Well where to start? At first glance the city looks in good shape compared to the photos taken by friends in the first aftermath of Hurricane Sandy last year. But go up to any high vantage point such as the roof terrace bar of the Casa Granda and it becomes clear just how many roofs still have gaping holes in them, how the dome of the Cathedral is still largely being held together by makeshift wooden scaffolding and how there's barely a mature tree top in sight.

The consequence of the latter is most tragically to be seen in Parque Cespedes in front of the Cathedral. It looks immaculate and they have done a brilliant job of re-planting the flower beds and replacing the lampstands etc but mature trees cannot be so quickly and easily replaced. The result is that the square which used to be the social hub of the city is now deserted during daylight hours because there is absolutely no shade at all now. The stone benches around all the flower beds and the perimeter that used to be filled with elderly men playing chess and dominoes, buskers playing son, manisero (peanut sellers), teenagers flirting with each other etc are all empty until the sun goes down. Much of this activity has now moved up the hill to Plaza Marti where the stone arbors withstood the hurricane and have now been replanted with fast growing vines and climbing plants.

Another consequence is that there is now only one functioning theatre and one functioning concert hall in the whole of the city. Heaven knows when the rest will be back up and running - understandably they are not high on the priority list for repairs when there is still housing that needs work done on it before this year's summer storms begin. This meant that we took our classes in a new venue - one which to be honest we preferred - a lovely old colonial building on Heredia between the Casa de la Trova and Artex, two of the great music venues. The only drawback was that the big airy open windows made it just perfect for us to turn into one of the tourist sights ourselves. It's a bit disconcerting to be trying to master a difficult dance move and look up and realise that you've got a whole load of people peering through the floor to ceiling windows and filming you!

I was staying with Yuliet and Ryder on San Basilio, a really lovely Casa Particulares which will be even lovelier next year when Ryder and his Dad have finished building the new roof terrace for the use of their paying guests. In the meantime you have to make do with the small sandy upstairs patio and balcony - what a shame At the moment paying guests have the run of the upper floor where there are two rooms - a double and a twin each with their own en-suite shower rooms (though don't look too closely at the electrics - they almost certainly don't comply with UK building regs!). Guests have the use of a fridge and said upstairs patio which has a table and chairs on it. Breakfast is served here but dinner was taken downstairs alongside Yuliet's kitchen. Like most older Cuban houses the bedrooms have very little natural light - the emphasis in the past pre-airconditioning was to keep them dark and hence cool but both rooms now have both a wall mounted fan and air-conditioning. And of course that patio-cum-balcony is a great place to sit and relax which me and my friend who was in the other upstairs room did every afternoon after class and before having a siesta.

There is also a ground floor double room, very pleasant in Itself with an en-suite as well but not so private because of the way it is reached by going through the families living space and with no natural light at all as it abuts the party wall with the neighbours. OK if you all know each other but not not so great if you don't know the people in the upstairs rooms because it would probably feel a bit like you were intruding on their space if you went up to use the patio. And of course in future you'd have two flights of stairs to reach the new roof terrace. In our case, all three rooms were being used by members of the same dance holiday group and as we were all women too, we weren't bothered by this.

Yuliet's food is typical Cuban Criolla cooking - homely but plentiful. Eggs, fruit, bread and honey with fruit juice and coffee for breakfast and large slabs of protein accompanied by lots of carbohydrates and seasonal salad vegetables for dinner along with the ubiquitous rice and beans. You won't go hungry though you might get a little bored but Yuliet is always anxious to please, so takes on board requests for the things you would like more of and will cut back on the things that are less keen on. However, if you like tea then take your own bags with you - Cubans aren't great on tea - and if you like your coffee sugar free make a point of saying so because otherwise it will automatically arrive sugared.

As with most Casa Particulares hosts, Yuliet and Ryder don't speak much English so picking up a little Spanish before you go is helpful but it's amazing how far mutual pidgeon English and Spanish plus sign language will get you.

I didn't bother with any of the group trips to get out and about around the area simply because I know the area so well and had been to all the places before on past trips but those who hadn't found it really interesting to go to the El Morro castle, the Moncado Barracks, La Grande Piedre and Porvenir freshwater swimming pool up in the Sierra Maestre and the national shrine at El Cobre.

The dance tuition was as great as ever with both a class teacher and everybody having their own professional dance partner. There were separate classes for the different levels for both Son and Salsa - given that there were only 10 of us dancers in total the classes were small and intensive but truly excellent. We also did some Afro-Cuban Rumba which is nothing at all like a ballroom rumba! There were also 3 musicians in the group who while we were having our 3 hr dance class where getting 1 to 1 tuition on both their own individual instruments as well as percussion and ensemble playing with professional musicians from one of the best local bands. They were all very nervous at the prospect but one of the highlights for the rest of us was being able to watch them perform with the band at our last night party in one of the local music venues.

But of course the highlight was being there for the Festivale de la Trova Pepe Sanchez. A truly great line-up of bands and soloists playing over a 5 day period. The fact that it started 4 days later than originally announced didn't bother me - I never expect things to be be confirmed until the last minute but this did affect the friend who had booked to also do some trekking around the Baracoa area with the result that he was able to catch the opening evening and first full day and then was off, not to return until the day after it finished. I did warn him it was a risky thing to do, booking his trek before definitely knowing the dates for the Festivale

Those of you who are Buena Vista Social club fans will understand how great it was to be able to see Eliades Ochoa perform 3 times. Twice at free concerts which started and finished the Festivale and once in a full concert performance which cost the equivalent of £3 for us tourists - a real bargain compared to the £35 it cost me the last time I saw him perform in the UK. In between there were performances by a whole range of artistes and some great dancing to be had to live music every single night of the whole holiday. Most nights the professional dancers came out with us too so lots of opportunities to practice what we'd been learning during the day.

And last but not least we had excellent support and back-up from Kath from Caledonia Languages, the company that organised the holiday, and Yuritza who works for the local Cubatur office and who were both there every step of the way. Without their inside knowledge about who was playing where and when in the absence of a detailed programme, we wouldn't have got half as much out of the whole trip.

As for the Thomson's flight, well it was what you'd expect of a your average charger flight but now that Cubana no longer fly the route you have to take what you can get if you want o fly into Holguin rather than Havana.

If anybody has any questions about doing this sort of holiday or staying in a Casa Particulares feel free to ask.

SM