I collected an excellent reading list on all things Cuban before I departed last winter for a one month trip to the island of dance and dreams. Here are some great books—gotta reads—if you are going or are curious:
Cuba Diaries: An American: Housewife in Havana
Telex From Cuba
Chasing Che: A Motorcycle Journey in Search of the Guevara Legend
Dreaming in Cuba
Welcome to Havana, Señor Hemingway
Havana: Autobiography of a City
Cuba Moon Guide by Christopher P. Baker
Mi Moto Fidel also by the esteemed Christopher P. Baker
Without Fidel
The Other Side of Paradise: Life in the New Cuba
Here is an excellent round-up of the guesthouses I stayed in on my month-long travels through Cuba: Casa Particulars in Cuba—My “A”List”.
You may enjoy reading this excerpt from my story Sugar Granny and Her Dancing Shoes (winner of the Solas Award): Dancing with the Saints in Cuba.
Here is another fantabulous excerpt from Sugar Granny: “Dancing in an Alleyway in Cuba”
If you are interested in travel tips from my Cuban journey, please contact me. I will send you suggestions on activities, hikes, national parks, favorite towns, and casa particulars where you stay in people’s homes. Speaking Spanish is highly recommended unless you go on a tour with an English-speaking guide (which I did not.)
(photos by Lisa Alpine in Camagüey, Cuba)
I enjoy your mix of articles and would love to get your updates on Cuba (not sure I can get myself there with so much already planned, but I am interested!)
Loved the sole food story–Didn’t you have cuy when on the Altiplano? I remember going into a tiny, dirt-floored, two room house where the guinea pigs were running around loose–only thing keeping them from going outside was the higher-than-usual threshold of the front door.
Aloha Susan.
So great to hear from you and get your feedback on my stories. I can send you the list of Casa Particulars I stayed at throughout Cuba. I will also be posting that list plus Cuban Diary stories done during my travels there in future newsletters.
The Aymara Indians I stayed with on the Altiplano were too poor to even have a guinea pig herd in their house. Potatos, potatoes, potatoes. That was it for nutrition. I did see them in other parts of Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. And remember the higher door sill to keep them inside. They usually hid under the bed. Did you eat them grilled whole on a stick? That is the way they were served everywhere I went. Bony but tasty. Slightly smoky flavor….
Where is your next voyage? Lisa
We did eat them barbecued over a spit outdoors and I thought they were quite tasty. Hate to say it, but sort of tasted like chicken. WHen we left the house where we had out lunch, my husband was a bit behind the rest of our small group; when he came out, he was carrying a hand-woven blanket that he had admired that was on our hosts’ bed. He paid them for it, of course, but I just hoped they had additional bedding!
At highlight for me was going out on the reed boats on Lake Titicaca to visit the houses and school, etc on the floating island. I think this has become much more touristy, but when our little group went we were the only visitors. I got a kick out of the fact that the women, in their wonderful bowler (probably not the correct name) hats, did the heavy work of rowing the reed boats (no power boats for me, thank you!).
I think the overnight at the hotel in Puno was one of the coldest nights I have ever spent–with the exception of the snow caves we built in the Sierra.
Next planned trips are to the Mojave as volunteers to pull invasive weeds, and in the summer to hike a “new” Camino trail from Vezelay, FR followed by two weeks on a folk dance cruise from A-Z (Amsterdam to Zurich.)