The day dawned sunny and fair, and we set off happily –
lovely interesting countryside, a little hilly at times, passing through some
interesting villages and towns. Lots of
sugar cane fields, but only one decent tobacco field – and I missed getting a photo!
We arrived at the main square in Remedios (after a few wrong
turns!), where our attractive hotel was situated, to find a week-long “culture”
carnival would start that evening – and our room was right over the square!!
We settled in, and took a turn around the square. Lunch consisted of half an apple turnover and a small rum baba each from this rather lurid bakery!
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We then set off to explore an interesting road we had seen
on the map – it’s a veeery long man-made spit over a shallow lagoon, crossing a
few small mangrove islands before finishing on a bigger island called Santa Maria, where there
are lots of resorts. It’s an astonishing
sight – the first 20K odd runs just above the water – all very beautiful, the
photos don’t do it justice.
We took a little walk at one point – clear, clear waters and
some interesting birds, including this giant grey heron
Then on home for an OK dinner with a good musical
accompaniment – and then a very raucous night in the square! Unfortunately, it
didn’t kick off till after 10 and we were pretty tired, plus the music was
techno hi-hop, not Cuban soul, so we retired with ear plugs and made the best
of it – it finished at 3am!!!
Another interesting drive back to
Havana – and another unexpected detour around
a military base!! – it never ceases to amaze me how we always seem to get to
where we’re going in the end!
And then to a major disappointment – we had booked the“best” hotel for our last night, the National, but it turned out to be a
real dump, resting on the laurels of its former glory days and now trying – and
failing – to cope with a constant stream of geriatric American tour groups and
Saga tourists from the UK. The lobby is
constantly strewn with luggage and the two receptionists simply cannot cope.
The first room we were shown to was appalling – the windows
didn’t open, the a/c didn’t work and it was filthy with dust. Luckily, the concierge agreed and set off
himself to get us another room, far better, with a seaview – happy Jenni!
But there was a major plus in the hotel in the evening – a
really excellent Cuban band on the lawn, with a fabulous singer – quite a
character- and lady dancers with fruit on their heads!! Super fun and a great
ending to our Cuban experience.
The flight didn’t leave till the evening the next day so we
had a lazy day: pool session – I will
admit it’s a nice pool, then a blog session and then…….
It was All Over. The
Grand Adventure was complete. We have
had an absolutely amazing time, seen so many wonderful things, and walked and
trekked and driven and lazed and blazed.
It was wonderful. I have some things to be particularly thankful for
- Thanks
and cudos to my Mick, for his immaculate research and planning and making
it all happen. He was never quite
sure it would all work out as planned but it did!
- And
for that, we have to thank LAN. Argentine Air and Virgin for being on time
(except for a couple of small delays of no impact) and not losing any of
our luggage in heaven knows how many flights!
- You
guys, for all the encouraging comments on the blog that kept us nose-down
and fairly up to date, which in turn cemented it in our minds, and made it
all the more vivid.
And so……
That’s All, Folks!!!
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