Today we had a very long day as we are driving to Cienfuegos which is about five hours away, but we are making a detour to Santa Clara on the way so we we were picked up at 7:30 to ensure we had enough time to do everything. After a slight confusion about the route we were going to take we then set off, the guide (Maria) thought we were going via the Bay of Pigs whereas we thought we were going via Santa Clara, she rang the office and it was soon sorted out although she was a little confused as we have to drive past Cienfuegos to get to Santa Clara then head back out the same route but as ever the people here are always trying to please so we headed for the motorway and started the journey first to Havana the onto Santa Clara. The motorway is amazing there are actually more people standing on the side of the road waiting for a lift than there are cars / trucks on the motorway. Apparently it is every Cuban’s dream to own a car but they are very expensive so not many do so because of the transport problems they all just wait on the side of the road and trucks, cars, busses and private cars just stop, they say where they are going and if it is the right direction then you jump in, they all seem to offer money so I think they have to provide a donation towards petrol money but it seems to work despite the number of people waiting at the side of the road. After about 2 hours we stopped for a stretch at a nice cafe by a lake, we almost brought some ice cream but the tubs they had in the freezer were family size so in this heat we decided against it. We have moved into the sugar growing region of Cuba and left the tobacco behind, it also seems to be the area where Mangos are grown as the fields that didn’t have sugar seem to have Mango trees, it is a shame that they are out of season but Cuba is another country where they only eat the fruits that are in season. We were given the choice of going to the museums first then having lunch or doing it the other way round, as it was about 1:30 by this time we decided to have lunch first, we seemed to have a few problems finding the restaurant as the driver and guide seemed to both load up their version of Google maps although at one point it did try and send us down a road the wrong way! Eventually we pulled over and they rang the restaurant so we set off again and literally pulled round the van that was parked in front of us and pulled in against the curb again! I am not quite sure why we couldn’t walk that bit but there was obviously a reason. Waiting for us outside our restaurant was Juan Carlos who is our Destination Cuba representative for Trinidad I think word may have got out about the Brits that are currently working their way around Cuba! We had a lovely lunch then set off for “Tren Blindado” this is the train that was attacked by Che Guevara that was the turning point of the Cuban Revolution. The train was full of arms and ammunition for the Capitalist Enemy or the Americans as we like to call them. After this train was attacked President Batista left the country and fled to America which allowed the new regime in Cuba to take over. This is a museum that has a number of pictures and artefacts from those that took part, unfortunately as it is Monday the museum was closed, from here we stopped at the main square in Santa Clara as there are some really nice Colonial style buildings there, then we went to Che Guevara Mausoleum. Che was actually Argentinean and killed in Bolivia but the Cubans see him as a national hero so about 20 years after his assassination they found where he was buried and brought his remains back to Santa Clara. We walked round the outside of the mausoleum and after dropping our bags and camera’s back in the car we went to go in but again unfortunately it was closed so we just looked at the outside then got back in the car to head to Cienfuegos. Luckily we had done the majority of the drive by this time so after about an hour and a half we arrived at our hotel which is right in the centre of Cienfuegos. This is a colonial port in a natural bay so after check in and dropping our bags in the room we went in search of the bar. Unfortunately the pool at this hotel is also closed for maintenance (there is a theme developing here) so we had to go to the other bar but that was not a hardship as this was on the roof with fantastic views across the bay and over the old town square. A few drinks and a snack later and we were ready for bed and all set to go off exploring tomorrow.
