Category: 2019 Taco’s & Toucan’s

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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.

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BAYAMO – Granma, CUB

As much of a pain in the arse spending 9½ hours on the road is, it is apparently a far better option that trying to catch any of the domestic air services. The trip was broken up with a pretty decent lunch at Le Compana de Toleda in the town of Camaguey.

While in Camaguey I had to use an ATM which cost me $9 USD for the privilege, fuck you very much! I did however fare much better than those who used the banks teller services to change Euro’s to Cuban Pesos. They paid only $5 USD for the transaction and got a pretty rubbish rate i.e. a third of the Euro’s current trading value AND had to spend an hour waiting for one of the two tellers to service the three customer before them.

We got in to our accommodations at the Hotel Royalton where after getting squared away, we dined in their restaurant and then headed out to the local square, where there was a street concert taking place.

Here we are standing in the street, sipping on $1.25 USD Crystal creveza’s when it was my round in the shout. I grab a ½ dozen beers and ask about the cost of a Cuba Libre (rum & coke) for one of the group and was informed that it was $3 USD. Being the ½ smartarse that I am, I asked as to the cost of the entire bottle – $5 USD was the barmen’s response. I grabbed a full bottle and a can of Cuban Coke for an extra 50 cents and wandered back out to the town square – job sorted.

In the interests’ full disclosure and impartial testing, I felt a shot or three of the Cuban “Vitamin R” was in order and found it to be a rather smooth tipple, that you could get to know on an immediate & intimate level quite easily. It’s a whole lot better than that Queensland cane cutters cordial – Bundaberg Rum.

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SANCTI SPÍRITUS – Sancti Spíritus, CUB

Today was a 7-hour bus trip to the regional town of Sancti Spiritus located 380 kilometres ((240 miles) from Havana. Thankfully it was on one of the air-conditioned Transtur tourist coaches and not the local service, busted arse Toyota coaster or mini-van.

The trip was broken up with regular breaks along the way including lunch at Pia Cua where they are apparently known for their Cubano sandwiches. For $5 USD you got two pieces of grilled bread, a piece of dry cold roast pork, a slice of lettuce, tomato and cheese with a choice of ketchup, mustard, HP or Worcestershire sauces. The sandwich was nothing like the Cubano sandwiches I came to love and enjoy in Little Havana in Miami.

From there it was about an hour’s drive to the mausoleum of Ernesto “Che” Guevara, just outside the town of Villa Clara. Che was the Argentine born doctor who became one of the heroes of the Cuban revolution and right hand man to Fidel Castro. Of interest was how passionate our guide was in telling the story of Che, in which he was literally brought to tears.

We managed to walk the oldest bridge in Cuba, that crosses the Rio Yayabo and continued on foot to our stop for the night – Sancti Spriritus.

We had an unscheduled last minute change in hotels, due to the original not having any water. This saw us freshen up at our new digs at the Hotel Plaza before heading for a meal at Meson de la Plaza. A little further research in my Best Cuban Mojito endeavours back at the hotel rounded off a great day. Whilst there, I noticed the bar doing a roaring trade in selling Havana Club rum by the litre bottle for $3 USD to passing traffic. The doorman was even in on the action as he was ferrying rum to cars or motorbike parked at the footpath.

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HAVANA – La Habana, CUB

I got up around 5AM and headed off to the ensuite shower, which in all honesty was so small that you couldn’t change your mind, let alone clothing. On the way into the shower, I brushed up against the hand basin in getting around the toilet and managed to knock it off the wall, smashing it. Now that’s a different start to the day I reckon.

After sorting out the hand basin situation with the hosts, I sat down to breakfast with Gretta, who hails from Mildura (Victoria, Australia) but is currently based in Vancouver (British Colombia, Canada). We got to chatting, as you do when travelling alone in foreign countries, and decided to combine our talents and take a wander around Havana together for the day.

From our Casa, we headed out up to one of the local squares, which is also the neighbourhood Wi-Fi hotspot. Just so you’re in the know – aside from brand name Cuban Hotels, the internet is strictly controlled by the government and as such you have to purchase one hour blocks for $1 USD directly from ETECSA and then got to the dedicated Wi-Fi spots to access the service. Theses area are usually the local square in every town or large neighbourhood.

As we hadn’t purchased a Wi-Fi access card, we continued down to the waterfront and along the foreshore to the opening of Havana Harbour. From there we cut through the cobblestone streets of Old Havana, behind the Capitola building and popped up on the wharves at the Artists’ Market that is housed in one of the huge old Bonded Goods storage facilities i.e. a whooping great big shed.

On a whim, and the fact bus was sitting right outside the market, we made use of the $10 USD all day hop on/hop off tourist bus just to get a feel of the size and scope of Havana. It’s easy to see the change in capitalism in Havana with several multi-acre waterfront sites have large hotel construction projects in progress.

One lap of the city takes about 3 hours, but as it was just after 1:30 PM and in need of a feed & watering, we legged it off the bus at the Capitola and headed to El Chanchullero to get that sorted real quick.

Dinner tonight was $15 USD set menu affair at the Espacio Old Fashion which included a welcoming Mojito, a main course and either coffee or papaya with cheese as a desert. It was pretty ordinary if the truth be told. I arrived back at the hotel room to find a new hand basin installed and a bill for $50 USD in replacing the unit. I figured it was a fair amount, even though most would dispute the charge as the old unit was obviously not installed correctly, but when you know that these folks live on less than $100 USD a month, then what is $50 USD to me as compared to ½ their earnings for the month?

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HAVANA – La Habana, CUB

At 50 minutes, my flight took less time than it did for me to collect my luggage, as it seemed that the baggage handlers have thoroughly embraced the who communism concept by releasing one bag every couple of minutes.

I have to say that clearing Customs & Immigration at the Havana airport was one of the easiest and quickest clearances I’ve been even been involved with. They did pay special attention to my camera gear and USB hard drives by asking me to show the camera body working with each lens and how the USB and SSD drives worked and what they were for.

I was met by a transfer driver who was spitting chips that I was an hour and twenty minutes late in getting to the Transfer Collection area, but as it was out of my control – care factor zero.

My second “What Tha” moment came when changing US dollars to Cuban pesos or “CUC” as it’s better known by. For the record, the first “What Tha” moment was the length (or lack thereof) of the female Immigration officer’s skirts. Fair Dinkum they were “Greyhound Skirts” as in chasing the hair!

I digress, back to the money changing. In retaliation to the US Embargo’s, the Cuban government had slapped a 10% tax on all US currency and have set the CUC rate to mirror the US dollar. Yeah … that’ll show Uncle Sam not to mess with you Cuba.

I got to my accommodations at Casa Reyna around 5:00 PM and was met by my hosts Marilyn and Ismael. With my lodgings, since approximately 2008, the Cuban government relaxed their stranglehold on the economy and allow private enterprise to service to burgeoning tourist trade, which is now the country’s largest hard currency revenue generator. With the relaxing of the laws, many of the locals have converted their homes to supply temporary accommodations as their major income source, thus relieving the burden on social welfare and earning themselves as decent wage, when the minimum wage is around $12 USD a week. As I was fanging for a feed, I headed over to one of the local squares and found the El Chanchullero Restaurant and managed to settle in for $2.50 USD Mojito’s and a really good feed of prawns for $7.00 USD.

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PLAYA DEL CARMEN – Quintana Roo, MEX

Today marks the penultimate day of the Mexico leg of this trip as I jet off to Havana, Cuba midday tomorrow. Apart from the usual end of trip group dinner, we all had the day to head off to all points of the tourist map on our “Pat Malone’s”.

I went on a bit of a 200 Peso taxi town tour for a couple of hours, before grabbing a bite to eat and heading back to my hotel room for an arvo of paying bills (yeah … yeah, I know I’m adulting while on holidays), finalising Cancun & Havana transfers and some Netflix chill out.

I have to admit it, I really didn’t get any of the vibe or buzz that others reckon Playa del Carmen’s good for, other than it’s JAFTT – Just A Farqin’ Tourist Trap. But I did love the artists work lining 5th Avenue during the later part of the evenings.

We all trundled off in a hired bus at 7PM and headed to Carboncitos, to be wined and dined on a travellers last supper where email addresses and auf wiedersehen’s were exchanged.

Speaking of perceptions – what did I think of Mexico?

Let me just put it out there to start with: we travelled over 3,700 kilometres (2,300 miles) by road and admittedly we were nowhere near the states bordering the US, in which the drug cartels and people smugglers seeming operate unencumbered by law enforcement, but not once were we robbed, assaulted, accosted, threatened or ill at ease – even with my 4AM morning walkabout’s.

A couple of interesting observations

  • The Mexican diet consists of huge amount of carbs & starch laden ingredients
  • Mexican food is not inherently spicy – you add the amount and level you want
  • Salsa to us westerners is not the same for Mexicans; it’s not a diced tomato affair, it’s the accompanying sauces you add yourself
  • Street food is fine – eat where it’s popular with the locals. My gastric issues were from a restaurant had plenty of positive online feedback
  • The further you head south into Mexico, the more fruit and vegetables you will see on your plate
  • As much as I wanted to like Mezcal, it’s not as smooth on the taste as people rave about
  • I’m head and shoulders taller the most of the Mexican, same-same as most Asian countries I’ve visited
  • The locals who I’ve interacted are hardworking, honest and funny people who are genuine in trying to help, even with our limited knowledge of each other’s languages
  • The only weapons to be seen were in the hands of the Federale’s and State/Local law enforcement, who seemed to have a presence on every street corner

It’d be fair to say that I thoroughly enjoyed the trip, even while not feeling 100% for the last couple of days.

A fair amount of the trip success goes to the “Lithiunian Legend” our G Adventures CEO – Irmante “Jumanji” Sungailaite, who was fun, knowledgeable, patient and great peeps. At times their job is like herding mercury with a toothpick and I for one certainly appreciate all the hard work and effort that often goes unheralded and I thank Jumanji for being her good self.

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PLAYA DEL CARMEN – Quintana Roo, MEX

With nearly two weeks on the road in Mexico, today was the first “sleep-in” day for the trip, in that we had a 10AM departure. With my gastric issues of the past few days, my body decided this was also the opportune time to let me sleep in until just after 7 o’clock – so I must be pretty crook for that to occur.

The plan for the day was to take a couple of hours and cruise into Playa del Carmen and then have the afternoon to ourselves before heading out in the evening for an included tour dinner.

All up it took us just over 3½ hours to get into our accommodations at the Portea Hotel, about three blocks from the Caribbean Sea.

I spent the afternoon exploring the so-called highlights of 5th Avenue including the beach and if you turned down the volume, you’d swear you’re in any over-commercialised, touristy area in the world – not my go at all.

I simply turned onto 5th avenue and walked barely 100 feet and was offered drugs, women, “special shows”, food, drink, tours and a facial – a facial FFS??? What tha??? I suppose it makes a change from the God Botherers who were looking to convert me earlier in the trip.

G Adventures has an in-house social project which encourages and supports locals in both improving themselves and their community and generally sometime during the trip, a visit is scheduled that is usually in the form of an information session/demonstration and a meal.

Tonight’s Planeterra Foundation visit took place in a local suburb at the El Hongo site which is bringing the arts to the local youths, which hopefully inspires them to take part in programs to develop their skills and give them confidence for a brighter future.

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VALLADOLID – Yucatán, MEX

After yesterdays shemozzle with shitting through the eye of a needle, I was looking forward to the new day bringing change of luck.

As we were leaving at 7AM, I was up at 4AM as per normal, packed up my gear, grabbed the laptop and headed out to the 24-hour Café La Habana for spot of breakfast and to update my Blog.

Not two blocks from the café, a garbage truck pulls up & loads up and then starts compacting its load as I walk past. You wouldn’t read about, but something exploded and I got covered with the foulest smelling liquid you’d ever have the misfortune of being sprayed with. What can you do other than grin and bear it? I get to the café, order a coffee and head to the men’s room to try and clean most of the crap off before eating.

We arrived at the world renowned Chichén Itzá site just on 9AM and my first impression was –  wow there’s a shit ton of people here. We were met by a very knowledgeable local guide, who lost my interest after taking ½ an hour just to explain the Mayan’s time-line in history, so I simply wandered off to explore on my own.

I ended up with most of the site information by listening to the various English speaking guides delivering their presentations to their respective groups, a trick I learnt years ago when not wanting to pay exorbitant guide costs in Bali.

I was done and dusted with the site in an hour and a half, then waited another two hours for the rest of the group to be done and arrive back at the bus. In speaking with our group, it looks as if they missed out on seeing the back 1/3 of the site due to time constraints.

Our departure corresponded with a huge influx of tour buses loaded with cruise ship passengers from the resort towns of Cancún (2½ hour drive) and Playa del Carmen (2¼ hour drive), which turned the joint into an absolute zoo.

My impressions of the site??? If it was the first pyramid, I’d have been impressed, but after 4 previous sites, Chichén Itzá would be way down on the list. Unlike the previous sites, you cannot go exploring in & around the site as you are kept well away from everything. The experience is also lessened by all the trinket and souvenir vendors that virtually encircle the entire interior of the site. The management and official facilities of the site seems to be somewhere in the Gordon Gecko “Greed Is Good” and government corruption mantras of “Give ‘em nothing, Take ‘em nowhere and Make ‘em pay for the lot”.

We got into the adjacent town of Valladolid and our accommodations at La Aurora Hotel Colonial around 2PM, which left the rest of the day to explore the town of approximately 50,000 in which I enjoyed strolling the colonial facades of the Calzada de los Frailes.