We continued a further 1.5 hours to Cienfuegos; here we had the first casas particulares waiting for us. A casa particular essentially is a truly Cuban accommodation option – somewhere between a bed and breakfast and a homestay. These casas (Spanish for ‘houses’) are privately owned and the proceeds go to the family owning and running the place; they usually only have one or two rooms that are being rented out to guests … as such the group was split over multiple casas.

After moving in – the group met up again and we headed for a guided tour of town, followed by a walk to the harbor. From here we took horse drawn carriages to get to another hotel with a nice rooftop bar and a pre-dinner mojito.