To the outside world, life in Cuba has changed little since the 1960’s.  Castro’s isolated island nation remains one of the world’s last great Cold War anachronisms, a stubborn contrarian caught in an ideological no-man’s land between and ever powerful USA on one hand and a long defunct USSR on the other. 

Cuba has been slowly emerging from 50 years of unbending communism over the past decade.  The first signs came in the early 1990’s when the post-Cold War economic meltdown forced the Castro administration into making some free-market concessions.  Limited private enterprise was allowed and with the onslaught of tourism, Cubans were able to let out their homes to foreigners and mingle freely with visitors from the West.

Progress has been slow, but there have been some changes.  City shops now have a greater choice of goods in the shops, traffic has worsened as more Cubans have cars, in 2008 Cuban citizens were allowed access to all tourist hotels.  They had previously been barred from all but the cheapest hotels.  At the same time they were allowed to buy cell phones and other electronic goods. 

With the election of President Barack Obama, the Cubans have regained some hope for the end of the embargo, only time will tell. 

Cuba is a cyclists paradise and is a great way to discover the island close-up and get off the beaten track and meet Cubans eye-to-eye.  Arriving in Havana, we were transported to Santa Clara where the cycling adventure began, making our way to Trinidad via the Escambray Mountains and the town of Remedios and Cayo Las Brujas, then along the coastline to Cienfuegos making our way back to Havana to end the journey.

Havana