Camagüey is the third-largest city in Cuba and it was very different to where I had been before - there were many more elaborate buildings and, in many cases, they were much better maintained than in other towns. When I arrived after the long bus ride from Santiago, I went to a fantastic tapas restaurant for dinner (Bodegón Don Cayetano) - quite a pleasant surprise to find an eatery like that there! Later I took a walk around town but it was too dark to appr...

Santiago is the second-largest city in Cuba. The first part of the bus ride from Baracoa to Santiago was on a windy mountain road and the scenery was beautiful - hills and valleys smothered in greenery. Later we passed through Guantánamo city, which seemed like a nice place. In Santiago we had a taxi driver take us around several of the outlying sights in the morning - he drove a cool old car which he had restored himself, a turquoise-coloured Plymouth. First ...

Baracoa is a tranquil little town on the north-eastern tip of Cuba, in Guantánamo province (it turns out that there's more than just an American prison there!). Christopher Columbus first landed there in 1492 and described it as 'the most beautiful land human eyes had ever seen'. Obviously a lot has changed in 500 years (notably the construction of several ugly apartment blocks along the seafront) but even now it is a pretty town surrounded by lush green mountai...

Bogotá was an unplanned stop on my adventure and a pleasant surprise I had to go there in order to fly to Cuba because Cuba has suspended all flights via Mexico due to the flu virus and Bogotá is one of the few places from which I could fly directly to Havana. Colombia has a bad reputation so I wasn't going with high expectations but Bogotá was actually a very nice city (during the day time at least - it felt dangerous after dark). Coming in on the plane it ...

I arrived back in Quito after a week in the Galápagos Islands. I had already booked a tour in Cuba beginning about a week later but I hadn't booked a flight - I had been busy and figured I could sort it out when I got back to Quito. However, while I was away, Cuba had suspended all flights from Mexico due to the flu pandemic that originated in Mexico. Pretty much all flights to Cuba go via Mexico so this presented a big problem... Cuba's national carrier, Cuban...