Cuba & Costa Rica Blog
About this blog
Written by Cuba and Costa Rica expert Christopher P. Baker, this blog will update readers on life in these two diverse and exciting countries.
Recent Posts
- Last blog post on Costa Rica and Cuba
- First-ever group motorcycle tours of Cuba successful
- Cuba’s Mariel port readying for Panama Canal expansion
- Musings on wildlife encounters on Costa Rica’s Osa Peninsula
- Cuba’s Steam Trains puffing their last gasp
- My top five thrilling activities in Costa Rica
- Cuba’s fun February festivals include Harleys, Books, Cigars
- Five top volcano viewing experiences in Costa Rica
- New road along Costa Rica / Nicaraguan border mired
- Cuba’s Hotel Campoamor at Cojímar to be restored?
- Cuban revolutionary Celia Sánchez honored in new book
- Christmas challenge for Costa Rica’s sexually abused girls
- Costa Rica opens Chinatown in downtown San José
- David Soul films Hemingway’s car restoration in Cuba
- National Geographic Expeditions receives license for Cuba tours
Costa Rica’s bats outnumber all other mammal species
Did you know that this year is the Year of the Bat?
Actually 2012 is the second year of a two-year-long "Year of the Bat" global bat species awareness initiative initiated by the United Nations Environment Program, the Convention on Migratory Species and an amalgam of bat conservation groups, including the Latin American Network for the Conservation of Bats.
With their especially adapted webbed forelimbs, these creatures—which belong to the Chiroptera order of mammals—are the only mammals capable of true flight, just like birds only better. (Flying foxes, which are actually squirrels, and certain species of opossums, can glide for short distances, but not fly.) NO!… bats are NOT rodents, which is a distinct order of mammals. more >>
Cuba Absolutely website relaunches with ultimate restaurant guide
I’ve always admired Cuba Absolutely, an online publication that in years past was also published as a stunning, high-quality glossy magazine.
I’ve been a regular contributor to Cuba Absolutely more of less since it's inception.
Last month I sat down with the publisher in Havana to bash about ideas for future stories. Meanwhile, he introduced me to a fabulous hole-in the-wall Spanish-style bar-restaurant, El Chuchallero, on the east side of Plaza del Cristo, in Habana Vieja. more >>
National Geographic introduces exciting new Costa Rica itinerary
For the past five years, I’ve acted as a National Geographic ‘resident expert’ aboard the National Geographic Sea Lion during 7-day “Costa Rica & Panama Canal” adventure cruise-tours.
Now National Geographic Expeditions has launched a new 7-day “expedition”—“Costa Rica: Volcanoes, Jungles and Wildlife”—and I shall be leading five of the nine scheduled departures, beginning with the first departure on January 6, 2013.
As the tour name suggests, this action-packed trip is a, er, triptych taking in the best of three distinct environments, including several of my favorite destinations and hotels. more >>
Cuba’s Havana Biennial street art includes naked women!
The Havana Biennial (Bienal de la Habana)—founded in 1984 and hosted every two years to promote Cuban and "Third World" contemporary art—is always superb, thrilling gallery-goers with avant-garde art of international caliber.
The just-completed 11th biennial (held May 11 through June 11, 2012) was nothing short of spectacular, not least because it purposely brought Cuban art into the open-air to share with the public under the slogan of “Artistic Practices and Social Imaginations.”
For example, the curving Malecón that sweeps along Havana’s seaboard, was the setting for works that explored the subject of migration and flight. My favorite, “Fly Away” by Arlés del Río, showed a wire-mesh fence cut with the silhouette of an airplane bursting through. more >>
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