CUBAN TRANSITIONS

  On August 22nd of this year, 2012, China and Cuba will celebrate the 51st anniversary of their diplomatic ties. These celebrations are very important because Sino-Cuban relations continue being instrumental to Cuba’s socio-economic growth and stability. Cuba was the first Latin American country that established diplomatic ties with the People’s Republic of China on […]

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Part of our tour included a trip to el Cemetario del Cristóbal Colón (also referred to as Colon Cemetery). Our tour guide of the cemetery was an animated Cuban with an interesting English accent who was delighted to take us to various points of interest in the cemetery. As previously commented on, this experience in […]

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Typically, one wouldn’t consider a cemetery to be a tourist sight, but our group of ‘responsible’ ‘academic’ tourists arrived at el Cementerio de Cristóbal Colón in Vedado, La Habana on our tour bus. The cemetery was 140 acres; it was so big that the cemetery was laid out in a grid system with street numbers. […]

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When we exited the Jose Marti airport in Havana, I remember how disappointed I was, seeing our modern-looking bus, surrounded by other post-1950s cars.  I was so confused.  It was all I had ever heard about Cuba, and the first question I was asked when I returned. When CNBC talks about Cuba’s cars… Soviet era […]

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After an excursion in Cienfuegos, those of us who had left the beach were supposed to meet the rest of the group at the botanical gardens.  The bus was at the hotel, so we found alternate transportation—three horses, each dragging a cart and a driver.  We all excitedly piled in, assuming the venture would be […]

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My decision to travel to Cuba with a group of 47 Vassar students and three professors was never one that I felt entirely comfortable with. From the outset I had concerns about the very nature of our tourism. The aspects of voyeurism that are inherent to travel seemed to be amplified; the idea of traveling […]

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While wandering through the seemingly endless number of stalls in Havana’s crafts market, I decided to stop at a t-shirt stand. I was still deciding what souvenirs to get for all of my family, and had finally settled on an Industriales baseball team t-shirt for my dad. Although during the trip I had not been […]

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On our first morning in Havana Vieja, we were guided on a tour by a representative from the Office of the Historian of the City.  We saw the Plaza de Armas and a beautiful cathedral, as well as incredible city views from the Hotel Ambos Mundos.  The historian then walked us through a residential street, […]

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  While exploring Havana in the first few days of our trip, I found one of the most interesting, beautiful, and devastating aspects of the city to be the buildings crumbling throughout most of the streets. On our first tour of the city I was surprised to learn that between two and three buildings collapse […]

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Apart from the lovely cultural, educational, political and social experiences we had in Cuba, the famous rum “Havana Club” played a critical role in our diet at different [an maybe often] times. Cuba was described as the “Isle of Rum” due to its high quality sugarcane, a crop introduced on the island by Christopher Columbus in […]

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