving about 20 warnings (yeah, yeah… tourists obvisouly weren’t supposed to go there!) a bicycle taxi took me to a big field outside the city centre where the celebration took place. No parades, no propaganda and a lot of music, drunk people and acrobatics in order to get cheap Cuban beer (see picture below) - looks like fun eh!? Anyway, it’s fun hanging out with locals despite the 50 100 173 attempts of people to slash my bag (come on, you honestly think I’d carry anything of value on my back!?).

Alright, enjoy the pictures below! Next update: Sunday - life’s all about friends and music!

-René

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Means of transport - Holguin (illegal for tourists)

Means of transport - Moa (illegal for tourists)

Means of transport - Moa (illegal for tourists... SIGH!)

… in Cuba! Exactly - it’s been almost 3 years months since the last time I wrote something down here so it’s high time to finish what I started, don’t you agree? I am writing to you from the aftermath of a 10-month trip but in view of lovely memories it’s all the more pleasant to write about stuff that happened. And A LOT happened down there in Cuba, so let’s get started…

Right here I mentioned my ability to run into the most random situations and this has been overly confirmed during the month I spent in Cuba. I’m talking ancient times, 18 April 2009 A.D….

How to get to Cuba - It’s so simple. I should’ve known. Cuba, Cubana Airlines and e-tickets, it just doesn’t add up. But yet I somehow did assume all would be fine. My flight was bound to leave around 9.30am and somehow I still hadn’t seen anyone from Cubana Air by 8.30. Luckily I bumped into another few people who were bound to be on the same flight, so at least I got some assurance I wasn’t completely wrong. We managed to get in touch with some guy from the airline by phone, who subsequently came to the airport by bike. Easy to recognise him as he

was the only one riding around the main terminal on a bicycle! A short conversation resulted in the following explanation: “As there’s only four of you, we decided not to operate this flight, sorry!” … ehhh, so what do we do now? “Three of you can be rebooked on a flight to Cuba through Panama City”. Right, you feel it coming… “…with the exception of Mr Miltenburg, as he was informed of this situation previously”. WTF!? I asked him when and how as despite many hangovers, I never noticed anything; “I’ll call the office, hang on…” (he calls and reverts back to me) “They sent you an e-mail half an hour ago”. One thing in life I’m strictly convinced of is the fact fighting is for losers, so a simple look from my end seemed to change things: “I’ll have you booked along with the other three on the flight through Panama”. Viva Cubana - here we go!

Alright, so apart from a little intercambio de equipaje (don’t feel like explaining, sorry) we landed in Habana around 1am. Hurray! Next up: getting through customs. This should be simple and straightforward and for tourists it obviously is, however one Cuban guy on our flight didn’t seem to get through. The reason: despite his double nationality he couldn’t take any luxury goods into the country, unless he paid some serious $$$ tax. Being the angel I am (LOL), I decided to be of a little help by saying his bag with luxury goods was mine. The response from customs was simple: “It’s not” . My statement “Wanna prove it’s not?” seemed to be enough to let us through… after which the bag magically disappeared in the arrivals hall, despite my newly-made Cuban friend staying with me. So yes, I smuggled. And although I’m not proud of it, it’s still funny :)

My reward consisted of a free night of sleep; I was taken to the guy’s (Osmar is his name) parents and got to stay in a small Cuban apartment, after a nightly walk through Habana, which is quite the experience in itself! A combination of decaying colonial grandeur, Cubans hanging out and drunk tourists… it’s all in the mix! Down at the apartment I was amazed by the way things looked - it’s nowhere near poverty but it’s the fact the newest piece of equipment in the room dated back to 1975… check the pics to get an idea!

The next day consisted of a short walk through Habana and a take-off to Varadero. Yes - that’s the place full of tourists, outrageously priced hotels and so forth… a place I would definately skip if it wasn’t for a friend staying there! Getting there is half the fun (again!) since there don’t seem to be any buses on Sunday (!?) and the only means of transport - though illegal - is by a 1950s Chevrolet taxi. Yaay!! Huffing, puffing, coughing and bumping (I mean the taxi, not me!) we got to Varadero. While searching for my friend I initially wasn’t let into the resort. The reason: looks and way of dressing in general - welcome to Varadero, though I can’t state they were entirely wrong ;)

Varadero officially has no underground scene (illegal taxis, houses for rent, restaurants, etc) so it took a whole 10 minutes to arrange all of that, which for Cuban measures is a record (in terms of slowness, not speediness). Hurray and respect for my casita - I was right on the beach, in the non-touristy area! The best game to play on the beach was “Find the white guy” (really hard!) and at the same time my friend arranged a resort-wristband for me so I could make use of some 5-star facilities down the road as well. Sweet!

After a little bit of beach (just can’t get enough…) it was time to hit Habana again, in bright daylight this time! What can I say - blabla colonial stuff, old buildings, culture, cigars, old cars (yay!) etcetcetc… you probably heard most of it before so enjoy the series of pictures below!

Next up (Wednesday, that is): How to travel east and meeting a bunch of MacGyvers! Stay tuned!

-René

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Standard decoration, present in every house!

"I'm a Cuban, please take a picture of me!" ... Sure! :)

My first hotel room (Habana)

Just like I said: hello! As some of you might know, Internet in Cuba is just like internet back home… in 1973! So there’s the reason for not posting anything lately, though of course there’s plenty of things to tell! I’ll be back in Guatemala on the 16th, so by then new articles should start pouring out here :) Oh, here’s something I could mention already: My ETA in Amsterdam is… 31 May at 2pm, just in case you felt like showing up / sending death threats / generally annoy me / etc!

Thanks for your patience (or annoyment!) and come back soon!

Regards from Trinidad,

René