Cuba Travel Guide

The island of Cuba was found by Columbus in his first trip, and is the oldest and most spectacular spanish colony in America. Its tropical weather is not overwhelming, because of the refreshing sea winds. There´s sun 330 days per year, and an average temperature of 25.5°C. Havana, the capital, lies in a small northwestern creek of the island.The city enjoys the greatest cultural heritage of Cuba. Cuba is not only famous for its handmade cigars, beaches and the rum, but also for its museums, palaces and its historical importance.

Among the things that the traveller will find while touring by Cuba, it sure can count on the taste of fine tobacco smoke and rum impregnating all the island. For any visitor who arrives at its coasts, Cuba appears like a full paradise of enchanted places, like the coffee plantations in Pinar del Rio, the mountain ranges, the colonial beauties of Old Havana, or the more than 4000 keys and small barren islands scattered in the blue .

The typical Cuban gastronomy is the result of the interaction of the Spanish, African and Asian influences. The Spaniards took to the island diet vegetables, rice, oranges, lemons and cattle. The African incorporated foods like ñame -a kind of tubercle-, to which were added the existing in the island, like yucca, gumbo, sweet potato and maize. All these elements were fused with time in what today we denominate Cuban kitchen. By now, the basic products in the elaboration of their dishes are rice, beans, yucca, corn, banana and pig, as well as a rich variety of tropical fruits.

The Cuban nightlife is concentrated in Havana, the Varadero beaches and in the tourist resorts. Salsa dancing is one of the most known aspects of the country, and the visitors can take lessons with a Cuban professor or shake their hips to the rhythms of clubs like the Tropicana and the Varadero Mambo.

In Cuba, all the sport events are for free. The national sport is baseball, although other ball sports like soccer are practiced.

Some of the watersports that can be practiced are diving, snorkelling, windsurf, fishing and surf. The best places for it are Varadero, the Keys, Pinar del Rio, Guardalavaca, and Isla de la Juventud, from where leave excursions to the coral barrier.
Although it is possible to practice trekking in some faraway regions, it’s necessary to have an official permission, and is also advisable to contract a local guide. In the Sierra Maestra range is the highest peak of the island, Turquino Peak, in addition to some interesting footpaths. The Mountain range of Cubitas, near Camagüey, it’s characterized by his rivers that run among cliffs, whereas the Escambray mountains, near Trinidad, contains a very dense tropical forest. The Mountain range of Guaniguanico, in the north of the island, offers a spectacular landscape of rivers running among mountains and limestone caves.
Another possibility is horse riding, offered by some tourist farms in Baconao and Trinidad.

The typical Cuban products, those that are impossible not to take are, without doubt, Cigars and Rum. Considered like the best of the world, some of the main Cigar marks are Cohiba, Hoyo of Monterrey and Punch. It’s advisable to buy them in official establishments, asking for the purchase bill. It’s also possible to acquire them in the airport stores and the main tourist hotels. It’s not recommendable to buy them to the street salesmen, since they are not of so high quality. Good rum can be acquired in the island, of which it is recommended to buy marks non commercialized outside Cuba, like Santiago, Paticruzado or Legendario.

The International Theatre Festival and the Latin American Cinema International Festival have made of Havana a centre of cultural festivals world-wide recognized. But it’s also possible to found a lot of less known afro-Cuban dance, Literature, ballet and other arts festivals, plus the small events made in the different provinces.
The most interesting Cuban Carnival is celebrated in Santiago of Cuba by July, and it’s plenty of luxuriant floats parades that transport the carnival queens, percussion bands parades, and stages distributed all over town with salsa bands playing all night. The most interesting is probably the congueros parades, a unique characteristic that defines the carnivals in Santiago. The carnivals celebrated in February in Havana and July in Camagüey, are also interesting, although are a little smaller.

Source : Sprachcaffe-cuba.com