Day 4 - Cuba

Well, either the music stopped shortly after I went to bed, or I have great earplugs! The alarm went off at 6am as we had to be ready for pick up by 7. It was a full bus load - 26 of us I think. 

We headed off across country in a southwesterly direction to the city of Cienfugos and arrived just before lunch. This city is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and it's well-kept heritage buildings are a stark contrast to the dilapidated Old Havana. We walked to the town square and spent a bit of time admiring the surrounding buildings.

There is a beautiful cathedral in one corner of the square, and some 1950's cars were parked on the street in front of it.

The photographer in me was quite thrilled. The Museo Provincial was also very photogenic as was the Teatro Tomas Terry.

Built in the 1880's, the Italian style theatre has a splendid U-shaped auditorium with two tiers of seats. The art on the ceiling put me in mind of the Sistine Chapel.

Lunch was at an ocean side hotel called Club Nautico Restaurant.

The buffet had a lot of choice, but more than half didn't appeal to me. All the same, I didn't go away hungry.

After eating we made a quick photo stop at the Palacio de Valle. Once a casino, it is now a hotel.

We continued on to the city of Trinidad, also a UNESCO Heritage Site.

We visited a potter, and a local museum, where we had the opportunity to climb several narrow, circular flights of stairs.

The viewpoint at the top was well worth the hike!

The streets of Trinidad are uneven cobblestone and a bit tricky to navigate in the sandals I wore.

We walked along for several blocks admiring the colourful buildings, trying to catch glimpses of Cuban life.

There was a stop at La Canchanchara Tavern for the specialty drink of the house and some live entertainment. It is a quaint town.

However, I was quite surprised at the number of tourists there besides our group.

Just before sunset, we headed out of town into the nearby mountains to our accommodation for the night. The road to the Los Helechos Hotel is a significant climb with windy roads and a few hairpin turns. Our guide said she was glad our driver was from Trinidad - meaning he knew the roads well. I was amazed at the dense vegetation. We are in the jungle!

Our hotel is satisfactory. Supper was a buffet again. Surprisingly, they offered a lot of the same foods as we had at lunch. I was hoping for a quiet peaceful night but we are near the bar and can hear the sound of many people talking. As people who are drinking are apt to do, the volume seems to increase with their consumption. I am so tired today from the heat and all the walking we did so I'm hoping I will fall asleep easily. 

Day 3 - Cuba

We made the 9:30 orientation session today! Our Sunwing travel agents here in Havana gave us some good advice on what to see and how to see it, whether on our own or the hop-on/hop-off bus. We also  booked a couple of out of town tours with them.

We decided to take a short horse-drawn carriage tour around the Old Town area from a friendly, but persistent salesman. We made a few stops, my favorite being the display of fibreglass bears.

In a sizeable square, there were large bears painted in colourful designs representing each country. The art was wonderful.

We looked in anticipation for the Canadian bear and were dismayed to find some very uninteresting pixelated blues, greens and beiges. Go figure!

We got a good 'lay of the land'.

After we were dropped off, we headed out to find some some art galleries down Obispo Ave. It's quite a touristy area, however we found no art at all.

We did buy some yummy chocolate ice cream treats which we needed help in paying for. There are two currencies here: the CUC or Cuban Convertible Peso, used by tourists, and the CUP or Peso Cubano, used by locals. The ice cream was more popular with the locals and we had no CUPs. We could pay in CUCs but needed exact change. Two people in line helped us with our money as we did not understand the clerk. Perhaps they just wanted us to hurry up so they could buy their ice cream ;-)

We enjoyed photographing some of the old buildings and doorways as we walked along.

Lunch was at a nice little sidewalk cafe. I tried the local diet 'Coke' which hit the spot. It wasn't Pepsi Max but it had caffeine!

We had been told about a chocolate shop and stopped in to make a purchase.

Tracy's Hero!

Our final destination was the craft market we had a short visit at earlier. We decided to split up and meet later.
I was interested in some Cuban art that I had seen and checked out just about every vendor in the large building. There must have been maybe 70 or 80 art vendors?!?

Scenes of 50's cars on the streets of Havana were over-represented. But there were many delightful original paintings and I especially enjoyed the abstract art. After a full hour of searching, I finally decided to buy a cool mixed media piece - a painting mixed with collage. It is quite unique and I love it!

I met up with Tracy at the appointed time and place, then we went to a few more stalls together. I was missing the jewelry I forgot to bring from home, so I was on the lookout for some earrings. I found a beautiful stone, which the vendor called a Castro stone, and I now have some lovely earrings together with a bracelet. We met a photographer artist with some wonderful photoshopped art and we each bought a very cool print.

By 6 pm we were ready to leave and we started the long walk back to our hotel. We have been walking on nothing but cement and granite the past two days and my feet were really feeling it. Part way home we hailed a bicycle cab to our hotel. Poor cyclist! But our feet were so much happier.

We had a most lovely supper at our hotel on the rooftop cafe and the views are great too.

It's going to be a very early morning tomorrow. The music is going great guns again tonight!