Freak weather conditions generated the mother of all swells off Cuba’s Northern coast (between Matanzas and Varadero) early Thursday morning (April 1, 2010) leading to surfing opportunities these local Cubans never dreamed of. In fact the 50 ft waves are the largest ever recorded in the Caribbean and have led some to predict a boom in surfing trips to the largest Caribbean island. An unusual lunar position combined with the perfect ...

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.

The usually lively Plaza Vieja in Havana’s Historical Centre has an added attraction. Located in the former Habana cinema, a modern planetarium opened to the public on the 20th of January to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei’s astronomical discoveries.

Yarobys García, is probably Cuba’s leading climber today, an exceptional climber, and committed to the challenge to do new routes and to the tradition of mentorship. A recent picture I saw taken by him shows a very faded mustard-colored prAna headband being worn by a young Cuban named Yandy working a new project (Nirvana, 8a/8a+). I recognized that headband. Not just one like it. I knew that particular mustard-colored prAna headband. I had photos of it being worn by my girlfriend Laura Rodríguez on El Morro in Havana a decade ago, in 1999.

I met Dixon on my first trip to Cuba, when the Buenavista Social Club was, to me, just some Cuban band. Dixon is from the Buenavista neighborhood in Havana from which this band takes its name. The Buenavista Social Club was actually a pre-revolutionary gathering place for the mostly black neighborhood. It was a creative hub where artists convened, musicians made music, dancers danced and partiers partied.

Most visitors to Cuba bypass Isla de la Juventud—the Isle of Youth. Their loss. Our gain. Then again, this inverted teardrop-shaped island in the shallow Golfo de Batabanó, slung 100 kilometres below the underbelly of Havana province, isn’t the easiest to get to. Nor is it well-endowed with tourist services. Far from it. But its fascinating history, sensational diving, and remarkable birding are among the many reasons to visit this off-beat highly individual isle.

Wild places are strewn like isles within isles. The varied ecosystems spell Nirvana to tourists who appreciate nature. Many areas are buried in thick rainforest brightened with tropical flowers. Other areas are desert-dry plateaus dotted with cactus. In fact, Cuba is sculpted to show off the full potential of the tropics, permitting you to journey metaphorically from the Amazon to a Swiss alpine forest.

Other than the Florida Keys, this is perhaps the best place in the world to catch a big permit on a fly. There are both good numbers of big permit, and superb permit flats to be found in the Jardines de la Reina. Flats that are barely out of the water or just below the surface at low tide are two to three feet deep on a high incoming tide—perfect habitat for the largest permit. Many of these flats are bordered by deep water—exactly the same kind of conditions you see in the Florida Keys …

The lilights go down... as a troupe of near-naked showgirls in silver thigh-high boots and glowing chandeliers atop their heads appears at the back of the auditorium. Their see-through fishnet body suits drip with silver baubles that dangle like still-wet tiny fishes, and they strut down the aisle like sex washing up from the sea.

For American travelers, Cuba remains one of the last tantalizing forbidden travel destination spots in the world. While Americans may not want to visit some other countries, they can go almost anywhere with relative ease. Officially, though, Cuba is off the American traveler’s map, or so it seems. The laws regarding Americans’ travel to Cuba are complex, requiring patient scrutiny, a high tolerance for bureaucracy, and a long wait for those who wish to visit Cuba under officially sanctioned pretenses, which are shrinking exponentially each year.

It was super hot outside and it felt so nice walking on the streets at night wearing so little. The soft wind felt like it was caressing my skin. The heat mixes with seduction and the mojitos are so alcoholic that they make you tipsy. It’s hard to walk and not smile at life.

For most of us, the 24th of December—Nochebuena, or Christmas Eve—is marked with a quiet family dinner. The only interruption might be the sound of Christmas carols at the door. This was probably once the case in the old Cuban town of Remedios. But in the 1820s, everything changed. A young priest named Francisco Vigil de Quiñones had noticed that in the chilly mornings of the last days of the year, his congregations were dwindling.

Callejón de Hamel is one of the shortest streets in the city, barely 200 meters long, delimited by Aramburu and Espada streets. It owes its name to Fernando Belleau Hamel, of French-German descent, who smuggled weapons during the American Civil War and who in the early 20th century, settled down in Havana, at this dead-end street which now bears his name. He opened a foundry and built houses for his workers. The alley’s first fame came during the 1940s and 50s when the home of trovador Tirso Díaz became the gathering place for a group of singers and composers—friends of Ángel Díaz, Tirso’s son—who were the founding members of filin…

Thousands of species of orchids add to Cuba’s natural beauty and may be found from in the 4 corners of Cuba from the plains and low hills through the mountain ranges of Guaniguanico (including Viñales), and Guamuhaya (central Cuba), and the Sierra Mastra. One of the most special places with 178 species is the Nipe-Sagua-Baracoa massif which is also home to Lepanthes silvae, one of the world’s smallest orchids, standing barely 5 mm high.

Liguus tree snails have unique designs and colour-patterns making them exquisite masterpieces of Nature. Liguus lives in semideciduous and evergreen forests, the mogote vegetation complex, the coastal scrubland, shrub spinous lands, gallery forests and the secondary vegetation throughout the island, except for the province of Guantánamo where no updated reports exist.

For the past eight years I’ve been carrying on a secret affair- one that I knew could result in imprisonment and a heavy fine. But I’d fallen for Cuba and fallen hard. My winters had been a flawless cycle of skiing Teton powder and rock climbing on spectacular overhanging rock walls in the Viñales Valley of Cuba. Knock on wood. After 37 years of climbing, this was as good as it gets. I was even paying for my tropical vacations by guiding pricey “eco-tourism” to my Cuban climbing areas.

Standing on a portion of the former wall that once surrounded and protected the old city and over a century later, the Saratoga Hotel is as magnificent and radiant as it must have been in its first days. The intervening years, however, have not been easy. In 1881, Palacios sued the builders for delays in the construction schedule. In turn, the engineers lodged a complaint concerning additions to the building work not included in the original contract. By 1888, with no agreement reached, the nearly completed building was beginning to deteriorate without ever having been occupied other than by “lowlife characters, tramps and ladies of pleasure.”

One year after Fidel Castro had come down out of the Sierra Maestra Mountains to claim triumph for his revolution, he is to have declared, “The Revolution was the work of climbers and cavers.” Did the living icon and tireless voice of the Cuban Revolution really mean to credit the success of his revolution to climbers and cavers?

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.

So much to see, so little time. You're best to concentrate your focus on Habana Vieja, where the main plazas are chock-full of museums and historic sites. Don't miss Plaza de Armas, Plaza de la Catedral, and Plaza Vieja, where Taberna La Muralla serves delicious home-brewed beer. Around Parque Central, the Fábrica de Partagás tobacco factory will give you 'Tobacco 2001' on the cigar-rolling process.

Driving west into Pinar del Río province, skip the autopista in favor of the Circuito Norte coast road. You'll need a good map to avoid missing the turn-off for Las Terrazas, worth a visit to see this experimental rural community with artists studios and nature trails. Your goal is Viñales, a sleepy and delightful village surrounded by mogotes - fantastic limestone formations.

There's no avoiding the long, boring drive via the autopista to reach Cienfuegos. Get an early start. At Jagüey Grande turn south for Peninsula de Zapata, stopping for lunch at Restaurante Colibrí, at La Boca. Fill up on gas here and tour the crocodile farm before continuing to Playa Girón, site of the Bay of Pigs landing. The Museo Playa Girón will excite military and history buffs. From here, the route via Yaguaramas leads via impoverished yet photogenic old-world farming communities.

Beat the heat for a stroll around Cienfuegos' Parque Martí before heading east along the Circuito Sur. The forested Sierra Escambray mountains drop down to the dancing teal-blue Caribbean Sea - an impressive backdrop for the roller-coaster ride to Trinidad, Cuba's foremost colonial city. Just exploring the streets here is reward enough.

The drive to Sancti Spíritus is a scenic stunner. Pass by Sancti Spíritus town and follow the Carretera Central eastbound. Stop for a traditional country lunch at Finca Oasis (12 miles east of Ciego de Ávila) and arrive in Camagüey in mid-afternoon. The "City of Plazas" is well-named. Plaza San Juan de Díos is the place to be at sunset. Next day you can explore the other key plazas. Camagüey is a large city.

It's a full day's drive to Santiago de Cuba, passing through Las Tunas and Bayamo, where Cuba's independence struggle was spawned. After lunch at the bodega-themed La Sevillana, take a couple of hours to explore around Parque Céspedes then continue via El Cobre, to visit the Basilica. Arriving in Santiago de Cuba, check into the Hotel San Basilio, in the heart of the colonial quarter (for more sophistication, the Meliá Santiago reaches toward international par).

Head east to Guantánamo and just east of town, turn north for the Zoológica La Piedra - an amazing "stone zoo" with representations of animals from around the world. Further along, steel yourself for La Farola, the thrilling mountain road that leads to Baracoa, the oldest city in Cuba. Here make Hotel El Castillo your base. The views from this former castle are spectacular, and the restaurant is the best in town.

Set out early for Holguín province via the badly denuded coast road. Allow four hours to arrive at Cueto, just before which turn south for Sitio Histórico Birán, Fidel Castro's birthplace; the original homestead has been recreated in idealized form. Retrace your steps north, continuing via Banes - a superbly scenic drive - and the Chorro del Maita archeological site.

Head out early for Holguín, with time to stroll historic Plaza Calixto García and Plaza San José. Then, head west along the Carretera Central, turning north at Guaímaro to reach the Circuito Norte coast road. You'll arrive at Cayo Coco in time for dusk and the spectacular flight of flamingoes returning to their nighttime roosts.

Suitably rested, return to the Circuito Norte at Morón and head west to Remedios, another colonial gem worth a hour's stroll. If you're traveling around year's end, time your visit for the Christmas Day parranda, when the entire town explodes in firework fever (book accommodation far in advance). A spectacular side-trip is to Cayo Santa María, which adds two hours round-trip but offers sublime sands and seas.

Cuba, “the key to the Gulf” and “pearl of the Caribbean,” has its shores washed by the Atlantic Ocean to the North and the Caribbean Sea to the South. Cuba is in fact an archipelago which includes more than 4,100 small coral cays and islets that emerge from an insular shelf of almost 70,000 square kilometres and contains over 200 bays and 300 beaches.

Cuba is made for tropical tourism: the diamond-dust beaches and bathtub-warm seas the color 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.

Construction of the first stretch of the Malecón began on 6 May 1901, with beautiful lampposts placed along the sea wall. However, the battering of huge waves during the following Cuban winter caused the original design to be replaced by another, this time with no attachments to the wall. The works were finally completed in 1959.

Stroll down the Malecon. Havana's famous promendade is the place to be for everyone from practicing musicians, courting couples to trendy Havana youth as well as the obligatory fisherman. A cool sea breeze and magic view make this a must.

El Templete's the jewel in Old Havana's culinary crown. Its Gallego chef´s Arkaitz Etxarte sophisticatedly simple take on traditional ingredients gladdens the hearts of Havana foodies, who flock to El Templete for his mango duck and chateaubriand accompanied by delightful side dishes and a short but wellchosen wine list. Puddings are Lucullan, too—no—one should leave Havana without experiencing the chocolate brownies (Bohio de Chocolate).

The tourist card is valid for 30 days (except for Canadians who have 90 days) and may be extended for a further 30 days (90 if you are Canadian). To renew the tourist card you need to go to an immigration office with CUC 25 worth of stamps (buy at a Banco Metropolitano) and your documents. This is a straightforward process but can take time, especially in Havana, due to long queues. (Addresses of Immigration offices).

To call HAVANA from outside Cuba you dial: +53 7 XXX XXXX

Cuba is an extremely safe country with respect to the rest of the world and especially other developing countries. Violent crime against foreigners while not unheard of is extremely rare. (There have been a few incidents in recent years so it does happen but these have tended not to be random attacks but long drawn out incidents involving women / drugs etc).

Cuba operates a dual currency system with the Cuban Convertible Peso (CUC) and the Cuban Non-convertible Peso (CUP or national currency) both being legal tender. You cannot buy or sell Cuban currency outside of Cuba.

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.

Havana is the Mecca for cigar smokers and one that is open all year round. Knowledge, experience, glamour and authenticity are all present in abundance on the tropical island that is home to the best cigars in the world. Cigars in Cuba are not just a part of the economy but are an intricate component of the country’s history, culture and everyday life.

Cuba has recently sought to diversify its travel portfolio away from a purely sea and sun travel market. A number of recent hotel developments, including the prestigious 5 star boutique Saratoga hotel, the Grand Iberostar in Trinidad and the beach resort of Occidental Royal Hideaway in Cayo Ensenachos have expanded the choice available to premium and incentive travelers. A direct Virgin Atlantic service has also increased flight options.

On a hot summer night, a little riverside amphitheater thrums with a thousand voices, the sweaty, cathartic chorus reaching deep into the surrounding woods. While young punks and pretty debutantes perch in giant jacarandas for a bird’s eye view of the onstage party, Cuba’s future IM their friends about what they’re missing. And what they’re missing is historic.

The attraction of Varadero’s waters has been increased fourfold by the sinking of a number of boats. Barco Patrullero, built in 1945, was a Russian—Koni class, patrol ship, used by Cuban navy in the 1980’s. In the late 1990’s it took on another role as an artificial reef. It’s a fascinating ship to visit. Ninety-seven metres long, with its hull at a depth of 28 metres, it still has its guns, surface-to-air missiles and smoke dispensers. Finning over the deck, it is easy to let your imagination run riot, and transport yourself back into the cold war era, when suspicion surpassed all reason, and countries sought to protect themselves from their ideological enemies.

No one can question the femininity of the city of Havana. The great Cuban poet Nicolás Guillén discovered her “sonorous hips” and many have succumbed to her flirtatiousness and elusiveness, attracted by an irresistible smile. It is a smile of nearly seven kilometres that reveals the city’s character shaped over almost five centuries: outgoing, noisy, multicoloured, although with intervals of withdrawal and even adolescent-like shyness; open to all influences, heterogeneous and eclectic, determined to be herself, and not like any other; proud of her age and at the same time ready to take the risks of modernity. It is Havana’s Malecón or sea front drive: welcoming, revealing, enticing.

Baracoa, Cuba’s oldest city, is perfect for independent-minded travelers seeking somewhere just a little bit different. It has an atmosphere all its own. One as haunting in its fantastical unfamiliarity as it is enchanting in its beauty. The town’s setting seems fit for a Hollywood epic. Baracoa spreadeagles below a dramatic flat-topped formation—El Yunque (the anvile)—that floats mysteriously above the surrounding hills, forming a great amphitheater flowing down to the Bahía de Miel (Bay of Honey).

A shadow flits across the flats. “15 metros, 2 horas,” (15 meters, 2 hours) barks Machito, the guide. The fisherman, now on his third visit to Las Salinas in Cuba, whips his lightweight rod into action, landing an almost perfect cast. The smudgy looking little fly that resembles a tiny prawn plops perfectly on the calm water, 3 inches in front of a greedy 5-pound bonefish. Suddenly, the reel screams, and the bonefish is off like a bat out of hell heading for the mangroves.

One mid-eighteenth century day in London, the Venetian painter Canaletto found himself a bit strapped for cash and decided that drastic measures had to be taken. Whipping out a handy blade, he sliced in half a rather long landscape he’d painted, to sell both halves separately. Now one half of Chelsea from the Thames hangs in Blickling Hall in Norfolk. The other half is in Havana in the Museo de Bellas Artes.

In Havana, the local “Industriales” team are gods. They are the New York Yankees of Cuban baseball. Whether celebrated or loathed, there’s no getting around the fact that team Industriales is the island’s most successful franchise. Point proven by the fact that in the post-revolutionary Castro era of baseball, the Industriales have reigned supreme and have practically had a monopoly as the winners of most of the Cuban World Series classics. Losses to arch-rival Santiago de Cuba in the finals for the National Series championship over the past two seasons evoke as much discontent as do housing shortages, low wages, and a two-tiered currency system that sees Cubans paid in one currency (Cuban pesos) and shop in another (convertible pesos).

The Hotel Nacional de Cuba has seen mobsters and missiles alike during the more than 70 years that it has served as one of the world’s great celebrity hangouts, a role it continues today. The five-star hotel, which opened Dec. 30, 1930, quickly turned into a meeting place for everybody who was somebody, with entertainers like Frank Sinatra, Ava Gardner, Cesar Romero, John Wayne, Betty Grable, and Fred Astaire hobnobbing in a property that also drew such famed athletes as boxers Jack Dempsey and Rocky Marciano and baseball great Mickey Mantle, and heads of states, among them Winston Churchill.

Holguín was the place to visit the workshop of organ makers, in business since 1886, and the Malecón in Havana was a great place to attend some amazing jam sessions or ‘peñas’. But how did I land into a live recording in a music studio, you may ask? On one of my daily strolls, I dropped into Julia Valdés’s visual arts gallery in Old Havana. The man who was looking after the place asked me why I was visiting Cuba. He gave me his card and told me he was a cultural promoter, after which he picked up the phone and then gestured to me I needed to speak with this person. That person was no one less than Bobby Carcassés…

Like all the best fishing stories, mine began in a bar. One evening in Havana, I was introduced to a man called Stewart, an affable commercial manager in a London building firm. It turned out he was part of the English team in this year’s Hemingway fishing tournament. In fact he was the only Englishman on his boat, and he was taking on recruits.

The restoration of Old Havana is internationally acclaimed as one of the world’s most innovative and exciting projects of urban renaissance. It is all more the remarkable for the context in which it is taking place: Cuba’s ongoing struggle to establish itself as a political and economic force to be reckoned with.

Visitors to the Cuban capital frequently remark on how busy the city seems to be, how the life of the city is inescapable and either delightful or irritating, depending on their disposition and expectations as a tourist in a socialist Caribbean island. The fabric of the city is often crumbling, yet Cuban life goes on with a kind of cheerful self-absorption and confidence despite (or because of?) the lack of material trappings and ‘advances’ that we are used to in western cities.

Beneath the centuries of multi-coloured limewash in Old Havana’s eighteenth century mansions, archaeologists often discover elaborate and beautiful mural paintings in which an exquisite powdery blue predominates. This has come to be known as ‘Havana Blue’ and the colour is still used all over the city, gently echoing the triumphant azure of the Cuban sky.

However does one find the best beach in Cuba? There are an awful lot to choose from and most of them are fabulous. The longest and most famous is Varadero on the north coast, where you would be hard put to it to walk the length of the beach in a day, especially after all the cocktails that you somehow find yourself drinking en route.

Las Terrazas is the weekend retreat for overheated Habaneros, especially in the summer. Who wants to go to the beach when the sea’s the temperature of soup and the sand’s too hot to walk on? While only an hour out of Havana, it feels a million miles away from the city. It’s a UNESCO biosphere, so great care is taken sensitively to develop the area and a reasonably steep entry fee is charged to prevent the place becoming too overrun with day trippers.

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.”

Today is July 4. Time to reflect on independence. Freedom. Patriotism. What it means to be an American. In a sense, the country I call my homeland was founded upon the cherished value that the right to travel should be protected. The idea is implied by U.S. laws, which permit Americans to travel with greater ease and to more countries than perhaps any other government in the world. It is also inspired by the dramatic journeys of the first colonists who traveled long distances to establish one of the world’s most radical social and political experiments.

We had been nervous for days as the boat was hauled for repairs at Peninsular Marine on Stock Island near Key West. Dream Weaver was showing some wear and tear after the first part of this voyage, the 2,000 miles from my home in Burlington, Vermont, just 45 miles from the Canadian border. I had been traveling south for almost five months, and now the challenges of the final short leg to Cuba were directly ahead. First, there was the Gulf Stream. Sailors don’t cross when the wind is out of the north and butting heads with the north-flowing Gulf Stream, kicking up square waves sometimes called “elephants.”

The journey to the Queen’s Gardens has been, as always, long and tiring: but the charm of these islands, which are covered with mangroves and inhabited just by iguanas and tortoises, is this—here time doesn’t exist; everything has remained the same as 500 years ago, before the arrival of Christopher Columbus, and the difficulties to get here makes the Garden’s a paradise for a few people. And every time, it’s in some way a return home: mi casa flotante entre cielo y mar [my floating house between the sky and the sea], as they call here the floating platform where we are lodging.

Diving in Cuba is the dream of every skin diver: about 50 miles away from the Southern coast, in the middle of the Caribbean sea, there is an archipelago formed by hundreds of cayos, small isles of various dimensions, rich in mangroves and palm trees that stretch over extremely white and absolutely virgin beaches. The Queen’s Gardens—Jardines de la Reina—so named because of their beauty by Christopher Columbus, cover a total length of 200 km from East to West, marking a coral barrier (the third largest in the world) which gives shelter to an uncountable number of species of fish and all kinds of coral.

After a journey nearly 24 hours long, finally I’m in Júcaro. I hope Gualberto, the guide that has accompanied me on my last trip, has been informed about my arrival: I wasn’t able to call him, because here, in this remote corner of Cuba, obviously, phones don’t exist. Luckily, there he is, on the quay, beside the Explorador, the boat that will take us to the Tortuga.