Varadero

  Varadero, Cuba
Tuesday, November 14, 2006

So heres the next update.

We left Fefita n Luis and Havana on the 12th November. We had to get the Viazul bus... here we go... goin to have my first rant:

The transport, you can (a) Rent a car, (b) Get the train or (c) Get the bus. As a car costs about $60 CUCs a DAY to rent that was out the window for us... twood have cost us nearly 1,500 Euro!! We were warned off the choo choos by everyone we met, saying that it was totally unreliable, that a 12hr journey could just end up being an 18hr one... even though we prefer trains.... bugger that! So that left us the one and only option.. the bus. Us tourists in Cuba are only allowed to use ONE bus company... Viazul... the one for the tourists with loads of money. Their service runs right down the middle of the country, I think that there is only one, maybe two, beach destinations on their entire itinerary, itīs all towns inland. If you want to get to the beach destinations, you have to get a taxi, and in most places, you end up forking out a lot of spondoolicks to do that!!! We were basically being told that this is the way you have to go... this direction, at this time only, otherwise you can pay loads of money!!! Grrrrr!! RANT TANT RANT!!!!

01 Everyone off the bus... broken down

So, Viazul bus to Varadero... got on it... not 20 minutes later, the LUXURY vehicle broke down. There we were sitting at the side of the road for an hour and a half, honestly it was funny.

As with most of the best beach destinations in Cuba, the Casa Particulars are banned. This means that you have to stay at a hotel, be it an all inclusive or not. We walked Varadero looking for a nice cheap place to stay, but to no avail. We eventually decided to see what staying in an all inclusive is like, I mean, the place was right on the beach, swimming pool, restaurant, bar, bike rental, pedal boats... all food and drink included also... how bad can it be. We booked in for 2 nights....

In the words of that annoying dollybird from the TV show Friends... "OH MY GAWD", the place turned out to be an absolute disaster. The supposed "restaurant" wouldnīt have been allowed to open at home. The "food", if thatīs what you call Smash (fake spuds) made with sour milk, was not fit for human consumption... rotten!!!! On the first night we just drank beer, beer, beer and beer, even that was watered down. As we sat on the beach at about 10pm we saw what looked like some kind of a satellite launch from nearby Florida, it was amazimg, shooting straight up from the horizon up into orbit....trippy!!!

Next day we said weīd head out on a bike... so happened that BOTH bikes were already out. Ok, lets get a spin off a pedal boat... so happened that THE only boat was currently out of service. So, we ended up just going for a walk around the town. I know that some people like the place, but in our humble opinions... ye are better off going to Ballyheigue in Co. Kerry for a holiday (we wonīt get too vocal on how much of a dump the place was!!) We then decided to do a spot of sunbathing on the beach, it was kinda of wierd having security guards walking past every 10 minutes,

03 Gettin the heck outta Dodge City at dawn

and not one Cubano to be seen for about half a kilometre along the sand. At about 4pm, we had the bright idea of going for a swim in the beautiful looking swimming pool. As soon as we were standing over the edge of the pool, just about to jump in, we noticed that the bottom of the pool was, well... whats the word... eh... yeah... HAIRY!!! Has anyone ever heard of a HAIRY swimming pool ? Basically, the pool hadnīt been cleaned out for a while and there was a lot of curly human hair and other debris floating about (like dead dogs n stuff).
Ok, enough is enough... Rollocks to this.... we are leaving next day at dawn!!!!

Next stop... the resting place of Mr. Ernesto īCheī Guevara..... Santa Clara