We arrived here yesterday; travelling by bus @ $20 each on an air conditioned Chinese coach and we had a great view of the area we passed through in the four hours it took to get here. Once we left Havana the cars all but disappeared; we drove along wide ‘motorways’, some without any road markings, but very few other vehicles, occasionally we would come across a horse drawn vehicle, some motorbikes but very few of either. We passed quiet a few people at road junctions holding out money to try to get a ride; but our bus was full and we did not stop anywhere other than designated stops.
I was surprised to see how little of the areas close to the road were cultivated; clearly, I have no knowledge of this area, or the soil contained within it, but having seen how the Chinese use every available inch of space I expected to see more use of the land; particularly as so much food is rationed!
Cienfuegos is a much smaller city than Havana; in fact I would be more inclined to call it a large town. The Casa Particular that we are staying in here belongs to a friend of the person that we stayed with in Havana and it was our original host that made a reservation for us and we were duly met by a lady holding up the hand written sign ‘Dorian and Carolina’.
One of the things I was looking forward to, or hoping for, was the sharing of meals with the Cuban owners of these Casa Particulars; sadly, as it turns out, although they do provide a very reasonable, not to mention large, breakfast and evening meal as an extra but these are not shared with the Cubans. We were led to believe, by people who have enjoyed the benefits of ‘all inclusive five star hotel packages, that the food here is very bland but I do have to say that, so far, the standard has been good and the food quiet tasty; I do have a feeling though that maybe the menus are not too extensive. The evening meals have been accompanied by a healthy salad, there have not been any ‘cooked’ vegetables, and we always leave the table with bursting tums; each meal costing around 8 to 10 cuc.
All of the buildings that we have been in, both in Havana and here, have very high ceilings, actually about 20 foot high ceilings. I guess that this is something to do with the heat. The Casa in Havana was a first floor apartment with three rooms for rent. One with an en-suite to itself and two sharing the shower room that is between them. There is also a communal lounge/dinning area but this would appear to be used by the guests only; the hosts seem to have their own area at the back of the house. Our bedroom had a window that looked out over the balcony and courtyard; the window had wooden shutters and metal bars but no glass. The ‘double bed’ was two single beds pushed together and not comfortable, but the exclusive en-suite bathroom was very classy, nicely tiled and the fittings were of some quality.
The Casa here is much smaller with only one bedroom for rent; and is, again, a first floor apartment. At the top of the stairs is the ‘living room’ with the bedroom leading off. Access to the kitchen and dining room is now via outside and across the terrace, which is the roof to downstairs. The hosts are a married couple with a grown daughter; only the daughter speaks English.
Our room has a door leading to a small corridor off of which is our own en-suite and also has a door leading into the dining room although this is closed and locked to provide the guest with privacy. The en-suite itself is clean but, because it is so worn out, it doesn’t initially look very clean. Also they ‘kindly’ left us a bar of soap; sadly this had been used by someone else before us who had left some ‘short and curlies’, adding to the ‘bathroom dissatisfaction’, fortunately the shower works well.
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