Cienfuegos, Cuba

(I took this photo at the side of the highway driving from Cienfuegos to Trinidad. The scenary was really breathtaking through much of Cuba).


December 2003


Day 3 in Cuba


Day 3

I woke up late and Tad and I had talked about maybe going to Cienfuegos and Trinidad today since we would spend several more days in Havana. I had to pick up Stu on the 24th so I agreed. I told the owner of my casa particular (apartment) that I was leaving for a few days. They seemed ok with it and I left ½ of my stuff there. Before coming over to pick up Tad, he puts aa American girl on the phone and she asks if we will give her a ride. I wasn’t too thrilled but I thought why not? I picked them up and off we went. Of course we got lost on the way there. As usual there were NO signs. And the one time there was a sign for Cienfuegos I guess it was for a different Cienfuegos. (there are two?). A guy offered to show us the way and got in the car. He went quite a long way with us. I gave him $2 at the end of the journey and he wanted more. The girl with us took it upon herself to give him all these magazines I had that I was going to read on the beaches of Cuba. I would have rather given him more money. Oh well. If you drive outside of Havana, make sure you ask directions every 20 minutes or so to make sure you are going the right direction. There are a lot of forks in the road and there are NO signs so it’s easy to get lost.

None of these people speak English in the countryside so don’t even attempt to drive unless you are the adventurous type. We stopped in Cienfuegos and I bought lunch for the 3 of us. There was a really scenic restaurant at the end of the main throughway of town. There is a view of the water surrounding the restaurant. It sucked they only had 2 dishes though and they weren’t that good so we didn’t eat that much of it. The girl with us was an American “backpacker” type. I don’t know how she was going to survive on her meager budget. She planned on seeing a lot of different cities within Cuba. I guess one of the ways was by mooching free rides from city to city?? She was a nice enough girl though. She slept most of the way. Cienfuegos looked too small for us so we decided to go ahead and drive to Trinidad. The view on the way there was very serene and scenic. There are tons of people hitchhiking on the highway. I still can’t imagine what they do if they can’t hitch a ride.

You forget how lucky you are until you come to Cuba and experience everything we have that they don’t. The drive only took about an hour from Cienfuegos to Trinidad. It’s about 75 km. Like fools, none of us thought to make a reservation anywhere. Trinidad is a very small town so many of the places were already booked. To make things worse, now we needed 3 rooms. We had this guy show us some places. I asked to be near the ocean. We couldn’t find a place with 3 rooms. I only asked that there be hot water for the shower and a good bed. We arrive to this casa and there is only two rooms. We reluctantly agreed as Tad agreed to share a room with the hitch hiker girl (HHG). Then I asked the casa owner if I could have guests (i.e. girls) over and he immediately says NO. Then to make matters worse they tell us we must eat breakfast and dinner there or we couldn’t stay. That broke the camels back. Too many restrictions. Even if it was only for one night.

We headed back and I decided to ask another casa owner I saw. They had two rooms. It was a quaint place with hot water which sealed the deal. They also said we had to eat there but I didn’t care at this point. It was dark and the last thing I wanted to do was go through town and try to find a place to stay. HHG was making phone calls trying to find a place but everywhere was booked. Around about this time I knew it was a mistake to bring her. We couldn’t leave her hanging now. I told her to go back to the original casa that we refused. I drove her back there and I’m really glad we didn’t book there. There was a baby crying and screaming and it was just chaotic. Plus she was complaining about how Havana is so much cheaper than Trinidad. HUH??? I told her to call me tomorrow and I’d drive her back into town to a casa particular that she booked on the phone. I asked her how much it was going to be and she had a worried look on her face since she didn’t ask. The casas are only about $25 a night in this town. I’m not used to traveling with people that think that is too much for a room. It was starting to get annoying so I’m glad we ditched her.

TAD and I took hot showers and he rested while I typed all of this. We went to Casa de la Musica here in Trinidad and it was open air outdoor music and dancing. Mostly tourists. We were told there would be some nightlife but I sure didn't notice anything. Then we went to Casa de la Tropa. Same story there with uglier tourists. We read about this cool Disco that was in a cave. It’s called Disco Ayala or “la cueva”. We went there and it was a cool set up. US$10 admission which included any drink. It wasn’t that crowded with mostly drunk tourists and a few local girls but nothing to write home about. Everyone kept saying it would pick up but we waited until 1 AM and nada so we split. We drove around but not much action everywhere we went. I’ve only been sleeping like 3 hours a night and starting to hit the wall a little. Especially with all the driving and not eating that often or well. Did I mention the food here sucks? I’m going to bed. It’s about 2:30AM and I’m already in bed. How sad is that?