Sunday, February 01, 2009

Caribbean Salsa Revloution and Lemonade





I have been in Cuba.



I think I have been longing for this visit for 5 years now and when it's finally over I'm very glad I've done it but beyond that I'm shattered. And Im having a hard time explaining why. Maybe you have to have expireienced it yourself?? I don't know.

I had a hard and great time at the same time and I've learned more than I ever could imagine ( e.g. that Cubans is one of a kind)

The things I have done have been worht all the money spent, all the sweat sweated and all the tiers cryed.


Things I regretI did'nt do before:

Never tried harder to learned to love the run

Never tried harder to rythmnise my body

Never tried harder to express myself in spannish


Same thing here, My brain is stuffed with to many stories about my stay that I can not conclude it to this page, I have never been any good in writing and I dont intend to start trying today either. So I go with the picture story this time aswell.


And once again, Cubans is one of a kind.





My salsa teacher and me. She is the only one I can do the good salsa with. For now.


Havana, the Macelon


Havana. Plaza de la Revolution


Me and Pepe at Alejandrinas house. He tried to do the salsa with me. At this time I was not able to move to anything lationoliking dance though..


I joined austrailins and americans for a drink on new years eve. Super nice people.


New years eve ended like so many other nights, at a street party..


Havanas most sad dog


Random Havana picture



Ice cream bar. Not the famous one though. In this one there was no line :)


Havana university


Macelon in the afternoon, filled with people fishing and kids bathing. And turists watching..



A nice firestation in Havana. This one is for pappa


Random Havana picture


alejandrinas family tought me 10 piece domino


50 years of revloution was celebrated in Placa de la independencia. I was more amazed of the youngsters dancing than the concerts...



Random picture Havana


Random pictura Havana. But I do have a great story about the small cars though. you can always ask me later


First and last que when shopping at a grocery store


China town Havana



Dinner party with french, americans, austrailian and cubans.


tourist area in Havana


tourist area in havana


Alejandrina


A day at the beach


Pepe, Tobi, Alejandrina and me at the beach


Tobi. A Hassan replacer



A backyard in Trinidad. Cuba is all about non stop music 24/7


A hike outside of Trinidad


witch ended up at a rfreshing waterfall


Colourful and world heritage city Trinidad



Trinidad


Trinidad. I suppose only the center was a world heritage spot..


Trinidad


I just cant keep away from the animals, so cute! Trinidad.


Up a hill in Trinidad, a great place for sunset spotting



Sun set over Trinidad


I ate at a different family from the one I stayed at in Trinidad. My family did not have a kitchen.


Trinidad



Beach outside trinidad




Beach outside trinidad


an other sunset



I stayed at the second door from the left. trinidad


My house, but I stayed upstairs, it was totally fine. trinidad


When the bus never showed up I hitch hiked with 20 other cubans on the back of a truck, on the wayback it turned out that there were more tourists waiting for a ride back..


La Farola. The only way to Baracoa, it first opened up 1960. Baracoa was isolated for 450 years, and aslo the first city of Cuba.


The busdrive to Santiago was very long...


In Baracoa I had a roof terace all by my self. I had a great wiev.



My view in Baracoa


Baracoa bay


the architecture in Baracoa is totally different from the rest of Cuba. And so is the food.




Baracoa is also more muddy place.

cocoa plantations. Different from what I thought. The cocolate just pops out of the tree!


After 4 hours rough hiking I was finally there, at the top El Yunqe. It is actually a mouuntain


Proud hiker. Only 3 more hours to go down...


finally finished



Another hike


I went from the place I took this picture to the other side of that peninsula in one day.. Many caves and lots of climbing to get there..



Baracoa street from above

Beach outside Baracoa

dinner on the beach

Poetry and music gathering outside casa de la trova

Baracoa. up a hill trying to spot Haiti. Did not see it..

It came to a surprise for me that The passion fruit is actually yellow..

On my hike to the other side..

Still Baracoa. This is the day I got sick. I did'nt took any pictures for 4 days.

4 days later I was in Havana, very tired and exhausted, so I went to a movie. At least the movie was a great ending of my trip.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Once again: Speachless!!! Vi har mycket att ta igen när vi ses....
Ta hand om dig tills dess ;)
Stora kramar
Josse

Anonymous said...

Hej hej, jag igen! Var bara tvungen att gå in o kika lite mer på bilderna... här snöar det slask just nu så jag kände att jag behövde lite varmare o mer exotiska vibbar!!

Anonymous said...

jag hade lackat ur totalt efter att ladda upp så många bilder på bloggen! kul för dej att du orkar...

Anonymous said...

Amazing pictures, as always!!
Lovely lovely lovely

Songlines Cuban Music Tours said...

Hi Antligen

Have you heard that Songlines World Music Magazine has just launched a guided music tour of Cuba.

The group meets in Havana, whizzes off to Baracoa, then slowly travels back to Havana stopping off at key cuban music locations including Havana, Trinidad, Santiago de Cuba, Baracoa, Camaguey, Cienfuegos. The guide for the tour is Philip Sweeney aclaimed author of 'The Rough Guide to Cuban Music', so you will be getting an inside guide to the music of Cuba.

If you want to find out more see Songlines Music Travel Cuban Music Tours. The tour covers travel expenses in Cuba only, so you need to arrange your own transportation to Havana and back.

Hope this is of interest to you.

Timjim (for Songlines)