Today we continued from Santiago de Cuba to Baracoa.
Up into 1960s Baracoa had no direct connection to the outside world; it could only be reached by sea. This changed 1964 when La Farola was opened … a street crossing over mountains of the Sierra del Puril – today considered one of Cuba’s seven engineering wonders.
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On our second day in Santiago we had an included city tour and this time going beyond just the city center. We first made it to the Plaza de la Revolucion with a statue of the city’s hero Antonio Maceo. … Continue reading
We made it into Santiago mid-afternoon. After a short break – to settle in with our casa hosts – we met again for a tour of the town center with its squares, historical buildings and the cathedral.
We had another half day of driving ahead of us to get from Camagüey to Santiago de Cuba. Around halfway we stopped in Bayamo to get some street pizza (i.e. pizza sold in little private shops for local pesos … good and cheap) and to get a glimpse of town.
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We had one full day and two nights in Camagüey … and the oddest accommodation on the trip – a one star hotel. We got an introduction to town during a walking tour of town in the morning; the afternoon … Continue reading
We had a late start this morning (no wonder – most of us made it back to the casas only around 3:30 am, one even later) and left Trinidad around midday – heading for our next destination Camagüey. On the way we had a stop at a former plantation in the back country of Trinidad with the chance to make our own sugar cane juice and get a bird’s eye view from a nearby tower.
We returned from the hike in the early afternoon – enough time for further explorations of town and to check out some of the museums.
The night saw us attending an Afro-Cuban music/ dancing performance, followed by dancing on our part in The Cave – a nightclub in (you guessed it right) a cave.
Today saw us leaving town once more for the day … this time into the jungle for a hike to the Javira waterfall … a 3.5 km hike one way with a refreshing dip at the waterfall (and an interesting bat cave behind the waterfall).
Most of the group decided to join in for a full day catamaran trip to one of the outlying islands – Cayo Blanco. We left Trinidad in the morning, made it to the pier; after a good 1.5 hours of sailing we got a chance to hop into the water for a bit of snorkeling around a reef. Lunch was included on the island – and so were the drinks … including (nearly) unlimited rum … it was a good, funny & sunny day 😉
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From Cienfuegos we continued to Trinidad, a well preserved colonial town near the Caribbean coast … complete with colonial-style houses and cobblestone streets. After moving into new casas, we – similar to Cienfuegos – met up again for a tour … Continue reading