Hurricane Season Cuban Style
Where to stay: Casa Particulares. It´s basically the original idea of Airbnb. You stay in one of the few bedrooms with a family or a couple, usually with your own bathroom. Being able to speak Spanish is a huge bonus – people seemed to like sharing their stories with us.
How to travel: Tour bus (airconditioned, which can be a bonus), sharing a colectivo (testing how many people can fit into an oldtimer), or a private taxi. We tested all, and each had its own charm. The downside to the beautiful old timers is the smell inside the car from the exhausts.
What to do: For some reason I thought Cuba would be much less developed. So walking around and exploring was fascinating, especially since we stayed a bit outside Havanas city centre and came through different parts of the city. After Havana we went to Viñales in the country, where we went on a horseback tour through coffee and cigar plantations and had a warm rum, as you do. There are plenty of things to do – unfortunately we were limited by the (extremely!) rainy weather and ended up doing a proper cave hike.
What not to do: If you are looking for a proper beach do not go to Playa Girón. The holiday homes by the beachside were pretty much destroyed by the hurricanes in the past decades, so it is fun to go on a discovery tour and find wild (?) horses in between the abandoned houses. We found a dead fish on the beach I mistook for a dog toy because it was neon blue.
What to eat: Options are limited, but if you get a chance eat the fresh chicken when in the countryside. Best chicken I have ever had. It must be all the running around the chickens do – they actually have really long legs. Seasonal fruit and vegetable will be your daily serving. Delicious, but as anything you have every day for several days (and are anything like me to get bored quickly), we would have appreciated a bit less quantity and therefore more diversity. The breakfasts at the Casas were amazing…
May 2018.
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