Blogs from Cuba, Central America Caribbean - page 47

It is worth visiting Cuba just to see vibrant but decaying Havana with its wonderful old colonial and neo classical buildings. However to drive around Cuba gives the opportunity to explore the country and experience Cuban life outside of Havana. Previous blogs describe our tour to Vinales in the West of Cuba, Playa Giron and the Bay of Pigs, Trinidad and Cayo Coco. Hire car costs were similar to Europe. We hired a Kia. Petrol at 1.4 Cuban Convertible Pesos per litre was much less than European petrol prices. The roads outside of Havana were very quiet and you could cruise along at a steady 100km/hour. After leaving the "Autopista" main highway routes you had to be careful to avoid the occasional pothole. The main worry was the slow moving traffic such as horses and carts. ... read more

Exploring Trinidad, a stop over in Cammaguay and on to Santiago de Cuba Leaving behind a vibrant city like Havana was sad and inevitable, but nonetheless we picked up our little Kia rental car and made our way south and east. Driving in this island nation isn’t challenging from automobile traffic standpoint, but rather from keeping an eye on everything else, like horse carts, hitchhikers, pot holes and trying to find any kind of directional signs. We were off to see some more of this beautiful nation and chose to drive east in search of more sights and adventure. The road out of Havana had three lanes in each direction for a good portion of the voyage. One thing was missing however…..traffic. Seems that the Russians built this highway for the Cubans, but of course ... read more

On our car drive from Trinidad to Cayo Coco we passed through some lovely countryside, especially on the way to Sancti Spiritus. We bumped over several railway tracks and through sugar cane plantations and farming areas. We reached the 32km long causeway to Cayo Coco and the guards at the causeway control point wanted to see our passports. They were not very friendly but we were allowed to pass and start the long causeway drive. We saw lots of birds including a pelican and many gulls. We arrived at Memories Hotel and enjoyed our welcome drink. Unfortunately we were in the wrong hotel! We had gone to Memories Flamenco Hotel by mistake and our hotel Memories Caribe was 1km away. We met 2 friendly Canadians in the reception area. They were checking out after a 2 ... read more

Notre derniere journée a Cuba... Deja 7 jours passer à la vitesse de l'éclair Et pour le Laguna Azul Iberostar, quoi dire de plus sur un resort... 4 jours c'est assez... read more

We had an enjoyable drive from Playa Giron to Trinidad through lots of lovely countryside and many sugar cane plantations. We saw many cattle egrets with horses and cows. There were people at the side of the road trying to sell an odd pineapple or a bunch of bananas. They would suddenly appear as our car was about to pass an isolated hut. There was hardly any traffic on the road except for horses and carts and farmers on horseback. Some labourers were spreading seeds on the road surfaces to allow them to dry out. The roads were very uneven with many potholes. We enjoyed a big lunch of fish and rice at Rancho Luna. We finally arrived in Trinidad and there were many youths on bicycles trying to stop our car and direct us to ... read more