Unclear rules about visas, none existent hostels and mixed reviews about casas all made planning the start of my travels in Cuba, difficult! If I'm honest that was part of the attraction!

So I scoured the internet looking at sites like www.cubajunky.com and finally started to feel organised. I found out how the 'tourist card' system works, I found dive centres that sounded interesting (even if they didn't have websites) and I even booked my first 4 nights in a casa particular. Then the one thing I hadn't worried about going wrong went wrong! The airline, Areomexico, stopped flying that route. Stopped flying to Cuba at all in fact!

Hopefully my friends at Round the World Experts who I booked the flight through will be able to get me a full refund but that still leaves me with the problem of getting to Havana!

Copa Airways do fly there but via Panama! That's a massive detour, think Manchester to Heathrow but via Berlin!!!

So back to the drawing board. Do I continue to try and get to Havana or use my newly gained ten days in Mexico/Belize?

UPDATE 03/02/2012 -

I have now decided to skip Cuba all together.

Not all that pleased with the decision but Cuba is a popular holiday destination so hopefully I'll do it in the future.

This gives me an extra ten days to explore Mexico and Belize at a more leisurely pace. Also with the refund of roughly £300 it will help my budget a little

UPDATE 14/02/2012 -

Refund received from Cuba flights - £270