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.