Cuba day 14 to Vinales

The taxi arrived earlier than expected, and turned out to be different from what we expected. It was not air conditioned and while I thought it was 20 years old in fact it had been manufactured in 1953. It was a Jeep, rather like a Land Cruiser. But the seats were comfortable, and it was there. So we took it and the driver was an intelligent 31 year old who lives in Jaguey (pronounced 'Ha-wei') Grande, and the guy we had met last night had phoned someone who had phoned him, knowing that he wanted to go to Vinales some time to collect a debt. He had driven 70km this morning from Jaguey to collect us.

On the way we passed Playa Grande, second site of the Bay of Pigs invasion, with memorials up the road showing where Cubans had died in the fight. Very moving.

We also saw a pond that appeared to be a collapsed cave, with very clear, sterile water. Xxxx told us it was very deep, and how a car had once fallen in the water. Carried by the current through caves the car had reappeared about 9km away in another flooded cave.

Sortly after we visited a town called 'Australia' where there had once been a large sugar mill (called a 'central'). At the time of Bay of Pigs Fidel Castro placed his headquarters in the sugar mill, and Central Australia became a well-known place. Also there were some functioning old steam locomotives with 'Australia' emblazoned on the sides from the old days.

It was interesting talking with the driver, he was 31 years old, clearly intellligent he had graduated from university with an engineering degree. But with engineering paying about CUP600 per month he chose to be a driver instead. His family had been rich, with houses, farms, cars. With the revolution much of this was confiscated, but some remained, and they were able to trade up to end up with the Jeep. Apart from the body there wasn't much of the original car left: the motor and transmission were from a Toyota, the instrument panel was from another car, there were truck parts in it.

He told me how people get by doing things on the side: a farmer selling some of the produce privately, a bus driver keeping the fares of extra passengers, others with tips, police with little bribes, and so on.

When we got to Vinales we couldn't find the Casa Nenita where we were reserved, at Salvador Cisneros #1 there was a noisy petrol station. We continued down a road, saw a sign for a casa somewhat off the road. They didn't have a room, but the lady took us to a place over the road but we didn't like it much, so she took us to another place which we took.

In the afternoon we walked to town. Luci really wanted to find the Casa Nenita where we were meant to stay, she had previously had to call them twice to change our arrival date as our plans changed. It turned out she had noted the wrong directions, instead of 1 Salvador Cisneros behind the Polytechnic it was the first street off Salvador Cisneros behind the Polyclinic. They were a big place with 9 rooms, a swimming pool and restaurant, more of a backpackers' hotel run by Nenita and her son.

At the plaza we met the girls who were enjoying internet connection. Later we lost Luci, but found her again sitting with a lady from Curacao at a restaurant with vegetarian food. We had to queue to get a table, but the food was quite good.

In a corner of the plaza there was a bar with music, nearby there were portals with dance lessons.

Late evening we returned to the casa. Mira was in the alcove room, I was lying on the bed snoozing. Suddenlly there was a crash and shout from the bathroom, and Luci staggered out bleeding, asking for the first aid kit, holding her right foot. It turned out that she and Aleisha had seen a mosquito in the bathroom and Luci had supported herself against the handbasin to reach up and swat it. The handbasin had separated from the wall, and crashed to the floor, breaking on impact. Luci's knee was in the way of the falling basin, her foot cut by the broken ceramic. The tap was torn from the wall, Aleisha had her finger over the broken pipe. Mira went back to sleep but we woke her to get help from the hosts. Aleisha knew best were the first aid was so she and I swapped positions. I was able to clean up the area a little and make space, she made and applied butterfly bandaids to the wound. The hosts cut the water supply, closed off the open pipe, and assured us it would all be ok and we would have a new handbasin next day.

COSTS OF RUNNING A CASA
CUC35 per month per room in a casa plus 10% of income (before expenses) plus at the end of June and December a means test-based tax (on incomes over CUP75,000 (CUC3000)
Although called 'Iliana and Jorgito' (her son), the perosn who really ran it was Jorgito's wife Misleydis (pronounced "Miss Ladys").Read more