Dan Rutherford Cuba Travel

25/01/2025

In the Playoffs, Pinar del Rio beat Havana.

25/01/2025

In the playoffs, Pinar del Rio beat Havana.

12/01/2025

Some of the wonderful people of Cuba.

11/01/2025

11/01/2025

In the gritty neighborhood of Regla, a commercial and industrial Havana suburb of shipyards, you find the Virgen of Regla, the Black Virgin, where Blessed Virgin Mary and the Infant Jesus are both depicted with dark skin.

The Church of Our Lady of Regla, the Black Madonna is one of the best-known holy spots in Cuba where devout followers of Santeria worship. It is also a functioning Catholic church where Santería followers, dressed in white, can be seen performing dances to their Saints while a Catholic priest celebrates Mass. A small Santería shrine, adjacent to the church, has a replica of the Black Madonna, and is displayed above the Catholic church’s main altar.

The Santería religion, or Regla de Ocha, was derived from the clandestine worship African slaves utilized against the imposition of Catholicism by their slave masters in the 1800s. The mainly Yoruba people, who came enslaved from Africa to Cuba, had no icons to pray to so they essentially hijacked the Catholic relics and prayed to them instead. They created a parallelism between their original deities and the Saints of the Catholic Church. When they worshipped the Catholic Saints, as they were expected to do so by their Spanish masters, they were actually worshipping their Orishas. The slave masters could not understand why the slaves were so devout to the Saints, and not as much to Jesus. Practitioners of Santería today greatly outnumber those who practice Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, or Judaism in Cuba.

09/01/2025

Our spring 2025 small group Cuba Discovery Tour will be April 26-May 2. The 7-day, 6-night program includes a touch of the best of Cuba.

We start in Havana and go to rural Vinales, have good food, cruise in vintage American cars, and enjoy live Cuban music.

07/01/2025

Vinales, rural Cuba.

31/12/2024

Moving from one year to the next. Come on 2025!

30/12/2024

https://www.msn.com/en-us/foodanddrink/recipes/14-delicious-cuban-food-recipes-that-are-simply-irresistible/ar-AA1tGkV6?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=HCTS&cvid=336775c385a449b1a226838ab941136a&ei=28

Learn how to make classic recipes for Cuban food (and some Cuban-inspired favorites, too)!

30/12/2024

https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/article/best-things-to-do-in-havana-cuba/vi-AA1v7u83?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=HCTS&cvid=6c8ebfaf31214e49a1c3031be2d6c0c1&ei=64

Havana, the capital city of Cuba, is a vibrant and exciting destination with a rich cultural history and a unique blend of colonial and modern architecture. Visitors to Havana can explore the historic Old Havana neighborhood, which is home to many landmarks and museums, or take a classic car tour of...

26/12/2024

Our spring 2025 small group Cuba Discovery Tour is April 26-May 2. The 7-day, 6-night program includes a touch of the best of Cuba. The itinerary with trip details, and pricing are at: https://globalrelations.us/public-cuba-trips-tours/.

25/12/2024

San Francisco Plaza, Old Havana, Cuba

23/12/2024

BOOK YOUR PRIVATE TOUR TO CUBA

For a group of 6 friends & family we have accommodations and arrangements on hold for February 12-18, 2025. It would be a 7-day 6-night tour for just your group, with a professional bi-lingual guide, accommodations, and tasty food. The program would include a touch of the best of Cuba,

22/12/2024

"I'll take the corner table, please"