“ With authentic dialogue and plenty of humour, along with Gay’s familiar quirky drawings, this is a highly recommended book.”
Rafael Zaldivar and Amado Dedeu Garcias performing "Chango" along with a reading by Rafael from Travels in Cuba.
tRAVELS IN CUBA
“ Lively writing and thoughtful observations make this series a rare treasure.”
Even for an experienced traveler like Charlie, Cuba is a puzzling place unlike any he has visited before.
When Charlie’s artist mother is invited to visit a school in Cuba, the whole family goes on the trip. But the island is a far cry from the all-inclusive resorts that Charlie has heard about.
Charlie has never visited a country as strange as Cuba. Where Havana’s grand Hotel Nacional sits next to crumbling buildings. Where the streets are filled with empty storefronts and wild dogs, but flowers and sherbet-colored houses lie around the next corner, and music is everywhere. Where there are many kinds of walls — from Havana’s famous sea wall to the invisible ones that seem to keep tourists and locals apart.
When the family heads off the beaten track to Viñales, Charlie befriends Lázaro, who often flies from Miami to visit his Cuban relatives. The boys ride a horse bareback, find a secret cache of rifles and go swimming in an underground cave. The family finds an abandoned hotel inhabited by goats and a modern resort filled with tourists.
As Charlie goes from one curious escapade to another, he finds that his expectations about a place and its people are challenged at every turn.
Learn more about the whole “Travels with My Family” series here.