taco's & toucan's travels ~ 2019

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DAY 31

Week 5

HAVANA (La Habana, CUB) to SANCTI SPÍRITUS (Sancti Spíritus, CUB)

Sunday April 14^th, 2019

TODAYS MILEAGE – 236 miles / 380 kilometres

TRIP MILEAGE – 16,389 miles / 26,376 kilometres

The official start of my 15 day Cuban Colonial trip with G Adventures began with a 7-hour bus trip to the regional town of Sancti Spíritus, located some 380 kilometres (240 miles) from Havana.

Thankfully we had our professional driver "Beefsteak" behind the wheel of one of the air-conditioned Transtur tourist coaches and not the local service, where you're either hitch-hiking or rolling in busted arse Chinese/Russian knock-off Toyota Coasters, mini-vans or converted cattle crates.

The trip was broken up with regular breaks along the way including lunch at Restaurant Pío Cuá 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.

In all honesty, the sandwich barely rated a 'meh' and was nothing like the Cubano sandwiches I came to love and enjoy in Little Havana in Miami, Florida.

From there it was about an hour’s drive to the Conjunto Escultórico Memorial Comandante Ernesto Che Guevara (Ernesto “Che” Guevara Mausoleum), just outside the town of Santa Clara in the Villa Clara province. 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 G Adventures CEO – Victor was in telling the story of Che, in which he was literally brought to tears. It goes to show how passionate he is and you know what - good on him. If you can't be passionate about things in life, what's the point of thieving oxygen?

In crossing the Río Yayabo on foot, we managed to walk the oldest bridge in Cuba - the Milk Bridge, before continuing on to our stop for the night - Sancti Spíritus.

We had an unscheduled last-minute change in hotels, due to the original not having any water. This saw us freshening up at our new digs at the Hotel Plaza, which dates back to 1843, before heading for a meal at Mesón 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 motorbikes parked up at the footpath.

Got to say that after only 3 days in Cuba, "Vitamin R" seems to be the currency of choice and the resolution to what ailes most locals.