17th December

To Camaguay

We got up at 9 today for breakfast as there were a couple of things we needed to do before leaving Holguin. After breakfast we walked into town stopping on the way to confirm that there was still no response from spirit. We chatted to Eddy for a while and then walked around taking picture of some things we had seen the day before as the battery had died. By the time we had done this it was time to leave so we said our goodbyes, exchanged email addresses and collected our stuff for the short walk to the bus station. We arrived in plenty of time but before we could go into the bus station we were accosted by a guy offering a taxi for the same price as the bus. This seemed to us a good deal so we loaded our stuff into the back of the car and got in, unfortunately after checking with the driver it turned out that this was not in fact the correct price he wanted $8 more. We refused this and after a short discussion between the men we had to unload our bags again. We then stood around for 5 minutes while he searched for a taxi that would take us for the correct price. Eventually we got into a white van which has been converted into a minibus by the addition of several very old cinema seats. After moving to the back of the bus so the police wouldn't see us (it's technically illegal for collective taxis to transport tourists) we set off. The ride was quite noisy and bumpy with several stops along the way to pick up and drop off passengers, the most eventful part was when, after one particularly ill judged overtaking manoeuvre we hit the back of a horse and cart. (although not hard enough to do any damage) We finally arrived at our new casa approximately an hour before the bus was due and quickly got settled in to a beautifully pink room which is part of a tiny apartment that was all ours too use!. We sorted out prices and were told that we would have to move the next day as the room was reserved for someone else before heading out to explore the town. Camaguay is another pretty town which is full of churches, it also has the largest inner city park in cuba which houses a small zoo and a clown theater in the shape of a tiny castle. After finding our way to what seemed like the centre of town we found the casa de la trova and got talking to a man named Fabio who told us that most people go to a place called Caribe to dance where they play a mix of Salsa (YAY) and Reggaton (MEH). We agreed to meet him later and walked back to the casa grabbing some dinner on the way, where we had a shower (which gave you a minorelectric shock when you turned the tap!) and relaxed for a couple of hours in this airy, light, really very pretty room. We walked into town for about 9 and spent almost an hour looking for a cash machine which actually had money in it!! Eventually Fabio showed us one and told us how to get to the nightclub, we walked down there passed the Cultural Centre where a Cuban Death Metal band were playing, complete with pyrotechnics and everything!! We arrived to find a huge queue of people waiting outside the club which seemed to be operating a one in one out system. Unwilling to stand around for 2 hours we decided we'd be better off grabbing some rum and having a drink at home as well as watching another of Andrew's odd films! Camaguay appears to have no real night life as most people are just sitting around the public spaces with nothing to do which is a shame as it feels like a nice place.

18th December

Baseball and Dancing!

When we got up we quickly packed the few bits we'd taken out of our bags and went downstairs for a delicious breakfast of onion omelette and melba toast as well as the usual fruit and coffee..nom!! After this we were met by Marta's friend Carlos, an elderly man who spoke a tiny bit of English and had a place for us to stay for the next 2 nights. We followed him on a short walk to his house and were shown to another building at the end of his amazingly wild yet beautiful garden (complete with chickens and hanging vines with huge white flowers!) where he also had a small apartment he rents out. We dumped our stuff in the very green bedroom before heading out towards the baseball stadium which we'd passed yesterday and which we'd been told was hosting another game today at 1pm. There was a small queue when we got there which we joined and then paid the entrance fee of $1 Nationale each....thats 2 1/2p to go see a professional match which lasted over 3 hours, you cant get better value than that!! We got seats behind the net and with a great view of the game which unlike in America actually is the main focus of peoples attention, there are no advertisements flashing up around the stadium, no garish music and shout outs to peoples friends here, people come to have a family day out and support their team. The stadium which we reckoned could hold maybe 5000 soon filled up and we were glad we'd gotten here early, there were several people going round the stands selling food and drink and we got some popcorn to share whilst watching Camaguay play against Cienfuegas who were clearly the better team. This didnt stop the crowd getting very excited every time it looked like there was a chance of getting a run but in the end they were defeated 6 - 0. a bit of a hollow victory for Cienfuegas as there wasnt a single person there to cheer for them, travel being so expensive in Cuba it is unlikely people go to any games away from their home town! Leaving the stadium behind we went back to the casa for a while before venturing out for the evening. After pizza for dinner we found ourselves at the square where Casa de la Trova was situated and went over to see what time things started there, not until 9 apparently which turned out to be ok as there was a small orchestra playing in front of one of the buildings which we watched and listened to for nearly an hour. They were pretty good and even played some christmas songs including Jingle Bells which was nice as we really havent been feeling very christmassy yet! When they'd finished we went in to casa de la Trova which was $3 to get in, but included a drink so wasnt really too bad, sat down right at the front near the stage and waited for the band to come on at 10. There was music playing beforehand so we had a few dances while we could, assuming that there may not be much salsa played as on previous occasions, we were pleasantly surprised as they played quite a few but probably equal numbers of cha cha cha which we used as our rest stops! The group was good but what made it exceptional was the girl playing the flute who was amazing and made each song come alive with her enthusiastic playing (which she did at the same time as dancing too!!). Feeling unusually tired, once the band finished we went home to bed.

19th December

Chinese :)

Bit of a slow day today really, we checked the internet, still no response from Spirit so sent them another message, checked times at the bus station and generally just wandered around the town looking at stuff. We did manage to find Coppelia and had 4 different flavours of ice cream (caramel, orange, vanilla and pink) for $4 which was delicious as always but had a different system to the others we'd visited in that you purchase tickets for what you want at the door on your way in then queue up where they make the dishes and hand them over to collect your ice cream. Other than this we discovered the train station which seems to be regularly used here as there were lots of people in the waiting room and you can hear the train whistle frequently to get people/cars to move off the tracks (there are no crossing barriers here and as such the trains dont move at any great speed). Not long after this we got caught in a rain storm and had to shelter in a doorway for 20 mins or so before carrying on back to the casa where we got caught again before finally reaching our room. We spent some time drying out and I copied a huge list of spanish verb tables onto the computer from a book Carlos had kindly lent me. As the weather was still showery we decided tonight we'd get dinner then finish off the rum we'd bought and have an early night. We went to a chinese restaurant we'd seen earlier in the day and were the only people in it, after discovering they had very little of what was on the menu we ended up with pork chop suey each and a rice each (one fried one with vegetables). The meal was really nice as it had obviously been prepared fresh and there was plenty of it and as we hadnt really spent much over the last few days we didnt feel too bad about spending $10 for a good meal for a change. We walked back in the drizzle and watched The A-Team on the computer which turned out to be really good and also finished the rum so as not to have another thing to carry in the morning. Then it was off to sleep.