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Published: July 11th 2015
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Cienfuegos was a four hour bus journey from Havana, but our hearts skipped a beat when it turned out that we should all have confirmed our bookings before travelling to the bus station! A collective sigh of relief was breathed by our party of ten travellers, followed by confusion as we were all put on the same bus despite having tickets for two different ones. Strange how it was possible that we would be denied travel because we hadn't confirmed and then we were all able to get on the same bus. Welcome to Cuba!
On arrival at the bus station in Cienfuegos there seemed to be a dearth of taxis. Eventually we sorted ourselves out and were soon checking in at the
Hotel Jagua on a peninsula just to the South of the town. After the "at home" feel of a
casa particular in Havana, this hotel was a touch of luxury, especially by the swimming pool. We only had two nights there, and leaving the pool behind was a bit of a wrench when we moved on. We had varying views from the hotel. Towards the town was a lush, tropical scene with rather an industrial fringe, but facing the
other way over the tranquil waters with yachts sailing by was a half-built-but-now-left-to-rot nuclear power station.
The hotel was a 30-40 minute walk into the centre of town. Along the way we saw some incredible sights. Next door was the intriguing
Palacio del Valle which combines several different architectural styles but is mostly Moorish. It may be a posh hotel but it also has an expensive restaurant with a gorgeous terrace. There is a charge if you just want to go onto the terrace for a drink though. Nearby was a bizarre collection of sculptures in a small park. The giant dragonfly was our favourite. As we continued along, there were some lovely buildings and then suddenly we were at the water's edge and got a view over towards the town. Smoke billowed out from a factory chimney but in reality it wasn't as close to the town as it looks in the photos. We stopped to see the men who were scraping mud from the sea bed to look for shell fish. Presumably they either sell them or take them home for dinner.
On the main street running through the town there is a statue of
Benny Moré. He was
a famous Cuban singer, born locally, who was well known in the 1950s and early 1960s. Most of the interesting sights were around the Plaza de Armas which is fronted by the
Palacio de Gobierno and it's large terracotta dome. We managed to tag onto a tour of the
Teatro Tomas Terry which was excellent. Most of the inside is wooden and it would be wonderful to see a performance in there. The guide pointed out that there is no air conditioning but with careful design and louvered windows, the interior is nice and cool. Around the plaza there are several buildings housing art galleries and soem of the work on display would take your breath away.
On our second evening there, Ramiro had arranged for us to meet some of his friends. It's quite hard for tourists to be invited into an ordinary Cuban home because of suspicions of people making money out of it. Cubans cannot charge tourists to eat in their houses preventing home cooking "restaurants" from emerging. We had to try not to draw attention to ourselves should any of the neighbours report them for having foreign guests. No doubt this situation will change rapidly as
the country adapts to modern day tourism. It turned out to be an excellent evening with by far the best food we tasted on the entire trip. The house was memorable for its artwork and for the motorbike parked in the front room! When our host and hostess later demonstrated their salsa skills, it completed a perfect Cuban evening for us all.
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Jeff
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Eye catchy, interesting, and RIU Hotel Coupons.
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