Cuban Holiday

8th to 20th March 2014

I came to Puerto de Vita on the North East coast of Cuba to make it easy to enter the Bahamas. Anne and I decided to approach a travel agent to make the arrangements for a tour by bus and taxi so we did not have the pressure of driving around in a country almost without road signs and with no satellite route facility. Saturday the 8th we readied Shelduck for our absence and took the Lada taxi, which travelled at frightening speed, to Hotel Mirador in the Hills famous for a beer drinking donkey called Pancho. There was a beautiful view across a valley to Holguin where we would take the bus to Havana next day. Tourists travel in buses separate from Cubans. They are air conditioned and run by a company called Viazul who have an office in Madrid. I was able to buy the bus tickets on the internet from there.

Sunday 9th and the clocks were put back an hour, daylight saving time, so an hour less sleep and also hoping Janet's ordered taxi would put his watch back too. He arrived on time in a black Chevrolet Bel Air automatic of 1959. Bus left on the dot of 07.45 but took an hour more than the advertised time, almost 12 hours. Only one taxi at the bus station which we took  He was ages trying to find our hotel and when we got there found they had no bed for us that night. They had arranged for another hotel for us which the taxi took us to at their expense. Next morning we were collected and brought back to our booked hotel where we met our Cuban travel agent followed by a guided 3 hour tour of Havana with guide Freddie and driven in another Chevrolet Bel Air this time of 1949. Dined at the Bodeguita del Medio a favourite of Hemingway. A marvelous day. The renewal of the buildings starting in the squares financed and directed by UNESCO is amazing. Hurry up and go to Havana before the whole city is renewed. Next day Anne and I walked around the centre ourselves to Plaza de San Francisco, Parque Cantral and back to our hotel near Plaza Vieja. Our hotel was a 3 storey well restored 19th century building with 8 bedrooms grouped around an open courtyard. We.dined early in Plaza Vieja.

Wednesday 12th up at 04.45 for a group bus transfer Havana-Santa Clara and walked to Hotel Amadores de Santander for the bus at 06.30. Too early to get a taxi in Havana. No bus arrived but at 06.10 a taxi came, sent by the agent, and took us on a 4 hour journey to Santa Clara to Hotel America. We rested after another early start, spent two hours at the pool, and then visited the Che Guevara monument on the outskirts of the town which was designed by  Spanish architect and sculptor. Very impressive and well worth a visit. Next day another 4 hour taxi journey to Trinidad de Cuba where we were booked into a casa particular Hostel Bastida owned by a retired pharmacist. Cubans say that the wealthiest people in Cuba now are the owners of casa particular which usually have only two bedrooms for rent. Trinidad was more beautiful than I expected and is also being restored by UNESCO. Dined at the casa, lobster again. Next morning we were collected by horse, buggy and guide for a trip through the country side off road. We first went to the International Pharmacy to have a bleeding cut on my forehead dressed. Do not know how I got it. Each large town has a medical centre for tourists and most have an International Bank where you can get funds from a credit card. We were afraid to use ATM's for fear of loosing our cards to the machines. The springs on the buggy were hard, more suited to roads, but we enjoyed the 19th century lifestyle. That evening we continued with that century dining in a building and with place settings, furniture and fittings from about 1850.

Next day another taxi transfer, this time three and a half hours to Camague to stay at Casa Lancara. That evening dined in the casa with two Belgians and had a great chat over dinner, in English of course. The bedroom doors opened to the courtyard and there were no locks on the doors. Our Spanish/English dictionary went AWOL here. Sunday 16th we went to mass nearby and spoke to the parish priest who told us he missed knowing what was going on in the rest of the world. Then took a 2 hour bicycle taxi guided tour around the city. Shops seemed very well stocked and children and adults very well dressed, maybe because it was Sunday. All public officials get a clean blue shirt every day ironed flat with knife edges on the sleeves and every waiter in every restaurant is issued with the same dress shirt, always clean and newly pressed. Everyone looking very smart.

In retrospect the next part of the journey might have been skipped because, as some have said, Santiago de Cuba is no Verona. We left Camague at 17.00 on our first group transfer which seem to go in this area from Russian built hotel to Russian built hotel. The roads were very bad and there were no food stops. Very tired when we got to Hotel San Basilio at 23.00 where the night porter gave us a sandwich. Up at 07.00 for taxi to bus station for Vizual bus to Baracoa. Bus station chaotic having to beat a way to the entrance through touts trying to sell a different way to travel to Baracoa. Accepting one might mean you would never be seen again. Many of the touts seemed to be of Russian extraction. Got to the ticket desk to find it unmanned but eventually got on the bus for the four and a half hour journey through the mountains. On arrival at the bus station in Baracoa there were no motorized taxis only bicycle ones. We were picked out to be ripped off. I asked to stop off at the bank to get money. It took an hour and a half to get it in a queue with Cubans. No international bank here. It took two to lift our luggage up the long flight of steps to the hotel. The taxi men demanded 40 CUC's with menace, the equivalent of 3 weeks wages each. They frightened us so for our safety we handed it over. The further east you go in Cuba the wilder it gets.

In the Hotel Castilo next morning I was offered a ham omelette for breakfast and was sick shortly after and did not fully recover for 10 days. I went to the International Medical Centre and the head nurse there said that visitors to Cuba should not drink un bottled water or any milk and not eat eggs or any pork product. Food poisoning and diahorrea made the long bus journey back to Santiago very difficult for me although I had enjoyed the unique timber buildings of old Barracoa. Back in the Hotel San Basalio in Santiago we went out to dinner to a rooftop restaurant but I could not eat anything but rice. Anne had lobster again. Thursday 20th and the taxi arrived on the dot of 12.00 to take us back to Shelduck. The roads were very bad in places but we managed 200km in two and a half hours including a toilet stop for me. Pleased to be back aboard.

All in all we had a very enjoyable holiday and were very impressed by Cubans and Cuba and in particular of Havana, Santa Clara and Trinidad. People seemed happy and content to us but did express worry about the future after the death of Chavez. Average take home pay is 22 euro per month. In a city people are living as in the 1950's and in the countryside as in 1900. Anne was surprised at the amount of farming going on, the number and types of grazing animals and the hundreds of thousands of acres of sugar cane. She was also impressed by the beautiful market gardens on the edge of every town and peoples own gardens.