Blogs from Este, Cuba, Central America Caribbean

Baracoa Sun-Mon 15-16 July Day 10 & 11 We had 2 full days to explore Baracoa and it’s surrounds. On the way we had 2 stops. The first was after we drove through Guantanamo town, about 15 kms we went to a lookout and saw the American Guantanamo Bay prison and township through binoculars!!!! Next was a beautiful Alto de Codillo Lookout that had a 360 degree view of the Baracoa district. It was lush green in places, but we could see many sections of stripped trees resulting from the hurricane of 12 month ago. It was a steep climb but worth it. A very poor village of about 100 people live next to the lookout and try to sell fruit, sweets and souvenirs. There was a bar there also and the locals were well on ... read more

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

Lost my notes for this section. We booked an American car for the 5 hour trip to Baracoa but next day a small modern car arrived driven by a Venezuelan, new to the country & who had never been to Baracoa so numerous stops for directions required before we made it. Regardless in hindsight it was probably a good thing as the final third of the trip was through steep mountainous country with numerous turns & switchbacks which would have been difficult for an old banger. Before reaching the mountains we followed a picturesque Atlantic coastline near Guantanamo, site of the infamous gaol & port run by the Americans. No sign of the site apart from armed guards at key intersections around the town. The town was only accessible by sea until 1960 so it is ... read more