The PENguin Blog

Monday, January 30, 2017 For the third time that morning, Jim Fitch, our Road Scholar guide, reminded us that we were going to the city of Guantanamo and that it had nothing to do with, was nowhere near, the infamous US military prison about due south. The city was about an hour (55 km) from Santiago de Cuba and is a Catalonian and French colonial town with strong influence from Haiti which is about 100 km to the east. Once there we were treated to a full-on morning of music and dance followed by a visit to the studio of Carlos Rafael (editor's note: thanks to Cindy for providing the name), but we did buy some prints. Our first visit was to La Tumba Francesa Pompadour, one of only three surviving groups practicing this Afro-Cuban form of music and dance. The pictures tell the story and if you are interested there is a Wikipedia essay. This is the director of the Tumba society and our Cuban guide José Antonio. We soon came to realize that José kne...

A note on methodology. Most of the time when we travel and I blog I do so in approximately real time, usually the evening after the events under discussion. Right now I am doing so almost four weeks later and it is a different experience. Rather than processing the day’s events I am recalling them and it makes it a bit harder to edit and choose images. This entry will probably end up with more imagesand text than I usually allow myself, partly because of nostalgia and partly because at home I have a solid quick connection that makes it easy to upload stuff. Comments are especially welcome here and on facebook. 29 January 2017 Sunday was our first full day in Cuba and the first of several days in Santiago de Cuba. Apart from day tours in various places, this was our first experience touring with a group. It would be a new experience and I’ll have more to say about that later. But on that day I think that all of us were more absorbed with taking in the sights and s...