Saturday, April 13th and Sunday April 14th, 2019 - End of Our People to People Experience

Sadly, this first trip was coming to an end. It had been a bit more of a 'rush' than Fran and I had anticipated. Normally the tour company we used, Intrepid, gives plenty of 'on one's own' time, but this one had been highly structured and scheduled, even including meals. I want to believe it is because the American State Department doesn't want people just lolling around in Cuba!

Oh well, we were down to the last full day and we had a long day of travel back to Havana. It was through the mountains, which was lovely - almost like some Australian mountain roads I've been on, even down to the eucalyptus trees.

Our first stop was a lookout toward Trinidad and the ocean to the south. It was hazy, so it was tough to get anything worth having, but here you go!

You can see Trinidad to the left of the yucca spike and the ocean where we swam between the two spikes. 

The other direction shows the mountains we are headed into. It was quite a lovely drive.

The next stop was another scenic view - also hazy! It was pretty, but what's a photographer to do with it!

Maybe photograph the huge tree fern fiddle-heads?

Or how about the people in our group, or the bus we were riding in?

Our itinerary said we would have lunch in a small family farm near Santa Clara. It was very modest as you see here. But these resourceful people put on a most notable spread for us.

While the outside was unfinished, the interior was clean and had a most delightful breeze blowing through it. Our guide told us that since the tour company began stopping here for meals, they have been gradually improving their place, taking it from bare wooden walls to this lovely space. This is an example of 'responsible tourism' that Intrepid promotes - finding ways to put money in the pockets of locals to help improve their lives.

Now, if you're vegetarian or vegan, you may want to skip this bit. We could see the pigs in the pen and the chicken (photograph by Fran) was looking nervous and staying close to the woods!

The cassava was boiling.........

....tomatoes, onions and garlic ready to go.......... 

.......oh, and here's the answer...........the chicken can relax!!! (Again, photo credit to Fran)

While lunch was cooking, we headed across the road to a small waterfall which was being enjoyed by some locals. We also appreciated the peaceful, bucolic scene of the cow on the hill.

Finally, all was ready. It was fresh, locally grown and one of the most delicious meals we had. It was a fairly typical spread. We had tomato salad at every meal, (except breakfast)  very often with cucumber, less often with cabbage as shown here. There was also always some form of plantain - either chips or tostones. This spread had very delicious plantain garlic flavored chips which many declared the best we've had. This meal was unusual in that it had both potatoes and cassava. The other ubiquitous dish is rice with either black or red beans. The type of meat is the primary variation at each meal. I was happy with the food. It was generally tasty.

Dessert today was guava jam with cheese, a common offering. The other common dessert was flan - yum!

As you can imagine after this amazing spread, it was hard to get on the road, but press on, we did!

Ernesto Che Guevara Mausoleum near Santa Clara 

I have not mentioned much about the adulation of the heroes of the revolution so far. The second week of our time in Eastern Cuba exposed us to more of that. Near Santa Clara, we stopped at the Che Guevara Mausoleum where he is honored. Photos inside the mausoleum were not permitted. It was tastefully done and was a well kept memorial. I found myself conflicted about these souls - Che, Fidel, Raoul, Cienfuegos. Without internet to check accuracy, it was hard to filter the information that was presented. Very simply, Che's image was more ubiquitous as one of the major heroes, with Cienfuegos as a runner up. There was not as much presented visually about Fidel. 

All that was left was a couple more hours back to the big smoke. Throughout our travels, there was very little traffic. You can see here a lovely divided highway that was built with assistance from the Russians. It was still in quite good condition, but there was very little traffic of any kind. The smaller roads had horse carts, ox-carts, pedestrians, bike riders, but these roads mainly held only cars or buses. 

These photos were snapped from the bus window, taken near the Malecon in Havana.

The view from our Casa in Havana

It had been a rushed week. We had enjoyed our fellow-travelers and had some lovely experiences that helped us learn a lot more about this place so close to our home, yet so far in terms of history and development. Sometimes it had felt as if we had taken a trip back to the splendors of Europe. Other times I felt as if I was in South-East Asia. In reality, I was an hour from Miami. Our guide and driver had been excellent, but we had little time to process our experiences, so Fran and I were glad to know that we would head back to the Fort Lauderdale the following day for a cultural and plumbing reprieve. It was only going to be a brief reprieve, because, our journey was not over yet. We had made arrangements to return immediately to Eastern Cuba, which is less often visited by tourists. So stay tuned........we're not done yet!