Cuba light - two weeks on a shoestring tour

When we think of Cuba our first impressions are 50s era American cars, Castro and the revolution and all those Canadians that venture over there for a winter get away. Before we committed to another two month winter holiday we wanted to get an overview to see if Cuba is a place to spend an extended winter trip. We were able to combine a week at an all inclusive hotel with a 8 day tour of a section of the country. Here is our story.

We arrived in Varadero, a 20km long peninsular lined with endless all inclusive resorts populated by Canadians and Europeans escaping the cold. A place to laze on the gorgeous beach or by lovely pools, eating and drinking to your heart's content, and being entertained with nightly dance shows and pool side activities for those who don't want to explore further afield. Lovely for a couple of days but not the way to discover the authentic Cuba.

So we made our way to Havana and met up with a group for Intrepid's Cuba On A Shoestring Tour. 14 people from 7 countries aged from 29 to us, plus an excellent guide and a great driver. We stayed in casas particulares, which are homes of regular Cuban families who rent out rooms with private bathrooms to tourists and provide an excellent breakfast. A great way to meet the locals, most of whom spoke some English and encouraged us to practise our Spanish. Our group would usually be split between several casas all close to each other.
We all went for a group dinner the first night and had a tour of Old Havana the next morning.Sadly it poured with rain, so we introduced our tour guide to the term 'drowned rats' as we explored the city! Would love to go back another time and visit the museums and wander the narrow streets to properly explore the lovely restored historical buildings.

Then it was on to Vinales, a tobacco growing rural area set amongst lovely limestone monoliths called mogotes. The area is a UNESCO heritage site. We went on a tour of a tobacco farm and had a demonstration of how the famous Cuban cigars are made.We all tried a few puffs but don't think we'll take up smoking! We toured a coffee farm, a cave complex and then explored Vinales itself. By then we were ready to chill in a lovely restaurant and relax with those famous Cuban rum drinks! That got us inspired to join the locals for an evening of salsa dancing in the town plaza, although most of us were too intimidated by the amazing dance moves of the locals to join in!

Next destination was Playa Larga, a lovely beach near the Bay Of Pigs. This was the area where the US backed supporters of Batista who was expelled by Castro tried to retake Cuba but were defeated by the locals. The Cubans seem very proud of repelling a US backed force even though it lead to the embargo which has left them severely deprived of most imports. Hence the huge numbers of lovingly restored 50s era American cars you see everywhere on the island, and the huge number of horse and ox carts which are used by most people for transport and farming. We toured the museum documenting the battle as well as chilling at the beach. It was our guide's birthday so we had a big group dinner at one of the casas, complete with a band. You can't have a Cuban celebration without music!

We visited Cienfuegos en route to Trinidad, Both are UNESCO heritage sites because of their historical significance and beautifully restored heritage buildings. Cienfuegos was settled by the French rather than the Spanish, and has it's own, more modest, version of the Arc De Triomphe. Several of the group decided we needed a salsa dancing lesson which our tour guide arranged. It was great fun although the others got tired of us counting 1-2-3 and 5-6-7 as we practised together over breakfast etc so we wouldn't forget our moves! I took a refresher once we got back to the all inclusive so am ready to hit the dance floor!

Several of us took an optional tour of a hike into Javira Waterfall which has a lovely swimming hole. There's a cave behind the fall that you can swim into. It has huge stalactites and bats. Trinidad is a lovely town to wander around and we found a great restaurant, with the ever-present band, to while away the evening.

Next day we headed back to Havana with stops to visit the mausoleum of Che Guevara, an old sugar plantation, a school

and a lovely old moorish style mansion, now used as a restaurant. We stopped along the to give gifts of clothing and toiletries to rural people in horse carts we passed along the way. Cubans working in resort areas get lots of gifts from tourists but farmers have little contact with tourists so were thrilled to receive handouts of hard to come by items.

We stayed our final night in Old Havana in a funky casa that had a lovely rooftop patio. From here you could see how much of the city is crumbling and falling apart, whilst other pockets are restored and being used by local families or as casas and small private businesses. Again we found a restaurant with live music for our final evening with the group.

Then it was back to Varadero for a couple more days of relaxing on the beach before heading back to the Canadian cold and snow. A memorable trip which convinced us that we prefer touring to the all inclusives, and that guided tours can have great fellow travellers and make exploration much simpler than doing it ourselves. Who knows what future travel adventures that will lead to!