Week 3 in Cuba

Week 3 in Cuba

Feb 12

A wonderful coffee in bed for the first time on the trip then a very relaxed breakfast as we had no planned schedule to meet.
 The breakfast here at Pepe's is way too big. We had a pot of coffee, a full plate of fruit each, a jug of guava juice, mini pancakes, a plate sized omelleta and a grilled cheese sandwich!
Needless To say, I saved my sandwich for lunch!

Our own private dining area

and patio

We walked from 10-4 today with a one hour break on a horse taxi out to Punta Gorda.

We started off by finding the bus depot in case that becomes our mode of transportation to Trinidad then head down 54 th Avenue to tourist info for maps and suggestions. What a delightful young gal who sent us off to Parque Jose Marti , a one by 2 block area of beautiful buildings and well maintained plaza.

We checked out: 

Catedral Nuestra Senora de la Purisima Conception

Antiguo Ayuntamiento

Provincial Gobernio

El Palatino

Teatro Tomas Terry.

not the typical architecture but rather interesting

Parque Jose Marti

Theatre Terry

Government building

not allowed inside but able to take a photo from the doorway

El Palentino artisans coop had some unique pieces

Arc de Triomphe

This city of Cienfuegos had a lot of French influence, so this is reflected in their avendidas and structures 

Everyone loves Che, let me show you

Che, my hero!

Dave's Cuban haircut

and lots of other Cuban haircuts!

We will return this evening to the plaza for the nine o'clock celebration of the 125th anniversary of the theatre. We watched ballerinas rehearse this afternoon, thinking of you, Kaiya, as I videoed some modern ballet, more folks who twist their bodies like pretzels!

The artisans building had some interesting products,  a coop and when I read the sign, I think it said all the items had to be  made locally with either recycled or natural parts.,very creative wall art and sculptures and funky modern art and papier mache cappuccino coffee maker .

We then hired a horse and wagon taxi which took us all along the malecon, past the harbour and the Cienfuego yacht club, out to the Palacio Azul and the Palacio de Vallee.
The latter one is of Moorish design, built in 1915 with spiral stairs to the fourth floor rooftop and its three turrets, all different but meant to represent love, wealth and health. For the 2 CUC entrance fee, we received a Cuba Libre on the rooftop terrace. Felt it quickly and held the railing carefully coming down the spiral stairs!

This area is called Punta Gorda , the old upper-class neighbourhood, characterized by its bright coloured clapboard homes and turreted palaces.

Two brothers are our cabbies

The melacon

Palacio Azul, poor horse!

Artesans Park

Palacio de Vallee

vThree different turrets, representing health, love and prosperity

view from the top

On the way back to the square our horse was stopped by the police and Jorge needed to produce legal papers for his taxi service and his horse Paco.

Seriously????

Everything is controlled here.
 All our casas have registrations and we need to provide our passports and signatures at each place. Prices are fixed as well for the casas so the only place to make some money is in the meals they cook for us. Breakfasts are 4 or 5 CUCs and dinners have mostly been 10 CUCs but sometimes 8.

They sell a bottle of wine for 10, cerveza for 1.50 and mixed drinks for 2, bottled water for 1 so  there may be some profit there for them as well.

Home for an early dinner and short rest so we can enjoy tonight's late performance at TeatroTomas Terry. Tonight's dinner was cerdo salsa for me and pollo salsa for Dave. Once again, too much  so a par llevar for lunch tomorrow.

And let me tell you about the performance of our lifetime! The best of the best talent in Cuba in ballet, choir, orchestra and two piano solos, Mary Kenedi from Canada and a 20 minute piece by the master  Hosea who received a standing ovation before he played Ave Maria, a standing ovation after that piece and then a resounding applause I had not heard before when he completed his masterpiece. The Cubans love him! 

Feb 13

Another relaxed beginning to the day, time to read the travel books and do a bit of journalling. Pepe was very helpful in arranging our next casa in Trinidad and the taxi for Sunday but we decided we loved this casa and city so asked if we could stay here a few extra days, his reply, "que quires" 'whatever you want'

Dave did the Cadeca run and was very successful with the card, set until we get home I think.

Afternoon walk to Parque Jose Marti, a picnic lunch on the malecon, people watching, puesta del sol . We chose Ocaso , third floor rooftop for the sunset and met a fun German couple, Dr. Walter and Monika Dasch, many laughs and an invitation to their place when we go to Munich next September.

Watching ballerinas warm up for tonight's show 

a wedding in parquet Jose Marti

malecon before sunset

mojitos for sunset!

We thought we may check our ART ex for Cuban music but were told the show was 10 pm to 3 am, we are too old for that so went to the plaza and watched Cuban evening life, a neat little soccer game and the evening crowd emerging.

When we got back to our casa, it was buzzing, full house with everyone having their dinner here so we were met by Pepe who told us he needed to use our mesa and had pulled it from our kitchen to the patio for a private dinner for the couple, so we went to the top deck and then snuck back to our apartment an hour later because it got too chilly. 

Tomorrow there is a special dinner here at 7:30 for Valentine Day, Dia del Amor.

Feb 14

A card and chocolate waiting when I opened my eyes! What a man!

Private breakfast on our patio, a walk to the plaza and an  internet stop to do a check-in. An afternoon to read, plan the next week  of activities and travel mode.

WOW I say for the special dinner. We sat with Nick and Danielle Malone form Trois Rivieres and had great chats about our common travel spots here, in La Manz, Peru, Ecuador etc.

The meal was fabulous, complete with poetry reading, flowers for the women and a tribute to each country represented , Germany, France, Denmark, Costa Rica, Italy and Canada. Not bad for a room of 16 people. Special lighting and music and a vey large heart shaped cake topped off the evening

Pepe, Isabel and their three children have an incredible situation here. Hard working, accommodating and so friendly ! Lonely Planet is correct when they say you are greeted at the door with a smile the width of Cuba!

Nick and

Danielle

Feliz Dia Amor 

Happy Valentine Day

Pepe has something for everyone

Feb15

The day for a day long tour. Left the casa at 9 am and on the way out of Cienfuegos we passes their:

...large hospital, health care is free in Cuba

...military school, males need to attend 2 years after high school if they do not attend university and 1 year if they do attend university. We were told, no dinero, no novias, no fiestas, nada!

...sugar plantations

...mango fields

.. Botanical garden

... Royal palms, the national tree

...asphalt plant

...Playa Rancho Luna.

Heading into the mountains

Coffee tour returning

to hear the process of roasting the beans

and seeing the museum of Casa de Cafe

Traditional Cuban Kitchen

Topes Collante Hotel

Checking out the sun dial

Off by ten minutes

but then we checked the deviation chart

and it is right on

Mirador, lookout for Vallee de Ingenios

La Boca

where we found this guy wandering down the street!

Then to the mountains

Guamahoya

Sierreta, it is Sunday so the roads in the small villages have children scattered about

Road to Pico San Juan, the second highest peak in Cuba

Escambray, the military working farm

Parque Codina

Parque Natural de Collantes

Casa de cafe (SanBlas) bought Arabacia beans

Sun Dial at 11:10 with a deviation of + 14.4 today, so right on!

Museo des Artes

Mirador, WOW! What a view from the top of the mountain down to Trinidad, Playa Ancon, La Boca and El Carib! Th azul shade on the shoreline is not very wide so maybe just a shallow swim today.

We stopped in Trinidad for three hours, did the photographer's walking tour from the Gran Plaza  but I forgot my camera in the locked cab so have to wait to download Dave's photos to share the great architecture in this city.
Found a very large market, Dave bought two Cuban shirts and I found a sweet little dress for Agnes, hope it fits!
Bumped in to John, who is enjoying Trinidad, especially the music so we went together and caught a quick bite at the dulceria, pastry with chocolate and peach centers! Accompanied by Buccanero, not the healthiest lunch but tasty and will get us through to another feast at 6:30 at Pepe and Isabel's.

Playa Ancon for a lovely swim. This beach has many hotels, no casas.
There is a public area, no change rooms or bathrooms but no charge either. Two hours later we went into La Boca and found our photographer friend walking down the street.

On he way back o Cienfuegos, we took the ocean road, saw a very large shrimp farm, lots of goat families jogging down the highway, fields of dairy cows and some brahmas.

We thought we found Dianna's 58 Olds 88 close to La Boca but the owner came out and informed us it was a 56. It is going to be on the plaza in Trinidad where some Canadian is doing a comedy show. The bright red interior is probably not what Bob had in his first car!!!

Another special dinner tonight, pollo en salsa and by 8:30 we were both asleep!!

I got up at midnight and read for 2 hours. Dave slept through to 4 am, listened to the trains and roosters for awhile, went back to sleep for a total of a ten hour night!! All that fresh air and long day seems to be putting us in the next age category!!

Feb 16

Last day in Cienfuegos, banking, laundry, packing for the next stop at Santa Clara for one night and at a Finca in Jovellanos, an organic working farm where Dave hopes to learn some gardening tips. No English spoken there so we are happy to have picked up Spanish over the winter, even though some words are different here in Cuba.  A lot more "que tal? " 

here than " Como estas? "

We drink more zumo than jugo and cafe con leche means a wonderful cappuccino.

Dean is enroute to Varadero today for his flight on the 18th and Juan has chosen to stay a few days in Trinidad, will meet him again on our flight home.

Feb 17

Eduardo took us to Isabel's sister's casa in Santa Clara. Picked us up at nine after a sad and grand farewell with Pepe, Isa and the whole staff. Mari-Lyn gave me a piece of paper with her address and telephone number and asked me to write and phone.

Good bye Casa Colonial

their shared sitting room

and the wonderful family

We asked Eduardo if it was okay to mail things here and said yes and when asked what was best for women he said, ropa, sabon, shampoo, creme de piel, cosas por el pelo y por hombres, son razors, shave cream, shampoo tambien.

Driving from Cienfuegos, we went through the small pueblos of Palmira, Cruces, Ranchulo, Esperenza. As we crossed the provincial line into Villa Clara, sugar fields continued, mango groves, solar panel project. The Azumat sugar factory, egg farms, beans, rice, corn, tomatoes, a very good agricultural province.

Sugar cane here is grown on a three crop rotation, then the fields are planes in beans, then back to sugar. No burning here as e saw in Dominican and Australia

 This begins Marta Abreu country. The lady who financed the Independence than made Santa Clara mostly what it is today. 

A large billboard of Che "Caballero sin tacha y sin miedo".

Eduardo 's joke.... "No trains"!!!

We found out that there were water issues at the Finca in Jovellanos so cannot stay there so chose two nights in Santa Clara.

Eduardo suggested we stop at Via Azul to make our bus reservations for Thursday. What a great ida and an interesting experience! Wait in line to put your name on the list then come back the day of your trip with your passport an hour before bus time. For us , that will be at 7:15 for our 8:15 trip to Varadero then get another bus to Mantanzas.

As we checked in at Hostal de Balcones, we had a reunion with the couple from Belgium we met in Cienfuegos the first night.... The Pepe connection! They are moving on today and a young couple from Holland moved in.

Our breakfast table

No, she wants us at this one!

and she is one bouncey little lady!

Ready for the square by 1 after a lovely shower and lunch.

Walked to Parque Vidal and had a tour of the theatre, very similar in design to the theatre in Cienfuegos but only seating capacity for 450 in the present day. They removed the seating from the fourth balcony. 1CUC

The only place with internet in Santa Clara

Dave loves the architecture

sister theatre to the one in Cienfuegos

Hundreds of doors that open for ventilation on the second, third and forth floors

Ya right!!!!!! That is a Macdonalds sign!

Casa de chocolate

What's wrong with dessert before dinner??

Pedestrian street

Then a tour of El Museo des Artes Decoratives, a very interesting walk through time as each room was furnished in its century style. It is an 18th century mansion filled with a whole gamut of styles...Baroque, art nouveau mirrors and art deco furniture. Each sitting room had its century settee and accompanying chairs, footstools and spittoons. A lot of porcelain and chandeliers from Italy, Spain and one big piece from China.

The last room was American wicker with a top hat on the table that could have been Abe's!!

2 CUC.

Walked to a restaurant that had a store in the back that sold moisture cream!!! Finally! After asking in three cities and about twenty stores! It is was only 2.80 CUC for a large bottle, will leave the remainder for our cleaning lady, same with the big bottle of shampoo we found.

Stopped for a snack at casa del chocolates, Dave had a coconut sundae and I had a fresa sundae. 2 CUC each. That provided energy for the walk to the monumento a la Toma del Tren Blindado. Here was the bulldozer that Che and his 18 brave men used to derail  an armoured train. Thus ended the dictatorship of Batista and began the 50 year rule of Fidel.

Che is a real hero here, two monuments and his burial site after being exhumed from his grave in Bolivia 30 years after he was shot in front of US advisors.

Checked out a church on the corner of Pardo on the way back to our casa. Mojitos waiting and a high volume conversation with our hosts. Ignacio was out fishing and caught a huge tiberon, not too excited!!

Mira came to the living room with a plate of cheese made by her uncle on his Finca, 40 kms from Santa Clara.

Dinner was pollo en salsa, her salsa very different than Isabel's, more like a thin gravy but once again the meal was way too big. Soup starter with fresh buns, a tomato, cuke and cabbage plate, baked squash and a piece of chicken that covered the plate, the whole leg and thigh. I made a sandwich on the fresh bun for our lunch tomorrow and still could not eat the rest of the chicken.

Chocolate ice cream and cupcake followed, that went back to our freezer in our room. I wonder about these huge servings and if they are reserved for tourists, would like to see a local family sit down to eat.