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cuba

Sat, 13 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0500

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

Wreaths across america

Sat, 12 Dec 2009 17:38:00 -0500

Arlington National Cemetery, Washington DC

Madagascar

Sun, 1 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0400

Isolated for 165 million years, Madagascar is the world’s oldest island, and the fourth largest. Cast adrift from Africa, its cargo of strange plants and animals has been evolving ever since and most are found no where else on earth. Most famous are the lemurs and bizarre chameleons, but the islands extraordinary plants include forests of spiny trees and baobabs.

The Malagasy people are descended from Indo-Malayan seafarers who arrived along Indian Ocean trade routes. Their staple crop is rice grown on terraced hillsides that would be reminiscent of Indonesia if it weren’t for the villages of European-looking multistory brick houses with shuttered windows and carved balconies.

Madagascar is a country striving to shake off a French colonial legacy, but since independence, has struggled under one incompetent and corrupt government after another, as was evidenced by the coup in January 2009. It is still one of the poorest countries in the world.

the roof of the world - nepal and tibet

Sun, 20 Sep 2009 13:47:03 -0400

For the first time visitor, a trip to Nepal can be an overwhelming experience. Jet lag, culture shock, thin air and smog, streets with no names and gods with many names all conspire to confuse, challenge and astound visitors to the Himalayan kingdom.
Kathmandu. The very name conjures up images of snow covered peaks, snake charmers and mountaineers, holy men and sacred cows. Perhaps no other city on earth has seemed so mysterious.
Arriving in Kathmandu is a full-on sensory assault - an experience never to be forgotten. Through the doors of the arrivals hall lies the most exotic city in Asia.
The streets are crowded, dirty, and some of the most chaotic I have ever seen. Despite the occasional traffic signal, there are no rules. Trucks, cars, motorcycles, bicycles and pedestrians share the road with hardly a hair’s width between them. While walking in the lively Thamel district, I was hit in the back of the arm by the side mirror of a motorcycle.
Kathmandu is called a midieval city and this can be no better seen than in the area of Bhaktapur, which is the third major city of the Kathmandu Valley and the best preserved.
Nearly 90% of the population claims to be Hindu, but in Nepal there is a fine line between Hinduism and Buddhism. These are the two main religions.
As the tallest mountains on earth, the Himalayas are the reason for the two distinctly different climates in Nepal. On the southern slopes, rising air draws moisture from the Bay of Bengal, initiating the annual monsoon. However, because of their great height, they effectively wring nearly every drop of moisture from the clouds leaving nothing for the lands on the north side of the Himalayas and thus the far side of the mountains and all of the Tibetan Plateau are high desert.

Russia

Sun, 17 May 2009 22:30:20 -0400

Russia looms over the rest of Europe with its immense, inhuman size and dark, brutal history. It is the largest country n the world, covering more than an eighth of the Earth’s land area.
Founded in the 12th century, the Principality of Moscovy was able to gradually conquer and absorb surrounding lands. In the 17th century, the Romanov Dynasty continued this expansion eventually across Siberia to the Pacific and eventually to the Baltic Sea, Europe and Asia. Under Peter the Great, Russia underwent important transformations. he single-handedly changed the course of Russian history, turning it into a powerful state ranking among the other European powers. But after a series of defeats the imperial household was overthrown in 1917, and the Communists seized power and formed the USSR. In December 1991, the USSR splintered into Russia and 14 other republics.
Russia is now an exciting place to visit while never relenting on its tediously bureaucratic approach to life.