Cuba Day 7

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Cuba Day 7. Sunday 27 Jan 19

Feeling much better today, thankfully, ready for the long coach journey to Santa Clara in the centre of Cuba. Old American cars, pre 1965 and most 1950’s make up towards 50% of cars on the road here and at our pickup point there was an iconic 57 Chevrolet which had been fitted with a Mercedes Diesel engine. We met other Chevvies during the day, one of which was an immaculate blue 52 model and we also saw an good looking 1950’s Austin A40 of British origin. We climbed up out of damp Vinales into the clouds where every window was steaming up with the humidity until we dropped into the valley onto the three lane dual carriageway of the A4 where the sun shone. This was Sunday and there were people everywhere thumbing lifts along the roads. It was 28 degrees, sunny and quite hot so most of them were under the bridges in the shade. These bridges have a 60km speed limit due to people bobbing into the path of vehicles in the relative darkness with the obvious result. We also saw many different crops and orchards of citrus fruits such as oranges and lime. as we got to Santa Clara we saw the old railway trucks which were derailed by Che Guevara and his men in 1959/60 which contained ammunition sent in to help claw back power to the the Government Forces after the revolution had succeeded. Also present was the Caterpillar dozer used to lift up the rails. Next was the Che Guevara mausoleum with many photographs of Che and his followers and the room with the human remains of him and his men killed in Bolivia in 1967. In Santa Clara it began to rain for a while and I learnt another well used phrase in Spanish on this trip - mucha juvia. (Much rain).
Our Hotel Granita tonight was a tourists establishment with coach loads of westerners. The rooms are very good and the restaurant also up to standard with a good buffet selection for 15 CUC (£13.50). As we got to our rooms and stripped off ready for a shower the power went off for 10 minutes, which was a bit of an inconvenience, but hey this is Cuba. Several people are going down with the lurgi now and I think we are up to about 6 at this moment, out of 17 of us. Is there more to come?

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