Blogs from Cuba, Central America Caribbean - page 10

Today we arranged to go on a tour of a cacao plantation and a coffee plantation. Coffee and chocolate, my two favourite things. Our tour took off around ten (scheduled start 9.30) and we made our way to the plantation. Now in my mind we were going to see two plantations, however, they grow the coffee and the cacao on the same plantation. As it turns our both plants prefer the shade, so to shield them from the Cuban sun they also grow palm and banana trees around them. The end result is the plantation looks like a thick tropical forest, which explains why the area around Baracoa looks so beautiful. Our guide, Benny, started talking us through the growing and harvesting of both plants. While he was talking I felt some pain in my stomach. ... read more

So today our host found us a nice driver, Robbie, to take us for a drive out of town. We started off heading towards Valle de la historico. It’s a fun park is about 4 acres of dinosaur statues. T-rex’s, mammoths, brachiosaurus’ etc. And quite a few others I couldn’t name. Very cheesy but fun anyways. The park was originally built by inmates at a nearby prison and in its heyday I could see it being a great family attraction. These days some of the statues are starting to fall apart and are in need of a little TLC. There was a little lake area where they had the heads of some water-living-sauruses coming up out of it and a disused slide. Jo decided it would be a great idea to build a wave pool there ... read more

So we were up early this morning for our bus trip to Santiago de Cuba. The bus was scheduled for 8am, we were to be at the Viazul station at 7.30. But given our previous experience we figured hey, there’s not rush. We left our casa at 7.30 and walked to the station, about five minutes away. Wouldn’t you know, they were on time today. Apart from check in the whole process was very efficient. Ahhhh Cuba So the 8am bus pulled out of the station at 8am. The ride was fairly uneventful only that it was very long. Almost 13 hours. The busses are comfortable but after 13 hours, nothing is comfortable. We were lucky at first because we had the two back rows to ourselves so we could stretch out and try to sleep. ... read more

El Jardin de Los Helechos (Fern garden) Along a busy main road we pulled up at to what looked like a non de script property if it had not been for a wrought iron sign at the entrance it was not an obvious attraction. As soon as we walked through the gate we knew we were in for a treat. The owner had lived in the house for over 40 years and in that time has developed this lush haven by collecting more than 400 species ferns from around the world. Our group was split into two and we were lucky to have Manuel (The owner) explain how the garden evolved. Sometimes it was difficult to hear his soft gentle voice as we slowly wandered through the gardens, but his passion for what he had created ... read more

Today we had booked a boat to take us out to Cayo Blanco, and island off the coast which is supposed to be good for snorkelling and look for iguanas. We walked to the designated meeting point, the infotur office, and waited for our taxi. One pulled up, it was the same 63 Chevy from the day before. The driver got out and asked us something in Spanish which we didn’t understand. One can never be certain here. As we walk down the street we will get half a dozen offers for a taxi, so maybe he was another one. A second driver pulled up, who could speak a little English and he had some paperwork with my name on it. So yes these guys were to take us to the Marina. When we got to ... read more