Day 10 - 14 Cayo Largo , Varadero, Trinidad, Plans Change

Day 10 Wednesday 9^th March        Cayo Largo (Key Largo) – R &R

Today was about relaxation on Cayo Largo at the resort Ole Playa Blanca. What is interesting about the island of Cayo Largo is that there are 3 flights per week directly from Italy and a number more from Canada. Those we thought were French are French Canadian, and so many of the resort staff speaks fluent Italian. Made our lives simpler for a couple of days! In fact there is one resort that caters exclusively for Italians, let the pasta run free……hmmm Pasta!

reception overlooking pool area 

Spacious room but could do with an update !

Otherwise there isn’t much more to say. How do we describe this place without the repetition of any other Caribbean Island? It’s remote, hot, crystal waters, white sand and glorious. Enough said as a picture paints a thousand words.............

Day 11 Thursday 10^{th March}        Cayo Largo (Key  Largo) Donde Este Delfino?

One of the joys of life is the opportunity and experience that await from the most obscure beginnings, remember the flying fox in Vinales Valley? If we are open to them, they can push out of our comfort zone, but be all the better for it. Today I had the opportunity of a lifetime.

As many know I have a deep seeded fear of water, definitely out of my comfort zone if my feet don’t touch the bottom. So with great trepidation and excitement, I went swimming with dolphins at Playa Sirena at Cayo Largo. After a short boat ride I vested up and met the dolphin trainer who introduced us to his beautiful friends.
I was nervous, but thought that for the allocated 20 minutes I’d just get to pat them in the shallows. Not so! We had to swim out to the deeper water so the dolphins had room to manoeuvre and perform.  
Too late to chicken out now, so in my trusty buoyancy vest I paddled out into the dolphin domain. These are mighty strong yet gentle creatures which both scared and comforted me. With the trainers’ whistle commands and hand signals the dolphins rolled over, sang, clapped and generally clowned around us. No doubt part of the show but they were gentle enough to come up and give me a kiss on the cheek.

These were such beautiful moments that I just had to hug one of them! Surprisingly they truly connected with the caressing and lingered around like a dog having its belly rubbed. Magic ! They feel so smooth and rubbery, so different to what I’d imagined.

They finished by towing me back into the shallows, just an amazing sensation and one I am so proud to have taken the plunge (pun intended). Funnily, had this been a year ago I wouldn’t have dared attempted it. Had it not been for the recent outings at Eildon and Bonnie Doon, and jumping off the back of the boat, I may have never had the confidence.

That was the massive highlight of the day; otherwise Andrew forgot to bring his wallet so we didn’t have enough money for lunch. Fortunately beer is cheap so we had a liquid lunch instead; cavorting in Cuba is such hard work!

Day 12 Friday 11^th March     Cayo Largo (Key  Largo) – Havana -Varadero , Change of Plans

The great thing about not booking head is remaining fluid in our travel plans. Yesterday we were set for Trinidad. Today we are going to Varadero. Why I hear you ask? The one and only Viazul bus is totally booked for Trinidad and by the time we get back to Havana from Cayo Largo we miss that connecting bus for Trinidad. So change of plans. Oh and we only get this information 7pm the night before we leave Cayo Largo. Gotta love the Cubans! It’s just another example of how this country is not geared to receive the tourist trade.

  

stairwell to our room!

Okay, so we arrive at Varadero at 9.30 pm, no accommodation and no plans. Gina gets her best negotiating skills on and rounds up the taxi drivers. “Ola, who speaks English”, they all dob in their mate. “Okay, who has a Casa for us ?” How many nights, how much blah, blah blah. It all falls into place. We are driven to the Casa, expecting something a little shabby at this hour and a taxi referral only means his mate will benefit, but we hit gold, two blocks from the famous Varadero Beach, the largest beach in Cuba. Double bonus, a host who also speaks English and a totally self-contained part of the Casa with our own bathroom and A/C; Happy Days!! Once settled in we set off for a quick bite and then hit the sack…. Bueno noches

Day 13 Saturday 12^th March       Varadero  - Salsa on the dance floor!

Varadero was going to be out last stop if time allowed at the end of the trip. It’s most famous for the longest stretch of white sand beach, in fact it is among the cleanest beaches in the world; it is Cuba’s  longest beach and the country’s main resort area.

White sand beach is blindly beautiful

Similar to Cancun in Mexico it has a hotel strip making it our Bali to the Canadians. We’re only here for a full day (2 nights) so tried and make it count. We set off along the main drag, lots of 50’s America cruising and plying its trade along with horse drawn carriages. The horses we have seen pulling the carts and buggies are all so emaciated, quite sad really, yet so many tourists seem excited to be hauled along by them.  It’s quite warm in Varadero and it isn’t summer yet.

A general observation, when Dragon sang “April Sun in Cuba” back in the late 70’s Marc Hunter and Co did not have an appreciation for how hot it actually gets!, but we digress.

Don"t judge!  It's hot & 11am 

Nothing too exciting to see, it is a resort town, so we decided the hop-on, hop-off bus to be the way to take it all in. Alas, not to be the case, it simply cruised the resort area so not much more to add. It was beer o’clock a few times in the day as cavorting in the heat is thirsty work. The highlight was our casual stroll along the gorgeous beach and as good as the guide books say.

We had a chat to our host Yuliet who encouraged us to hit the down and go dancing. We look at each other and think yeah sure a hot spot putting it on for the tourists. Calle 62 the place to be she assures us and much to our surprise it actually was a great night. Playing live a Cuban band, street blocked off to accommodate an extended dance floor and lots of Rum.  Yes some travellers but heaps of locals too. Some serious cavorting was done and we fell into bed at 1.30am. This was a problem to the extent we had a 4.30am wake up call to depart Varadero, cavorting doesn’t seem like fun at this hour.

Salsa party in Calle 62

Day 14 Sunday 13^th March           Hello Trinidad

A random musing here. When Gina turned 40, on that same day she was a placard bearer, the person who led the Trinidad & Tobago team onto the MCG at the opening of the Melbourne Commonwealth Games in 2006. Fast forward to Gina’s impending 50^th birthday and she will be celebrating it in Trinidad, Cuba!

We caught the Viazul bus from Varadero to Trinidad via Cienfuegos. All up it was to be a 5 hour trip but what excitement awaited us? We arrived at the depot in Cienfuegos to have the driver announce a 20 minute break, the bus was broken! We had to wait for the mechanic. Well 20 minutes was optimistic as we all know.  When dealing with tradies best guess and reality can exist in a parallel universe. It was a 90 minute break and as it turned out was not too bad considering the bus shat a water pump (technical speak). On the road again, the rest of the trip was uneventful.

You've got to be kidding ???

We arrived at Trinidad late and were met by a man who referred us to our next mode of transport to the Casa Hostal Los Faroles. Transport being a 3 seat tricycle with luggage space! Holy Mojitos Batman!, we looked at each other thinking you’ve got to be joking! 40KG of luggage and a little more for Gina and I, this bloke is gunna cark it!

Our rider is the super skinny bloke at the back of the bike

 So we load up and the man pedals along the paved colonial streets as he tries to guide our “tour”. How does he speak, pedal and draw breath? We got closer and saw the he was readying himself for a hill, and we both jumped off, there was no way we were going to let him cycle us anymore.
We arrived at our Casa, he was dripping sweat and no doubt glad the trip was over.

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Pretty in pink polyester

We were greeted by our host Yokavi, shown around the house and left to our devices. Let’s say this is the best house in one of the worst streets. The house itself is a bit of an oasis in the area but as photos will show, over the back fence is a huge pig in a small pen, chooks, roosters, and various odours of unidentifiable origin.

Anyway, we are settled here for 3 nights so will make the most of it and Trinidad.