Cuba - Cuba Libre
 Cuba conjures up images of Che Guevarra, Castro, cigars, sugar cane and rum, carnivals and unexpected delights.
A recent two weeks’ tour with Explore Worldwide gave us a variety of experiences and vistas. This Caribbean island’s heritage is colourful, its monuments heroic and its history fascinating. Cuba has evolved with a strong personality from its Spanish colonialism, slavery, revolution in the 50s and the U.S. economic blockade. Nowhere in Latin America will you find more handsome colonial era buildings.
 Havana is restoring many of its shabby, but elegant buildings in its historic quarters. Few modern structures exist, but countless gems of architectural significance abound.
Highlights of Havana include the Malecon, the seafront promenade, El Morro, a 16th century fortress, museums and theatres and the Capitolio Nacional, the ornate version of Washington’s Capitol.
We travelled in the rainy season (May-October), but faced only two short tropical downpours. Dense sub-tropical forests cover the humid lower mountain slopes and many splendid beaches of white sand dot the coastline. Cuba’s population comprises a fascinating mix of white, black and mulattos. Live Afro-Cuban music can be enjoyed in most towns. We experienced a balmy evening listening to the Buena Vista Social Club in Havana, as well as costumed bands outdoors in Trinidad. No commercial billboards line the highways, only patriotic messages like” El combate es su honor” and “Independencia o muerte (death)”.
 We enjoyed the quieter, slower pace of rural western Cuba and its pretty countryside. The strange mogotes, overgrown limestone outcrops and mango and tobacco farms were highlights. In central Cuba we visited the Bay of Pigs museum, basic but interesting. Santa Clara, the site of Che Guevarra’s grandest military exploit contains his enormous statue and tomb towering over the city’s Plaza de la Revoluccion. Trinidad with its cobbled streets and russet-tiled houses is a charming, colonial gem and a World Heritage site. Also in the heart of Cuba, we meandered in bicitaxis through the deliberately irregular patterns of streets intended to confuse attackers.
 The eastern end of the island’s natural beauty included our hike to Che’s and Fidel’s mountain hideout, la Commandancia, in the rainforest of the splendid Sierra Maestra National Park. Our “Russian massage” ride in old Soviet trucks to stay in haciendas in Los Topes de Collantes N.P. was fun. There we walked through unspoilt forests and valleys, swam under waterfalls and in rock pools and ate spit-roasted pig.
Afro-Cuban and mulatto vibrant culture is more evident in Santiago de Cuba. Its gigantic, heroic monuments in the Plaza de la Revoluccion were most impressive.
 The sunset cannon firing ceremony at the nearby El Morro fort, including outdoor seafood dining with remarkable views over the Caribbean Sea was a night to remember.
Cuba is colourful, fascinating, varied and verdant, but note our guide’s daily pronouncement” Everything is possible, but nothing is guaranteed”. True to his word, we found empty ice cream freezers at major highway stops, limited choice of fruit and vegetables and few quality souvenirs.
Christine Moore.
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