Category: Baracoa

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BARACOA – Guantánamo, CUB

I done alright getting into bed by 11PM, but was awoken by my roommate coming home at 2AM – joys of adulating and having on one room key I suppose.

As mentioned earlier, our Casa La Cueva is directly across the street and while there is some benefit to that in regards to response time if we need them, but not so much when an electrical fault saw a government building catch fire two blocks from our Casa.

I was awoken to a whole lot of banging, crashing, shouting & hollering, so I open the front door the see 4 firies (firemen) push starting one of the two fire trucks and then head off round the corner and then the siren stops. With curiosity getting the better of me, I followed the sound of the noise to see the building ablaze.

I head back to the Casa after bit more of a wander around and sit down to breakfast to hear from our hosts that the water would be off for three hours as the towns water main water tank had to be refilled.

Today activities were split into two groups – one would undertake a 4-hour hike through the scrub to a waterfall and one that would visit some subsistence farmers to deliver essentials like detergents, toothpaste, toilet paper, colouring in pencils etc that we all chipped in for to purchase. I chose the latter and had “pleasure of experiencing one of those “life moments”.

While standing in the middle of a coconut plantation, the farmer – Raphael, who was showing us around, had a neck brace on, came up to me while his worker was demonstrating how to climb a palm tree. Raphael reaches out with is finger and traces the scar on my neck and then points to similar scar on his own neck. With our guide Victor translating we go over our injuries, treatments, high & low’s and both coming away feeling a whole lot better for sharing our experiences. For me it felt like a kindred spirit whose gone through the same shit and just trying to leave each days as it comes.

From there it was on to the Toa river for a paddle around in a leaky wooden boat and lunch on the banks of the river. Most of the afternoon was spent at Moa, one of the very few white sand beaches in Cuba. We got back into Baracoa around 5PM and decided to meet up with everyone at the main Casa around 7:30 with a couple of bottles of Havana Club rum and a carton or two of the local Bucanero beers.

I think the last time I looked at my watch it was after two AM and my roommate and Victor were out on our front stoop polishing off some rum that mysteriously appeared.

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BARACOA – Guantánamo, CUB

I woke this morning to a breakfast of fresh fruit, cheese omelette and home roasted fresh coffee and thought to myself that I’m lovin’ the whole Casa Stay program.

I met up with the rest of the group at 9 o’clock to find out the program for the day involved visiting a coffee & cacao plantation, then sitting on a beach for the rest of the day. To me this was as appealing as participating in Olympic javelin catching, so I decided to stay in town and catch up with my blog and to go for a wander around.

I spent about an hour on the Blog at mi casa and then had to leave due to their mosquito abatement program having to spray all the houses in the street. I simply set up shop on the front porch of a local hotel, on the the main strip and finished the updates.

As it was about lunchtime and feeling a bit peckish, I decided to have a crack at one of the local street vendors queso (cheese) pizzas for lunch. Picture it if you will, a 7-inch disc of corrugated cardboard, coated with a yellowish mucus and then run over by the Exxon Valdez. I could have met a small towns power generation needs with the amount of crude oil that came off the alleged food item.

The afternoon was filled with laundry chores and chilling out with Anthony Bourdain’s take on Cuba and Jimmy Barnes’ autobiographical movie – Working Class Boy.

I met up with the rest of the group later in the evening to go dine at Al’s La Colina Restaurant & Grill just north of the main street. Their Mojito’s rated an 8 on out Cuban World Mojito Taste Test, but their ribs were pretty ordinary.

I ended up leaving the restaurant early as group of German’s decided to fire up their Cuban stogie’s while I was trying to finish my main course which dead set gave me the irits. Not that it was a negative, I had a couple of beers and a great ol’ chinwag with the local barber.

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BARACOA – Guantánamo, CUB

9 o’clock was the official starting time for our hour long horse & buggy ride through the streets of Bayamo, who’s major claim to fame aside from being the birthplace of the national flag and anthem, was that its produced two national Presidents, who actually lived across the street from each other.

Whilst I’m not a huge fan of touristy horse carriage rides, due to the fact that the animals always look in poor condition and/or are mistreated. Truth be told, I think this may have been the second or third one in all my travels.

On closer inspection these animals looked in great shape, the equipment was obviously serviced and maintained well. There were no rub marks or open wounds on the horses and their hooves and shoes looked were on excellent shape. I come to find out that the government vet inspects the animals every day and pulls the operator’s license for any issues found during the inspection.

Our next stop for the day was the infamous – in recent times, 120 square kilometre U.S. naval base Guantánamo Bay or Gitmo as the locals call it. As attractions go, you’ll be sorely disappointed as you’re over 20 miles away, perched on a hill overlooking an inlet that protects most of the site. Even when paying the $1 USD fee to climb the tower and use their Spanish-American war era looking glasses (i.e. busted arse binoculars) you are afforded no better views.

We ended the day with a two-hour drive into Baracoa in which I’m staying with a local family at their casa by the Atlantic Ocean, which makes a change from the hotels I’ve had so far on this trip. Casa Stays have sprung up everywhere in Cuba since the government allowed such capitalist ventures nearly a decade ago. You as a traveller are essentially a guest in a local’s house which allows them to supplement their income with hard currency and you get to experience the hospitality of a local stay.

Dinner was an off the beaten path restaurant affair at Terazza La Roca Grill which was a family style buffet of local dishes including pork, lobster, prawns, bean soup, rice, plantain chips, salad, custard pudding and coffees for $15 USD.

A few of us headed back to the towns square for a couple of night caps where another of the group, repeated my efforts of buying the bottle of rum, thus allowing us to sit on the porch, sipping “Vitamin R” while listening to Bob Marley and people watching until midnight.