Bunces in Cuba - Feb - March 2015

Hello everyone. We’re about 4 days from leaving Cuba and will be spending the last three in an hotel.  An Eco-hotel, whatever that is in reality.  Given the paucity of internet connections I think once we leave Vinales that’ll be it until we get home, so there should be one more of these sent from England.         Heading west Havana direction, we’d decided to get there by train rather than bus.  The Hershey Electric Railway is the only electric train in Cuba and was built by ‘Big Cheese’ Hershey the chocolate man for his vast sugar holdings in this area near the coast.  To get an idea of the money this company must have had to play with, the route into Havana is 90kms long with a variety of side lines.  Now it connects the most rural bits of Cuba we’ve seen, no roads and with station halts about the size of a small domestic garage every few miles.  The biggest station apart from the termini is modestly called Hershey....

Sent from Havana   Apart from in museums there are virtually no references to Fidel Castro here which we think is because he’s still alive.   There are however many references to the two Ernies, Hemingway and Guevara with Ernesto ‘Che’ being impossible to avoid.  Apart from the expected t-shirts, dozens of different books and hundreds of photos, his presence is everywhere, on walls, shops and postcards.  Art galleries always have Che paintings, many of which are based on the classic poster shot we’ve all seen.  The bearded and 60’s hairstyle revolutionary in uniform with forage cap in place looking sternly over the viewers head, presumably to the post-revolutionary sunny uplands in the distance.  It is a personality cult, perhaps not pure and perhaps not simple but a personality cult nonetheless.  It helps of course that he was incredibly photogenic with film star looks and of course he died young which is always a good career move.  If ...

Dear All Well, I’ve obviously found a connection.  Sometimes it’s a hotel with wi-fi (which are as rare as hen’s teeth) or otherwise a slow internet terminal and I’ve surreptitiously slipped a memory stick into a USB port.  We’ve had to show a passport to get an internet log-in.  This is a frustrating country. We’re as far to the east as we plan to go in Cuba, having started in Havana and then moved eastwards through Cienfuegos, Trinidad, Sancti Spiritus, Camaguey and now Santiago.  From here we plan to go back along the main highway stopping at a few different locations before spending a few days near a beach.  One thing that surprises me, because of the time it took us to realise it, is that the people asking “taxi” etc. outside all the bus stations are not taxi drivers.  They have a bit of English, negotiate a price which is always wildly more than a local would pay and then call a taxi and tell the driver how much the fare is. ...

I’ve not said much about the Casas Particular but they are very good.  Always clean and welcoming with air con, fan and h & c showers which are nearly always the ‘suicide’ type.  Our cheapest was the first place we stayed in Havana at 18CUC for the room plus 5CUC each for breakfast but after that virtually all have been 25CUC a night for the room and 5CUC for breakfast.  Breakfast is always fresh fruit, juice, coffee, bread and an omelette if wanted.  The omelette doesn’t appeal to me and the bread is dry so my breakfast is always coffee and fruit.  The Casas are usually in traditional houses with tremendously high ceilings of 15 feet or so, often higher than the width or length of the room.  Imagine a large shoe box stood on end and that’s it.  The front door opens directly onto a narrow pavement.  A couple have been bedroom plus sitting room with access to balconies, still at the same price.  The decorative style is 1960’s/70’s G...

Getting internet is very difficult and we still haven’t seen the use of a credit card ! Never, ever trust a Cuban taxi-driver Before we came I knew that Cuba was a big place but hadn’t realised how big.  England is about 50,000 square miles with about 55 million population and Cuba, longer and narrower is 44,000 square miles with about 11 million people.  We needed accommodation and transport to get us from Havana on the north coast to Cienfuegos on the south as we expect to head eastwards along the major part of the island. We called into an official tourist office as, of course, they all are here.  A very helpful man called Abel recommended and booked accommodation with a sea view for us and would book transport in a taxi and leave a message that afternoon, at our current place, to confirm the booking.  We’re due to leave in two days.   Of course no call came, so we called back into the office the next day to find that it’s Abel’s d...

Hello everyone. The usual caveat prevails, if you don’t want these notes please let me know and I’ll happily take you off the distribution list.  I imagine these are going to be fairly sporadic because of comms. difficulties and you may get two at once because internet access may be more difficult the further we get from Havana.  We have no mobile phone connection either. I guess some of you will be surprised to get this at all, not realising that we’re off again.  This time we’re in Cuba for five weeks doing our independent traveller stuff as best we can.  We arrived with a return air ticket, the first three nights accommodation booked, poor Spanish and no plan.  As I always say at some time in these notes, what could possibly go wrong. Best Wishes Les Cuba A – Havan A Good Time OK so it isn’t exactly Shakespeare but from where I’m sitting it is an irresistible sequence of letters.   I haven’t a clue when you’ll see ...