Cuba – (uitgebreid) reisverslag

Niet veel met Parijs te zien, maar toch… Had dit, na het korte reisverslag, ooit al willen posten, dan vergeten, maar het is er dan toch van gekomen: het reisverslag van onze trip naar Cuba in februari… Int Engels, omdat ik het ook naar wat buitenlandse vrienden doorgestuurd had… Pics volgen nog…

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Cuba – February – March 2009
Flight: Paris – Havana or Paris – Madrid – Havana
Hour difference: -6 compared to Paris

Day 1 – Friday the 20th of February

Arrival with Iberia flight at Havana. Night at the Hotel Nacional, one of the most ancient and legendary hotels of Havana. The hotel is a bit out of the center, but the garden gives a great view over the Malecon.

Day 2 – Saturday the 21st of February

Havana
In the morning, as we didn’t plan to spend 170 EUR on a double room, we went on the look for a ‘casa particular’, which is the cheapest and probably the most interesting way to spend the night. The whole country is loaded with casas that offer a stay over, with or without lunch and breakfast. Thought it is the cheapest, it isn’t really cheap, as you have to count on at least 20 – 25 CUC (1 EUR = 1,12 CUC) per night for a double room, breakfast mostly not included).
Stay over at a casa in the Verdaro quarter, not far from the Hotel Nacional. Count on 5 CUC with a Coco taxi to the city center.
Noon and afternoon were spent on visiting Havana.

• Plaza de la Revolucion

Huge place with all ‘big’ instances overlooking the highest point of Havana. The famous ‘Che’-face on the building can be seen here as well.

• Ciudad Vieja de la Habana

Old city centre, were we followed the 2 walks mentioned in the Lonely Planet. Great city, recognized as UNESCO world heritage. Luckily, we could say, as it brings in some money for renovation project. Once you get out of the city centre, it looks like a war ravaged the city. Anyway, before the revolution, it must have been one of the most splendid cities in the world.
Dinner in a Cuban – Italian restaurant not far from the Plaza del Armas.

Day 3 – Monday the 22nd of February

Regarding transport, there isn’t a big range of possibilities in Cuba. There are some inland flights to the main cities and a tourist bus service gets you around pretty easily to the main spots. However, once you want to get out of these spots, it might quickly become a real challenge.
So, as we only had 10 days, we decided to rent a car at Cubacar. Count around 50 – 60 CUC, insurance included to rent a car.
Havana → Vinales – 180 kilometers
We arrived at Vinales at about 3 pm, looked for a casa (friendly people, but not the best idea to take a case at the main road (well, there are only 3 roads), as it was pretty noisy.
We took the care to visit around the region, went to some beautiful valleys and visited the hotspot of the region, the Cueva del Indios. Well, let’s say that it’s the tourist scam of the region, you’ve visited the cave in 10 minutes and it’s not worth doing.
Vinales is a great place because of its nature around. We booked for a walk the next day in the morning.

Day 4 – Monday the 23rd of February

Vinales
In the morning, we did a great walk with a guide in the Vinales valley. In fact, the region, situated in the Pinar del Rio region, is mostly known for its tobacco plantations and walking around, visiting the farms, drinking fresh sugar cane juice, was a great experience.
Afternoon: by car to the beach. Cayo Yutias is at about an hour drive from Vinales and was originally an island, which is now relayed to the ‘mainland’ by some sort of a bridge. Atlantic Ocean, 23 degrees, big sun… A though life and a great place to stay. In the evening we went back to Vinales, looked for another casa and spend the night there.

Day 5 – Tuesday the 24th of February

We could have spent a week in the western region, but as time was counting, we went a little east. Looking in the Lonely Planet on the country’s highlights, San Diego de los Banos didn’t look too far and very interesting: the country’s best place for natural thermal baths… Would have taken us an hour, but as there are almost no road signs anywhere in Cuba, after two hours and a half of getting lost in the North, we finally arrived in this beautiful small city. First thing we saw: the thermal baths were closed for 6 years, since a hurricane devastated the place. Thank you, Lonely Planet. Anyway, we walked around a bit, had a chat with a very nice local and went further on, to Soroa.
Soroa is a tiny place in a great nature, there is a waterfall (don’t get there, you have to pay and you can see it from the street, a splendid mirador from which you have a very impressive view on the nature, a botanical garden and especially: tranquility… A great place to spend a day.

Day 6 – Wednesday the 25th of February

We had to pass by Havana by noon, as we wanted to rent the car a couple of days more, and as we didn’t want to pay penalties. In this country of extreme bureaucracy, there’s no joking on being an hour late…
So, quick jump by Las Terrazas, another country’s highlight, which could be resumed as the disappointment of the trip: nothing to see compared to the previous places, very touristic and clearly to avoid.
After a quick jump by Havana (1,5 hour of administration for taking the car longer, especially a little hard when you don’t really speak more than a mouthful of Spanish), off to Cienfuegos, about 250 kilometers southwest of Havana, in the south of the country.
Cienfuegos’ city centre is classified as Unesco’s world heritage and it’s really worth visiting. Beautiful colonial architecture, the theatre that you can visit for 1 CUC is really beautiful and the city is really alive…
One practical hint: it’s really better to stay in the south side of town than in the city centre itself, the casas are way nicer and you have great views over the sea…
We stayed in a pretty basic casa and bought a whole box of cigars.

Day 7 – Thursday the 26th of February

Morning: visit of the city and the ancient cemetery (worth doing, a local guide at the entrance gives very good explanation for a tip) and at noon we left for Trinidad. It the middle of the road we took profit of a local snack bar to eat something and have a swim in the sea.
Trinidad is another of Cuba’s great colonial cities, Unesco protected (luckily) and a transport free city centre. Pretty easy to find a very nice casa with terrace, a little more difficult to find a decent restaurant, very strange, there aren’t a lot of them in town.
The rest of the afternoon was spend of getting lost in the narrow streets and tacking pictures.

Day 8 – Friday the 27th of February

One of the great things about Trinidad is its localization near the great beaches of Playa Ancon, about 10 kilometers of town. So, from 10 o’clock we were on the beach, at noon 30 meters underwater for diving and afternoon on being lazy in the sand.
Late afternoon: picture session of the sunset in the city, smoking a cigar, eating, having a drink etc… A hard knock’s life…

Day 9 – Saturday the 28th of February

Beach (Playa Ancon) and driving back in the late afternoon to Cienfuegos, where we fell on the best casa we had in the south part of the city: private terrace overlooking the sea, very well equipped room, extremely good diner and a beautiful sunset…

Day 10 – Sunday the 1st of March

As Christèle was flying back that night from Havana, and as we had to bring the car back before noon, we enjoyed the sunrise at 7am, a large breakfast in the sun and a 3 hours drive back to Havana. After the administrative part, looking for a casa, we walked a bit around in Havana before picking up the luggage and going to the airport (for Christèle at least). Disappointment of the trip: my only night alone in Cuba was welcomed by a tropical rain that took 5 hours, which made me spend my night in the casa reading a book (wow, how exiting).

Day 11 – Monday the 2nd of March

A whole day in Havana, based on three activities

• Partagas tobacco factory: absolutely worth doing: great to see how they make cigars. A must!
• Museo de la Revolucion: a little disappointed, off course pure propaganda, but if you read Spanish it would be worthier…
• Walking around, buying rum, cigars etc…

Night: extremely speedy taxi drive to the airport and flying back to Paris…