In socialist Cuba, 1950s cars are preserved not through desire, but necessity.

Photo: Steve Woodhall

The charms of Camaguey in the middle of the island of Cuba, are subtle but they are there nonetheless.

Without the picture-book qualities of Trinidad or the big-ticket links to Castro's revolution, it is less obviously touristy, more business-as-usual Cuban life. But this is the attraction for those in the country a little longer or those interested in deviating from the beaten track.

Here, you'll find giant ceramic pots lying on their sides called tinajones which were used for storing water.

At the museum in Camaguey you can find out why Cubans sometimes refer to their country as a Paradise of Molluscs. (There are some very colourful and totally unique snails in Cuba, their shells highly prized by collectors around the world.)

Camaguey's wedding palace takes a leaf out of Las Vegas. Here, weddings take place all day by appointment. Bride and groom arrive by the back door in jeans and T-shirts, get dressed in hired gowns and suits and get driven around the block in a beaten up old car before arriving through the front gates in style, the wedding march blaring scratchily from loudspeakers. Photographs are taken, snap snap, and then it is time to disrobe and let the next wedding party through.

Camaguey has many grand old colonial buildings full of beautiful dark wood colonial furniture.

While here be sure to wrap your tongue around Moors and Christians (black beans and rice - a staple in the Cuban diet) while engaging locals in conversations about the state of the country, good and bad.