All times are good to visit Cuba. The warm and rainy season extends from May to October, but winter (December to April) the high season for tourism in Cuba, where the planes arrive full of Canadians and Europeans in search of the tropical sun. Cubans tend to make their holidays in July and August, so the beaches are more crowded at this time. At Christmas and Easter, as well as in the days ahead to July 26, the anniversary of the revolution, also tend to be very popular.

Cuba festivals and Holidays

During the carnival in Havana, during the month of July parades are held in front of the Capitolio or along the Malecón on Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday. Days of Culture Camagüeyan coincided with the first fortnight of February and the Festival International de Jazz de La Habana takes place every two years, also in February. Takes place in April in Baracoa Cultural Week, and in the Varadero Festival of Electroacoustic Music. During the first week of May is celebrated in May in the Pilgrimage of Holguin, and at the end of June Trinidad hosts the Fiestas Sanjuanero. In Santiago de Cuba Carnival takes place over the last two weeks of July and early August, coinciding with the holiday of July 26. This festival was held in July since 1959, following the end of the sugar harvest. During these ten days, the drum is the king of the party. The Festival of Caribbean Culture convenes in either June or July and in October you can attend for ten days at the events of the Festival of Contemporary Music in Havana, and in late November was organized in Trinidad Week of Culture Trinitaria. The Latin American Film Festival takes place in Havana in December.

Holidays
January 1: Liberation Day
May 1: Labor Day
July 25-27: Celebration of National Rebellion
October 10: Day of Cuban Culture
Note that Christmas Day is considered a public holiday since the Pope John Paul II visited the island in 1997

Cuba Best Places to travel
Havana

It is the largest city in the Caribbean, as well as the center of all that is Cuba. Despite its turbulent history, Havana was little damaged by civil wars and revolutions, and today remains largely as it was built over one hundred years. The city has a slightly decadent atmosphere, continue to circulate through the streets of large American cars of the fifties and sixties, while the layers of paint and plaster of the buildings without shelling stopped. Havana has many examples of Spanish colonial architecture, many of which are being restored. Also has a lively nightlife, with cinemas, historic theaters, cabarets, night clubs and local music that can reach up to drain more haggard tanning. There is less movement and less shelf life than any other city in Latin America with same dimensions. But from the rough brilliance of Old Havana to residential areas damaged the exuberant friendliness of the people shines above all.

Santiago de Cuba

Havana City rival in everything related to literature, music and politics, Santiago de Cuba is considered the "cradle of revolution", because of the role he played in the time to overthrow the Batista regime. Unlike other Cuban towns, has a remarkable aroma Caribbean, due to the influence of French settlers and Haitians who settled there during the nineteenth century. Its distinctiveness is due to isolation from Havana, and his own history is as lively as the capital (the first mayor was Hernán Cortés, the conqueror of Mexico).
Palaces and houses the oldest museums in Cuba, such as Casa de Diego Velázquez and the Museo Municipal Bacardí. In the bay of Santiago de Cuba many homes have balconies with beautiful wrought iron railings, windows and capricious forms narrow external staircases. Santa Ifigenia Cemetery is the eternal resting place of many famous revolutionaries, among them José Martí.

Trinidad

Founded in 1514, Trinidad was a haven for smugglers until the end point of the eighteenth century. They brought gold and slaves from Jamaica, a colony controlled by the British crown, but the situation changed in the early nineteenth century, when a slave revolt in Haiti caused French settlers took refuge in Trinidad. The town prospered until the global crisis of 1857 and gradually the center of industry and the sugar trade moved westward. The legacy of this fleeting wealth produced by the sugar can be seen from the towers of the baroque churches in the Carrara marble floors in the wrought iron and in the ramshackle houses. Worth a visit the Municipal Museum, the largest in the city, and the Pottery Workshop, which continues to work as ceramic techniques. Some of the most beautiful beaches in Cuba are just the outskirts of Trinidad.

Baracoa

Baracoa is situated on a promontory between two picturesque bays near the easternmost point of Cuba, Cape Maisí. Founded in 1512 by Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar, is the oldest European settlement on the island. Until the 1960s could only be accessible to people by sea, until finally completed construction of a road connecting it with the rest of the island. Baracoa in the atmosphere is quite calm, and the abundance of palm trees along the coast gives it an air near the South Pacific. Was once an important Spanish outpost, which showed three strong impressive: Fort Matachín, which now houses the Municipal Museum, Fort Point, converted restaurant, and Castle Seboruco, transformed into a nice hotel.

Provincia de Pinar del Río

Naturalists will enjoy the most western part of the country. Two biosphere reserves of UNESCO protects some of the most charming landscapes of the island, including areas of the Cordillera de Guaniguanico 175 km long, a paradise for hikers. The bed of limestone in the province is clipped into beautiful hills, like those of Viñales, in the whole region there are caves carved by underground rivers, some of which you can practice diving. If you choose to dive into saltwater, Maria la Gorda has some of the most beautiful underwater scenery of the Caribbean.
After a few days of exercise can relieve sore muscles in San Diego de los Baños, a centennial resort with Spanish natural hot springs. After a relaxing soaking, you can taste what is the pride of the province: the most refined of snuff just grown Cuba in Pinar del Rio, with love and care.

Bayamo

It is the capital of Granma Province, the southernmost territory of the country, and little visited by tourists. This region played an important role in the fight for Cuban freedom: Fidel Castro and 81 rebels landed from the Granma (now also called on the province) at Cape Cross on December 2, 1956, and the first war of independence began in the same spot in October 1868 when the Creole landowner Carlos Manuel de Cespedes freed his slaves, formed a militia and invaded the eastern tip of the island. The area presents an abundance of historical landmarks, including the location in which José Martí was killed, and one of the largest protected areas in Cuba, the Great Sierra Maestra National Park, south of Bayamo. This town presents a pleasant and relaxing atmosphere, and makes few concessions to tourism. The population is centered around the Parque Cespedes, a delicious shade containing long marble benches and statues of revolutionary and Perucho Figueredo (who composed the Cuban national anthem in 1868). North of the park is the City Council, against which Céspedes declared the independence of Cuba that same year of the revolution.

Isla de la Juventud

This island is by far the largest of the archipelago of 350 Canarreos. The region is ruled from Nueva Gerona, capital of the island. Much of the land is flat and there is the Lanier Swamp, the second largest dam in Cuba. The Isle of Youth is the least populated region of the country, and most of its inhabitants are concentrated in the north of it. Formerly known as the Isle of Pines, was a hideout of famous pirates like Francis Drake, John Hawkins, Thomas Baskerville and Henry Morgan, and inspired Treasure Island to the writer Robert Louis Stevenson. The local economy revolves around livestock and fruit trees, and its quiet pace of life and their places are intact its biggest attractions. Merely reaching the Isle of Youth, boat or airplane, is already an adventure. In Punta del Este cave paintings are found, and along the coast of the Pirates, below the tip of the French you can enjoy great dive locations. Coral reefs in the east of the island are home to turtles, iguanas and pelicans, which seem to contemplate with indifference the human presence.

Cuba Activities

There are splendid opportunities for hiking and trekking in Cuba, and the itinerary of three days through the Sierra Maestra, from Alto del Naranjo to Las Cuevas, crossing the summit of the country, the Pico Turquino, is an attractive lure for travelers strongest. There are virtually no marked trails, maps and professional guides, but the locals tend to accompany the visitor for a few dollars.
It is also fashionable riding and Baconao Trinidad and ranches are available to tourists. Northeast winds provide superb waves between December and April, but the surfers, because of the impossibility of renting plates, must bring their own. Cuba is endowed with great places to scuba diving, and some thirty centers scattered around the country offer organized dives, courses and equipment rental. Fishing is also very popular.

Cuba History

It is believed that the first humans who arrived from Cuba to South America they did around the year 3500 BC, were hunter-gatherers and fishermen. Later he joined the Taino, who were dedicated to agriculture and constitute a branch of the Arawak Indians. Christopher Columbus sighted Cuba on October 27, 1492, and by 1514, Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar conquered the island for the Spanish crown, which he founded seven settlements. When the chief Hatuey Taino, the resistance leader, was sentenced to die at the stake, he refused baptism and proclaimed that never want to see another Spanish, even in heaven.
Ranching soon became the mainstay of the Cuban economy. Soon large farms were established under the encomienda system, which is to enslave the natives and instruct them on the pretext of Christianity. In 1542, when this method was abolished, only about 5,000 Indians were (a century before the population was estimated at about 100,000). To overcome the lack of troops, the Spanish imported African slaves, which unlike the United States sent, they were grouped by tribal affinities, and certain aspects of their culture remain valid.
In the seventeenth century other European powers began to challenge the dominance in the Spanish Caribbean: the British took Jamaica in 1655, and Haiti fell into French hands in 1697. British troops invaded Havana in June 1762 and occupied for eleven months, during which imported more slaves spread widely and commercial links on the island. In 1817 ended the long monopoly over the Spanish snuff, and quickly became one of the most important products of the country. The sugar industry also has become crucial, particularly from new markets that were created from 1783 after American independence, and in 1791 when the triumph of the slaves in Haiti, which was eliminated as a competitor. By 1820, Cuba had become the largest producer of sugar in the world.
After the liberator Simón Bolívar, led to much of Mexico and South America to independence, the Spanish possessions in the western hemisphere were limited to Cuba and Puerto Rico. The Loyalists fled the former colonies and headed for the island. However, they also began demanding autonomy in the country, albeit under the Spanish flag.
In October 1868, the landowner Carlos Manuel de Céspedes began the first war of independence of Cuba. After ten years and 200,000 dead, the rebel forces were exhausted, and signed a pact guaranteeing amnesty. Meanwhile, a group of exiled Cuban revolutionaries in the United States, organized and promoted by José Martí, began planning the overthrow of Spanish colonial government. Martí, a respected journalist and important poet, was the author of the Simple Verses, which years later would be popularized by the song Joseito Fernandez Guantanamera. Martí and his military commander, General Máximo Gómez, landed in the east of the island in 1895, few days later, the poet, who could be easily identified on their white horse, died in combat. His death made him a martyr and national hero of Cuba.
Gómez and rebel leader Antonio Maceo moved westward, sweeping everything in its path. Spain increased his repression, intern civilians in concentration camps and ordered to perform publicly, supporters of the revolution. After the revolt, the Cuban economy based on agriculture, were ruined, and the Spaniards adopted a more conciliatory approach, giving autonomy to the country, but the people, discontent, refused to accept any solution that does not provide for full independence.
José Martí had been warned repeatedly about the American interest in Cuba, and in 1898 it was possible to verify the validity of their insights. After several years in reading the newspapers (and often false) stories about the second war of independence of Cuba, the American public was fascinated by the island. Although the situation was calm, the press magnate William Randolph Hearst asked his illustrator not to come back right away: "You provide me the pictures and I will provide the war." In January 1898, the U.S. battleship Maine, anchored outside the harbor of Havana, exploded in a mystery. All officers, except two, were outside the ship at that time. The war between Spain and United States had begun.
Spain, weakened by conflict in other areas that had entered into war with difficulty, trying to preserve their dignity in the Caribbean. Spanish troops were defeated by the future president Teddy Roosevelt and his volunteer cavalry, the Rough Riders at the battle of San Juan Hill in Santiago de Cuba. But United States had given preference to the superiority of their forces, and December 12, 1898 signed a peace treaty that ended the contest. The Cubans, including General Calixto García, whose army, mostly blacks, had inflicted dozens of defeats the Spanish, were not invited.
United States, gripped by a law which required that his government respected the self-Cuba, could not annex the entire island, as it did with Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines. Instead, they appointed a governor, General John Brooke, and began conducting a series of public works projects, including school construction and organization of public health. The leaders of the major power retained the legal right to intervene militarily in the internal affairs of Cuba and in 1903 built a United States naval base at Guantanamo Bay, which remains active today.
In the 1920s, U.S. companies owned two thirds of the arable land in Cuba, and imposing tariffs that prevented the development of manufacturing industries in Cuba. Institutionalized discrimination against blacks, and soon flourished based tourism in the consumption of alcohol, gambling and prostitution. The hardships of the Great Depression led to civil unrest, which was violently repressed by President Gerardo Machado y Morales. In 1933 he was overthrown by a military coup, and army sergeant Fulgencio Batista took power. During the next twenty years, Cuba will be ruined and their property passed into foreign hands gradually. In January 1959, the Batista dictatorship was overthrown after a guerrilla campaign that lasted three years, led by young lawyer Fidel Castro. Batista left Cuba and moved to Dominican Republic, taking with him $ 40 million from government funds.
Fidel Castro was named prime minister and began reforming the nation's economy, cutting rents and nationalizing more than 400 hectares of fields. Relations with United States, who were convulsed, deteriorated when Cuba nationalized the oil refineries operated by the Americans. The powerful northern neighbors responded by cutting imports of Cuban sugar and thus mutilating the island's economy, while the CIA began a tortuous plotting strategies to bring down the revolutionary government. Castro, in despair at the lack of liquidity, sought support from the Soviet Union, who immediately paid the price of gold Cuban sugar surplus.
In 1961, four hundred thousand Cuban expatriates trained by the CIA, who supported Batista and took refuge in Miami after the revolution, attacked the island. Were captured immediately and sent back to United States in exchange for medical supplies. A week later, Castro announced the 'socialist nature' of the revolutionary government, which until then had refused. The Soviet Union, always eager to help a Marxist nation (especially if it was so well placed strategically) sent food staples, technical support and nuclear weapons. It is believed that the world never came as close to nuclear conflict during the Missile Crisis of October 1962.
The missiles were shipped back to the Soviet Union and declared the United States embargo against Cuba. Fidel Castro and his economy minister, Ernesto "Che" Guevara, began actively supporting guerilla groups in South America and Africa, sending troops and military experts to advise the socialist rebellion in Zaire, Angola, Mozambique, Bolivia ( where "Che" Guevara was killed) and Ethiopia. The U.S. response was to support dictators in many of these countries. In the 1970s, Cuba began to restrict the dispatch of doctors and technicians abroad because of the many problems experienced on the island. Despite massive Soviet aid, Cuba's economy was in ruin and distress reached its most delicate point in 1989 when Russia withdrew its aid to the collapse of East Europe.
In December 1991 amendments were applied to the Cuban constitution to remove all references to Marxism-Leninism and began economic reform. In 1993 laws were passed that allowed to possess and use U.S. dollars, self-employment and open commercial establishments. In 1994 we introduced a system to convert U.S. dollars into the Cuban peso, and in September 1996 allowed foreign companies to have their own business and manage to buy real estate. These measures prevented the economy gradually becomes carried away by the post-Soviet decline. United States responded by tightening the embargo under the Helms-Burton Act, which ironically strengthened Castro's position.
It has long been critical of the Cuban government for not respecting human rights, at least 500 people are "prisoners of conscience" or for criticizing Castro for trying to organize a political opposition. When Pope John Paul II visited the island in January 1998 ordered both the heavy hand of the Cuban government as the United States embargo. Every year, hundreds of citizens challenging the shark-infested waters separating Cuba from Florida, hoping to obtain U.S. citizenship and support of the wealthy Cuban community who is exiled in Miami.
In November 1999, Elian Gonzalez, six years, whose mother died during the voyage, reached Miami. This fact caused by an unusual custody battle between the child's uncle, grandfather, a Cuban exile living in United States, and Elian's father, a Communist Party member who wanted his son returned to Cuba. Surprisingly, the U.S. authorities determined that Elian should return to his father.
Furthermore, there are several possibilities for the United States Congress to support bills that would relax the embargo, particularly on food and medicine, as well as travel restrictions between the two countries. But tensions are always high on the agenda, as in May 2002 when the U.S. accused Fidel Castro of producing biological weapons, and it included Cuba in its list of the most dangerous countries in the world. Meanwhile, the European Union has put a penalty for violating human rights, and countries such as Mexico and Uruguay have suspended diplomatic relations with the island.

Cuba Culture & People

African slaves brought with them the rhythms and ritual dances to Cuba, where they mixed with Spanish guitars and melodies and then expanded and developed throughout America (United States took in the 1920s to the rumba, to merge with sections of metal percussion and jazz, led to the sound of big bands). The conga was developed by slaves shackled in chains they advanced, while much of contemporary Cuban dance has significant similarities with Afro-Cuban religion, Santeria. Currently the most popular music in Cuba is the son, which originated in the hills of Oriente Province before the beginning of the twentieth century and incorporates instruments like the guitar, the tres (a small Cuban stringed instrument), bass , bongos, shakers and the keys. Mambo, bolero, salsa and chachacha also derived from this tune. The most famous exponents of Cuban music were Pérez Prado and Benny Moré, but continues to evolve and today includes many artists who continue to cultivate quality music.

The most famous literary figure of the country is José Martí, whose life and death as a martyr ideology confer national hero category. Other major writers include Cirilo Villaverde and Peace (1812-1894), Alejo Carpentier (1904-1980), Nicolás Guillén (1902-1989) and Guillermo Cabrera Infante (1929).

Among the film makers need to talk about Cuban Tomas Gutierrez Alea (1928-1996), whose film Strawberry and Chocolate was unanimously praised, and Humberto Solas, whose works have also obtained a major international host.
Painter Wifredo Lam (1902-1982) and Mariano Rodriguez (1912-1990) are among the most important has been the country; Mendive Manuel (1944) is the most prominent painter of today.
After the revolution the arts were actively supported by the government were founded many theaters, museums and art schools, was guaranteed a salary for the musicians and established a national film industry. The government has sought to counter the influence of mass culture by subsidizing U.S. companies to cultural groups and Afro-Cuban theatrical trend.
Historically, Catholicism has been the dominant religion in Cuba, and still is, because at least 40 percent of the people declaring that religion, and about 4 percent are Protestants. The vagueness with regard to institutional Santeria, an Afro-Cuban religion, obscures the fact that a majority of citizens belonging to religious afrocatólica merging more or less, and the number of practitioners has increased since the government ended its official atheism in 1992. True to their culture of miscegenation, Cubans grafted Catholicism have on African religions brought by slaves, it follows the existence of gods equivalents for most Catholic saints. When Pope John Paul II crowned Nuestra Senora de la Caridad del Cobre, patron saint of Cuba, Santeria devotees of the place itself as a triumph because this virgin Ochun identified, their goddess of love and abundance.
The Cuban cuisine is a blend of Spanish and African techniques with local products. Dishes like Moros y Cristianos (black beans and rice) and rice with chicken and picadillo (ground beef with rice) are very common, as well as soups made from bananas, chickpeas and beans. However, there is food shortage in the island, and eating out can lead to long waits at restaurants or in the state dining room at the hotels. Cuban beer is excellent and the cocktails are famous