‘Fusion? Its like cooking, mi amor. You throw in some black beans from Cuba, spices from India, BBQ chicken from down–south USA, add a little salsa from here, a sweet potato from there … and what have you got? Fusion, blend, mix, spice, something hot, something new, mi amor, something new!´ Contemporary fusion is a spontaneous phenomenon that´s a key element of Cuban musical life.

Influenced by Cubism and one of the initiators of the Cuban avant-garde movement, she recreates very personal themes, expertly using color in windows, Cuban fruits, tropical flowers and elements that are easily identifiable as Cuban in nature; the marked coloring is generally delimited by thick black lines which are reminiscent of stained-glass windows of 19th century Cuban colonial mansions.

Hip–hop beats first trickled into Cuba in the early 90´s via crackly US radio transmissions, picked up in coastal regions outside of the capital like Alamar and in provinces such as Guantánamo. And then it came pounding in via other musicians and by young walkman–listening, CD–playing, ipod–wearing foreign students and tourists who hooked up, in various ways, with Cuban youth. Rap, Cuban–style, is now very much part of the islands musical culture.

For all Cuba´s deep and long–lived cultural connection with the US, its pretty interesting that one of the latter´s great musical genres—rock ‘n roll—hasn´t really developed on the island as one might have expected. During the early 60´s and 70´s, rock was not well–supported on the island but in the more open 80´s, rock groups began to form, very influenced by heavy metal, trash and grunge, and by bands such as Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple.

The weather—beaten coastal road between Pilón and Santiago de Cuba is remote and dramatic. It takes you past a canvas of lashing waves and cliffs that drop vertically onto the ocean road, which itself lies just yards from the sea. At times the road rollercoasters and the panoramic scenery unfolds below. After hurricanes and bad storms, parts of the road and bridges are lost, making for some hair–raising driving; this is not a trip for the faint—hearted but it’s the best drive in Cuba.

To call Cubans cinephiles is a gross understatement: Cinema looms in the national consciousness. It makes sense, then, that if any major art form offers a vivid, frank window into Cuban society, it’s film. Cuban cinema has gathered accolades from around the globe; a glance at the list below reveals awards and honorable mentions for a great number of films. Before the revolution, Cuban cinema existed in a diluted form controlled by the U.S. film industry.

It would be much too risky to list the “best books” of Cuban literature, considered one of the richest in the Americas. Instead, we prefer to suggest a number of titles that we believe are essential reading in order to gain an understanding of the culture and idiosyncrasy of the Cuban people.

What we now call Timba began with NG La Banda in the late 80´s, but the musical concept at the heart of Timba, combining Cuban music with modern creative songwriting, began 20+ years earlier with Los Van Van.

In 1999, on one of my first visits to Cuba, a friend in Havana asked me if I wanted to go see a “Girl Band.” I didn´t know what he meant, but when I first saw the eight women of Caramelo Son playing, singing and dancing in the shadow of the Cathedral in Havana, I was hooked.

Cuba is made for tropical tourism: the diamond—dust beaches and bathtub—warm seas the colour of peacock feathers; the bottle—green mountains and jade valleys full of dramatic formations; and the ancient cities, with their flower—bedecked balconies, rococo churches, and palaces and castles evocative of the once mighty power of Spain. There are the cabarets to visit, and mojitos and cuba libres to enjoy, and the world’s finest cigars to smoke fresh from the factory, as you rumble down the highway in a chrome—spangled ‘55 Cadillac to the rhythm of the rumba on the radio.

María la Gorda and Cabo de San Antonio International Diving Centres together have the most number and varied diving sites in Cuba. At the tip of Pinar del Río, they are wild and romantically located, with unforgettable sunsets and a string of beautiful long white sandy beaches. The Yemayá dive is very special. You begin with a descent down the vertical Yemayá wall and return via a “mysterious cave” having seen an abundance of fish, giant gorgonian and black coral.

Theatrical performances were organized in the Island as early as the 17th century during the Corpus Christi and patron saint's day festivities then held in every Cuban town. The 19th century was a brilliant period in romantic theatre, while popular or vernacular theatre was very well received by audiences.

The name paladar comes from the Brazilian soap opera, Vale Todo (Anything Goes), which was extremely popular in Cuba in the early 1990s. Raquel, the enterprising protagonist of the telenovela, was a poor woman who moved from the Brazilian provinces to Rio. She worked as an itinerant food vendor on the famous beaches of Copacabana and eventually made it big after setting up her own chain of small restaurants, which she christened “Paladar.”