Bay of Pigs, Cienfuegos, and Santa Clara

On Tuesday morning January 12th, we got on the bus, and headed southeast on highway 1, a multi-lane road with very little traffic, including horse drawn wagons.  Our destination was the Bay of Pigs, best known for a failed invasion attempt by Cuban Exiles, backed by the CIA.

On the long drive, Gulliermo showed us his ration book.   The government gives each person or family a ration book, which allows them to get a certain amount of food very cheaply, to compensate for the very low wages.  As Gulliermo said, they pretend to pay us, and we pretend to work.


However, our first stop had nothing to do with the invasion, and instead was focused on the Zapata Park, a huge wetland.   We had lunch at Enrique's hostel at Playa Larga.  Enrique is a successful entrepreneur, who just bought two other nearby buildings.  He offers accommodations, dinner, and adventure booking.   His car was an Audi A6 wagon, which sharply contrasted with the 1950s american cars on the streets.

The road is the one right in front of Enrique's hostal.  In addition to the old car, note the piles of sand, gravel, and other construction materials.   Houses are being built or fixed up to cater to the increasing tourist trade.  Many houses have signs offering rooms.  Things are changing in Playa Larga, and in Cuba in general.

Our lunch speaker was a retired professor and birding guide.  He spoke about the many birds only found in this park, including the world's tiniest hummingbird.  They also have US and Cuban crocodiles.   There are mosquitoes, but he says that they do not carry disease.  The park offers fishing to a few anglers each day, as well as diving, kayaking, and many other activities.  Zapata Swamp park is over one million acres.

We went on to the Bay of Pigs museum, in Playa Girón, which celebrates the victory of revolutionary army against the Cuban Exiles.  There are many artifacts there, including guns, mortars, and tanks, as well as photos and text telling the story.  I won't bore you with photos of tanks......  What Sandi noted was how quiet our gorup was while in the museum.  It was intersting to read the Cuban perpective of the "imperialist invasion."

When we arrived in Cienfuegos, our group was split up into several casas particulares (B&Bs).  We were in one with two rooms, with one other guest from our party.   Our bathroom was impressive, with spanish tile, nicer than the bathrooms that I have at home.  This was quite a feat in Cuba, where supplies are a problem.  Overall we thought that the accommodations were good, although the pillows left something to be desired.  We learned later that if you want good pillows, you have to bring them home from the USA in your luggage!

Our hostess, Yeni, was delightful, petite and a bit shy.  She spoke almost no English; our guide assured her when we arrived that I spoke good Spanish, so we heard no English from her.  ;-)  Her husband fixed us perhaps the best fish dinner that we had on the trip.  Her husband and her parents work for the government hotels for the usual pittance.  Her price was $30 US per room per night, with dinner $12 per person, and breakfast $5.  She reported that she was booked every night, generally with tour groups from the Netherlands.

On Wednesday we started at the market in Cienfuegos.  Cubans shop daily in the market for fresh vegetables, fruit, and meat.  Their monthly food allowance is pennies by our American standards.  The meat, mostly pork, was set out in the open, without refrigeration.  We learned about Yucca, a starchy vegetable.  We purchased some garlic and veggies for our hosts.

The vendor is offering us coconut shavings, which he made using his own homemade grinder.  The Cubans are nothing if not resourceful.

We then got on the bus for a long ride to Santa Clara.  This area is known for sugar cane, and we were surrounded by sugar cane fields for most of the trip.  Sometimes you could see the smoke coming out of the stack of the sugar cane mill.  However, Cuba produces a lot less sugar than in the past.

The truck is carrying sugar cane to the mill.

We also saw many horse drawn wagons, both in the country and in the city.  The wagon shown is a popular type in the city.  Note that it is covered, and has benches on each side for passengers.  The ladies behind the wagon are about to step up and get on.

In the country, we saw almost as many horse drawn vehicles as cars.

Here you can see a line of wagons waiting for customers.

I believe that in many cases they were operating as a kind of collective taxi or mini-bus, running a fixed route, with people getting off and on.  We also saw automobile taxis stuffed with people, apparently doing the same thing.

We visited a group of seniors, who danced Danzon, and explained a game similar to baseball using a tubular "ball" and a stick.  A
couple of people played the game, and then they got us dancing.   Sandi spent some time with lovely grandmother who was crocheting.

We had a nice lunch in the Pergola restaurant, a beautiful old house which has won restoration awards.

We also visited the Che memorial and museum, where we took off our hats to show respect, and were not allowed to take photos inside.  The eternal flame is similar to that of JFK.

I spoke to a horse drawn wagon driver, who was on a fixed route from the Che memorial to downtown.

Finally we drove back to Cienfuegos for dinner at a restaurant next to the water, and then back to our B&B.