20th December

Travelling to Santa Clara

We got up and packed, Andy had a rather cool shower then we said goodbye to Carlos and his wife and made our way to the bus station for about 11.15. Once again we were accosted by taxi driver touts but didnt feel like running the gauntlet again so opted to wait for the bus instead. Yet another method of operation at this Viazul (each one seems to be different which is a bit of a pain) we were told to wait until the bus turned up at 12.30 then buy our tickets in the 5 minutes before it left! Slightly odd but after Pizza for breakfast from a little stand outside and a huge slab of fudge for the journey we managed to get a seat on the bus to Santa Clara and set off about 12.40. There were the usual stops along the way with one particularly long one so people could buy lunch at the vastly overpriced restaurant there before continuing on through Ciego de Avila and Sancti Spiritus to arrive in Santa Clara just before 6pm. We were met by Luis who also speaks a tiny bit of English and he escorted us to a taxi he had waiting (a very good condition old American car) to take us back to his casa which is only 2 blocks from the Central Park in Santa Clara. We settled in and sorted the usual stuff out before heading out to explore a little bit of the town and find something to eat. The huge central Park is quite impressive and has some beautiful buildings around it including a theatre which is showing some dance productions over the next few days. We walked down to a pedestrian street which we marked as likely for dinner but were drawn to christmas lights on a church not far away where we found the most elaborate Nativity ever as it included a fully working waterfall!!?! We spent a little while here looking and listening to the christmas music being played through speakers somewhere before leaving only to find another church, this one without nativity but with many lights and a big christmas tree. Feeling slightly more in the christmas spirit now than previously we went back to the pedestrian street and sat at a little cafe to have a drink and spaghetti for dinner, which had lots and lots of cheese!! :) The cafe was called Europa and had a large mural inside of various european icons such as the Eiffel Tower and Big Ben but even better they were playing salsa music that wasnt cuban!! We'd almost forgotten what it sounded like and were reminded of dancing at home in various places as different songs came on. Eventually we left and made our way back to the main square where in our absence a large stage had been set up with lights and speakers etc. We decided to hang around to find out what it would be and after listening to English old cheesy music for nearly half an hour finally someone came on to the stage. Various announcements and lots of talking before an odd short movie was played, hard to describe but kind of a dream mixed with ballet mixed with contemporary stuff that all just added up to be very strange and didnt really seem to have a point! Next the projectoer was cleared away and there was a performance by a ballet group, 6 young men and 2 women, who performed various routines in a similar way to the video that either seemed to be violent or very sexual. The music was good and they were obviously very talented people with incredible skill as ballet dancers but it was just a shame on the matter of the subject and content...we see enough of them shagging in public when they dance reggaeton so didnt really need it again. It was still interesting despite the fact it not really being to our taste and when it finished we walked back to the casa discussing it in depth before turning in for the night.

December 21st

Laziness!!

Another rather uneventful and frustrating day to report, after breakfast we checked our emails once more but of course no reply from Spirit. We then went to Cuba tour where we booked our bus ticket back to Havana, we also attempted to book a ticket to Remedios but were told that he didn't sell them and we would have to go to the bus station and book it there. Even more frustrating is that when we tried to book a ticket from Havana to Vinales we couldn't because the people working at the Havana Viazul office don't bother to answer their phones, too busy chatting no doubt!! After leaving the Cubatur office and agreeing to come back later to see if he'd had any more success we walked to the bus station. Once there we were informed that the bus to Remedios leaves at 9:30am and that we should just turn up to buy our tickets there, we are used to this now after all why would they do something now when there's a slight chance it could become someone else's problem later!! On our way back into town we stopped to look at the large monument to Che Gevara which is set within some lovely gardens and parks. We walked around and looked but there are no benches and when we tried to sit somewhere to look at the gardens we were informed that of course it's not allowed!! After walking back to the centre of town we walked up to another monument which remembers one of the battles in the revolution where a government armoured train was ambushed. The train itself now serves as monument and small museum to this event and we had a brief look around. We then sat in the main square for a drink and decided that since we had for the second time in two days been informed of a place where there may be dancing only to find that it doesn't really exist. (or at least isn't where they said it was!) grabbed some dinner, take away lasagne served on two pieces of cardboard, not the easiest thing to eat without cutlery it must be said, and headed back to watch another film.

22nd December.

Practice.

Another uneventful day, well it is Christmas we're not required to do anything!! We spent the morning once again checking the internet and trying to book a bus to Vinales but with no success, a lady in the Cubatur office confessed that they very rarely get to speak to the Havana office because they don't answer the phone!! We then spent the rest of the day booking a room in Remedios for the next 3 nights and practising our dancing in the casa, we felt substantially better after doing this as we haven't really had any proper exercise for a while. That evening we went out and found another Chinese restaurant where we had an amazing meal with 4 dishes between us for just over $6, we then sat in the park for a while chatting and waiting to see if anything would happen but when it became evident that nothing would we went back to the casa to drink beer before bed.