Cuba was hit hard by the collapse of the Soviet Union. “I landed in a world that resembled the aftermath of a natural disaster or war,” wrote in an account of arriving in Havana in 1993 by Marc Frank in his excellent book Cuban Revelations. The journalist had […]
While most tourists head to beach resorts (and often don’t move from their sunbeds for a week or a fortnight!), travelling around Cuba can be really rewarding. If you do your research you can find you have a pristine white beach to yourself, as I found near Trinidad […]
Clambering up the 45 metre tower at Manaca Iznaga – where the wooden staircases creak in the wind – you are rewarded with a wonderful view. From the top platform, the open Valle de los Ingenios seems to stretch for miles. Today, many families live in this area […]
Che Guevara follows you around in Cuba. His stylised visage pops up on everything from t-shirts and billboards to bank notes and postcards as you travel across the Caribbean island. But nowhere is Che – the second in command to Fidel Castro during the Cuban Revolution – more […]
If the Museo de la Revolucion is to be taken at face value, the Cuban Revolution of 1959 was nothing short of a miracle for its people. Rid of dictator Fulgencio Batista, the displays described how within months of the new government taking over Cubans enjoyed lower rents, […]
After a busy day exploring Havana’s historic sites, there is little more relaxing than enjoying a mojito on the expansive colonnaded veranda and the well-kept lawn terrace of Hotel Nacional. Palm trees bring welcome shade for your ringside view of the Malecon – the Cuban capital’s 9km open […]
For the buildings that do still stand, the long process of restoring Habana Vieja has begun. City Historian Eusebio Leal Spengler – who has been working in the city since 1982 when the district gained World Heritage status from Unesco – set up a holding company called Habaguanex […]
Rather than the cobbled streets, lively squares and colourfully painted colonial era homes and public buildings from tourist brochures, my first experience of Habana Vieja (old Havana) was that of dilapidation. I walked through narrow, sewage-laden alleys with crumbling buildings that looked like they could topple at any […]
Towering 25-storeys high, the Habana Libre hotel is a distinctive landmark on the Cuban capital’s skyline. Although a short taxi ride from the cobbled old town – a Unesco World Heritage site – it is still a popular place to stay for tourists visiting this beautiful Caribbean island. […]
Guest blog by Oliver Clark On my first visit to Sydney I was keen to see what remained of the city’s early colonial past, after all this was where the first European settlement of Australia began back in 1788. I had little time for research but assumed that there […]
Past In The Present 