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A Latin American Adventure
  • Robert Allan
  • Robert Allan

A Latin American Adventure

A couple of Scotland friendlies, some exploring, new cultures and relaxation in Panama, Peru, Mexico and Cuba. Read more
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  • Robert AllanA Latin American AdventureTraveler

    Vinales Valley hike coffee making

    June 11, 2018 in Cuba ⋅ 🌧 27 °C

    This morning three of the group, Hazel & Gino, and myself, join our guide Guarandi to go on a four hour hike to a cave. The hike eventually takes ten minutes short of six hours.

    Early on it's hard going as it is very warm and humid, even the guide thought so. We pass many small farms and holdings, spotting many animals, but no cars or machinery. Brilliant and peaceful. The small fields are ploughed by horse-drawn plough, stuff is moved by horse and cart, and farmers move about on horseback.

    After about two hours we stop at a few huts, where we are shown how they produce coffee, and also to have a coffee.... with rum in it 😋    Read more

  • Robert AllanA Latin American AdventureTraveler

    Hike to Cueva del Palmarito

    June 11, 2018 in Cuba ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

    Leaving the coffee stop, we walk another hour to the entrance of the Cueva. It is in the face of a huge limestone mountain.

    Once the cave guide arrives, we proceed through a zigzag route around many shallow pools, ending at a 100m long pool, that is also 10m deep. We manage to go for a 10 minute swim in the refreshingly cool pool.Read more

  • Robert AllanA Latin American AdventureTraveler

    Mural de la Prehistoria

    June 12, 2018 in Cuba ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    As we head south west this morning, 4 kilometers west of Viñales village on the side of Mogote Pita is a 120m-long painting. Leovigildo González Morillo, a follower of Mexican artist Diego Rivera, designed it in 1961. On a cliff at the foot of the 617m-high Sierra de Viñales, the highest portion of the Sierra de los Órganos, this massive mural took 18 people four years to complete.

    After which we drove up to another panoramic view of the Vinales valley, next to the Horizontes Los Jazmines Hotel.    Read more

  • Robert AllanA Latin American AdventureTraveler

    Pinar de Río Rum factory

    June 12, 2018 in Cuba ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    We stop in the main town of this area, Pinar de Río, to visit the Guayabita rum factory. In it there are only 32 workers, a small workforce, and get to see the whole operation, the stacks of maturing barrels, and the bottling and packing room.

    We then get to taste some of their produce. 😋    Read more

  • Robert AllanA Latin American AdventureTraveler

    María la Gorda

    June 12, 2018 in Cuba

    We finally reach the coast, the Caribbean, on the far south west of Cuba. We are staying at a hotel for a couple of nights, the Maria La Gorda.

    We settle in, then have a game of beach volleyball, before going for a swim in the lovely warm Caribbean.Read more

  • Robert AllanA Latin American AdventureTraveler

    Parque Nacional de Guanahacabibes

    June 13, 2018 in Cuba ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    This morning we're on a day trip to the furthest west point of Cuba. Before we leave the hotel, we celebrate Rebecca's birthday, with rum of course 😋

    We check-in to the national park centre, a little way from the hotel, and pick up a guide. Almost immediately we stop to check out a small Cenote, teeming with fish, on the shore. The underfoot rocks are dogtooth limestone, very sharp and pointed.Read more

  • Robert AllanA Latin American AdventureTraveler

    Bee hummingbird

    June 13, 2018 in Cuba

    We stop at a spot where the guide points out several birds and animals, including the bee hummingbird, the smallest bird in the world. When it flies you would mistake it for a dragonfly. Also along the road are many red crabs, which are very difficult to catch by the guide.Read more

  • Robert AllanA Latin American AdventureTraveler
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    Roncali lighthouse

    June 13, 2018 in Cuba

    We reach the most westerly point of Cuba, the lighthouse of Roncali. Just beyond it was a very small military lookout tower. México is only 70km from here.

  • Robert AllanA Latin American AdventureTraveler

    María del Gorda snorkeling

    June 13, 2018 in Cuba

    After visiting the Parque Nacional Peninsula de Guanahacabibes and the Roncali lighthouse, we return to Maria la Gorda.

    For the afternoon a few of us join a boat trip to a reef not far from the hotel, where we go snorkeling. There were also people Scuba diving. I went for about 35 minutes, seeing quite a few fish and a stingray.Read more

  • Robert AllanA Latin American AdventureTraveler
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    Las Terrazas

    June 14, 2018 in Cuba ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C

    We leave Maria la Gorda and head back in the direction of Havana, where we have a long drive to Las Terrazas. This is a community that was established in the 1960's on barren land. At the time 6 million tree's were planted, along with a few lakes and of course houses and a hotel. And all of this on terraces. This is where we will be staying overnight.

    There we go zip lining through the tree's and over the lake on six zip wires.    Read more

  • Robert AllanA Latin American AdventureTraveler

    Moka Hotel, Las Terrazas

    June 14, 2018 in Cuba ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    This is our home for the night. It's situated at the top of one of the terraces overlooking the lake. After supper most of our tour group decide to have a pool party, which is well away from the main hotel. It goes on into the late hours, with pool volleyball, music and rum.Read more

  • Robert AllanA Latin American AdventureTraveler

    Fuster house

    June 15, 2018 in Cuba ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    As we enter the outskirts of Havana, we visit the studio, residence and wild kingdom of José Rodriguez Fuster, a Cuban artist. His house is decorated with tiled murals, and now the whole neighbourhood has a similar style as more than 80 neighbours have allowed Fuster to use their homes as his canvas. It's very like Guadi and Picasso.Read more

  • Robert AllanA Latin American AdventureTraveler

    Cienfuegos

    June 16, 2018 in Cuba ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    Eight of us from the previous tour are also on the Cuba Sailing tour, so we get transfer taxi's from our Casa to the meeting hotel in new Havana. There we meet our transfer guide and the three new members of our tour. They are Warren and Sue from Sydney, Australia, and Ben, originally from Fife, now living in Brisbane, Australia.

    We travel for four hours from Havana, to reach Cienfuegos, on the middle south of the island. Here we meet the Neptune, a big catamaran and it's crew, which is our home for the next week. The crew is Pedro the captain, Eduardo the chef and first mate, and Cat the G Adventures CEO, from Toronto, Canada.

    Now normally this is all the crew we would have, but there are also two trainee's, Leardo and Angel. There is also a trainee CEO, Allan from Costa Rica. Further to that we also have Vince, from Cork, Ireland who we originally thought was another tour member, and turns out to be the guy in charge of all sailing tours for G Adventures.

    We board, put our bags in our cabins, and sit down for our evening meal. Halfway through, the crew literally have to batten down the hatches, as we are hit by a rain storm. Thankfully it doesn't last long, as straight after the meal we cast off.    Read more

  • Robert AllanA Latin American AdventureTraveler

    Cayó Guano lighthouse

    June 17, 2018 in Cuba ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    We travel overnight from Cienfuegos to the island of Cayó Guano, arriving at about 3am. We wake up anchored next to a lighthouse that looks a bit like Thunderbird three.

    The lighthouse is manned by two guy's, there for a month at a time. One has swam out to the boat for a chat with the crew. This light is rotated by a clockwork mechanism that is powered by weights. These have to be wound up every eight hours.

    We have breakfast here before sailing on.    Read more

  • Robert AllanA Latin American AdventureTraveler

    Punta del Este

    June 17, 2018, Caribbean Sea ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    We sail south west towards Cayó Largó, stopping along the way at Punta del Este to do some snorkeling for the first time. On the way the crew catch a Barracuda with the fishing rod.

    Whilst snorkeling the crew are busy catching some fresh lobsters. This is the first time we see how prolific they are, grabbing into the coral making sure to leave females and youngsters, and despatching the lobsters quickly to make them more manageable.

    Afterwards we continue on to Cayó Largó.    Read more

  • Robert AllanA Latin American AdventureTraveler

    Sirena beach

    June 17, 2018 in Cuba ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    Cayó Largó is an island with 25km of gloriously white sand beaches. We skirt very close to shore, until we reach the west side of the island and Sirena beach. The water gets deep, very quickly here. As we turn the corner into a bay, we are able to beach the boat.Read more

  • Robert AllanA Latin American AdventureTraveler

    Sirena Beach

    June 17, 2018 in Cuba ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    We go for a walk along the northern beach spotting sea stars, conch shell's, upside down mangrove jellyfish, crabs, and plenty of fish. We walk in the crystal clear shallows all the way to the small jetty, where we cross the narrow peninsula to the wonderful southern beach. The temptation is too much and we go swimming.

    Walking back to the boat, we find the crew have decided we are having a snack on the beach of lobster legs, with a cooler box of drinks.

    Later on we reverse off the beach into open water, and anchor for supper and our overnight stay.    Read more

  • Robert AllanA Latin American AdventureTraveler

    Cayó Largo marina

    June 18, 2018 in Cuba ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    We motor a short distance to Cayó Largó marina for breakfast. After which we visit the small Turtle sanctuary. We get a hell of a lot of information from a very knowledgeable and passionate Leonardo, who runs the centre.

    We learn about the different species of marine turtle's that nest along Cayo Largo's 25km of beaches, 7km of which are on tourist beaches. These eggs are transferred to the research centre for incubation in a controlled environment. He also shows us several tanks of nine month olds, a small amount kept back from the hatched eggs, which they will eventually tag and use for research purposes.

    He then says the first batch of eggs they lifted from the beach are overdue, they don't check on them until after 70 days, and he invites us to watch him dig them out. Unfortunately of the 99 egg's, 7 never had embryos, 3 died in the embryonic stage, only two were formed and moving, but never separated from the umbilical cord, and would eventually die. The rest, because of the extremely heavy rains when they were laid, never formed. Very sad, but Leonardo always seems to have hope.

    We did get to tag and name an eighteen month old, which we'll release to the sea in a few days when we return. We unanimously named him Leonardo.    Read more

  • Robert AllanA Latin American AdventureTraveler

    Cayó del Rosario

    June 18, 2018, Caribbean Sea ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    We sail a fair bit west to Rosario Island, an uninhabited island. Rebecca decides to swim to shore, others take the inflatable boat, and a few of us including myself take kayaks.

    Due to the currents this island attracts a lot of flotsum and jetsum, unfortunately in this day and age a lot of it is plastic. So we decide to collect two big black bags of it, which the crew will dispose of properly at a refuse depot at Cayó Largó marina.

    Afterwards we have a picnic of lobster legs, accompanied with drink, then it's into the water for a mega game of volleyball.

    We kayak back to the boat, awaiting the zodiac with all the cameras. Just as it arrives near the boat, Clodagh falls into the water, accidently dragging the bag with her. We pull the bag out of the water quickly, getting it onto the boat, and emptying the cameras to flush them with fresh water, and put them in bags of rice to absorb the water.

    It's only then that I realise my camera is not amongst them, after a quick check we decide it must have fallen out, and is at the bottom of the Caribbean. The crew spring into action and all dive off the back of the boat. I wasn't expecting to see my camera again, but despite the water being about 30 feet deep, in only a short time the captain emerges from the water with it. Despite all efforts to save the cameras, they all die. Thankfully we manage to save the images on the memory cards.

    My camera had a fruitful, long seven years of use, taking ten's of thousands of photos, visited many countries, travelled about twice around the earth, and it was a fitting place for it to finish, on an amazing adventure.    Read more

  • Robert AllanA Latin American AdventureTraveler

    Cayó Estopa

    June 19, 2018 in Cuba ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    Tuesday morning, we woke up to a beautiful hot day and we headed to the mangrove channels of Estopa Caye for some kayaking. We spotted Southern Stingrays, Great Egrits, Cormorants, & Grey Herons amongst the mangroves.Read more