Kubos spalvos

Kuba yra viliojanti ir provokuojanti – pilna prieštaravimų ir ne visada lengvai suprantama. Tai – šalis, alsuojanti įvairiaspalve kultūra, muzikos, istorijos ir aistros ritmais. Čia tarsi susilieja Afrikos, Europos ir Karibų jūros kultūrų ritmai ir melodijos.

It’s well known that traveling to Cuba, to Havana is like traveling back in time: the weathered buildings, the old classic cars and the rich history standing out as top lures on your visit to this land. It’s less known however, that at the begin-ning of the 20th century, the Cuban capital was spectacularly rich – not unlike Newport’s Gilded Age – in which Havana underwent an extraordinary boom pe-riod, architecturally enriching with international influences such as art nouveau, art deco and eclectic design.
To this day, Havana is one of the most architecturally diverse cities in the world, a city photographer’s paradise. Its buildings clearly mirror its social and political history ever since the Spanish colonial times, up to the more modern present day.

Cuba is the largest Caribbean island. Its landscape, in different cities and beaches, is extremely diverse and rich – a reflection of the entire Caribbean geography. Nature awarded Cuba with its unique features making it an ideal place for tourists. The biggest attraction is a 5,445-km-long coastline with a wide variety of beaches. Varadero is the foremost of them, boasting more than 20 km of coastline.
What is important about the color and structure of the sand … White and fine sand is characteristic of the coastal strips, which, over the centuries, have formed a wave of waves trying to overcome coral reefs.
Cuba is one of the places in the Caribbean where sea turtles lay eggs. As the coastal waters are very clean and warm, nature has created all the favorable conditions for breeding marine flora and fauna.

Coffee came to Cuba in the mid-1700s, and soon thereafter Cuba became a large coffee producer and exporter. In fact, coffee production has had such an impact on the Cuban landscape that the first coffee plantations now have a place on the UNESCO World Heritage list.
Cubans drink very strong coffee from small cups. 5-7 cups of coffee a day is quite normal. In rural areas it is usual to grow coffee trees and the beans are dried, roasted and ground at home.
The most popular is the type of Cubita coffee.

Cubans are some of the friendliest and most honest people on the planet. They will talk to anyone and everyone, and are generous with their time and money.
The people are out and about, engaging with one another and the world around them. Relationships with family and friends are prized above pretty much every-thing else.

Cuba is literally a rolling car museum. Everywhere you look is an old-school American brand vehicle, ranging from Oldsmobile to Chevrolet, Buick to Ford with a nice sampling of Chrysler’s old Plymouth brand. There’s even a few Rus-sian Volgas thrown in the mix. These are all vehicles that the majority of Ameri-can car lovers would spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on—and they are used as Cubans’ everyday vehicles. It’s a direct result of the ban on importing foreign cars to the country after the cuban revolution of 1959.

Cuba is tempting and provocative – full of contradictions and not always easy to understand. It is a country full of culture, music, history and passion. Rhythms and melodies are ubiquitous in this melting pot of African, European and Carib-bean cultures.

The national flag of Cuba consists of five alternating stripes (three blue and two white) and a red equilateral triangle at the hoist, within which is a white five-pointed star. It was designed in 1849 and officially adopted May 20, 1902.