23rd December

Remedios.

We had arranged to meet our taxi driver at 10 so we got up in time to pack and check the internet and then sat in our room to wait. When it became clear that he wasn't going to show up we asked Luis to call one that he knew to take us to Remedios. 20 minutes later and we were on our way after a couple of slight detours to take his friend home and try to find a petrol station with no queue, waiting for fuel is apparently not the done thing here and our driver seemed really annoyed that he couldn't just drive up to the pump! The journey itself was rather uneventful, we passed through a nice town and some pretty countryside before arriving 45mins later at the house of Alex's (Bombino from Trinidad) friend Frank. It turns out that he has no room but had reserved us a place with some family members. After a quick discussion to agree on prices we walked the short distance to our home for the next few days. The casa is lovely with a sunny courtyard and even a small pool which the Cubans think is too cold to use right now as it's only about 25 degrees. We had a glass of pineapple juice and ordered lobster for dinner before going out to explore the town. We walked up to the main square where there are two huge façades of lights which were in the process of being built. We then walked down the 'party street' which is filled with stands selling food and toys, bars and a couple of DJ booths with huge speakers filling the street with reggaton (meh). We eventually reached the end of the street and decided to walk back to the square by a different route and found that the rest of the town is deserted because everyone is confined to two streets where the party happens. We arrived back at the square and looked at one of the floats for the next day which is huge and was half finished (the other was not even started as they only have one crane!!) We also walked around the kids area which contained mini pirate ships, merry go rounds, a bouncy castle and a few electric cars which are tethered down to stop the kids driving off with them. We spent another hour or so exploring before walking back to the casa where we chilled out for a while before dinner. The lobster was amazing, such a shame its so expensive back home because it really is delicious! At about 8 we went out for the evening and after noticing that little progress had been made with the floats we went to a bar for a beer. While there we met some other travellers from Australia, New Zealand, Italy and Cardiff and spent all night chatting with them and dancing to reggaton (after sufficient rum had been drunk) until 4am when we walked back the casa and collapsed into bed!!This had been an awesome night and just goes to show that so long as there's a good party atmosphere any music can be enjoyable with the right group of people, of course watching Phil (NZ) do the lawnmower in the middle of a circle of Cubans helps lol!!

24th December

Christmas Eve PARTY!!!!!!

We got up for breakfast at 10 with sore heads and sore muscles from the intense work out the night before but so glad that we'd had some good dancing! Once we'd finished eating we thought we should go and see how things were progressing in the town square with the floats etc and so took a wander down the road where we met Phil, Andy and Hayley (Aus) who had been for a look round already. After agreeing to meet up later we went separate ways and we strolled around looking at the multitudes of food, beer, clothes and general rubbish stands that were lining the narrow streets making walking somewhat of an issue in the crowds of people. The floats had progressed somewhat and we watched in amusement as a crane and men with sticks attempted to manoeuvre a large section of scenery into place whilst another guy perched on top of it...health and safety would have a field day! Eventually we'd had enough sun and decided to go back to the casa and relax in the small pool for a while to cool down, it was deliciously refreshing and you could easily hear the music from the party street here and so a little water merengue took place before exiting and drying off on the sun loungers. Andy left after a while as he said he still needed to get some of my christmas present, it was a good hour or so before he was back and meanwhile I caught up on a bit of sleep in the sun and then went inside to wrap his presents (in his walking socks lol!). Not long after he returned we got ready to go out again as the start of the festivities was to begin at 5 and when at quarter to explosions rocked the window panes we realised the cubans had got impatient and started early. We rushed down the street to the square and were amazed to see several hundred people watching as fireworks were being let off from one side of the square behind a flimsy wooden fence, many of which landed in amongst the crowds before going off!! There were several people in a procession with flags and banners depicting a cockerel making their way along the street dancing and shouting as they went, obviously the competition (I had already decided to back the side with the still as yet unfinished float as it had a Griffin on it) making their first appearance. After about 10 minutes of watching the spectacle we saw the guys over by the fence and made our way over to say hi briefly before having to make a run for it as a barrage of rockets was launched at us across the square as if as a hail of arrows on a battlefield!! Terrified, amazed and totally buzzing with exhilaration we regrouped before thinking it would be safer to hide under the trees before the next attack...big mistake, the branches make it more difficult to see whats coming and before long we were all dancing to avoid being hit by incoming fireworks as well as the ones that had failed to explode and lay scattered on the floor which the Cubans, adults and children alike, enjoyed picking up, lighting and throwing in random directions!!! We watched in awe as huge mortars were lit by cubans wearing a scarf over their mouth and nose (for the copious amounts of smoke) and a pair of gloves to stop the Molotov cocktails they were using as fire lighters from burning their hands!! These guys are f***ing crazy, theres no other way of describing them, totally insanity!!We spent the next hour or so dodging fireworks and their wreckage as the sky darkened prematurely from the ash and watched as tables upon tables upon tables of fresh rockets were handballed into place off of the back of a large truck ready for the next attack. Finally during a lull we headed back to our casa's for dinner...it was only 6.30pm but felt much later after all that had gone on, which apparently was nothing compared to what would happen later as the battle gets more intense...yikes!! We had a delicious meal of roast pork (Cuban Christmas food) before changing ready for the evening and heading back out into the fray at about 8 o'clock when we decided a little dutch courage wouldnt go amiss and so bought a bottle of rum for $2.50!! Drinking as we went we walked into the square and soon found the others (Phil is about 6ft 6", very white and has a mop of blonde wavy hair and so is easy to spot towering above the Cubans!) and got caught up in the excitement once more. The whole party is essentially a battle between 2 villages who try and out do each other as the night goes on with the impressive light shows on their stationary floats, their firework displays which they take in turns to let off and at about 3-4 in the morning the other floats are moved into battle positions facing each other in front of the light ones. We're not exactly sure what happens between them once they face each other as by 4am me and Andy were the last ones out of our group to still be out and were falling asleep on our feet waiting for the second float to move and so called it a night and headed to bed. During the evening we experienced battlefield proportions of smoke and explosions leaving us deaf, blind and occasionally on fire but the atmosphere of the whole event to which about 10 000 people turned up (mainly Cubans, not many tourists at all) was so incredible you just had to be there to truly appreciate this event which is unique in the whole of Cuba!!! Some highlights include watching Phil dancing like a man possessed amongst the rockets as they were being let off and the table like structure which holds them all upright tipping over and firing horizontally into everyone. Also there was the moment when yet another procession of rocket tables (about 150 on each table, maybe 30 tables each time) was being carried in to the firing zone and a stray mortar landed on a table setting the whole thing off above the heads of the Cubans who were carrying it...we legged it at this point lol!! There were at least 4 rounds of fire displays each that we saw, maybe more after we'd left, each one bigger, louder and more raucous than the one before as well as several mass congas round the square which we joined in occasionally when we wanted to view the next teams lights from a better perspective. Of course during all this the street with the stands, food and music was totally crammed and we ran the gauntlet once only to find that it was full of frustrated Cuban men (very few women were about) who constantly hit on me despite the fact that I was with 3 men and so left as soon as we could. At one quiet point during the night we managed to get everyones contact details so that when we've left Cuba and can get on the internet we can share photos etc as well as other travel advice of course! In conclusion I have to say that this was definitely the most amazing, crazy christmas eve I've ever had and probably the best night we've had in Cuba too...I'd recommend anyone (without kids!) to experience this at least once in their lives!!!

25th December

Christmas Day

We woke up at about 12 and had breakfast, after opening our Christmas presents of course!! Since we had no wrapping paper we had to improvise so Mae wrapped my presents of leather belt (since mine no longer fits) and Guiraca (a sort of combination guiro and maraca) in my walking socks making it really hard to get them out again, I decided to use a shoe bag for her presents of ear rings, fan (again! she has lost 3 already at various salsa events) and a cowbell called Mongo which sounds odd but she has been saying she wants one since we left, I also bought her a hair bobble to put on her fan so she can play the cowbell!! At breakfast we once again stuffed ourselves full of food despite still being full from the previous night and decided we needed to go for a walk to work it off. We walked around the stalls marvelling at the neat piles of spent fireworks and barriers which someone had clearly tidied up after the party last night. Most of the stalls were packing up but we managed to pick up some super-glue to fix my shoes and Mae found several pieces of clothing which she wanted to buy. (as usual) When we arrived back at the square we decided to be typically British and go to a bar for a drink and as they were playing salsa a dance as well. There was a table of Cubans sitting outside and when they realised we could dance they invited us to join them and one even bought us a beer each.(they also offered us rum and sausage but we turned these down because we drank plenty of rum the night before and besides they were drinking it neat and we were still full from breakfast!!) We spent the next hour or 2 dancing alternating between dancing ourselves and with the cubans, there was also a mixture of salsa and son music and we discovered that Betty had taught us more Son in one lesson than most Cubans know. Eventually deciding we should buy an ice cream and walk back to the casa, we considered relaxing in the pool but since they were still finding fireworks in the courtyard (our casa is 2 blocks from the plaza!!!!) we decided not to and instead sat on the swing and relaxed for the rest of the day. After dinner of more pork, the Cubans cook a whole pig for each family so they have plenty of leftovers too, we watched a couple of films from Andrew's ridiculous film collection before bedtime.

26th December

Leaving Remedios

After another delicious breakfast we took some time to pack our bags as everything had gotten rather spread out over the last couple of days. Once this was done we went for another look round the town to find that most of the roads were now swept and clean and only a handful of stalls remained. The floats hadnt really been touched however and it didnt look like anyone was going to be taking them down any time soon either!! With nothing else to do we went back to the casa and sat out in the garden and used the day to start organising what we want to do and where we want to go in the next 6 months as we travel round South America. Our presents from Matt were 2 SA guide books which we were able to cross reference to get the best and most up to date information and help us work out what we can and cant afford to do. This took an incredibly long time and before we knew it the taxi had arrived to take us to Santa Clara! We said warm goodbyes to our hosts and thanked them for such a lovely christmas before departing and reaching the bus station in Santa Clara at about 8.20pm. From here it was a long wait until getting on the bus to Vinales at 3.20am during which we found Pizza, read more of our guide books and dozing a little on the rather uncomfortable seats. When the bus arrived we got on to find it already pretty much full of sleeping passengers and had to sit several seats apart for the 3 hour journey which was punctuated by nothing more than the aircon being freezing to start with then being turned off so it was stifling for a while until someone complained and it was switched on again. Needless to say we didnt get much sleep and arrived at Habana Bus Station at about 6.30am.