Blogs from Cienfuegos, Cuba, Central America Caribbean

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I went on a solo trip to Cuba for a few days in spring 2016. After spending a couple of days in Havana I thought I should see some other places of the island as well. My plan was to take the bus to Cienfuegos, but didn't seem as easy as it sounded. I was usually relying on the internet to find places, but here I was not able to find any Wifi so I had to rely on a simple map the hotel staff gave me to find the bus station. Since I am pretty bad at directions it took me absolutely forever to find the bus station. By the time I managed to find the it there were not really any busses leaving and the schedule did not make sense to me at all. ... read more
On the road
Drive across Cuba with amazing views
Leaving Havana

Central America Caribbean » Cuba » Cienfuegos January 12th 2020

Around the corner from our hotel was the magnificent Parque Jose Marti, the town square. Our guide, a local historian, Mariloli, told us the story of Cienfuegosas revealed by the buildings around the square. The city was founded in 1819 by rich French inhabitants of Haiti, who were escaping the revolution there. Having money, they built a planned city that adopted the wide straight streets of Napoleonic Paris. The founder of Cienfuegos, called simply “Monsieur”, wanted the customs house built beside the city hall, cathedral, theatre, and his residence; thus, two full blocks were needed for the square, rather than the one block as decreed by Spanish colonial authorities. The nearby bay became an important port for sugar cane. Slavery came with the colonists. Monsieur’s house was beautiful... read more
Teatro Tomas Terry 1889
Main altar, Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception
Just the place for a leisurely drink

Central America Caribbean » Cuba » Cienfuegos January 11th 2020

Fog misted our goodbyes to the beautiful valley of Viñales. We left at 8:00 for a long day of driving from the far western part of the island to Cienfuegosin the south-central region. Early morning was busy in the villages. Even outside the villages, small groups of people and individuals lined the road seeking transportation. In every village horse-and-carts moved goods and people around. Other people walked steadily, making their way to various destinations. On the porches of some houses, family members sat peaceably as the day began. The road became busy with trucks, a few cars, motor bikes, bicycles, and our bus. Mid-morning we stopped at a small café, built for the purpose of supplying travelers with services, including drinks and toilets; it charged for parking. Our route took us towards Havana, and the increase ... read more
Lunch at Pio Cua
Bahia de Cochinos
Cuban Peewee

Central America Caribbean » Cuba » Cienfuegos November 27th 2018

On Saturday morning we awoke to find that we were sailing into Santiago de Cuba harbour. We watched from our balcony as the morning sun glistened on the water and the green hills drifted past. The sight was interrupted though by a large power station spewing out brown smoke from it’s chimney covering the distant mountains with a smoggy haze. The harbour is very large with a narrow entrance and it is easy to see why the Spaniards chose this place to build the colony as it is well protected, especially by the 16thcentury fort overlooking the entrance. We docked about 10am and again we could watch all this process from our balcony on the port side of the ship. Our tour was not leaving until 11-45 so we had plenty of time for breakfast and ... read more
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Central America Caribbean » Cuba » Cienfuegos October 11th 2017

Today was a long travel day from Vinales to Cienfuegos. After bidding farewell to our host Sisa and giving Sophia one last pet, we headed out of Vinales at 8am. Our route took us back east towards the outskirts of Havana, and then southeast. Our stop for lunch was at another family run restaurant, this time at the 56km marker. The fried chicken was phenomenal. What was odd about this restaurant was that it had a table displaying various toiletries. The toiletries were sealed with cling wrap, and most of them looked imported. There were hefty price tags on them. Apparently, importing toiletries and reselling them at a significant markup is a thriving business for some workers on their own account. After lunch, we drove for a bit before making a rest stop in a town ... read more
Playa Giron Museum
Cienfuegos
Cienfuegos

Central America Caribbean » Cuba » Cienfuegos June 17th 2017

From Casa Verde to Trinidad to Casa Musica June 16, 2017 We began our morning with breakfast across the street from Casa Verde at Hotel Jagua. It was built in the 1950s with casino space and likely under mob influence, but apparently the casino never became a reality. After eating, it was off toward Trinidad, a community settled by the Spanish in the early 1500s, but later replaced by the French who brought the newest sugar cane technology to Cienfeugos following the Haitian slave revolt. So, we stepped back into time once again. On the way to Trinidad, we stopped for a moment to catch a photo of a cactus fence. These were built by plantation owners to prevent slaves from escaping. Cuba has a disturbing history relative to slavery, but has moved forward from it ... read more

Central America Caribbean » Cuba » Cienfuegos March 15th 2017

Geo: 22.1495, -80.4436Time to move on and explore further afield. The first step was how get to Park Central with our bags. The taxis aren't keen to navigate the old town backstreets for such a small job so we decided Julie and the bags would go via rickshaw and I would walk the 20 minutes to the Rex Car Hire office behind the Iberostar Hotel. Sounds exciting but was really quite routine for travel around Havana. It really wasn't possible to drag the bags over the cobbled streets.We had a relatively new Chinese made MG. Not quite an MGB GT but nonetheless good for the job. We didn't want anything that might break down in the wilderness. We used NAVMii to find our way out of the city and onto the motorway. Although the roads are ... read more
Playa Larga - Bay of Pigs
Cash Ivan And Lily
Cienfuegos

Central America Caribbean » Cuba » Cienfuegos July 31st 2016

Geo: 22.0669, -81.0317... read more

Central America Caribbean » Cuba » Cienfuegos July 30th 2016

Geo: 22.0669, -81.0317... read more

Central America Caribbean » Cuba » Cienfuegos April 3rd 2016

Last time I wrote a blog entry, I was in Laos, not knowing that again, my plans would change dramatically. The month I spent in Laos was memorable for good and bad reasons: too make a long story short, we lived a great big adventure in very, very remote areas, discovered fascinating cultures, hiked in the jungle, visited villages that never see any foreigners, spent the night in traditional houses, rafted down a river on a bamboo raft, to list a few of the things we did. But things changed dramatically a few days after a tick bit my colleague. The tick infected her with Scrub typhus, and because of the delay in treatment, additional complications worsened the situation to a point where without her initial fitness and strong will, she would not have survived. Almost ... read more
Our hosts in Jovellanos
Jean on the way to Caleta buena
Beautiful sunflower field near Playa Giron




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