taco's & toucan's travels ~ 2019

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DAY 32

Week 5

SANCTI SPÍRITUS (Sancti Spíritus, CUB) to BAYAMO (Granma, CUB)

Monday April 15^th, 2019

TODAYS MILEAGE – 243 miles / 391 kilometres

TRIP MILEAGE – 16,632 miles / 26,376 kilometres

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. Fortunately the trip was broken up with a pretty decent lunch at Le Compana de Toleda in the town of Camagüey.

While in Camagüey 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 customers 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 - Parque Carlos Manuel Céspedes, where there was a street concert taking place.

Here we are standing in the street, sipping on $1.25 USD Crystal cerveza’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 of Havana Club 3 Años was - $5 USD was the barmen’s response. I grabbed a full bottle and a can of Cuban Coke - tuKola, 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.