Cuba

Ok so the first time I wrote this all up the PC ate it, so here goes attempt number 2. So what to say about Cuba? It´s a strange place. It´s a wonderful country but I think to really understand it you would need to live there for about 2 years. There are so many rules for everything and it was very bemusing to us. However the people are wonderful and it´s a beautiful place.

So anyway, after a day exploring Havana we headed off in our ´guagua´ (bus) to a place called Soroa, stopping off to swim in natural springs. The whole area around Soroa is a big UNESCO protected wildlife reserve, and the impetus (as with much of Cuba) is on the environment. We even ate at a veggie restaurant! Probably the only one in Cuba. It was great. At Soroa we stayed in little huts on a hill. We found massive spider legs in the air-con unit which was a bit scary, but no living specimens luckily for me! We also hiked a massive hill there with some friends Sarah from Germany and Stacey from Oz. We got a bottle of rum for about 3GBP which caused Lewis to almost offend everyone. Very funny - they all forgave him later. He also tried to get into the mirror of our room, thinking it was the bathroom. Haha. Before the rum incident we had drinks by the pool with live salsa music and Chris and I even learnt a few moves.

After Soroa we headed out to a Vinales, which is like the old west of Cuba - real cowboy territory. We stayed 2 nights at homestays, so we were guests of Cuban families. It was cool. We toured tobacco farms (smoked a few cigars), and rode horses. We explored caves too. Lots of cool things to do. At night they had an awesome salsa club. I got pressured to go up for the ´contest´ where they embarass the gringos, and would you believe it I won! Lots of mojitos are required for salsa but it´s great fun!

After Vinales we visited the Robaina plantation. Mr Robaina is the only person in Cuba except Fidel to have his own cigar brand. We met the main man and had our picture taken. Even got some free samples.

Next stop was Maria La Gorda (fat Maria) which was just tropical paradise - golden sandy beaches, palm trees, all of that. We have some snorkelling pictures. We got some rum even cheaper on the way from a rum factory (about 1.5GBP for a massive bottle) and using its influence we climbed palm trees for coconuts! Chris was the only once to achieve success! He was so happy he juggled them.

Finally we had one last night in Havana. All in all it was a really cool tour, and the group we were with were really great people. Hopefully we will stay in touch!

Sorry that´s a bit rushed but I´m almost out of time here! There´s so much more to say but that will have to wait until I see some of you.