Week 2 in .Cuba

Week 2 in Cuba

An early start from Havana in a 57 Chev , four of us and all our luggage made our way to

Las Terrazas, where we saw the former French coffee plantation, the terraces, the grinding wheel and the drying area.

A restaurant was in the attic of the former owner, which is where he had dried the coffee beans.

Lovely landscaping.

The remnants of the slave quarters was somewhat disturbing for me.

Our driver had the cool hat, watch, sunglasses and shoes

Terraced coffee plantation

Didn't I say that our driver had cool shoes!!

Topping up the radiator for the next leg of the journey

Grinding mill for the coffee

Pushed by slaves, round and round and round

Next stop, hotel Moka, an Eco resort with trees growing up through the lobby and the balcony of many of the rooms, great view over the Communidad de Terrazas.

Trees growing through the roof

Banos de San Juan, a gentle river with many small falls, walking trails on both sides, bridges, bamboo and treetop accommodations, swimming holes and picnic areas.

Wooden tents, kind of like tree houses

Back to La Communidad de Terrazas, walked around the small lake, photos of ducks, flamingos and monkeys, Dean and John off for coffee at Patio de Maria, then we reconnected for lunch at El Romano, a vegetarian organic place, the best pasta I have tasted, simple spaghetti noodles with olive oil and peperachili, the hot tiny chili paste.

Time for a check-in???

Soroa, known as "Rainbow of Cuba", orchid land and a 250 meter hike all to the falls, lots of stairs but well built in rocks.  And well maintained.A 3 CUC entrance fee.

 Arrived at our casa particulare in Vinales at 4:30, a place called El Mojito for a welcome free Mojito and room assignment. It is not the same set up as Tamara's, hard to match a brand new apartment but Juanito and Tita try to ensure everyone is well taken care of, gave an introduction map study of the area with information on time and cost for each interest point. Gave us choices for dinners and breakfasts but after the day in the car, a good walk about and dinner in town for tonight.

Living roof

Baseball is huge for the Cubans

An artist studio

and we get to meet the artist!

Rockers on the porches match their home in color

except this one!

bulls on the street

On our Walk About, watched some baseball at the park, checked out the plaza and a few restaurants before choosing D Bliss, hot chicken salad with lots of vegetables. Yum!

Feb 7

Bought breakfast at the casa then head out for the hop on, hop of bus and met a lovely German couple at the bus stop. The five of us were approached by a cabbie and offered the same deal for the same price. We got to drive around in a 52 Chevy to the caves, the mural, the two hotels and a tobacco session.

Entering Cueva Indio

showing the underground river

look who found a new friend

He likes Dave too

Very lush vegetation

a few steps to enter the cave

sign caused some smiles

more head room than at Horne Lake Caves

amazing!

a boat ride on an underground river

hard working locals

our car for the day

Cueva Palanque

big time farming country

roof tiles used creatively

tobacco farm

saddle barn

drying barn

a lesson in rolling the best1

and trying them!

historic painted wall

Cueva Indio has a boat  tour on the underground river and incredible limestone erosion formations then Cueva Paleque.

At the Ermita we had lunch overlooking the Valle de Vinales, a Cuban sandwich.

Threatening rain so head down the hill. Wifi was available but no card so I will try again tomorrow. Missed the rain so head out to check dinner menus. Chose Olivio, Dave had his lamb and I did the chicken cordon bleu, once again , delicious but too large so had a par llevar for lunch on Sunday

Sunday, Feb 8

Boys off on a 8 km hike after breakfast . The church bells called me at 10 so I wandered up to the square. At 10:15 the bells rang again and the church filled with very well dressed women, filling the first six rows. They had styled hair, make up, big purses and umbrellas. No sign of rain so the umbrellas are protection from the sun. Smart women! I think I as surprised by the classy scene.

When the priest entered before the third ringing of the bells , everyone stood, smiled and clapped. Obviously they love this Columbian who is in year three of his three year tenure. As they said, the time was passing "mas rapido ". After singing for awhile, he delivered a very inspirational message. No wonder they love him.

In the line up for communication I noticed some evidence that Canadians may have visited , t-shirts with Manual Life, Sexy etc.

The plan is a sunset at El Ermita and then dinner prepared for us at the Casa, boys are having camarones and pollo por me.

Dave and Dean off in the rain to order our cab for the morning

Front porch at our place

So much mint!! No wonder Juanito's mojitos are so good!

Check out the price of gas and diesel

My chair fetish!

Look Ellie, I have changed my shirt!

camarones

Line up at the Cadeca in pioneer del Rio before heading to Playa Giron

Casa prices differ in different situations. In Havana, Casa Tamara and Chen was $50 CUC and included breakfast, a welcome drink and a walking tour of th area.

Here in Vinales, the Casa is $30 CUC and includes a welcome drink. Breakfast is $4 CUC and dinner is $8 CUC. Food has been very good everywhere so far and no tummy issues so fingers crossed.

That planned sunset certainly didn't happen, torrential rain for the evening and all the next day while traveling in a taxi down to Playa Giron in a Puegot whose trunk obviously leaked as my suitcase was soaked and much of the contents!

This next casa was KS Abella for 25 for the room, 5 for the breakfast and 10 for the dinner. This was not the recommended Rigo casa so no guarantees and I was worried that he had reserved at La Castelita so I dropped in to make sure they were not holding rooms for us.

This one had a small bedroom for Dave and I, with very little air, a mildewed ceiling and a shared bathroom for the four of us. The bed was a very thin mattress on wide spread slats, our two worse sleeps of the month.

From now on, I will stick to Rigo's plan or not prebook at all and check the room before we commit.

A bottle of wine was 10 and a good one at that! The dinners were tasty, espcially the camarones done in soya.

This is in Playa Giron, a nice little one horse town and could be a stop place for awhile but I would prefer Playa Larga as a central base.

Feb 9,2015

left Vinales at 9 o'clock and into Pinar del Rio for the Cadeca. Fortunately, Dean was lucky with his card this time as were John and Dave but this time it was my turn to come out empty.

One never knows.

Rainy, rainy day all the way down so Playa Giron doesn't seem to be such a good idea for this afternoon.

I had wanted to have Cienfuegos as a base to start with but this was recommended by someone else

ok boys, don't let the colour affect any decisions

rooftop patio at Casa KS Abella

A little helper cleaning the rice for our dinner this evening. Thank you Kaiya for sending your clothes to Cuba!

Our hostess

rather sad with the ribs

Heading to the beach at The Bay of Pigs

The protection wall is in disrepair

I have no idea what this is

Our casa

This family has done well

with one of the better equipped kitchens

Feb 10

A yummy breakfast, John off to Caleta Buena, Dean and Dave to Laugna de Salinas and my plan was museum, wifi and beach, however!! John missed his bus and went to a plan B, I sauntered towards the hotel and the 2 Ds were still there so I joined them for the day, bus to Playa Larga, then to the Park office to arrange for 22 km 3 hour tour in a little train out to viewing platforms to see many birds new to us.

Although at times there can be 10,000 flamingos in the very large laguna, today a north wind had blown water from the laguna so the birds were farther out. Maybe 200 with a few pelicans , a Rosetta spoonbill, 4 different herons and 3 egret varieties.

Shared our little train with a young couple from Prague and a retired couple from London. Our guide was so excited when Dave spotted the spoonbill. He said, "I am so happy".

Very reasonable price for the great day, 10 CUC for park entrance each, a 10 CUC guide fee, shared by the 5 of us and a 35 CUC fee for the train, shared by 7 so a grand total of 17 CuC for the five of us and a little more for the London couple as they have a two park pass for two days and we had only the one day pass.

Zapata Peninsula

Our chariot

Playa Linda

Taking it easy

A catfish carcass

The laguna and really there are about 200 flamingos out there but i didn't have my camera with the good zoom

see the pink out there???

One of three viewing platforms along the way

Sunset at Hotel Giron

We got off the bus at the hotel to watch sunset but because we were not guests, we had to buy a drink, cerveza for $4 CUCs, the most expensive yet. Sunset was incredible, with buildings in it the last minute. Very noisy hotel guests took away from the tranquility, they didn't even notice this wonder of nature but then again, maybe they have seen it many times before.
I much prefer a quiet medatative "Day is Done" 

Another very large dinner at 7 cooked at the casa KS Abella, and an early to bed. Silly, as neither Dave or I slept well. This particular bed has a thin foam mattress on plywood that had slats in between. Dave ended up on the couch in the sitting area for half the night and I worked my way through the lumps and boards. The first night was bearable but the second one, too much. I think I am a princess!!mmm

Drove to Cienfuegos, good highway, good driver in his 55 Chev. Arrived on 52 Ave just after noon and found casas for us. Pepe did not have room for everyone so came with us in the taxi a few blocks and found space for Dean and John at his friends and gave us the apartment at his place. What a welcome accommodation after the last two nights.

A lovely afternoon siesta and dinner at 6:30 with everyone, our last meal together as Dean heads off to La Boca for a few days before heading back to Varadero and John goes to Trinidad. .We booked with Pepe for six nights. Will use this as a base for Trinidad, La Boca, the mountains and Playa Ancon.
Sunset on the miradora with mojitos was very special, nice and quiet tonight! The view from the rooftop takes in most of the whole city. We are so blessed!

After dinner, Dean came to our apartment and spent the evening recapping our two weeks together with lots of chuckles, photo sharing and good memories. He leaves at noon on the bus tomorrow. Buen viaje!