Lois Browne's Blog

I’m still looking over my photos and thinking about some of my experiences in Cuba. Cuba is everything people say it is. The architecture is phenomenal, Havana bustles, the classic cars are a real treat both to drive in and to watch on the road. I walked the Malecon, Havana’s sea wall, a number of […]

I’m watching the news today about the Canadian dollar reaching a new low, something I admit I didn’t think about when I was planning my trip to Cuba. This is a very practical post — the costs of vacationing in Cuba in light of the plummeting Canadian dollar, especially if you’re not going on an […]

One of the things I was really looking forward to was hearing Cuban music. I knew that I wouldn’t be going out to clubs, but I had read there were lots of opportunities to hear music outdoors so I was ready for that. I did hear some great music, but a lot of it wasn’t […]

One of Havana’s great pluses is a double-decker hop-on hop-off bus that tours the city. Tickets are $5 for the day. It’s a great deal even though it isn’t perfect. You have to tell the driver if you want to get off; there are only a few places where it always stops. One of those […]

I’ve written a bit about Havana and Vinales, a small town to the south west of Havana that is popular with tourists, largely because of its nearby national park. Here are some pictures I wasn’t able to post before. There will be more in the next few days — about Cienfuegos, music, casas particulares (bed […]

I´ve been eating less since I arrived. There´s not a lot of opportunity for snacking. I was just looking for a restaurant for lunch today. I sat down at one that was more Cuban than some I´ve tried but after looking at the menu I just couldn´t bring myself to commit to a meal. The […]

Vinales is a small town in a valley near a national park so it attracts a lot of tourists for hiking and the scenery. My host in Havana arranged a taxi for me from Havana to Vinales cheaper than the bus although I wasn´t clear why. I found out. The driver, who picked me up […]

I´ve tried asking people such as my hosts or taxi drivers what their expectations are now that the U.S. is changing it´s attitude. The difficulty is that most of these people speak very poor English and my spanish is mixed with English and Portuguese. I´m never sure what I´m saying. Once I can make myself […]

I took the last bus from Parque Central in Havana a couple of days ago. Four local women got on at the same time and got off along the Malecon. A few minutes later a vehicle passed by and someone shouted a messge to the bus driver. He pulled over, went up top where the […]

This is my second day in Havana and I´m still in the adjustment stage. I´ve had a lot of experience adjusting to very different cultures and a lot of them have been much more extreme than Cuba. I´m in Hotel Parque Central at the moment using their computers and I only have 39 minutes of […]