Authentic Cuba - 4CB2305
Welcome to the Authentic Cuba tour and welcome to our guests Alice and Tony, Bernd, Bernd and Daniel! Cuba, really authentic I have to admit :-), interesting with beautiful charme and lovely people! And so our guests on this adventure through Cuba! La Habana impressions... The Capitolio of La Habana in the background...similar to the Capitol in Washington, both are based on the Pantheon in Paris And here we are on our guided city tour with Alice, Tony and Nelson ..in Sloppy Joe's which was a magnet for American celebrities in the 40s and 50s as and described as "one of the most famous bars in the world" with "almost the status of a shrine." instead of begging getting some money for fotos with the tourists Our lunch today.. before we went to the Plaza de la revolucion, built under Batista and used by Fidel Castro frequently for his speeches
Here we go! Picking up the motorcycles at our garage ...and leaving for the Sierra del Rosario Our nice lunchstop...of course with life music. That's Cuba! The weather and the roads...interesting as well Showers and strong wind, actually not the season for it...
Our lovely Casa Tamargo in Vinales... Bernd with la madre y la abuela..such nice and open hearted people And this beautiful nature around us with its mogotes - karst limestone formations sprinkled into the landscape similar to which one can find in Laos or Vienam as well At the Mural de la Prehistoria, painted by Leovigildo Gonzales Morillo in 1961, 120m high and a width of 160m which is about the findings of fossiles and traces of dinosauriers in the area of Vinales Bernd participating in a Salsa class :-)) Our first tobacco farm visit, growing the leaves for cigars In the holy halls, un humidor for storing the cigars
Early briefing and go. Today we have to cover a longer distance to Cienfuegos and the fueling experience...an interesting process on Cuba! At Playa Giron where the invasion and the planned overthrow of Castros regime completely failed Bernd found at this small booth a rum for his collection at home
A view of Cienfuegos from our hotel and now we will go for a small city tour... The other Bernd found his holy halls in a beautiful cigar shop, he is quite an expert in this field What was it...la experiencia echa de gasolina :-) back in the subtropical jungle of the Sierra de Escambray a hike to El Nicho ...just beautiful, for the next 2 hours we are practically alone on the road in these beautiful mountains Our very nice dinner in the evening in Trinidad
After a good breakfast we toured Trinidad One of the typical bodegas where locals get their supplies... This guy...always joking :-) In the afternoon our guests went to Playa Ancon, a nice beach close by at the Carribean sea
In the morning we visited the Hacienda Torre Iznaga in the valle de los ingenios, on which in the 18th and 19th century over 30.000 slaves worked on the sugar cane plantations and in the mills Today one can climb the steep wooden staircases ...in the past it was the look out and for controlling the hard labor Congratulations Alice! Continuing our way to Santa Clara we visted the Monumento-Memorial Che Guevara. This monument was created in 1988 but not until 1997 that Che's exhumed remains were transferred to Cuba. another great lunch stop on our tour... We stopped at a cigar factory and made a very interesting tour through it. However, one cannot take pictures here.. In Remedios we were lucky that we were able to enter the main church, built in 1550. Nowadays the oldest remaining church on Cuba. the lovely main square where we had a sundowner And our dinner in our La Estancia developing to a maridaje, the tasting of rum and cigars. What a beautiful evening! Nice picture Alice!
In the morning a visit to the Museo de Azucar, a sugar mill from the past times...impressive Daniel and Bernd... After we went for a longer ride, agriculture changing with villages, sometimes more and sometimes less traffic but always something to see on or beside the road
Fotostop at the puente de Bacunayagua... ..passing the beautiful Playa Jibacoa and having a stop in the small town Cojimar, a preferred hangout spot of Ernest Hemingway. The fishermen here to which he had a close relationship were his inspiration for the "The old man and the sea" At the Castillo de los Tres Reyes del Morro...and opposite side is Havana viejo already! Slowly our nice adventure comes to an end With Alice, Tony, Bernd and Daniel, La Habana in the background A final stop at the end of the Malecon before riding back to the garage. Thank you very much for a great tour with delightful people through a very interesting and beautiful country, unique on this earth! Safe travels and see you again somewhere on this planet Holger