Kim McMahill

The only thing better than a day in Havana is a night in Havana. If you take a taxi, make sure you grab a classic American car. Cruising down the Malecón on the way to the Tropicana in a 1957 Ford Fairlane convertible felt like stepping back in time to another era. T he Malecón is a broad roadway and seawall which stretches for about five miles along the coast in Havana.

Trinidad, located in central Cuba, is the country’s best preserved colonial town. T he old part of Trinidad has been a UNESCO heritage site since 1988 . Its neo-baroque main square, Plaza Mayor, is surrounded by grand colonial buildings and rough cobblestone streets. It’s a bit out of the way from Cuba’s two major ports, Cienfuegos and Havana, but worth a visit.

Cienfuegos is located on Bahía de Cienfuegos, a bay on Cuba’s south coast. It's known for its colonial-era buildings. In this city of approximately 150,000 you’ll see quite a few of the classic American cars the country is known driving down cobblestone streets alongside horse-drawn carts. It’s an interesting city for anyone wishing to venture away from Havana.

Es complicado . You hear that a lot in Cuba and it’s a pretty accurate assessment of the culture and politics of this country. The streets in the major cities are filled with brightly colored classic American cars, but under the hood many have a mismatched assortment of replacement parts, including engines, that are everything but American. From the smallest village to Havana you’ll also see an eclectic mix of horse drawn conveyances. The colonial architecture is abundant and beautiful, but most buildings are in a severe state of disrepair with no funds available for restoration. The locals I visited with touted their free health care and education. The literacy rate in Cuba far surpasses most other countries in the region. In some respects, I looked around and thought that life is much better than we’ve been led to believe. Then I remind myself of the lives lost trying to cross a hundred miles of open ocean to reach Florida, so life, at least for some, is not good. It’s clear that t...