Archive for May, 2008

Gas Prices Rise in Cuba

Cuba is set to raise gas prices on June 1st by up to $1.50 per litre making the gallon a $6 luxury. Sources say that these increases will also be applied to basic products such as cooking oil, bread etc.

Buying a car in Cuba and what not to do…(like buy one..)

First off, forget buying one of those old American cars. There are so many foreigners with “belief of real ownership” stamped into their neurons that are taken for a ride (pardon the pun) by owners of these vehicles. The adage “tell me what you want to know and I´ll tell you it’s what you want […]

Have Yacht won´t sail nor eat

This buddy of mine who enjoyed the easy life had retired in Havana, had rented and furnished the ubiquous “casa Particular”, put a new $2000 ICE hifi system in his girlfriends brothers Lada and all the other weird stuff retirees with loads of money and little sense do in Cuba while reveling in the single […]

The Cuban Zoo and live food

I had my mother gazing in horror one day when I told her about the stray dog van that drags around a metal trailer with a one-way door on the back. This vehicle seen in places like Marina Hemingway and Playas Del Este is “the end” for stray dogs in Havana. When I say the […]

Havana City Geography

Havana City has an extension of 727,4 sq km (280,8 sq mi) and an approximate population of 2 188 828 inhabitants (1996). It ranks first among the country’s cities regarding population. Havana’s street arrangement is complex: reticular with dense narrow streets towards the oldest sections, mostly the colonial part declared World Heritage, and more organized […]

General Culture

Cuban culture is a combination of Spanish and African traditions. The blending of the Spanish guitar and the African drum gives Cuban music its most distinctive forms, the rumba and the son. Some of its folk music, however, such as the punto, the zapateo, and the guajira, has been greatly influenced by European music. Noted […]

General History

Coming from the very heart of the American continent, from the Orinoco-Amazonas region, arrived the first inhabitants of the island. They called themselves Tainan and were more developed than the other two aborigines settlements: Guanahatabeyes and Siboneyes. Tainans were harvest people and hunters, their population was over 100 000 inhabitants. On October 27,1492 Admiral Christopher […]

General Geography

Cuba, the largest of the Antilles, is an archipelago consisting of a main island named Cuba, the Isle of Youth and about 4,195 keys and islets. Its elongated and narrow shape propitiates circulation of trade winds from the Atlantic, which cool its tropical, humid climate. Only one fourth of the land is mountainous being its […]

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