Spent a lazy Saturday re-exploring Havana. After a leisurely coffee at a local joint I headed to a nearby park where there were street performers on stilts entertaining some children. I followed them for a while as they went around the old quarter stopping to dance to the music of live ban ds filtering into the streets before heading to check out a few museums. First the beautifully complex Museum of Arts and then the Museum de la Revolution which is pretty self-explanatory. I really wanted to go ´out out´ but the big clubs in Havana are really just for tourists and with a $20 entrance fee I can see why. From the live music I´ve seen, I know I really want to see Cubans dance, not tourists. Mengshao and I checked out our favorite live music spot and were happy enough. Saturday was the last day I was willing to wait for a money transfer from my mother to come through. I have a lot of American money on my person but the exchange rate is horrid and I was worried I just didn´t have enough. Things take forever in cuba so I decide to head out on a little excursion for a few days while I waited.
I was going to head to Veradero which is a posh beach resort a few hours from Havana (where luckily I have the address of a cheap somewhat illegal casa particular) but the bus schedule I had was out of date and I just missed it. I decided on the cuff to head to Vinales with Mengshao. Because travellers stay in casa particulars which only have one or maybe two rooms its quite hard to hook up. I found the answer at the tourist bus station. It seems to be where we all congregate and exchange information. We talked to a few couples before we boarded our three hour bus to Vinales. There were only about 15 tourists on the bus but we were greeted at the station with over 50 casa particular owners all waving signs to entice us to stay with them. Luckily we recognized the name on one of the signs as the one Cary (from our casa in Havana) had recommended. We bargained for a cheap rate and headed over. The town is only about 6 blocks by 10 blocks so everything is quite close. We found a cheap local place for lunch and I got a peek at the prices they were charging Cubans as opposed to us tourists. We pay about twice as much but its still ridiculously cheap. It started to spit rain so we headed back to the casa to wait it out but it didn´t let up til dark so we hung out on the porch rocking chairs and dove into our books.
Up early the next day. Mengshao had arranged for a guided horse tour around the area but I really just wanted to have a walk around so I headed out 4 kms west through beautiful lush green scenery to the Mural de la Prehistorica painted on the side of a tall rock face. I had wanted to cut through the trails above Vinales to head over to the north but a local advised me against it so I grudgingly headed back to Vinales along the same path. I took a small detour to a tobacco finca (farm) for a quick drink and a look at their cigars before crossing through town on my way to the Cueva del Indio. I made a quick pitstop at a local woman´s house when she had cultivated an amazing garden of fruit and flowers in her backyard. She offered me some freshly picked fruit in exchange for a small donation and then I was on my way again. The 5km walk north of town passed many tall craggly cave openings in the surrounding mountains. Very few cars passed me by but at almost the same time that I arrived, 2 more taxis showed up. One carrying 3 Swedish tourists and one carrying a German tourist. They sent us all into the 500m of cave together where we stumbled around before finding the landing for the underground river. A boatman took us on a short ride though the cave before dropping us off on the otherside. The German guy, Peter, offered me a ride back into town. I accepted but talked him into stopping at another cave called San Miguel about 1km down the road that I´d spied on the way up. They had a full blown bar nestled into the large cave entrance and we enjoyed a few drinks as we watched the rain start. By the time we got back into town the rain was a full blown storm so we took cover in a small bar where some locals befriended us and gave us cigars to enjoy. When the rain finally stopped we headed back to our respective casas for dinner, agreeing to meet up later to listen to the advertised live music. Dinner at the casa was an amazing mountain of food cooked by the senora and I ate a ridiculous amount before rolling away from the table. Mengshao and I headed back to the bar to meeet up with Peter but the promised live band was pretty bad. We decided to head down the street to a new bar with much better music for a small cover charge. One of the singers looked just like Uncle Junior from the Sopranos and was a crazy dancing fool. A really great day and night!
Mengshao and I decided to catch the early morning bus back to Havana where he would connect onward to Verdadero and I would stay in Havana and connect with Cary to check on the money transfer. No money, of course, but lots of frantic email from my family to make sure I´m alright and that I´m not destitute. Jeez. Cary and I headed to the main office of Transcard to try and get some answers from a real live person. We took a cuban shared taxi which only cost us $1 each all the way to Miramar because I followed Cary´s instructions to keep my mouth shut as I can pass for Cuban until they hear my horrible Spanish. We were in line for three hours only to get ´I don´t know´ as our answer. I was so frustrated I just wanted to scream. Cary offered to help find a place for me to stay for the night as her two rooms were booked but I really just wanted to walk and think and also, get out of Havana! It took me two hours to walk to the main bus station but it helped my mood tremendously. I booked passage on the tourist bus to Santiago de Cuba leaving in just over an hour and checked out my food options. I was at the local bus station so the cheap food options were plentiful and I was starving as I hadn´t eaten all day. I chowed down on 4 small roast pork sandwiches for less than a $1 total. I was dead tired so I slept like a chamption on the 12 hour express bus to Santiago de Cuba where I connected to a 5 hour bus to Baracoa, the first Spanish settlement in Cuba.
We arrived about noon and was again accosted by lots of casa owners but there was a nice little sign with my name on it so I went with the guy to check out his offerings. Baracoa is another tiny place and the price was right so I dropped my bag off, cleaned up and headed out to check out the town. Baracoa sits on the northwestern tip of Cuba and is a small, quiet and gorgeous place. There are hardly any cars here and people get around by horse or bicycle taxi. I walked along the waterfront to the old fort and then through the small town before settling into a small outdoor cafe with my book. In the morning I stopped for one of their famous hot chocolates which was thick and rich even though it was made without milk and then headed toward the south of town to check out a small museum at another fort. Then it was off down the road out of the town towards the lush nearby farms and coconut plantations. It started to get riduculously hot so I stopped every 5 minutes or so on the way back to buy myself 4 cent ice creams cone to cool off. Hey, there´s no, milk or yogurt and hardly any cheese that you would really consider edible so I´m doing the best that I can! I met up with a small group of tourists at the bus station and we talked for most of the 5 hour ride back to Santiago. It´s good to be on the road again. I´m really feeling back in the traveller spirit and from what all the other travellers are telling me, the prices in the lonely planet are all wrong so accomadation should be much cheaper than I expected. So after all the stress, I´ll probably have enough money to get though just fine. So, thanks mom. If it comes though, it comes through. If not, I´ll survive!!!!
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