October 6-8 Cuban Holiday

October 7 Wednesday 

Rudy and Ellen left on their 8:30 tour at 10 a.m. a little pissed off, who can blame them.

We got a taxi to playa Baracoa, 15 minutes down the road. A beach that Gerry knew existed but most of the hotel staff did not. Perseverance paid off, Maydales knew about, asked a taxi driver wandering through the lobby how much, he quoted 40, so we went outside to get our own. Ariel (phone number 5 3328 203) quoted half that so with his brother Alexey (also a driver) in tow off we went. Got to the town but they had to ask for directions to the beach, guess they're not real men. 

Small beach but adequate, of course not as good as the Bahamas. 

Dead chicken - lovely ambience

As well as the mangy dog

Went for a walk, took a dip and joined the men at a derelict bar/restaurant. The seats for most chairs were broken and while we scrounged for usable ones Ariel shrugged and said "It's Cuba." In our absence they had ordered lunch, 3 plates of food, 2 fish, 1 pork and insisted we have one of the fish ones and forced a beer on Gerry. Compared to the hotel food it was heavenly. Fish done just right and something like homemade potato chips but I think were made from apples. Delicious.

Lovely statue

Ellen and Rudy got back at 9:45 instead of 6, justifiably not happy about that but they said the tour into the country side was good. Visited a farm (like Old MacDonald), watched cigar making, had lunch, went by boat into caves.

Hotel had a little cabaret show, dancers and singers that we actually knew about, having accidentally heard about it, because they sure weren't going to tell us. Oh, almost forgot, there were spoons in the cafeteria and lots of them. 

October 8 home today and glad of that

Spent the day poolside, bus came at 5:40, half an hour late. Our guide asked if we had any comments and probably wished he hadn't, we gave him an earful. Only had one more hotel to stop at, hours away. Our guide claimed it was a 3 star (we went in to use the toilet). If that was a 3 star ours must be a -1. The lobby, restaurant and bathrooms were beautiful. When he asked the new people they loved their hotel, no complaints. The only drawback is it's in the middle of nowhere. Looked it up at home, it's a 4 star.

Guide said to trade our money in before security at the airport because inside you couldn't use CUCs. Wrong, but some vendors would take Canadian money and CUCs but I couldn't find a single thing to buy. Stupid Canadians keep tipping Cubans with coins - they cannot take them to the bank, only bills, so we got approached more than once by people begging to trade them in for bills.

So that's that - would I go again? Probably not - it's too much like camping in a tent instead of an RV and I have other countries to see. 

 Hotel is the bed icon on Canal 2.

October 4 - 6 Cuban Holiday

October 4 Sunday 

Surfer
Walked to the ocean this morning, rocks, broken sea wall and waves kept us out but not a lone surfer. Is it really a good idea to surf where you could easily end up on the rocks? 

When we got back we knew we were in Cuba, the hotel had been inundated by Cuban families and single males.  We made sure we were on time for lunch.  Even without a crowd they run out of plates and bowls and finding a spoon is akin to finding gold! Eating ice cream with a fork is frustrating, but the yogurt isn't a problem, it's thin enough to drink. We've resorted to keeping a spoon in our room but I keep forgetting it.  This morning there was pudding and pizza on the breakfast menu, last night we saw bananas for the first time - for dinner, really? They serve strawberry ice cream at lunch and dinner every single day and all sorts of cold pasta salads at every meal. Coffee is out of a machine, Rudy says it's good - when you can find a coffee cup! Lunch and dinner there's a chef cooking fish and meats as you wait. Pretty inefficient, I bypass him and get something already cooked. That spot is almost hidden by the line of people and you have to know it's  there or you could easily miss it. On the other side of the dining room there's another station that appears to only have croissants set out but there's pizza and made to order pasta.

 




Buffet

Gerry got on the Internet, a frustrating experience but worth it to know the ATM didn't take any money out of his account. 

So we had made reservations for the restaurant but when we got there he said we didn't. He locked the door and disappeared. I found him on the phone in the dining room and after a while he came back said OK, give him 10 minutes. He locked the door again so we had to wait in the hot hallway.  Finally got in, we were the only ones there. He opened a bottle of wine (which was terrible, buffet wine was better) and then were served tuna on burnt toast, shrimp and something on burnt toast and a pile of something with potatoes and nothing to put it on like crackers or burnt toast. There was no menu, you eat what they give you: fish, spaghetti with red sauce, mashed potatoes, yellow rice, a wee bit of cabbage.  Fish, as in the cafeteria was over cooked, potatoes were stone cold. We waited for dessert he waited for us to leave, he won. Went to the cafeteria for dessert. Rudy's getting a cold, probably from his seat mate on the plane who insisted she only had allergies.

October 5 Monday 

Hotel is quiet again, locals have gone home.  Ellen has a million bites, Rudy a few, Gerry one, me none. Sunwing guy came back, we exchanged some money and Ellen and Rudy tried to book a tour but they didn't have the minimum number so they'll have to try tomorrow. Visited the souvenir shop, prices weren't bad, went to the little grocery store and most things weren't bad in price except Pringles, 4.40 CUC. Slow day, played cards, Gerry tried to find boaters to talk to and failed.

Pizza for breakfast and lunch today and of course strawberry ice cream as usual. Meat is hit and miss, today they had excellent ham.

October 6 Tuesday 

Booked a Parisien show at the Hotel National in Havana for tonight, and Ellen booked the same tour that Sunwing had offered but wasn't running. Tour agent Maydales said they will go for sure no matter the number.  

At 5:45 the maid walked into our room followed by a man with a mysterious canister. She mimicked bug bites, pointed to the guy and said to close the balcony door.  So there we were, trapped on the balcony and of course Gerry wasn't exactly dressed. I yelled over the balcony that they were fumigating and Ellen had to scramble to get dressed having just come out of the shower. Rudy had the presence of mind to ask how long. She either said 4 - 5 minutes or 45 minutes! Since we were trapped on the balcony they decided to be as well. Now that's friendship. 
Dead center is the fogging van
There was so much fog in there you couldn't see more than a foot inside. After a while I was getting bored and Gerry was getting thirsty so he held his breath jumped into the room to grab my iPad so I could type this up and then back in to get the important stuff - his rum. After 45 minutes I ran in to open the hall door and Rudy did the same. So tell me why they couldn't have warned us? A note on the door, a phone call?  OMG a little van just went by, back doors and all windows open, spewing out insecticide or it was on fire. Hope the driver gets danger pay, the whole vehicle was smokey. Is it safe to use my toothbrush can't wash it with the tap water. I know, sanitize it with rum!

 


Instead of a taxi Maydales arranged for her husband Walter to take us to the 10 o'clock show at the Hotel National for the same price, 40 CUC return. Show was a cabaret, a spectacle with wild costumes and half naked women. My favourite was the couple simply dressed in black doing a tango like number. There was a drum act but he didn't sing babaloo, disappointing. 

October 3 - Havana

October 3 Saturday - Old and New Havana 



It pays to get up earlier - breakfast was so much better this morning and they had little sandwiches that we took along for lunch. The hotel has a free shuttle to the Hop Off, Hop On bus stop and gave us a ticket for that as well so we spent most of the day in Havana City. 

We had seen this same car from the bus.

Naturally as soon as you get off in the center of town you're accosted by pitchmen. Bienvedo talked us into a 2 hour, 60 CUC (for all of us) city tour in a 1952 Chevy convertible, assuring us that if we didn't like it we didn't have to pay. We assumed he was coming along but the driver took off without him. In just a few minutes we realized the driver spoke no English so we made him turn around and go back. Much to our surprise instead of giving up or finding another driver he just jumped in the car. He did a pretty good job of pointing out all the sites and stopped when we wanted to. 

Booth 110 if you get there.

Stops: vegetable market - bought beer; Cigar/Rum shop - bought cigars and a bottle of rum; Hemingway's favourite bar - bought drinks; tourist market - bought a band. I just wanted a simple wooden instrument but next thing you know Gerry had enough  for a band. That guy saw him coming; claimed he was from Toronto, born in the wrong country. Not sure which country he thought was the wrong one - Canada or Cuba. Ellen and Rudy got a hat and a knick knack and were so harassed fled the market.

 
Beer at the vegetable market.




Rum at Hemingway's bar
 
 
 
 
 
Gave pencils to some kids.
Only derelict I saw. 

Lots of buildings need repairs.

Hospital

Square near Hemingway's bar.

Back in Central Park we went to an ATM which accepted Gerry's card but didn't give out any money. Hope it didn't really take any money out of his account. By now we're exhausted, and overheated so we didn't bother hopping on or off the bus on the way back, but most of the stops were things you can easily get pictures of just driving by.

Fort

Cuba's famous old cars

Some lights have big count down signs - great idea!

A lot of traffic and pollution

Cop dressed in hot wool and spurs

 




Wish I knew what this was.


They offer tours of the cemetary
A lot of statues.
Add caption


Revolution Square

 


That evening we tried to get into the fancy restaurant but were told we need reservations despite the fact only one table was occupied. Musicians at dinner again, different ones. There was a synchronized swimming show at 10. We just happened to be on the balcony and saw there was something going on at the pool or we wouldn't have known. They really should post information for us gringos. 

October 1 - 2 Cuban Holiday

Ceiling Shower

The font and spacing is wonky because I cut and pasted the text from my ipad.

October 1  Thursday. poor start, poorer ending

The plane was half an hour late departing and they were blaming the new airport security measures for holding up 9 passengers. We saw no security changes, they didn't even make us take off our shoes and we were ushered through the elite Nexus line to speed things up. I think Sunwing's own check in procedures was the fault.  Anyway we finally arrive at 9:40, go through immigration one at a time so they could take our photos and were only asked if we had been to Africa. Our visa was included in the price and apparently there are dire consequences if you don't produce it when you leave. Breezed through customs, no questions, got our luggage, another long wait (my luggage strap was broken),got on our bus and sat and sat and sat. What we thought was a 1.5 hour bus ride turned into close to 3 hours. Finally checked into our rooms at 2 a.m.  Our room was fine - basic 3 star place, adequate. Rudy and Ellen's room however had a semi-flooded bathroom, musty smell and no AC. Water was pouring out of the ceiling fixture! Someone quickly came, got the AC working and stopped the downpour, but the light spat out water soaking towels and toilet paper. To add insult to injury the bellhop broke the handle on her luggage.

October 2 Friday Promises - kept

Next morning they were guaranteed a new room. Breakfast was adequate, maybe a 2 star event, omelettes and coffee were good. We discovered later that coffee was only available for breakfast in the dining room. If you wanted it any other time you had to go to one of the bars where they served it in a flimsy plastic cup.

You have to convert money to their Convertible Pesos (CUC) so three of them tried to find a bank, following a hand drawn map given to us by the hotel staff. They wandered around for hours and never did find it and none of the locals could help.



Around 3 o'clock they moved Ellen and Rudy to a much better room and moved us right next door in the main building. Spent the rest of the day not doing much, met with the Sunwing rep who reluctantly took on the job of getting my luggage fixed and exchanged some money for us. Swam in the pool, had a so-so lunch. Dinner was entertaining, a 5 piece "band" played. They were good but oh so terribly loud. Then they moved closer to us and made us their main audience, oh joy. 

That evening there was some really loud music outside our room. Trip Advisor had warned us that the good rooms, being closer to the lobby, pool and bar would be nosier, but it was the mega yacht docked right in front that was making the racket! I put my headphones on and had a good night's sleep (not realizing until later that this was the day that Gerry broke my heart). The boys slept well (probably because of the alcohol), but Ellen didn't. She needs headphones or alcohol.

 
Canal view from first room.
Canal view

View from our new rooms.

Aerial shot of the pool

The "band" playing at the pool bar, much better venue than dining room.