11th December. Off to Baracoa We managed to get up in time for our taxi at 6.30 and were even 5 minutes early at the bus station which was deserted apart from one other couple and a guy trying to sell extortionately priced coffee. There was no staff and we wondered what the reason behind getting there an hour before departure was when eventually at 7.20 a couple of people showed up for work. After sorting tickets out we managed to get our luggage booked in an...

5th December Santiago De Cuba We finally arrived in Santiago De Cuba around 12:30 extremely stiff from sitting on a coach for 14 hours and were met by the daughter of the lady who's casa we are staying at. After a 10 minute or so taxi ride we arrived and were shown around the place where we relaxed and promptly fell asleep for about 5 hours!! After waking we set off for some exploring of the surrounding area and tried to find some dinner. Unfortunately by now...

2nd December Back to Havana Early start today with breakfast at the ungodly hour of 8am after which we finished off our packing, cramming Matthew's relatively empty bag with so much stuff for him to take home that he could barely lift it! The taxi Alex had booked for us arrived at 9 and we just had time to get some recommendations for casas in other towns from him before we jumped in to a large people carrier that would take us back to Habana for the same pr...

26th November Trinidad We just about managed to get up in time to catch a taxi to the bus station for 7.15 when we had to check in. The check in process was fairly straightforward and was quick enough that we were able to grab a sandwich and coffee in the café before the bus left. As we settled in for the 6 hour journey we soon discovered that the seats on these buses recline so far that you can't get in or out of the seats behind, of course all the Cubans ...

19th November MATTHEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We eventually staggered out of bed at around 1 pm and managed to get showered and changed just in time for Pablo and his dad to pick us up in his new (by cuban standards) Kia. The drive to the airport took about 30 mins with a couple of wrong turns but we arrived about 15 mins before Matthew's plane landed. Of course with baggage claim, immigration and customs it was still about an hour before he finally emerged. (we had...