How it all began.

It was the morning of the 7th of August 2009, Friday. I was sitting in my office in Birmingham (the laws of probability suggesting it was very likely another rainy day) when a Google chat window popped up.

"What about Cuba in October?" said Pedro Rocha from his office in Berlin.
I have no idea how long this idea had been brewing in his head but it sounded perfectly reasonable. Still, I felt the need to joke a bit. "Cuba Cuba, or Cuba in Alentejo?", I said.

Over the last 5 years and for professional reasons I had travelled across Europe with this guy. Finland, Holland, Austria, Germany, Spain, you name it. Hotel booking misunderstandings had us once sharing a double bed in Rotterdam when Rocha was a biological flu threat. In the end the hotel billed us as Mr. and Ms. Rocha. Small stories like this could fill another blog.

In the previous year Rocha and Joana organized a holiday trip to Croatia. Together with Caiado, Hany, Lontra and myself (all biologists, all University of Lisbon mates) we planned a road trip from Venice to Dubrovnik. The trip was abruptly ended by a first-degree encounter between our van and a road-side rock near Senj and four of us were sent to a nearby Hospital with minor injuries. I often say that if did had to have that car accident I'm glad it was with those guys. Instead of reaching Dubrovink we ended up exploring Dalmatia.

So when Rocha proposed a trip to Cuba it seemed like the natural progression of our seasonal ambition to explore the world. But above everything else, Cuba presented itself as a greater mystery, a forgotten island ruled by an anachronistic regime or a well-succeeded experiment shrugged by US propaganda? Whatever it was, we wanted to know. The stepping down of Fidel, the progressive changes we heard about on then news like the liberalisation of small businesses and the introduction of mobile phones, the apparently receptive Obama administration, all of it suggestied the imminent end of Castro's Cuba. If there was a time to go there, it was now!

For this trip, Rocha, Joana and I attempted to get together the "Croatian-six" but the lack of time, much catalysed by the writing of PhD theses, and the lack of money left Caiado, Hany and Lontra out. Instead Rui, a London-based historian and long-time friend of Rocha and Joana, stepped in. In addition to the natural excitement of visiting a country like Cuba, Rui had the particular interest of being a Cold War historian.

After bringing our four schedules together and probing several airlines for the cheapest flights possible we ended up booking the trip to May.

Date of departure was set: 8th of May 2010.