Trinidad and Bayamo, Cuba

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Next morning we had to get up super early to have breakfast as our bus left at 7am. We left as the sun was risng. The bus to trinidad took all day, we arrived at about 4 (the timetable says arrival at 2, but we were late). We stopped at a few places on the way for food and bathrooms. The casa in Viñales had organised a casa in Trinidad for us and they were waiting for us with a sign once more. I went with the bags and the hostess on a bicitaxi to the casa while the boys walked. It was a bumpy ride as most of the streets are cobble stone. The room was up on the second floor with a kind of balcony that was the roof of the floor below. The room had aricon and hot water again. The couple who run the casa were so welcoming and friendly that sometimes to get things done we had to excuse ourselves from a long conversation. We went for a quick hour and a half stroll through the streets of Trinidad, we saw 2 museums, one was about the local involvement of people in the revolution and the clandestine fight in Trinidad. The other was bigger and had information about the fight against the counter revolutionary bandits and military triumphs after the revolution.
At sunset we had a beer each and watched from the top of the roof of the casa, it has a view of the ocean from up there. We ate another lovely dinner at the casa, Cubans know how to cook! And had some long chats with our hosts. They organised a driver for us for the following day to take us to Playa Girón (Bay of Pigs) as there are no tours from Trinidad to there. Next morning we had our brekky and Raul came and picked us up from the casa to go to Playa Girón. Dario and he talked a lot about everything to do with Cuba on the 3 hour journey. His car was great! it was an old 1956 Chevy, with a new hyundai 4 cylinder diesel engine under the hood. We discovered a lot about the country from him. On the way when we were getting close to Playa Giron we were stopped at a check point by some army guys. We didnt have our passports or tourist cards on us, only photocopies. The main problem they had though was that our driver had a licence to only carry locals, not foreigners (another difference here, there are specific taxis for torusits that charge more). But apparently in November 2010 there was an amendment to that, our driver pays more money to the gov to take tourists and he talked at length with the man and eventally they let us go. He said once we had gone that they are like auxiliary police and dont know everything the police know.
We arrived in Playa Girón and our first stop was the museum which has a complete history with lots of photos and pieces of equipment from the Bay of Pigs incident. It was very interesting and amazing the success they had with minimal casualties to both sides. The language used in the captions is very emotive and gives the feel of propaganda but you look past that and its a great timeline of events. We then walked to the actual beach, a bit disappointing as it is now a large beach resort with lots of parking spaces and things built on the beach, but we walked along and took photos anyway. We went back to our driver, bought some drinks, went and stopped at a pizza shop and started our journey back. I fell asleep, waking up as we arrived in Cienfuegos, our driver was just showing us the main square and historical quarter on our way back to Trinidad. We arrived back in Trinidad and our hosts invited us to go to the beach. We decided we would go and went and got changed for swimming. We took Raul´s cab, it was us, our hosts and a cousin in the car (+ driver) then we picked up a daughter on the way. On the way the guys were offering around a bottle of rum, but straight rum isnt our thing, they stopped and boguht cuba coke so we could have cuba libres (rum and cokes) instead. We arrived at the beach and there were lots of people there. We had a couple of drinks from the bar there and went for a swim and later watched the sun set. The daugher, Isabella, spoke nearly perfect english whcih is very rare, and apparently she taught herself after she finished school by studying a dictionary and watching subtitled movies. So we had a chat about the animals of cuba dna my pets etc.
We got back and our hosts made dinner (we had requested pork that night as they were bragging about how good it was) and we ate the best pork dinner! We had been told that we must have a local traditional drink of lime, honey, rum and other juices mixed together in a ceramic cup at the local pub called canchanchara, so after dinner thats where we went and had a drink. It was very strong and took us a while to finish. We then walked to La Cueva. A nightclub that opens at 11pm and is in a local cave. It took us a while to find it, but it was pretty spectacular. The 3CUC per person entry includes a drink so we had pinca coladas and watched people dancing to the latin music. They have set up screens toshow music videos, lots of speakers and lights and afew bars. Was fun! we danced a bit then headed home since breakfast was at 6.30am next morning as we had an early bus ride to Bayamo.
After a very early breakfast we said our goodbyes to our hosts and went to catch our bus. The bus ride took 10 hours. We stopped numerous times on the way for bathroom and food breaks but we were glad to arrive! The bus arrived slightly early and we waited, we were told that someone would come to meet us from a casa that the hosts in Trinidad had organised. A man came up to us asking if we were going to Olga´s and we were, so we got in his bicitaxi and it turned out he had guessed that as she is the most popular casa in the town! and he had not been sent to meet us! But when we arrived at Olga´s it turned out that she hadn´t got any message and was full, so she called a friend called Lidia who owned another casa particular and off we went there. Lidia and her husband Manolo were lovely! But we were both a bit annoyed at being hustled by the bicitaxi, it was really our own fault but it worked out in the end. We had arrived too late to have dinner served in the casa so we sorted out our passports etc with Lidia then for an hour discussed the possibility of doing a tour to La Commandancia, 1.5hours away the next day. We went and checked at a tourist desk in a big hotel but they said the guy who organises tours probably wont work again until monday (it was saturday) so we organised with Lidia that a friend of hers who runs a taxi would take us and bring us back for a total of 50CUC early next morning.
Every saturday there is a street party in Bayamo so we arrived on a good night! We went in search of dinner. There is a pedestrian only street where the party is held and all along it there are little restaurants, all of them kept telling us they were full! We heard later from a guy we spoke to that they probably just couldnt be bothered to serve tourists as they dont earn enough to want to bother. We ended up having a cheap (in more ways than one) dinner at a fancy hotel on the main square, i had spaguetti with ham, dario with chorizzo... was very basic. Then we walked around the party a bit, we bought icecreams from a street vendor called tartaletas, theye icecream in a cone, but the cone is flat bottomed and fat so that it looks like a cupcake but frozen! they were great! and only 5 pesos (about 20c) each. There were salsa bands playing up and down the street and people dancing. On the main square there was a concert and lots of people. There were also goat pulled carts that were taking the little children for rides around the park for a few pesos. We bought some water and headed back to our casa for the evening after taking a few snaps (and buying another tartaleta each). The room was nice, aircon, hot water (supposedly... ended up having a cold shower though) and a balcony that looked over the Bayamo river and there was a big tree with lots of hanging pots of plants in the back yard which reached up past our balcony. We found a lot of animals living there! there was a stump of a branch with a hole in it next to the balcony and in it we found a giant tree frog of somekind! and there were loads of blue and green lizards.
Next morning we had brekky that Lidia made and waited for the cab to show up. The taxi arrived, it was an old 1980 Russian sedan with the original engine. And off we went. Dario and he chatted a bit and I added bits and pieces. We drove to the mountains and up to the gate for the national park that contains La Commandancia. At the gate we paid 20CUC each to get in which includes a guide (but most ppl tip extra, we ended up tipping 10CUC coz he was great). We waited for a yellow 4x4 taxi to pick us up from the gate for 5CUC per tourist (guide rides free) and take us to the parking lot at the top of the hill nto start the 3km walk to the site. The taxi turned up and up we went. The reason these taxis are 4x4´s is that there is a section of road which is 40degrees, and a normal car cant handle the angle well. We got to the top and started our walk over the mountain through the forest. It was a very beautiful view with lots of birds and lizards to see and hear. The first point we arrived at was finca that was where the original owners of the land lived before Che Guevara and Fidel Castro came and they allowed them to use the land for their command post. The original owners still live there. There was a tye of orange tree there that our guide got some fruit off for us. It was soooo bitter, but nice. We left there after payng our 5CUC fee to use a camera at La Commandancia.
Next stop, half an hour further on the rocky path was the original hut that Che Guevara used to treat wounded and ill of their troops that fought in the mountains and also would treat the local farmers and their families that supported their cause (its called Post number 1). Then we walked further on and up over a cleared area to a museum, cemetery and finally to Casa de Fidel, the house Fidel Castro lived in for 6 months with all original furniture including a fridge used for medicine that has a bullet hole in it. Dario took numerous photos!! We walked on following a path back towards where we had come from but further down the hill and you can see the creek they used for their water supply, it ran from a spring up on the mountain. Then we hit a 2 story building that was used for administracion, meetings about new laws etc. Then back up to the museum (We didnt stop on the way as there was a large group already inside). The museum is a single room. It has a collection of glass cases with things from the time that the place was used as the command station and guerilla radio. On top of the hill behind the commandancia was where the antenna for Radio rebelde was, and a few original parts were on display.... anyone who has heard the Rage Against The Machine song ´Guerilla Radio´ this is THE gorilla radio they sing about. There were also numerous photos of Fidel and a map of the area with other sites that we werent going to visit.
The walk back was faster as we had to meet a taxi at the parking lot at 12 and we left a bit late to get back. But we made it. On the way we were chatting to our guide a lot. He was originally a chemist, but started work as a guide when the park started sending tourists up 10 years earlier... he can earn more as a guide. Most Cubans dont own a computer and he said that a lot of Cubans dream of owning computers but cannot afford them. When we pulled out the camera and asked him to take a picture of us, he had obviously seen a camera before, but had not seen one with a touch screen, he thought it was great! We told him about the horrible consumerism in Australia and other countries we had been to and he could scarcly believe that computers got better and better every 6 months and people bought new things as they came out. The culture in Cuba is very different and there is not a lot of access to these consumer items, made us feel a bit foolish, we know we dont need all the stuff we have. We exchanged contact details later on so he can email us from a public computer and stay in touch. We took the taxi back down the hill to the park entrance and when we got out Dario forgot the camera on the seat! we realised 5 mins later and he bolted down the hill to a car park we had seen the cab drive into and found the driver, it was still on the seat! phew!!! We then went (with our guide who had asked for a lift home) to our cab to drive back to Bayamo. We also ended up taking another guy who happened to be there and ask for a ride. We all chatted away and I slept a bit in the back seat after we dropped our guide off.
When we arrived in Bayamo and the other guy got out, we went to get some cheap peso pizza for lunch. The driver took us to a place there should have been some. But most of the places had run out and we got a ´pizza´ from this lady who said she was selling them, but she gave us a pizza base with a spoonfull of pork on it and handed it to us. I was not amused, Id just woken up, felt very hungry, wanted pizza and had blisters from all the walking and now had a gross pork sandwich pizza thing. But I ate it. The taxi took us back to Lidia´s casa and we chilled out. Just before dinner we did a bit of a workout as we felt a bit lazy (even after the days walk). Dinner was at the casa that night, delicious chicken! Then we went out and bought some icecream and water.

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Photos

Museum in Trinidad
Che Guevara´s hammock

Museum
Dario with a peice of the american plane that was shot down in Cuba.

Sign on the way to Playa Girón
(Playa Girón is Bay of Pigs)

Typical horse and cart
this is a form of cheap public transport all over cuba

Playa Atura
our host family took us one evening in Trinidad