10 reasons to visit Cuba

Edit: We didn't get shortlisted :( but if you are a friend of Tiva or me then we can get you a 15% discount off the Cuban Adventures tours - just get in contact!

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More specifically 10 reasons why my friend Tiva and I should be selected to visit Cuba with Virgin Atlantic and Cuban Adventures. Yes it's a competition and yes I will be expecting you to vote for us!

Help complete our dream! 

I've known Tiva since we were teenagers and probably for about as long as I've known her, she's been wanting to visit Cuba, help complete the dream of a lifetime and give us this opportunity!

We are multicultural, seasoned world travellers. We have both backpacked around the world (separately, 14 years apart!) and been on multiple trips together, but we've never made it to Cuba. I've been blogging about food and travel for years. Tiva is obsessed with history & culture and speaks fluent Spanish (mine is definitely more beginner, but I have done some lessons!)

We are great travel buddies and have been to a dozen countries together over the years. Some of our highlights have included onsen in Japan, a music festival in Spain, skiing in France, mud bathing in Turkey, white water rafting in Fiji, beer drinking in Prague and festa-hunting in Malta.

So why should you vote for us? Well these are the reasons why we want to go to Cuba....

1. Listen to the music!

We discovered Jehro singing about Cuba in a hostel bar in Istanbul.

We also love the music of the Buena Vista Social Club and would love to see the grassroots places where that music originates. 

Old gentlemen in guayaberas playing guitars like they are an extension of their hands, laughing, smoking cigars and telling stories, and perhaps some.....

2. Dancing in the streets of Old Havana

We both love dancing and Cubans are world famous for their salsa moves. We can't wait to learn from the best, on a hot night with live music and free-flowing Cuba Libre! This song by Gloria Estefan always got Tiva dancing in the street and is all about longing for Cuba.

Maybe we could make a Cuban version of this crazy, inspirational and utterly uplifting video:

3. Learn about Cuba's history and culture

Tiva's an archaeologist and fascinated by history and I've got the travel bug, big time – I've just spent the last year travelling the world and blogging all about it. 

We would love to visit some of the oldest colonial sites in the Americas and learn about Cuba's fascinating and turbulent history, from its discovery in the 15th century by Christopher Colombus to its recent relations with the US:

Timeline_of_Cuban_history

4.  Meeting the locals

We know full well that the best way to get to know a place is to get to know its people, and how better to do that than in a homestay? In the last year I've stayed with families in Laos, Cambodia and Ecuador, and its the best way to learn the culture, eat the food cooked 'homestyle' and learn the language - especially if you're playing with the children!

Cambodian homestay last year

With my Quiteño family in Ecuador this year whilst volunteering with UBECI.

We both go out of our way to welcome visitors to London with open arms through Couchsurfing and AirBnB. I had the homestay experience in Cuba highly recommended from other travellers who have done it - and we won't forget some Western products as little luxuries to thank our hosts :)

5.  Eating Cuban Food!

Both of us are keen cooks. I love to blog about my food adventures (both cooking and eating!) and Tiva especially loves Caribbean food – she always has a bottle Mojo in her fridge and her favourite sandwich in the world is a Medianoche. (By the way, London may be an incredibly diverse and international gourmand's city, but you CANNOT get a decent Medianoche here!) 

We can't wait to sit in the Cuban morning sun sipping cafe con leche and sampling a selection pastelitos de guayaba and freshly picked tropical fruit.

Enticing Cuban dishes

We'll try everything - at least once!

6. Vamos a la Playa!

Let's go to the beach!

Cuba has plenty of beautiful Caribbean beaches to relax on, something that we'd both like to take advantage of, although I have to be careful with my pale English skin,Tiva can get away with it with her Mediterrean olive complexion! 

Sun screen? Check! Hats? Check!

8.  Diving: seeing Cuban sea life from under the water

We're both qualified scuba divers (Tiva to PADI Rescue and me just to PADI Advanced) and we would love to explore the beauty of Cuba's wildlife under water.

Me getting ready to dive in the Red Sea in 2013.

Tiva on a dive during her travels

Yep we are water babies :)

8.  Revelling in Havana's historic architecture

Tiva with her professional experience in archaeology, heritage and conservation is supremely interested in the architecture of Havana - a UNESCO world heritage site. Havana has all styles of architecture - from Baroque & classical to the crumbling faded grandeur of the colonial buildings - something to interest everyone and definitely a place to take atmospheric photos!

9.  Pay our respects to El Che

Iconic shot of the Argentine socialist Che Guevara.

Tiva's got some Argentine ancestry so she's particularly interested in learning more about El Che, the hero of the Cuban Revolution.  Che is an important historical figure for the whole of South America so we want to learn more at the Che Guevara museum and visit his mausoleum.

10. Drinking the rum - Cuba Libre!

Rum is a big part of the Caribbean culture and Cuba is no exception. Rum is made out of the sugar cane molasses - the cane is grown all over the region - so rum is made everywhere!

A selection of the different Cuban rums we want to try!

Not sure about Barcardi's claim, but we want to try the Cuba Libre cocktail and the Havana Club rum :)

I'm a big gin fan so I would be interested to see how rum is made and how different flavours are incorporated into it.

Now you've read it all - vote for us! Stay tuned for details! :)

Honkers!

So after bribing our way out of Vietnam (they really aren't flexible on the visas - we had the wrong start dates but hadn't been in the country for more than the allowed 30 days - cost us $50 in backhanders each - that was a very smiley immigration guy and a very unsmiling Katie!), we made it to the clean efficient Hong Kong.

The weather was wet and cool - just like home - they even had a M&S!

We did have a bit of a shock on the cost there though. We stayed in a cute little hostel called the Rainbow Lodge, which was a decent sized 3 bed flat in Kowloon converted into dorm rooms with 11 beds each, for $30 a night (compared to Vietnam at $5!).

It was in a decent location - just a short Star Ferry away from Hong Kong island and with plenty to keep us busy in the surrounding area for the few days we were there, including window shopping on the Honkers equivalent of Fifth Avenue, the Avenue of the Stars and the famous Bruce Lee statue, all with a sprinkling of Santas as it was Santa Con that weekend...

Selfie with the Hong Kong skyline

Avenue of the stars with hand prints

Brucey in classic pose

Santas photo bombing Bruce

Wedding pictures near the Star Ferry terminal

Star Ferry - cheaper than chips at 20p!!

View out of the window

We even attempted Victoria Peak - however it was pissing it down and starting to get dark when we got close to climbing the hill... So we stuck to the English Pub in SoHo instead, taking advantage of the happy hour beer prices, before meeting a couple of girls on a weekend away from Shanghai and going on a bar crawl of the happy hours around Lang Kwai Fong...

With added Santas - yes Santa Con had stumbled over the water to the island by this point!

Moody skies on the boat back

The following morning we met Cat's friend at a Dim Sum restaurant to drink lots of tea and eat our way out of our hangovers...

Then we pottered around Kowloon and it's park - where we found some sculptures and the Hong Kong Heritage Discovery Centre.

Arkward giraffe?!

Cat on top of broken pottery in the discovery centre

What a cool way to display broken bits! (Or should that be lazy way?! After all you don't have to stick them back together!)

We then treated ourselves to a nice pizza dinner before watching the light show across the harbour from the Avenue of Stars, and then Cat headed to the airport on the way to Rio :( 

The light show doesn't really come out on camera...

I'll catch up with her again in Uruguay!

I had one more day left before I flew back to London for Christmas - so a free ticket to the HK Heritage Museum was a good start. 

The Bruce Lee exhibit and documentary were interesting insights into his life and influence on the Hong Kong film industry.

The other exhibits including one of pottery and statues, one about Chinese opera and one of Chinese prints were also interesting - worth the MTR ride out there!

The mists that had been shrouding Hong Kong island lifted just as I was headed to the airport - we never got that view from Victoria Peak...

HaLong Bay cruise

We booked on a 2 night 3 day cruise from our hostel the Central Backpackers in Hanoi.

The first night was on the boat - very nice cabins, such a shame we had to get up at 7am so we didn't get so much time to appreciate them!

As you can see the boat was run as the HaLong Party boat - so the first afternoon we were encouraged to drink lots of overpriced (relatively!) beers and warned any contraband alcohol would incur a $10 surcharge... Er no not paying twice the cost of the alcohol in order to be able to drink it!

On our sail out of HaLong city to the bay it was a bit misty - but we could still see the famous karst scenery that makes the bay a world heritage site:

View from the top deck of the boat

Cat on the top deck of the boat

We visited a look out point at the top of one of the outcrops to get a view of the surroundings and the horde of tourist boats swarming around.

The girls at the top

This beach was meant to be one of our swimming options - right next to the construction site - I think not!

Boat gang on the beach

After the views we headed further into the bay to visit Hang Sung Sot - another cave!

Some weird lighting and sculptural ceilings!

Monkey at the top of the palm tree - apparently

They call this cave 'man cave' imaginatively...

Looks like a crocodile tail!

We saw a beautiful sunset whilst the 1 dryers kayaked around the bay 

Unfortunately we lost 2 of the kayakers - after sitting drinking our happy hour beers and playing jungle speed (look it up - very good game!) it got dark. Then we started getting worried about the 2 kayakers that hadn't made it back. Worried enough to check what the crew were doing and then enough to start yelling for them... Luckily they just got lost and made it back to the boat landing - phew!

That evening went in a blur of drinking games including ring of fire and mushroom (I can explain them if you message me!) and we slept well on the boat - such a shame we couldn't sleep in, it was really comfortable and quiet in the bay.

So the second day we split from the 1 nighters heading back to the mainland and headed towards Cat Ba and our own private island for the second night.

Some of the other boats - such a shame they painted them white!

Sunning myself on the top deck - we had good weather!

We transferred to a smaller boat to head into the bay. It turned out to be seven girls and Anton - lucky boy!

Shrine we saw on the way

The girls modelling the sexy yellow shoes for climbing

So the option to climb off the boat was there - I decided against doing it in a bikini - however Cameo and Carmen gave it a go - jumping off the rocks into the sea (I just jumped from the top deck of the boat!)

There goes Carmen!

Ta Da! Our private island and beach

When we got to our private island we had the option to kayak around the local area - which we took up - even kayaking through an arch in the rocks! 

Then back on the beach there was sunbathing and volleyball to keep us amused until dinner and the drinking games starting again!

Cat going for the shot

Carmen in mid motion

Anton saving the ball!

So that evening we taught the others how to play spoons - much to the amusement of the locals who couldn't quite work out what was going on, but they highly approved of rice wine shots as forfeits!

Next up was the karaoke - our guide Tan started off with the owner and then it was over to us to kill the western songs.... Tan could actually sing and so joined in to save us from too much embarrassment.

Another night's sleep in the dorm to the sound of the waves and we were up early the next day to head back to the mainland :(

Bye bye island

Giant plug - don't pull it or the sea will drain!

After transferring back to the big boat we had a spring roll cooking demonstration that we then got to eat for lunch :)

We were lucky with the weather in HaLong bay at this time of year - we actually got to sunbathe, but it still got cold at night. The haziness of the light changed with the time of the day and sometimes reminded me of the impressionists paintings - truly beautiful - doesn't have the same effect on camera!