Hola everyone!
We have arrived safe and sound, happy and healthy with our two little backpacks in Holguin, a town in the eastern section of Cuba. See map above.
Airport in Holguin
.....a quick map review of Cuba. The country is about 1200km/700 miles from east to west (or about British Columbia's (Canada) width from the Pacific Ocean to the Rocky Mountains.
Airport in Holguin
.....a quick map review of Cuba. The country is about 1200km/700 miles from east to west (or about British Columbia's (Canada) width from the Pacific Ocean to the Rocky Mountains.
Cuba is about 2.5 hrs wide (by car) from the Atlantic to the Caribbean...so, as you can figure out already....the warm waters are always close by......
Our plan is to start in Cuba's eastern region, and work our way around the area and then west....going where ever we want.....happy reading!
Holguin is a large city with wonderful people, horse and carriages abound and much to see. Our first 4 days in Cuba started with Daniel and Marcia's 'Casa de Particular" or B&B called Casa La Roca. What a find this was on the internet.
Our private balcony.
What made this stay so special, was that Daniel gave us names for all the Casas we would need
for every location in Cuba, if we wanted to use them. What a lot of work that was hand writing all
this information. He said each Casa owner would just call the next Casa on the list and ask if there
was availability. We thought we would definitely give that a try since we have not booked a single
hotel or Casa for our entire journey.
Every day in Holguin was started by going to the horse carriage 'taxi' stand to get our trip to town. Was great!
Costs about 20 cents for 2 for a 15 minute ride.
We wanted a view of the city so headed to the highest mountain of 275 m to start climbing the 465 steps!!
The view was worth it!!
Stumbled upon a boxing match that was hosting the National Finals. One of the 52 kg contestants
was sitting in front of us... great hair!
On one of the days, our host, Daniel, took us to a 'new' ladies gym. He was very proud of it and said that many
women use it now. Most of the equipment seemed to be made out of old re-used parts from cars, bikes and?
Such resourcefulness! Nothing is thrown away here!
Here are some random shots around Holguin ...
Interesting stairs we see everywhere.
Streets scene.
At Parque de las Flores is this interesting mural ...
This is a small shop for locals only. They purchase their weekly supply of rice (5 lbs) plus other items
that are part of their government allowance. The shop keeper writes down how much he received so that
Our $8 pp dinner... chicken, potatoes, rice, tomatoes, cucumber. Beer was extra. Another evening we had
fried pork (slaughtered that day), onions, rice, yams, tomatoes, cucumber, cooked carrots and homemade
flan. The flan was cooked in the cut off bottom of a beer can and baked in a toaster oven at the neighbours.
Every night there are cool breezes, music can be heard in homes and vendors are on the street calling out
their wares that are available - ie bread, fruit, water, bleach, vegetables...
After several great days in Holguin we headed north to the beach town of Gibara, on the Atlantic, 33 km from Holguin. Our taxi was a 1941 Ford!! This ride was organized by our Casa owner, Daniel.
The journey to Gibara was through beautiful mountainous roads and groomed sugar cane fields
Look closely at the above picture... with the different modes of transportation
Sugar cane fields.
FYI - When you register at a Casa in Cuba, you have to sign papers and show your passport. The
government randomly checks the Casas at least twice a month to ensure all the paperwork is
complete.
Street pizza is 7 cents per person. Temp has dropped in the last 2 days to about 30 C and lower humidity. Packs are working great.
Dinner tonight at the Casa consisted of HUGE creole shrimp the size of your big toe, black rice and
black beans, salad, green beans, fried bananas (like potato chips but not sweet , like plantain), fresh baby
bananas and pound cake served with jam. Delicious! $8 pp.
Gibara has an amazing cave system that we wanted to visit 150 m down. Darwin, our mandatory
guide gave us helmets and flashlights. We then took a 20 minute walk on a mountain trail to get to this cave.
Caverna de Panaderos with our guide, Darwin.
4 types of bats were evident - mainly fruit and insect eaters. We could hear their sound regularly. We came
to many very large caves that were 10-30 m high, some very low with many stalagmites and stalactites.
Magnesium and iron was everywhere. Artifacts of bowls and shells have been found there. It was quite
humid and slippery in the cave. We eventually went down a very crude ladder to an underground salty lake
150 m above sea level but 150 m below the mountain top. We washed our faces in this natural underground lake that is supposed to make us younger... Shayne´s hair is already turning darker... Ha. Darwin told us that when a major hurricane occurs, most of the villagers enter the caves for shelter.
Went back to Holguin with our same taxi driver, Oscar. He came all the way back to pick us up because it was
a good fare for him..
This was the inside of the 1941 Ford. The horn was crumpled up paper.
While we were in Holguin we booked private Spanish lessons with a university English professor who came to our Casa for 4 two hour sessions at a cost of $10 /hr. This was well worth it for us. Weaare now finished and we feel much better about getting around... it´s all about the practise... yahoo.
The internet speed is much faster than we thought - almost like home... but, you usually have to go to government internet buildings in order to get service. You buy a card for $6 for one hour. It's very expensive
for the Cubans! This card gives you a password that you type in, then as soon as you are on-line, a clock shows up on the screen and counts down the number of minutes you have left in your hour. You can use the
card in any town in Cuba.
Tomorrow we will be heading to the resort area of Guardalavaca, east of Holguin. It is similar to Varadero, but way smaller, with only a handful of resort hotels on the beaches.
Our private balcony.
What made this stay so special, was that Daniel gave us names for all the Casas we would need
for every location in Cuba, if we wanted to use them. What a lot of work that was hand writing all
this information. He said each Casa owner would just call the next Casa on the list and ask if there
was availability. We thought we would definitely give that a try since we have not booked a single
hotel or Casa for our entire journey.
Every day in Holguin was started by going to the horse carriage 'taxi' stand to get our trip to town. Was great!
Costs about 20 cents for 2 for a 15 minute ride.
We wanted a view of the city so headed to the highest mountain of 275 m to start climbing the 465 steps!!
The view was worth it!!
Stumbled upon a boxing match that was hosting the National Finals. One of the 52 kg contestants
was sitting in front of us... great hair!
On one of the days, our host, Daniel, took us to a 'new' ladies gym. He was very proud of it and said that many
women use it now. Most of the equipment seemed to be made out of old re-used parts from cars, bikes and?
Such resourcefulness! Nothing is thrown away here!
Here are some random shots around Holguin ...
Interesting stairs we see everywhere.
Streets scene.
At Parque de las Flores is this interesting mural ...
This is a small shop for locals only. They purchase their weekly supply of rice (5 lbs) plus other items
that are part of their government allowance. The shop keeper writes down how much he received so that
there is a record and no discrepancy.
Our $8 pp dinner... chicken, potatoes, rice, tomatoes, cucumber. Beer was extra. Another evening we had
fried pork (slaughtered that day), onions, rice, yams, tomatoes, cucumber, cooked carrots and homemade
flan. The flan was cooked in the cut off bottom of a beer can and baked in a toaster oven at the neighbours.
Every night there are cool breezes, music can be heard in homes and vendors are on the street calling out
their wares that are available - ie bread, fruit, water, bleach, vegetables...
After several great days in Holguin we headed north to the beach town of Gibara, on the Atlantic, 33 km from Holguin. Our taxi was a 1941 Ford!! This ride was organized by our Casa owner, Daniel.
The journey to Gibara was through beautiful mountainous roads and groomed sugar cane fields
Look closely at the above picture... with the different modes of transportation
Sugar cane fields.
FYI - When you register at a Casa in Cuba, you have to sign papers and show your passport. The
government randomly checks the Casas at least twice a month to ensure all the paperwork is
complete.
Street pizza is 7 cents per person. Temp has dropped in the last 2 days to about 30 C and lower humidity. Packs are working great.
Dinner tonight at the Casa consisted of HUGE creole shrimp the size of your big toe, black rice and
black beans, salad, green beans, fried bananas (like potato chips but not sweet , like plantain), fresh baby
bananas and pound cake served with jam. Delicious! $8 pp.
Gibara has an amazing cave system that we wanted to visit 150 m down. Darwin, our mandatory
guide gave us helmets and flashlights. We then took a 20 minute walk on a mountain trail to get to this cave.
Caverna de Panaderos with our guide, Darwin.
4 types of bats were evident - mainly fruit and insect eaters. We could hear their sound regularly. We came
to many very large caves that were 10-30 m high, some very low with many stalagmites and stalactites.
Magnesium and iron was everywhere. Artifacts of bowls and shells have been found there. It was quite
humid and slippery in the cave. We eventually went down a very crude ladder to an underground salty lake
150 m above sea level but 150 m below the mountain top. We washed our faces in this natural underground lake that is supposed to make us younger... Shayne´s hair is already turning darker... Ha. Darwin told us that when a major hurricane occurs, most of the villagers enter the caves for shelter.
Went back to Holguin with our same taxi driver, Oscar. He came all the way back to pick us up because it was
a good fare for him..
This was the inside of the 1941 Ford. The horn was crumpled up paper.
While we were in Holguin we booked private Spanish lessons with a university English professor who came to our Casa for 4 two hour sessions at a cost of $10 /hr. This was well worth it for us. Weaare now finished and we feel much better about getting around... it´s all about the practise... yahoo.
The internet speed is much faster than we thought - almost like home... but, you usually have to go to government internet buildings in order to get service. You buy a card for $6 for one hour. It's very expensive
for the Cubans! This card gives you a password that you type in, then as soon as you are on-line, a clock shows up on the screen and counts down the number of minutes you have left in your hour. You can use the
card in any town in Cuba.
Tomorrow we will be heading to the resort area of Guardalavaca, east of Holguin. It is similar to Varadero, but way smaller, with only a handful of resort hotels on the beaches.
When we leave Guardalavaca, we will be taking a scenic route along the coast to Moa; an ugly mining town where we will trade cars for a sturdy jeep heading to Baracoa. 75 km will take us 2 and a half hours along a bumpy scenic road. Should be interesting. It is a funky, hippy town near the eastern tip of Cuba.
Our casa owner is helping us out and giving us great trip advice.
Ciao ninos y ninas
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