THURSDAY, FEB. 28 – HAVANA My taxi in Cienfuegos stopped to pick up a ride before we headed up to Havana, and I didn’t know if it was a home or a vandalized construction site. It was a small one-story house which didn’t appear to have a front door or any glass on the windows. […]
WEDNESDAY, FEB. 27 – CIENFUEGOS, CUBA Never judge a person by first impressions – unless, of course, it’s a hot Cuban babe whose first question is “Where are you staying?” – and don’t do it with cities, either. When we dropped off Marco here on the way to Trinidad, I thought Cienfuegos was a dusty […]
TUESDAY, FEB. 26 – TRINIDAD, CUBA I just sat down in a sweaty Viazul bus on my way to Cienfuegas. The Cubans call the bayside city “The Pearl of the South.” It could be the Hades of the South and I might go. I couldn’t handle one more visit to Trinidad’s Casa de la Musica […]
MONDAY, FEB. 25 – TRINIDAD, CUBA Here’s one aspect of Cuba that beats the hell out of all the other communist countries: It sure has better beaches than Eastern Europe. Ukraines go to the Black Sea – on July 15. That’s about the only time it’s warm enough. I made my first venture to a […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
(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 […]
“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 […]
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.
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 […]
