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| May 2009 | Golf Revolution Activities |
by Charles Briscoe-Knight |
First there’s the wind. This might not be a ‘links’ in the strict sense of Turnberry or Ballybunion, but it has the same unpredictable breezes. Architecturally, Varadero is probably best summed up as tropical parkland meets with Florida lakes, via a piece of beachfront links. On a generally flat, but sometimes undulating piece of ground called the San Bernardino crags, are the two loops of nine holes re-designed by Canadian les Furber. They are interspersed with salt water lagoons that connect directly with the sea. The front nine can be considered slightly easier, as 10 to 18 require a decidedly cautious piece of course management. |
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| Aug 2008 | Fishing in Cuba Activities |
by Joe Prem |
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 where most of the world record permit have been caught. It is not uncommon to pole up to these flats and see a half a dozen permit tailing |
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| Feb 2008 | The ideal 3 week itinerary Activities |
by Christopher P. Baker |
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. 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 rhumba on the radio. |
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| Mar 2008 | The Orchids of Cuba Activities |
by Greta Publications |
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. |
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| Mar 2008 | Cuba, the landshells Paradise Activities |
by María Teresa Gené |
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. |
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| Mar 2008 | Outed by The Wall Street Journal Activities |
by Armando Menocal |
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.
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| Feb 2008 | Rock climbing in Cuba. (the new Yusemite) Activities |
by Armando Menocal |
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? |
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| Jan 2008 | Ten best dives in Cuba Activities |
by Eric Testi |
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. |
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| Bee hummingbirds Activities |
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Among the more than 300 bird species found in Cuba is the bee hummingbird, the smallest bird on the planet and which is only found in Cuba and only in parts of the country at that.But, Pupo Ross cautions, even the eagle-eyed birdwatcher shouldn’t count on seeing one, as bee hummingbirds – which feed on honey and insects — are very rare. |
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| Oct 2007 | Bonefish heaven in Cuba Activities |
by Mike Mareki |
A shadow flits across the flats. ‘Quince metors, dos horas’, (15 meters, 2 O’clock), 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, three inches in front of a greedy five pound bonefish. Suddenly, the reel screams, and the bonefish is off like a bat out of hell heading for the mangroves. |
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| Jun 2007 | Viva Cuba Beisbol Activities |
by Byron Motley and Kit Krieger |
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 islands 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 the 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 once currency (Cuban pesos) and shop in another (convertible pesos). |
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| Jan 2008 | The Orchids of Cuba Activities |
by María Teresa Gené |
The first described species of Cuban orchids were those exported to Europe during the Spanish colonization, but it was not until the 19th century that the island was explored in search of orchids. These studies culminated in the publication of Catalogue of Cuban Orchids by Cuban botanist Julián Acuña Galé in 1938. |
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| Dec 2007 | Cuba's underwater treasures Activities |
by Diana Williams |
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. |
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| Jan 2001 | Meeting the whale shark. Activities |
by Luisa Sacerdote |
The journey to the Queen's Gardens has been, as always, long and tiring: but these islands' charm, covered by mangroves and inhabited just by iguanas and tortoises, consists in 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 them a paradise for few people. And every time is in some way a return home, "mi casa flotante entre cielo y mar", as they call here the floating platform on which we are lodging. |
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| Dec 2000 | The Queen's Gardens: the last paradise. Activities |
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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 kayos, small isles of various dimensions, rich in mangroves and palm trees that stretch over extremely white and absolutely virgin beaches. The Queen's Gardens, 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. |
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| Nov 2000 | Dancing with the sharks. Activities |
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After a journey nearly 24 hours long, finally I'm in Jucaro. I hope Gualberto, the guide that has accompanied me on my last trip, has been informed about my arrival: I didn't have the possibility 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. |
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| Hotels in Cuba | Places in Cuba | Restaurants in Havana | Entertainment in Havana | Things to do in Havana |
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| Jan 2010 | Cuba: A Decade In The Life Of A prAna Headband Activities |
by Armando Menocal |
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+). |
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