A gentle breeze smelling of the sea blows in through the open window of Café Paris, a short stroll from the old port in Havana Vieja. Outside, crickets sing of dusk and warm summer evenings. Taking a sip of my daiquiri I exchange a wry grin with the bartender as the nightly trade begins to pick...
Amarili befriended us in Baracoa, a small tropical town on the eastern edge of Cuba. Like many locals, she was eager to get to know us gringas. We were cautious at first—Cuban jineteros are easy to come by and hard to shake— but Amarili seemed genuinely interested in becoming friends, no...
Charley Visits Cuba
As the taxi crested the drive of the Brises del Caribe resort in Varadero I was somewhat taken aback at the sight of sudden and rampant construction throughout the grounds. In hindsight, traveling during the hurricane season was perhaps not the best of ideas, but still, you...
It meant skipping class, waking up at 6 a.m. and waiting in line at the train station for five hours, exactly 15 days before our planned trip. A group of friends and I had successfully made off with our bounty- avoiding paying the going tourist rate of $70 for a ticket from Havana to Santiago de...
Memory tends to break apart and recreate itself unexpectedly, like an earthquake- evolving and shaping my world. Each thump, each tremor leads me into a different direction. Tracing my footsteps leads me to a new place filled with distorted images I yearn to put into focus.
As a little girl, I...