Caribbean

March 8, 2013

Cuba Journal: Trinidad a step into Cuba’s colonial past but TURN DOWN THE MUSIC!

SUNDAY, FEB. 24 – TRINIDAD, CUBA I’m up at 5 a.m. with a savage headache. I don’t know whether it was from the seven-year-old Havana Club rum I swilled last night or the small metropolis of roosters that are outside my bedroom door. I’ve heard a steady chorus of “cock-a-doodle-do” for nearly two hours. There […]

March 7, 2013

Cuba Journal: Hemingway villa a look inside Cuba’s most famous ex-pat

Ernest Hemingway's living in his villa outside Havana. Photo by John Henderson

FEB. 23 — SAN FRANCISCO DE PAULA, Cuba I’m sitting on a stoop outside Havana’s microscopic bus terminal wondering if I can get a ticket to Trinidad. For the bus terminal of a major Latin American capital, this place looks more like a coffee shop. The office is the size of a 7-Eleven with a […]

March 6, 2013

Cuba Journal: Pickup baseball game in parking lot a huge hit for Havana visitor

A youth holds their baseball with the cover literally torn off.

FRIDAY, FEB. 22 – HAVANA I saw what a baseball looks like when you knock the cover off it. Here in Cuba, it’s not how hard they hit the ball. It’s what they wind up playing with. That’s all they have. The pre-teen ball player stood next to me in the parking lot of staid […]

March 5, 2013

Cuba journal: The arrival — This isn’t what Karl Marx had in mind

THURSDAY, FEB. 21 – HAVANA I just discovered first hand the problems of the new Cuba. My free breakfast that I was told came with my room is now 3 Cuban convertibles (CUC). It’s only the equivalent of $3 and I don’t mind paying it, particularly when the fried egg, bread basket and fruit plate […]

March 4, 2013

Cuba Journal: Cancun an unfortunate layover on journey to Marxland

A man on the music-filled streets of Havana.

(THIS IS THE FIRST OF A 10-PART BLOG DETAILING MY RECENT TRIP TO CUBA, A BEAUTIFUL PARADISE WITH A TORTURED POPULACE. CUBA IS SALSA POURING OUT OF EVERY WINDOW, FRUSTRATION POURING OUT OF EVERY SOUL AND UNSPOILED BEACHES THAT MAKE YOU WONDER WHAT AMERICA WILL DO TO THIS PLACE WHEN THE CASTROS DIE AND THE […]

November 19, 2012

Old-school Caribbean cool on Nicaragua’s Corn Islands

People are always willing to give you a ride on Little Corn Island

“This is the coolest part of Nicaragua,” said Randy, his braided cornrows darkening with the setting sun. “There is no police, no politicians, none of those rude boys.” No need. Little Corn Island is a little more than a half a square mile. If you can negotiate a couple of rock outcroppings, you can walk […]

February 17, 2012

A Moveable Feast: Yucatan cuisine makes up for Cancun’s buffet of debauchery

About the only thing Mayan in Cancun is the occasional hotel maid. She must look at the Sigma Chi rush chairman stumbling around in a sombrero and wonder what has happened to her proud, 3,500-year-old culture.

Where she finds it is the same place I did: the dining table.

September 16, 2007

Mountain biking in St. Lucia: Blood, sweat and beauty on the grounds of slavery

By John Henderson Special to the St. Petersburg Times ANSE MAMIN, St. Lucia – I’ve traveled a lot through the Caribbean, and what I saw when our boat pulled up near shore here could have translated to a dozen islands. I walked onto a gorgeous, golden sand beach, in a half-moon bay surrounded by palm […]

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