Click on a photo to enlarge it.
Monday, 31.10.2016: Playa Girón to Cienfuegos, 90km - mostly sunny, 28°C
We had omelettes for breakfast along with bread rolls, juice, fruit salad, and more of the yummy hot cakes. Coralia phoned up our next Casa in Cienfuegos to let them know when we would be arriving and Carlos drove us down to the bus station in his Jeep. We had really enjoyed our short stay here and were grateful to Lourdes for recommending our hosts.
There were a lot of people at the Viazul office waiting to get tickets. They have a system whereby the driver contacts them when he arrives at the previous stop in Playa Larga to let them know how many places there are on the bus. Sometimes there aren't enough for the number of people waiting so they also have a taxi on standby to take the rest but it costs 3 CUC extra. There were enough places for all of us on the bus so the taxi wasn't needed.
The journey only took 90 minutes and we arrived at noon. There was a man at the bus station in Cienfuegos who held a sign with our names on it. He took us to a Bici taxi that cost us 3 CUC for the 5 minute ride to our Casa.
Our hostess Puchi welcomed us and showed us to our room which had two beds with air con and en suite bathroom. There were no outside windows but by now we were getting used to that. Puchi explained about the various tours that are on offer. We climbed up onto the roof where there is a lovely terrace with lots of plants, chairs and shade.
After a cup of tea we went on a walking tour around the small colonial centre of the town. We checked out the bakeries and restaurants (we decided against breakfast at our Casa and she doesn't offer evening meals) and walked to the main square. We weren't allowed inside the Palacio and the Naval Museum wasn't really worth the hot and dusty walk out to it. We also walked along the main pedestrian area along Avenida 54 from the square.
A very nice man at the Infotur office gave us lots of info and a map but after over two hours we were both flagging in the heat and humidity and returned to our room and put the air con on. Later we went for a meal at an Italian restaurant we had found - Kirsten had spaghetti carbonara and I had a bowl of mushroom soup because the heat had killed my appetite.
Tuesday, 01.11.2016: Cienfuegos - sunny, 28°C
We took a day off but managed to watch the Champions League match between Manchester City and Barcelona. Puchi is a huge Barcelona fan and she was extremely loud, egging on her team. But Manchester City won 3-1. There was a power cut for about 10 minutes during the first half so we missed the first and only goal scored by Barcelona's Messi so poor Puchi only got to see the Man City goals!
Later we went out to the Italian and ordered pizza. We waited over 45 minutes and still no pizza - the restaurant was very popular. I gave up and walked back to our Casa and Kirsten brought me a slice back with her.
Wednesday, 02.11.2016: Cienfuegos - sunny, 28°C
On our final day I wasn't feeling well and stayed in bed for most of the day. At around 4pm we walked into town and got Viazul bus tickets for the following day to Trinidad and got a taxi down to Punta Gorda, a peninsular not far from the main centre of town. We walked back from there and found a small sandwich place for a ham and cheese to go. We had seen two people sitting on a wall eating them and they looked so good we asked where they'd got them from. We wandered through a sculpture park on the way back and also bought some expensive crisps and nuts.
We really didn't do justice to Cienfuegos which is called the "Pearl of the South" for its enviable waterside setting and its architecture that earned it a Unesco World Heritage Site listing in 2005. I had also planned for a trip to El Nicho which is a waterfall in an outlying segment of the Topes de Collantes Natural Park. We decided that the price of 38 CUC per person was too much when we've seen so many waterfalls and decided just to chill out.
