Stores, Houses, Schools, Medical Care

The time spent on the bus was time to ask our young guide and bus driver many questions about Cuban life. Today we got curious about where Cubans buy stuff, since we were seeing no real stores or shops in our travels.

The type of store we were seeing

We learned that the government has stores that sell clothing . . . but not very cool clothing. Many people want to buy more stylish clothes. So, some folks go to Latin America and buy clothes to resell to their friends and family. It used to be legal but became too much competition for government stores so it became illegal.

Another roadside shop

A website is run by a Cuban living in Spain. It operates like Craig's List. It is illegal and if you go to the URL the screen comes up black. Most people know the work-around to get on it.

Since you cannot use American credit or debit cards in Cuba, you must exchange your money here, in country. The exchange desks are very busy, and not very efficient. So, along the way today, those who had spent their initial stash of CUCs  wanted to change money before going in to Havana, where we expected the lines would be very long since there are more tourists in Havana than out in the countryside where we have been hanging out. 

Where we stopped to exchange money, there were two lines, which of course led to another question. Why was there one line was for us and another for the locals.

It turned out that the locals to pay their utilities and some of them were paying their mortgages. Most Cubans pay no rent, only utilities. Especially in Havana some housing space does not qualify as a "house." To be a house, a space must have electricity and water and be more than 45 square meters.  Those are the free spaces.

City houses

When the government-owned buildings in Havana  are deemed unsafe, or need extensive renovation, the residents are allowed to relocate to other apartment buildings farther out on the edges of the city. Sometimes they are allowed to pay a monthly fee and eventually own there apartments (houses). We stopped to exchange money in such a neighborhood and that's why there were long lines of locals as well as a line for tourists.

 

 

We asked Milena more about the houses and towns we were seeing during the week.

Driving up the mountains we had passed through a few widely scattered villages. The single-story houses are built of concrete. They often have shutters rather than windows. With the shutters and doors open you see right through them. 

There is little furniture -- often a few wooden chairs or rockers and a table is all o could see, except most have a TV turned on. 

Milena says they almost all have plumbing, washing machines, and electricity. None have clothes dryers. Many have a horse in the yard and a bike. Those are primary means of transportation. There is a lot of horse poop everywhere. 

The kids all go to school, in uniform. There is a medical house in each village. Prenatal care is mandatory, as is breast feeding until 6 months, and vaccinations. There is a 12 month, paid parental leave. The parents can split it however they want.

 

Beach to Mountains to Beach, All in a Thrill-Filled, Rain-Soaked Day

At the end of this amazing day, which we wrote about in three sections because it was long, exciting, thrill-filled, rain-soaked, and took us from the south to the north of Cuba, we arrived at our next resort. Other than our first night in Havana, we stayed at beach resorts the whole time. The reality was not quite as posh as it sounds.
 
About half of our 4-hour drive to the resort where we will stay for three nights until we leave, at Santa Maria beach to the east of Havana, was on the National Highway. 

As we drove along in the dark at 6:30, I counted the vehicles coming at us because there were so remarkably few. Total?  Only 82 in 15 minutes, on the major highway across Cuba!

Arrival at our new resort was a relief. It is quite nice, and much preferable to the Hotel Bella Habana where we had been scheduled to stay before the bug bite incident.

Lovely beach, although we didn't take time to swim. There was so much to see!

 

You can see the house in the background, and cut grass in the foreground

This resort has houses, like Hotel Playa Giron. But these are more modern and larger. As a group, we have two 3-bedroom houses here. . . as opposed to each twosome being in their own remote 'casitas' at the Playa Giron.

Our house at Santa Maria Beach has a pool. The houses are lovely on the outside. We have a refrigerator and micro, a big room with chairs and a dining table big enough for 6 people. 

The insides are a bit shabby, but have everything we need. The beds are low to the ground, have thin mattresses and thin sheets. The fixtures are rusty and we need to stage showers to have enough water.

The AC works, remarkably as you will see in the photo,  and we have no bugs so we are happy.

Breakfast was excellent- fresh fruit, good coffee, omelets and toast. It is served outside near the beach.

Next course was omelets and toast

Life is good at this resort.

Physics Lessons, Riding Down a Mountain, Open-Backed Russian Trucks, Rain Storms!

 

The sun was shining as we started down the mountain from Codina. But dark storm clouds hung to our left. When the first drops fell, we rearranged ourselves on the seats so no one got too wet. We all laughed.

 When the sky opened up and we were barreling down through the muddy ruts at 30 miles an hour we grabbed our jackets and ponchos.

Storm sewers have not been a priority here. Deep streams of muddy water started cascading down the road with us.

The roof leaked. Streams of rain deepened on the "road".

Milena and our local guide . . . a guy named Janet (because his mother expected a girl baby) . . . tried to roll down the side curtains. Ha!  By then we were soaked.

 You can learn a lot of physics in an open-backed truck in a pouring-down storm.  As we ran through a runoff ditch, waves were propelled onto our feet by the momentum of crashing through at 25 miles an hour, or whatever. Splashing water lapped into the truck bed soaking the folks up front . .  that would be Arnold and Ismini. 

It also caused the driver to brake. All the water on the roof that hadn't leaked through rust holes around each screw cascaded over the back showering the few of us lucky enough to be sitting at the back . . . that would be mostly Russ, but a little bit me too. Inertia demonstration noted! Yikes what and adventure. 

We survived to the bottom. Picture-taking was on hiatus during the deluge!

Soggily we boarded our regular bus at about 4:00 for a four-hour drive to the north coast seashore and our next hotel.

From the Beach to the Mountains

We regretted leaving Costasur behind early on Wednesday morning, but not as much as we would have if we were returning to Hotel Belle Habana.

We headed along the coastline and then cross country to the mountains. Our bus took us most of the way. Then we switched over to ride up the mountain in open-back Russian trucks. We climbed a ladder into an open truck to go up to Topes de collanted at about 2400 feet elevation in the Escambray Mountains. It was a Russian truck, with a chinese engine and a Cuban driver . . . the perfect combination according to our guide.

Our first impression was that the truck was touristy overkill. Our bus could easily have taken the roads to Topes de Collantes where we saw the Visitor Center and were joined by a very entertaining local guide.

 

Welcome drinks!

Not after that. The road up to Codina would have been impassible with our regular bus . . . mud, curves, ruts. The hills were steep. The drop-off on either side was far. It was a 5- to 7-mile, bumpy, lumpy, laugh producing journey with fantastic vistas, and branches snapping your arms and face if you didn't watch up for when to duck.

At the top is Codina. We were welcomed with a glass of El Gincila, made of white rum, ginger, honey, mineral water, and lemon. Yummy.

It is not really a town, just a hacienda/bar with showers and toilets and outdoor kitchen and outdoor restaurant. They house trekkers in tents, providing mattresses and blankets to supplement their sleeping bags. They offer 3- and 5-day treks of 10 to 15 miles a day. The terrain looked frighteningly rigorous.

 

We hiked only for about 2 hours, all near the hacienda. We saw many birds. Went into a pretty big cave with all the requisites--including the need to crouch low so as not to stab your head on a stalactite, carry a flashlight to see your nose in front of your face, and watch for bats. Very cool.  The views from the hilltop on the other side of the cave were all the way to the sea.   

Shortly before we returned to Codina, we crossed a steam on an Indiana Jones bridge and were in a sort of half-cave. There sat a man roasting a pig on a spit over an open fire. Ugly! Yummy! We sat and took in the aroma for a while then trekked on up to the hacienda.

After resting a few minutes on the porch we had an amazingly good lunch of beans and rice, pickled carrots and beets, manioc (a potato-like vegetable), pineapple and grapefruit, and of course, roasted pig.

Costasur and Trinidad

After lunch at an old mansion in Cienfuegos we bused on to our coastal resort, Costasur.

 

 The resort was a welcome step up from Hotel Playa Giron last night and Hotel Bella Havana in Havana, where one of our group was chewed up, probably by fleas or bed bugs. Luckily, it was neither Peg nor Russ.

 

 

Along the way to Costasur, we stopped for about 30 minutes in Trinidad. Wonderful streets to explore. It made us eager to return the next morning.

After settling in to our rooms, we gathered for wine and then dinner. At 9:30 there was live music by the pool. We decided that soaking in Cuban ambiance was sweet. 

 

 

 

 

 

Returning on the bus in the morning, Melina told us she was able to have us moved to a different resort so we would not return to the Hotel Bella Habana, as scheduled. Yes!

We returned to Trinidad by way of the Valle de los Ingenios, where thousands of acres of sugar cane were once farmed by slaves. At one time there were as many slaves as non-slaves in Cuba. We could see for miles from the visitor center and restaurant.

 

 

When we arrived in Trinidad, we went to a pottery siop which was boring. However, outside we saw a man wheeling a bunch of pigs to a market! That was not boring!! 

 Melina walked us around for an overview. The sky cleared and the temperature went up to near 100 in the sun. We stayed in the shade,

drank Cuban coffee and beer. Listened to street music.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back at the resort, several of us went to the beach for a swim. We met by the pool for a drink, had dinner together at the restaurant, and back to poolside for live music and dancing. 

 

Melina is quite the dancer! Roger too.

Libby caught this photo of Roger dancing with Milena