10) back in Havanna

From Vinales we drove towards Havanna and stopped at Playa Baracoa on the way. We quickly found out that the name "Playa" was misleading here. It was a place covered by stone with no good entrance to the sea. Thus, we continued through Havanna to Playas del Este east of Havanna (as the name indicates^^). The beach there was good and we enjoyed a last swim in Cuba. A lot of locals were at this beach. We met two young swiss girls who hanged out with two local guys - two musicians from Havanna as we were told. The swiss girls were doing holidays and language course in Havanna. After some time police approached and asked for the ID of the two local guys. After some checking they wanted to imprison them for one day because of "disturbing tourists". We were quite shocked when we were told about it afterwards. The swiss girls talked to the police confirming that they were not disturbed rescuing the musician from a day in prison. The police tends to be jealous of fellow Cubans who make a fortune by getting along well with tourists.
On our way back we stopped at the Havanna's castell. It offered nice views over the city, while it was not too spectacular itself. Back in Havanna we checked in at Casa Haifa again where we also stayed during our first visit in Havanna. Afterwards we gave away our car which brought us over 2.000 km through Cuba. While we explored the famous places during our first visit in Havanna, we now explored some of the side streets. We took a taxi to the capitol and quickly were fascinated by Havanna's scenery again. Havanna's main theater was under construcstion - just like the capitol. After some local pizza we went through the streets. As soon as you go 2-3 streets away from the main ones, the picture changes a lot and is so much more typical Havanna. When it started raining Franzi fall for another scam offering a free salsa show but bringing expensive and bad Mojitos. When I refused to pay the guy almost started fighting with me... luckily I was way biggern than he was and the place was filled with people. After the sun set we went to have some last Mojitos and live Cuban music at the bar of Hotel Ambos Mundos on Calle Obispo. Back to our casa we had a great taxi driver with one of the very old American cars^^
It was raining the next morning (04.05.) when we spend our last Cuban money on a local pizza and spotted that super cute tiny car standing in the rain :D A taxi then picked us up from our casa and our flight brought us from Havanna via Panama City and Amsterdam back to Berlin.

True local Cuban beach - Playas de Este

Good view of Havanna...

...from the Castelle

Havanna's cute but expensive "Egg"-Taxis

Gran Teatro de la Habana - under construction just like the capitol

Colorful, worn down but scenic old spanish colonial buildings

many of the side roads are not concrete

looking through one of the side streets towards the capitol

Friendliest taxi driver we had in Havanna!

A last local pizza before our flight goes...

...what a cute tiny car we spotted their standing in the rain :)

9) Playa Maria la Gorda and Vinales

The next day (30.04) we drove to Playa Maria la Gorda. On the way our car made more and more strange noises. We simply hoped it would last until we are back in Havanna a few days later. Before coming to Maria la Gorda, we stopped at the National Park office near La Bajada. There we booked a guided tour through parts of the park for this day. When we arrived at Playa Maria la Gorda, we recognized that all the place was about one hotel: Hotel Maria la Gorda. We decided to stay only for one night. The beach looked great but the sand was rather stoney and entering the water was not too easy. But we had some nice swims and walk along the coast. I booked a dive for the next morning and then we went to for our tour through the National Park. Our guide was very knowledgable and told us a lot about the nature there but also about his life in Cuba. Ofcourse telling us all the time that he earns so few money and needs more from tourists^^ We saw some nice birds, small leguans, crabs hiding from the sun and a hole at the coast that had an underwater connection to the sea and so was filled with many small fish and some corals.
Before going for the dive the next morning (01.05.), I met an elder lady during breakfast buffet who joined my table while Franzi was out for a run. After some chatting I offered her that we could give her a ride to Vinales later the day. Franzi came and took over while I went for the dive. The worst dive "center" I've ever seen. Most of the materials were worn down, the staff was hardly friendly and not communicative at all. But some other guests made the trip very enjoyable... and the dive itself was nice too... some great divethroughs and the famous Cuban black corals, although the latter are not very spectacular. Franzi went snorkeling in the meantime. Some more sunbathing before we left with the lady for Vinales. In addition to the elder lady we also gave a ride to our guide from the day before - funny coincidence. The lady spoke excellent spanish which was handy and told us a lot of interesting stories about her travels in Latin America. We stopped to buy Cuban local cigars for 10cent a piece (the Cohiba sold to tourist costs ~8€ a piece). After the guide exited we took a wrong turn somewhere and ended in a village. But before turning around we stopped and enjoyed coffee at a newly opened cafe (Cubans are more freely allowed to open new business since a few months thanks to Raul Castro's reforms). Even here it didn't take long for a young guy to approach us trying to sell information and an accomodation for Vinales. We friendly ignored him while the lady who owned the store told us about her family and her new cafe. We then continued to Vinales.

Playa Maria la Gorda

beach is always fun :)

nice birds in the National Park

Crab hiding from the sun in the National Park

Our guide and Franzi approach this hole in the coast

the hole had an underwater connection to the sea and was filled with small fish

one of the cutest cafes ever :)

Before entering Vinales we stopped at the Tourist Information 100m next to Hotel Los Jaminez. There we saw walking routes explained... but best was the view from there... all that is free compared to enjoying this view from the Hotel (as recommended by the poor Cuba LonelyPlanet). As it started raining we drove the elder lady to the Casa where she wanted to stay. As we considered the place too far off, we drove back in town and found plenty particulares close to the main street. We decided to dedicate the whole next day to trekking around Vinales and thus stayed for two nights. The next morning (02.05.) we went for a big walk starting at Hotel La Ermita going west around Vinales finally coming into Vinales again from north. Vinales is like a big farm around the village... cows, horses, chicken families, farmers, tractors and much more. The soaring sun and heat required us to make plenty stops for refreshments. A really relaxing day all in all :) The next day (03.05.) we visited the huge painting of Vinales which is supposed to look like from the stoneage... however, it rather looks like a massively overscaled child-painting. We enjoyed another view from the tourist information over Vinales before we drove back towards Havanna.

View over Valle Vinales from the tourist information

Taking a walk through Valle Vinales

Even the village has a farm-like scenery

Beautiful flowers on the way

Small chicken taking a ride on mum^^

Farm life...

Coconuts and tractors... Cuban farm life^^

Weird huge painting looks like made by a child

8) Mantanzas, Soroa and Pinar del Rio

The next morning (29.04.) we drove from Varadero to Mantanzas - the capital of the district. There are not many tourists in the city and we quickly drawed the attention from those few people to us who are eager to get some money from tourists. Other than that, the people in Mantanzas were very friendly and we saw a lot of real Cuban life. Snacks and bread were super cheap here and almost everywhere people only wanted the "moneda national" instead of the tourist "CUC". Still, the houses were largely worn down giving this city a ruin like atmosphere... especially at the river bank. We visited a large mosaic picture of Che Guevara before we continued from Mantanzas all along the highway past Havanna to Soroa. On the way we picked up a hitchhiking engineer... but only because the highway police asked us to. Ofcourse he quickly wanted to sale us accomodation... but other than that he was very friendly :) In Soroa we parked our car at Hotel Villa Soroa. We walked past the Orchid garden and were eager to climb some hill... but this way turned out to be a dead end. So we drove down to the waterfall entrance. There we visited the waterfall first which was nice but not impressive. Then we climbed the hill which offered amazing views over the country :D
As it was late afternoon we continued on our way... the plan was to go to Playa Maria la Gorda... but we already expected not to make it this far that day... so we stopped in Pinar del Rio. This is the worst town when it comes to touts we have seen in all Cuba. Every young guy tried to tell some lies that we couldn't go this street or that the next crossing was closed due to a festival or repairs or whatever and that they would offer to guide us the way. Near the bus station it was almost scary when people shouted and approached our car... we closed windows, locked the door and slowly continued. Finally we stayed at the casa particulares "Casa Colonial" where we could also park our car in their courtyard. At the casa we met two german guys from Hamburg. Everyone - even the house owners - wanted to bring us to some restaurant to receive commission... that was really annoying. After some dinner at the main street we met the Germans again and enjoyed some Mojitos together. The bar was then closed by soldiers and we were asked to stay by the owners. As it felt rather uncomfortable we left shortly after and went for sleep.

old fire department in Mantanzas

Soroa's waterfall

The way up hill... sometimes quite some stairs were missing^^

great view from up hill...

... looking over the region

interesting caterpillars near the top

7) Varadero

At the evening (25.04.) we arrived in Varadero and pushed by the setting sun we chose a Casa Particulares with friendly owner (Calle 47). We took a walk along the beach during sunset before we enjoyed dinner and some Mojitos around Calle 60, which becomes very lively during the evening. The next day we enjoyed beach to the fullest again^^  The beach from Calle 50 down to 10 is gently filled with locals and you don't see the tourist filled beaches that Varadero is infamous for (starting Calle 60 up). We were very positively surprised. The beach was amazing with the water and sand almost as good as on Cayo Coco. The beach also has sufficient palm trees for natural shade available unlike the beaches at Cayo Santa Maria. However, Varadero beach is best for sunsets. When looking towards the sea the sun rises from the right, passes behind you where the palm trees provide shade from the strong midday sun and finally the sun sets at your left and gets lost in the sea. Considering this and the small but close Varadero town, it is one of the most convenient beaches I've seen. That's why we decided to stay a little longer^^ At this Saturday evening we went for Calle 60 again and then wanted to check Discoteca Havanna Club. But before entering we changed our minds... there were not many people entering and the cover fee was rather expensive. So we decided to have some more Mojitos instead :) The next day (27.04.) we visited Playa Coral southwest of Varadero as it is renowned for good snorkeling. There is no beach at this "playa" but you can enter the sea via a small bridge and ladder. The snorkeling was not spectacular but a nice difference to our usual beach days^^ Some small fish and tiny corals could be seen. Afterwards we checked out from our Casa Particulares and were shocked to find out that we were bitten and hunter by bed bugs there in the morning. We changed to Hotel Pullman where we had reserved the day before. It is a simple but clean hotel with a nice location. After cleaning our clothes from the bedbugs we continued to enjoy Varadero's awesome beach :) At the evening we were looking for some better restaurant but somehow didn't find the place. Some Canadians adviced us a "great and cheap" restaurant, which turned out to be way overpriced. But nearby we found an ok price and very delicious place (Avenida 2, Calle 59). Afterwards we enjoyed some drinks and live music at The Beatles bar. The last day we explored the northeast of Varadero - the hotel zone. Our search for internet access was unsuccsesful in all Varadero, even in the hotel zone. The beach here was great too, but it was rather boring compared to the beach downtown. This time we found a great place for dinner: Dante. Italian food is delicious in Cuba as their own food is very boring... however, Dante's place was the best food we had during this holiday, although the portions were rather small. Lasagne! :)

Varadero's great beach

photosession during these amazing sunsets...

:D

... more ...

That's how sunsets should look like from a beach^^

simply beautiful :)

The beach at northeast Varadero

I love this view when laying in the sand and hearing the sea :D

6) Santa Clara - the Che Guevara city

From Remedios we drove to Santa Clara - the famous Che Guevara city. We parked our car near Iglesia del Carmen and walked to the city center. We first tried Hostal Florida that has best recommendations in Lonely Planet and Tripadvisor. The hostel was full, but they we could park our car in front of their place and advised us another hostel one which was good. We then went for a sightseeing tour through Santa Clara. We started with the memorial for the Battle of Santa Clara. In this battle about 300 rebels led by Che Guevara managed to conquer Santa Clara which was defended by several thousand of Batista's gunmen. The rebels captured an armored trained filled with weapons and ammunition what diminished the faith of Batista's army. This battle was a crucial step for the Rebels in winning against Batista's army in Cuba gaining Che Guevara a lot of fame. However, we learned at the museum that Che Guevara was not even part of the 300 Rebels but was waiting outside the city until his friends captured the city... so far for him being a such a great hero.... on the way back from the museum we escaped the heat into a bar where we enjoyed some cold mojitos :) the bar was great as big bikes and rocker-like people were visiting it next to us^^ Refreshed we made our way to the Che Guevara memorial. On the way we saw a lot of great street art, while the memorial itself was not spectacular. The ad for Chavez was rather funny^^ After all the sightseeing we went for dinner at Hostal Florida, where I tried grilled lobster and Franzi some fish... both was delicious if pricey. For nightlife we tried the Club Mejunje. A true Cuban experience! Filled with locals youths the club offered cheap drinks and live music. We liked it a lot :)
The next day (25.04.) we visited a cigar factory which was very informative. Cubans earn in avarage about 25 USD a month! Afterwards we left Santa Clara for Varadero.

street views of Santa Clara

No parking... why?

cute old cars in the streets of Santa Clara

Cuban "Apple store"...

and Cuban "McDunalds" :D

 

Mojitos... one of Cuba's famous cocktails

Funny street art near around Santa Clara's city center

Santa Clara's colorful city life on our way to the Che Guevara memorial

Che Guevara memorial and advertisement for Chavez/Venezuela

anti USA street art on the way back from Che Guevara memorial