Cuba day 12 to Giron

It is Trnidad's culture week, and they were celebrating the town's 502 anniverasary. An official stage had loud more modern music, and there are tourists all over the place. Accomdation is sparse and prices have gone up.

A few days ago I was quoted CUC160 to go to Vinales, 350 km distant.Todayit was CUC40+ to go to Cienfuegos just 70km along the coast.

We found a guy with a car happy to do it for CUC30 as he had just brought people from there and wanted to go home. It was a 1950s sedan, plenty of space but not 100% comfortable - but what do you expect from 60 year-old springs?

Cienfuegos turned out to be less than exciting so the driver took us on to Giron, site of the famous Playa Giron (Bay of Pigs) invasion of 1962.

When we got there it seemed difficult to find a place to stay: the driver took us to a place that was full. Casa Luis had rented their last 2 rooms just a few minutes ago, but they offered to find somewhere. Luci was instantly grumpy and pessimistic. And they did find somewhere, but going there was very funny. The lady explained one could not drive off the main road, one had to walk between houses. Luci was worried and asked if it was in the cienaga (swamp). The lady replied 'yes', preumably thinking that 'cienaga' was a Mexican word for 'behind'. Luci no longer wanted to go, convinced that it would be surrounded by water and full of mosquitoes. But it turned out to be surrounded by concrete and really quite nice.

Mira and I went for a walk to the beach and then along the malecon, built in 1959 as a promenade across the bay, but now rather dilapidated. Later on Luci and Aleisha also walked in that direction, but on the way Aleisha's eye suddenly felt like it was on fire. Unknown to them it was a little beetle that had flown in, and is known in these parts for the excruciating pain it causes. They washed the eye out at the petrol station, then returned to the Casa Vllma where the offending bug was removed by Vilma with a cottontip. Still it hurt, but it now started to get better. When Mira and I returned Luci and Aleisha were on the bed, Luci reading and Aleisha in a sorry state.

Dinner was fish (for Mira), spaghetti (for Aleisha) and crocodile (for Luci & I). The crocodile was I thought very good, somewhere between fish and chicken and tender pork. After dinner Vilma arranged for the guy from the diving centre to visit, so we made plans for tomorrow... She alsotold us a bit about the costs of running a casa: CUC200/month for the licence, 10% of declared income each month, 30% income tax at the end of the year. Perhaps not surprisingly most only declare about 1/2 of their income.Read more