Cuban Soup of the day

“Ajiaco Oriental” is our Cuban soup of the day.

Ajiaco Oriental sopa

“Ajiaco Oriental nuestra sopa del dia!”

This typical Cuban soup is cheap, delicious and nutritious!

Ajiaco Oriental is so named because it’s from the orient of Cuba, down in the region of Santiago de Cuba and Baracoa! It’s so good and popular that it’s made the length and breadth of the island in markets and at home.

Market Havana Cuba

First you need to go to the farmers market and buy your ingredients!

No meal in Cuba is complete without meat and beef is the key ingredient in this dish! There are some standard ingredients and others you can throw in to your taste and budget!

Garlic Havana

**Major supermarket in the UK now  have a general selection of Caribbean foods but in more remote parts of the British Isles some of the ingredients will have to substituted for other similar vegetables. 

Peppers&Onions Havana

 

Ingredients

Beef of some sort –  Carne de res
Yam –  Yuca
Sweet potato –  Boniato
Pumpkin –  Calabaza
Taro –  Malanga ….possibly not available in UK, it’s a root tuber.
Potatoes –  Papas
Plantain green or ripe –   Plátano verde o madura
Sweet corn –   Maize
Peppers –   Ajies
Onions –   Cebolla
Mexican Coriander or Coriander (fresh)  –   Cilantro o Culantro
Garlic –   Ajo
Lemon juice –  Limon (in Cuba its Lime)
Tomato puree –  Puré de Tomate
Chopped tomatoes  –  Tomate en torsos
+ Plus any other vegetables and flavouring spices and herbs that you like!!!
A little oil + Salt and pepper!

Tomatos Havana

In Cuba the majority of the people have basic utensils and basic cooking facilities, so this is a “one pot soup”

Yucca Yams Havana

Choose a nice big pot with a lid if it has one!

1. Cover the bottom of the pan with oil and add finely chopped onions and crushed garlic and cook gently to extract the flavours and soften the onion.

2. Turn the heat up a bit and add your shredded beef next!

Once the meat is browned, turn the heat down again and begin adding the other ingredients well chopped up into small pieces.

3. Let it all simmer adding more water as needed. As the vegetables begin to soften and break up you will be delighted to find a thick tasty broth!

Cilantro Mexican Coriander Havana Boniato Sweets Potatoe Havana

Join us in Cuba for Ajiaco Oriental this year

A Cuban Snapshot 7 days tour.

https://encompasstours.com/tours/a-cuban-snapshot-7-days/

Mi Cubita 14 days tour

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Calabaza Pumpkin Havana

 

 

 

 

Lolo: Artists Flourish in Cuba

Food and other commodities can be hard to come by in Cuba but Art is abundant and gives us all hope!

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We recently visited a well know artist’s studio in Matanzas. Cuba’s sculptor “Lolo” or Osmany Betancourt Falcón is one of Cuba’s flourishing artists.He is a local to Matanzas and his studio can be found on Calle 97 known as Narvaez facing onto the San Juan river.

MatanzasRioSanJuanCuba

He was busy at work when we arrived, up a step ladder on a huge piece supported by various pieces of wooden scaffolding and ropes. In the back ground a radio played some lively tunes and one of his colleagues with whom he shares his studio was working on some glazes. We wandered around admiring various pieces and looking at his array of tools and machinery for moving large works.

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We chatted to Lolo when he took a short break to wash the rich red clay off his hands, and we asked him about his studio and his wonderful creations! Materials can be hard to come by in Cuba and so artists tend to work with what is easily available locally. Lolo likes to works in clay, and it is sourced from Pinar del Rio the neighbouring province. Then he likes to casts his pieces in Bronze and wood is another favourite material he incorporates.

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For the piece he’s working on now, he plans to send it to the US to be cast in bronze.

Asking Lolo where we could see his works, he told us there was one in the Ceramic Museum in Havana. This is a small museum is on Calle los Mercaderes just off Plaza Vieja, entry is free and it’s well worth a visit!

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Lolo has had some recent fame winning first  prize in Matanzas, in the 11th Summer Exhibition 2011 with a piece entitled “Sargento” an installation in enamelled ceramic, metal and wood.

He has won other prizes in the Bianual Amelia Peláez Ceramic Competition and in the Roberto Diago Salón. He has also had pieces of work on show in Canada, Holland and Germany.

MatanzasCubaOsmanyBatencourtArt1

The government actively supports “the Arts” and over the last 53 years of revolution, Cubans artist have enjoyed support and opportunities that others have been denied. Art of all types and forms is everywhere and accessible, mainly free of charge or very cheap for Cubans. Tourists pay a lot more. Artists have an almost free expression in music, dance, sculpture, and painting, the resulting works interpreted by the viewer.

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Art schools are over subscribed and its a career  that the younger generation are drawn to. The arts attract tourists and sales to tourists bring extra cash bonuses.  If you are talented and produce popular works you might get a chance to travel with a show or get a contract to perform abroad. The young have a thirst to see the world beyond Cubas shores!

Why not book a holiday in Cuba this year?

The Castro days are numbered and change will steamroll this fragile and unique island.

Cuban Snapshot 7 days  https://encompasstours.com/tours/a-cuban-snapshot-7-days/

Mi Cubita 14 days     https://encompasstours.com/tours/mi-cubita-cuba14-days/

 

 

 

Varahicacos Cuba. “the other Varadero”

Varahicacos Cuba. “the other Varadero”

Varadhicacos

Foreign tourists to Cuba either flock to Varadero’s white sandy beaches or give it and its glut of “all inclusive” hotels a wide birth!

For visitors who don’t like beach hotels, Varadero is still worth a visit to see the dramatic lifestyle contrast with the rest of Cuba. This narrow strip of beach lined land is bursting with Hotels, and amazingly, still more hotel giants are being constructed cheek by jowl. You can only try to imagine what it will be like in ten years time! As no Cubans actually live in Varadero, workers are bussed in and bussed out. The only Cubans enjoying Varadero are the ones selling goods on the streets! This is a pricey, tourist only zone!

Varadero beach

So why come to Varadero?? Well luckily there is more to Varadero than the lovely beach if you are prepared to go and look for it. Put it on your itinerary now before it gets completely squeezed out!

VaraderoBusTour

If you take the “Hop on Hop off beach tour bus” you can get a few glimpses of the sea and, an almost ariel view of the developments on the peninsula. Among the crowded hotels in down town Varadero, dive centres and fishing opportunities are abundant! There is a dolphin centre where shows are put on and it’s possible to swim with the dolphins too. Still in the down town area you find Jonson Park, originally a private residence now a botanical garden with lake and other family attractions in a 9 hectare site.

Continuing on, up the peninsula, the Varadero Golf Club at Mansion Xanadu is 18 to 19 hole golf course surrounded by lush green palm trees and makes a refreshing break from the built up area! Golf carts and equipment are available to rent and an 9 hole option or a course of lessons can be yours at a price.

TheotherVaradero

Just beyond this and opposite “Reserva Ecologia Chaplin” you find “Boat adventures” a centre offering a range of water bourn tours exploring the mangroves!

Keep going on the bus till you reach the area called “Hicacos” and the “Reserva Ecologia Verahicacos”, our destination today!

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It’s a small reserve but it is an attempt to preserve some of the original flora fauna and vegetation currently to be found on the peninsula. At the entrance there are some well presented information installations in Spanish and English describing some of the highlights and aims of the reserve. Pay your entrance fee and a poor map is provided! But it suffices! Underfoot its sharp coral rocks, so good foot wear is advisable. The paths are adequately marked and the whole self guided tour lasts about an hour to an hour and a half! Butterflies and lizards skit off into the undergrowth, while caves, ruins of the salt works and giant cactus are the main physical attractions of the reserve. It’s nice to think about how this part of the island looked before the first building arrived!

GiantCactus

Your “hop on hop off” bus ticket last the whole day so there is plenty of time to complete the whole beach tour and return down town for a cocktail!

Why not come and see Cuba for yourself?

A Cuban snapshot 7 days tour

https://encompasstours.com/tours/a-cuban-snapshot-7-days/>

Mi Cubita 14 days tour.

https://encompasstours.com/tours/mi-cubita-cuba14-days/>

Varadhicacosinfo2

Life on the Malecon!

Life on Havana’s Malecon; Cuba!

The Malecon is undoubtedly the most popular social scene for young and old in Havana! It’s a “must do” outing for any tourist, and one of our favourite haunts!

The wide wall separating the sea from the city is the “Malecon”, a versatile venue for all kinds of meetings and spontaneous rendezvous!

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On one side the ever present rhythm of the ocean, on the other a wall of crumbling colonial buildings that are slowly being restored nowadays! Running between these two, the main road is never very busy.  Cars are a luxury few can afford, but this road is the main artery joining old and new Havana and a string of taxis trundle along in both directions. The Malecon stretches on beyond sight and the constant breezes from the sea make it a cool and refreshing place to meet. Who could resist it!

Malecon Havana Cuba

Malecon Havana Cuba

Some days the waves are high and the sea surges over in crashing salty cascades flooding the road and the passersby, but those days are few!

All day fishermen come to cast their lines, some with only a coil of nylon fishing line and other with more sophisticated equipment! Any fish caught will supplement the family diet and well worth spending a few hours waiting for!

Malecon Havana Cuba

As the sun reaches its highest point and the temperatures soar, T shirts are pulled off and children and youths leap into the water to cool off and enjoy a refreshing dip!

Mothers arrive with babies and toddlers and look to the horizon in search of the infrequent ships that bring goods from Venezuela and China into the port! Many point across the water in the direction of Miami and recount stories of brothers and sister, uncles and aunts, who left and have never been back!

Malecon Havana Cuba

It’s an ideal spot for young lovers to have not-so-secret rendezvous and sit smooching in the sun and sipping a can of “tu cola” and dreaming or a future together.

As dusk falls and in the early morning joggers come out in the cool of the day and pound up and down, dripping  trails of sweat that evaporate as soon as it touches the baking ground.

Finally, as night falls and the stars shimmer invitingly,   small groups of hungry musicians search for opportunities to serenade any tourists who might spare a few pesos in exchange for a popular song.

Musicians of all sorts come out to practice and music drifts in the wind!

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In the darkness of the night it’s a place to party! A bottle of Havana Club is a cheap fiesta that can be shared among a group of friends who have nowhere else to meet….

The Malecon is a hot spot! By day or by night it’s the most popular venue of the city! It’s the place where ideas can be exchanged and plans made!

Why not come and enjoy it for yourself! We run tours to Cuba throughout the year!

Cuban Snapshot is a 7 day tour

https://encompasstours.com/tours/a-cuban-snapshot-7-days/

Mi Cubita is a 14 day tour

https://encompasstours.com/tours/mi-cubita-cuba14-days/

 

Day of the Barber

Dia Del Barbero y Peluquero!

Cubans, like most of us, enjoy making much of celebrations and special days!

Here in Europe we are about to celebrate the biggest festival on our calendars with huge commercial build up over the last three months, over eating and drinking etc. It’s almost impossible to get away from the razzmatazz and present buying frenzy of Christmas! How different is the Cuban experience where religion was banned 53 years ago at the time of the Castro revolution of 1959!  The laws have since been relaxed, but religious events are only marked by a very few people and do not hold the huge significance and commercialism that the majority of the Christian world puts upon them.

 

During December there are some Christmas decorations displayed in some private houses, hotels and other tourist destinations, but for most people it’s just another day. Havana has a wonderful baroque Cathedral in the old city and here you always find an enormous Christmas tree just outside the main doors and a large nativity scene constructed in the Cathedral Plaza. It’s quite an attraction for tourists and locals alike and the midnight service on Christmas Eve sees the Cathedral full to over flowing!

The 27th of December however is a day marked by all Cubans, as it is the “dia del barbero y peluquero” and will be a day of holidays and fiestas for all the hard working barbers!

The “day of the barber and hairdresser” was created in 1946 in memory of a certain Juan Evangalista Valdez Veitia. Juan Evangalista was born on this day in 1836 in Villa Clara and died in 1918. He worked as barber, journalist, poet, historian and revolutionary, and as you can see from the photograph, he sported a fine moustache! It was in his barbers shop that plans were discussed and strategies put in place during the War of Independence 1895-1898, and for this activity he is revered!

These days barbers and hairdressers are as plentiful in Cuba as ever and as a tourist you can enjoy a somewhat old fashioned style shave or trim with cut throat razors and scissors. The machinery may be low tech, but the high techniques, expertise and dedication by your barber are a match to any swanky London salon! Cubans like to chat and gossip and barbers worldwide are renown for cultivating an ambient conducive to doing exactly that and are always a buzzing local.

 

If you are visiting Cuba at this time of year remember can be quite cold and breezy at night so make sure you pack a shawl for evening walks and outside dining, especially if you have just had your hair cut or your beard shaved off!!!!

Enjoy a holiday in Cuba with our popular holidays “A Cuban Snapshot” https://encompasstours.com/tours/a-cuban-snapshot-7-days/

“Mi Cubita” https://encompasstours.com/tours/mi-cubita-cuba14-days/

Our groups are small and our attention personal!