The Rest of Cuba

Since we didn’t have access to reliable internet during our stay in Cuba, we’ll summarise the rest of our trip briefly....

Varadero - 23km of white sandy beaches and crystal clear water. This is what Varadero is all about....so this is what we did for 4 days. Beach :) This included a fantastic half day snorkelling around a beautiful coral reef and cave. Oh yeah, and Kadi opened the shower curtain one day and a frog jumped out and into her hair. Scary stuff!

Vinales - A beautiful scenic mountainous area. During our time there, Livan (the guy from our Casa) took us to a local (illegal) cock-fight hidden in a discreet location in the valley. There was makeshift ring erected and the place was a frenzy of activity. They actually cut a toe off the cocks and tie a piece of sharp plastic (or a blade) to the foot in its place to enable them to fight better! Quite an interesting experience to watch one cock fight another (to the death!) and to watch how absorbed the locals are in it, but a bit unsettling after a while.

Stan! – By coincidence, on the morning of our departure from Ireland, we discovered that Conor’s old skydiving friend from Slovakia, Stan Kostka, would happen to be in Cuba at the same time as us. So we met up with Stan (and his travelling companion Martin) in Vinales, and stayed with them for the rest of our time in Cuba.

Trinidad – We spent our final few days in this old Colonial town. It’s a really pretty town built 500 years ago and still well preserved. Scattered forest fires in the mountains around the town provided a spectacular sight in the evenings. On the last morning, we took a horse ride out into the countryside leading to a secluded waterfall. Here, we finally met the first Irish guy on our travels, and of course he was the one jumping off the 8m cliff edge into the water...so we had to follow him :)

Che Guivara – Everywhere we went in Cuba, Che was watching over us. He is everywhere. T-shirts, postcards, murals, books, artwork, souvenirs, etc. We’ve never seen a country latch onto an icon the way the Cubans latch on to Che Guivara. On a few occasions, we’ve had people try to sell us 3 peso bills of their local currency because it has Che’s picture on it.