Finally - Back to some self discipline and writing.....
Road Trip: Southeast Cuba – March 26 to31, 2011
The best way to see Cuba away from the “all inclusive” beach resorts is by land. Marinas are safe, secure and inexpensive. We pickled the water maker with biocide, closed up Polar Pacer and left her in the care and custody of the staff at Marina Vita. Armed with a Lonely Planet travel guide and a book of maps that came with the rented Chinese built Geely that we shared with Amazing Grace we headed down the autopista. This road trip would take us through the provinces of Holguin, Granma, Santiago de Cuba and Guantanamo with stops in the cities of Bayamo, Santiago de Cuba, Guantanamo (not the US naval base) and Baracoa.
The autopista was busy with a wide range of means of transportation.
Cyclists carry on a conversation with passengers on a horse drawn wagon.
The blue license plate on this truck identifies it as a government controlled vehicle that is required to pick up passengers. The often seen message emblazoned across the front roughly translates to “Yes we can”, a familiar slogan from a recent non Cuban election. Which one came first?
Buses come in all shapes and sizes.
Tomatoes bound for market in this dump truck made up some of the commercial transportation
The red license plate on our car identified it as a rental for tourists.
Sidecars make good cargo carriers.
Hitchin’ a ride.
Our first stop was Bayamo where we were introduced to the “casa particular” system. A casa particular is a private home that has been licensed to rent rooms to foreign tourists. They are identified by a symbol that looks like an upside down anchor. The same sign in red indicates rooms for rent to Cuban tourists.
We were shown to Casa Arturo y Esmerelda by a young man who had been summoned by the receptionist at a hotel where we had unsuccessfully gone looking for rooms. Arturo had only one room available but had a friend just around the corner with another room. Room rates are standardized at 25 CUC (convertible pesos) per night, roughly the equivalent of $25 Canadian. Breakfast and dinner are available at reasonable prices. Breakfast typically consists of a selection of fresh fruit and juice, cheese, ham, egg, fresh bread and coffee. When we chose to eat in for dinner we had choices and usually opted for chicken or seafood. Our casa hosts were also good cooks.
This taxi is one of many privately owned Classic American cars that continue to run and have recently been licensed to operate alongside their government owned counterparts.
Tomato puree is distributed for home use from a window opening onto the street. Bring your own container.
Typical Bayamo homes.
Live music is everywhere - an evening practice session.
Across the street from our casa was the panaderia. In this case the bread was not baked on location but transported her from the factory for distribution. The prices are posted in national pesos. One convertible peso is the equivalent of 25 convertible pesos. A large loaf of bread costs about 35 cents Canadian.
Santiago de Cuba, the second largest city in the country, was the next stop on our route. Our hosts in Bayamo referred us to families in Santiago who had rooms to rent near the historical central core of the city. Our challenge was to find them. The original city planners created narrow cobblestone streets that today can only accommodate one-way traffic. Most street signs are either missing or illegible.
Navigating around the dead ends, unmarked construction and households spilling out onto the roadway was a challenge.
Let’s just say that after several unsuccessful attempts at finding a bed for the night we paid a local jinitero(hustler) to get in the car with us a guide us to one of the addresses that we had been given.
Santiago presented our first opportunity to sample Cuban street food. Tom stood in a long line at a cadeca and exchanged some convertible pesos for the national pesos that most street vendors do business in. One convertible peso, roughly the equivalent of one Canadian dollar, converts to 25 national pesos.
One of our favorites was the roast pork sandwiches. At this stand they are offered at 5 national pesos or about 20 cents. Tasty but don’t expect any condiments.
Soft icecream, half chocolate and half pineapple and just the right size for one peso (four cents).
Everywhere we travelled we saw architectural restoration in progress.
Public buildings and private residences alike sported fresh coats of paints and construction permits were posted on projects still to come.
Much of the Catedral de Nuestra Senora de la Asuncion has been restored but it remains a work in progress.
We happened upon the music hall (casa de la trova) in Santiago quite by accident. After a tasty lamb dinner in a paladar near the cathedral and some Cuban coffee that, unlike Folgers and Maxwell House, does not keep me awake at night, we were making our way back to our casa and admiring the architecture. Lively music was coming from the building across the street from the Bacardi Museum. We had to check it out.
For a cover charge of about a dollar we had front row seats for an up close and personal performance of traditional Cuban music and salsa dancing. Authentic, mint infused mojitos were served to us in our seats.
Members of the Cuban Navy stopped by to contribute to the entertainment.
Oxen are not an uncommon form of transportation. We met this pair on our way to Guantanamo.
We passed through Guantanamo at lunch time. Personal size pizza dripping with melted cheese for 5 national pesos (20 cents).
Iced fruit juice served in cut off beer bottles.
Baracoa, on the southeastern tip of the island, was our final stop. Famous for chocolate production, Baracoa is mostly underdeveloped as a tourist destination.
The winding highway through the mountains provides awesome vistas of the Cuchillas de Baracoa Mountains.
We found rooms in one of the casas listed in Lonely Planet. The decorating challenge industry could find material for many seasons here.
Playa Maguana is a short drive from town. When we arrived at the beach we were approached by a local fisherman who offered to cook lunch for us. Grilled lobster was the only thing on the menu.
As we waited for our meal we watched a fresh catch being brought in. Those are adult size flippers!
Nothing is wasted. This visitor came by to clean up after us. Nothing like a few spent lobster shells for an afternoon snack.
We can attest to Lonely Planet’s claim that excellent meals are to be had in the casas of Baracoa. Our hostess created some amazing meals for us using local fish, shrimp and lobster (too bad about the cholesterol). Alien, an English teacher by day, and Anthony, one of his former students, now working together in the Restaurante Latino by night, made marvelous mojitos for us when we stopped by for after dinner night caps. We still keep in touch by email.
The northern, less travelled route from Baracoa back to Varadero does not pass through any tourist developments and therefore has probably not been resurfaced since it was first built.
Apparently there were signs advising against taking photographs. I missed them.
