Santa Clara and Goodbye Cuba

Since we took a taxi to Santa Clara rather than taking the bus we got there much earlier and had a full day to wander around, see a few sights and do some last minute shopping for coffee.  We stayed at a casa called Authentica Pérgola and it was the most beautiful of all the casas we stayed in.

The exterior of Authentica Pérgola

Inside the front entrance

The living room common space

The chairs outside our room in the courtyard

On the rooftop terrace

The view, with a faint rainbow, over the city from the terrace

Inside our room - the doorway to the bathroom - feeling short?

People in Cuba are very inventive and use many different ways to transport goods.  Here are of few of the unique conveyances we saw in Santa Clara.

The passenger was holding an ornately decorated cake in each hand

Eggs being delivered to the bakery where the previous person bought the cakes

Cuban cities have a lot of public art - on walls and in the form of sculpture.

This was in a small park a couple of blocks from our casa

This is on one of the main pedestrian shopping streets called the Boulevard

A relic from before the Revolution, this sign was made of tile, many of which had bas relief. The artist and ceramicist's name are on the mural in the upper right corner

The humour of the Cuban people always made us laugh with them.  As we walked past photographing the architecture, this fellow selling things in his doorway said in Spanish something like "Am I too ugly to take my picture?"  We laughed with him and then said we would love to take a picture with him!  He thanked us and wished us a good day.

Adios Cuba, Hasta pronto!

Excursions Around Cienfuegos

Cienfuegos is on the Bahia de Cienfuegos near the Sierra del Escambray.  We spent three days in and around Cienfuegos.  The architecture there has a French influence.  Many of the buildings round the central square, the Parque José Martí, have been restored.

The Theatre which also has a beautifully restored interior 

The Hostal Palacio Azul

Sunset from the terrace of the Club Cienfuegos

Our dinner table on the terrace of the Club Cienfuegos

The Palacio de Valle, originally built in 1917 by a wealthy Spaniard. It is now an upscale restaurant with a terrace bar on the roof overlooking the remarkably lovely bay.

This musician was playing with a band in the rooftop bar of the Palacio de Valle.  He had a very interesting haircut.  

Many young men in Cuba do interesting things with their hair - mostly the bottom is shaved, sometimes into a pattern, and the top is longer or incorporates waves or pony tails.

The Malecon leading from the centre of the city to Punta Gorda, where we stayed

Our taxi for the trip to El Nicho in the Escambray mountains.  It was a 1954 Ford in very good condition.

Inside the taxi - note the new stereo as the old radio is no longer working, and Cubanos must have music!

The first view of the waterfalls at El Nicho

One of the rustic bridges over the river

The next day we went to the botanical gardens where there are reputed to be 280 different palms.  There were also lots of birds.

One of the fan palms with the most enormous leaves we saw

A Baltimore Oriole

Another variety of palm

After the Botanical Gardens we went to the beach for the last time.  This beach is at Rancho Luna where there is a Cuban-Canadian Spanish-language program.  Maybe next trip?

At the very end of the point on Punta Gorda there is a bar called La Punta where they make very good Mojitos!

On our last day in Cienfuegos we hired the taxi to take us to Laguna Guanaroca, a saline lake surrounded by mangroves.  It is a protected area for birds and we did a short bird walk and a boat ride there.

At the end of the guided walk we found a little dock

This strong man rowed us all around the lake to look at birds

Avocets in winter plumage

Many flying  flamingoes

From there we headed by taxi to Santa Clara to spend our last night in Cuba before flying home.

Beach Days and Birdwatching

Playa Larga, our next destination, is on the Bay of Pigs (of 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis fame) and is adjacent to the Ciénaga de Zapata which is a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve.  The park includes a forested area, a swamp, salt pans and a wetland.  We went there to look at the birds and do some snorkelling. We stayed in the small community of Caletón.

When the bus let us off at the intersection in Playa Larga we were immediately accosted by people wanting us to stay at their casa or take their taxi.  We chose this bicycle taxi to take us to casa El Caribeño, where we had made a reservation.

When we arrived at the casa we found that there was no room at the moment, but across the small street and down a couple of houses was an associated casa, El Cocodrilo, where we would stay, and we were told we could use the beach in front of the casa El Caribeño.

Casa El Cocodrilo

In the living/dining room with the mascot, Señor Cocodrilo dressed in the colours of his namesake Matanzas province baseball team

Lobster supper at the casa - notice that every meal in Cuba comes with at least 3 starches - here we have rice, fried potatoes and plantain.  We also had salad and a fruit plate.  This was supposed to be a serving for one person as we always order only one dinner and share it. Bread too in the basket.

Walking on the beach west of casa El Caribeño

The view in front of Casa El Caribeño

We went on two birding tours while in Playa Larga, the first to Salinas, the salt wetlands, to see water birds.  Bengt and Kerstin, from Sweden, joined us.  We rode in one of the worst old American cars we encountered in Cuba.  It had no brakes, the exhaust leaked into the interior of the car, heat almost scorched Evanna's knees in the front seat, and we had to push it once to get it started as the driver flooded the engine and couldn't get it going again.

Kathy, Bengt and Kerstin in the back of the taxi

The wetlands were extensive and filled with water birds and shorebirds.  Flamingoes were the main attraction but we also saw a few roseate spoonbills, several different herons and egrets, some yellow legs, northern shovelers, coots, cormorants, a wood stork, an osprey and some white pelicans.

The flamingoes here were very orange and the lighter ones are the juveniles

Bengt and Evanna standing in the shade as the temperature was +30 C

The following day we went on a birding tour in the forested part of the reserve and this time we joined a young Dutch couple who had a rented car.   We saw the top four endemic species we were hoping to see and a few others as well.  Our pictures of the Cuban Toady and the Bee Hummingbird (smallest bird in the world) were not very clear but we did see them. Gorgeous little birds, they were!

Cuban Trogon, known locally as tocororo - the national bird of Cuba

Cuban Parrot

Cuban Pygmy-Owl

Cuban Green Woodpecker

We spent two days snorkelling in the beautiful clear waters of the bay at a site called Punta Perdiz, about 15 km southeast of Playa Larga.  To get there we took this taxi which was recommended by Bengt.  It was a bit of a splurge but we enjoyed the ride.

A 1929 Ford Model T we were told. E did not actually drive it!

The bar and shade structure at Punta Perdiz - we opted for shade as our skin was still pretty white

We took a small underwater camera with us and were able to get some fairly decent pictures of the fish and coral.

Parrot fish

Sunrise from the beach in front of our casa

After 5 days it was time to move along to another location - Playa Giron, where we also went snorkelling and spent time on the beach.

Leaving Casa El Cocodrilo on a bicycle taxi to go to the bus stop about a kilometre away. Our hostess and her grandchildren are seeing us off. They laughed a lot at the pantomime supplements to our meagre Spanish skills. 

Coco Beach at Playa Giron, enjoying a young coconut

The inadequate shade structure at Caleta Buena, where we went swimming and snorkelling 

The lagoon at Caleta Buena