Cuba 7 A Cuban Roadtrip

Shirley brings me proper clothes – I have been using three sets of Rohan shirts, shorts and knickers and hand washing the current set every night  - looked a bit like a khaki warrior – but the Rohan shirts do wash and dry quickly!

We decide to hire a car and get away from the city for a couple of days. There are hire car outlets all over the place – every hotel and one on the marina grounds. I cycle up and am told that they have no cars – they are in short supply and Cuba is hoping for a container ship to arrive soon with new stock. All their cars are booked on the internet weeks in advance and paid for. The guy has been sitting in his office all week 9 until 6 without anything to do. <sigh> He does tell me to try at some of the bigger hotels in the town. I then try the marina office and they kindly phone 4 places, same story. So it is a case of “on my bike” and off I go to track down a car. It is a very hot day and I cycle 3 or 4 mile to Third Avenue where there are half a dozen luxury hotels. After 4 tries I succeed as long as I bring it back promptly in 4 days. I can have a fairly large car which can take the five of us. I walk around the car as they point out the minor dents and missing trim - I video these with my smart phone as I always do when hiring or returning cars.

The next day we head for the Bay of Pigs. The road system is wide but potholed. A six lane motorway goes through the spine of Cuba and then we have 40 or 50 mile of poor roads. The tourist guide talks about a beach resort that has good snorkelling and we finally arrive, we pay to go in but get unlimited food and drink and sunbathing privileges. I think it was 10 CUCs.

We all have a go snorkelling in the lagoon, nice and warm and plenty of fish and coral.

On land we spot Geckos with curly tails and Rachel finds a crab

Rachel kindly takes the crab and puts it back in the water but it doesn’t seem too pleased. A passing guy laughs and says that returning land crabs to the sea is a mistake. Oops Rachel. She retrieves the crab and it is still alive…

We motor on towards Cienfuegos to find somewhere to stay for the night. En route we pass a lady delivering a cake – as a passenger on a motorbike, can’t be easy!

 We ask in town about a hotel room but are told it would coast 261 CUCs  - an outrageous price so we look for some Casa Particulares (Bed and Breakfast!) on the peninsula of land near the marina where I had called about 4 weeks previously. We find two Casas and the kids take one and Shirley and I take the other. 20 CUCs and 30 CUCs. Shirley and I have a lovely room with sea views front and back, a balcony. The room is clean with airconditioning, a shower and a toilet with a seat and paper! Soap too!!!. Perfect. The kids did have a cockroach - theirs was a ground floor room and the windows were open. The room did seem clean.

 Note the blue anchor - an official Casa Particular

We have a pleasant meal in a nearby restaurant/hotel and visit the town in the morning. We buy some objets de art from some stalls but fail to get an ice cream from the Coppella as again the queues are too long. We drive on to Trinidad de Cuba and visit the beach hotel and marina at Casilda, A day of lying on the beach is called for.

Before again looking for a Casa – we find a most well appointed, beautiful place near a local village, 60 CUCs for the two rooms and a good breakfast, in fact they offer a nice meal for a further 12 CUCs a head, really good food and well worth it.

The next day we book spaces on a catamaran that takes us to a deserted tropical island where we can snorkel, have a free lunch and an open bar as we sunbath the afternoon away. A good days outing.

Ah, that's the life...

Shadebathing, it was really hot!

But the iguanas seemed to like it (he was two and a half feet long!)

We actually snorkelled off the boat on coral outcrops - high fish density as usual!

Matt lets his primitive caveman urges come to the fore and attacks a coconut with a couple of rocks before presenting Amy with rum in a coconut.

Finally a shot of us leaving the island and heading for home. We depart Trinidid at 4pm and I just get to the motorway when the heavens open with thunderstorm downpourings. The rain is awful and awesome. I drive back for the next 5 and a half hours down the middle lane of three lanes just able to see the white line to the right and left of me. I am somewhat fatigued when we finally arrive back at the boat, the rain stops about 30 minutes before we arrive! We had also had to slow down for roaring flames almost engulfing the motorway as sugar cane had been set on fire – probably by lightning.

This finished a bit prematurely as my digital data collapsed on my phone - I have bought a US burner phone with 2G of digital data that I was using to blog with whilst on anchor off the Floridian keys (see next blog!) However when I went to top it up with a UK credit card (for 5 Dollars!) I was unable to do so as the online website wanted a five digit zip code. As did the telephone support <sigh> Anyway, here I am, a few days later. updating the update after visiting a store in person and paying the 5 dollars in cash.

So Cuba... I reflected on the country in my last blog (Cuba 6) but in summary. I really enjoyed my time here, the sailing on the South coast is the best in the Caribbean, the beaches, the coral reefs, the fish life. The infrastructure for being a tourist in the country is very difficult if you are an independent traveller (ok if you are resort based though). If you persevere you can succeed. Getting food is difficult because they do it differently - the supermarkets do not have fresh produce Meat, groceries, bread or eggs. And are weak in their range of produce. Once you know to search out the outside markets and back of vans and bicycles it gets easier. You need local knowledge but people will help you. Using taxis or public transport is difficult but it does exist. Hiring cars and getting anything specific you will have to ask a local and many do not speak very good English. It is not a very cheap country and you will pay "tourist prices" because the alternative cheaper options are too much hassle to track down. Nonetheless, a fascinating county, busy being itself. The people are universally cheerful. I do not see why America does not trade with them. It would surely be to America's benefit. If America can trade with China then why not Cuba. History and smarting pride perhaps. I am minded by a UN resolution to remove tariffs that was voted almost unanimously... only 3 countries voted against - the US and two small "dependent" countries in the Pacific. Perhaps some day...

Meanwhile I have made it to America and am moving up the Florida coast. The weather gets serious thunderstorms and lightning and John joins me. See the next blog.