¡Hola!

After lots of debate we decided to rent a car for the next five days to be able to reach some places we otherwise wouldn't have seen (no public transport)

Day1: Vinales - Cayo Jutias - Maria La Gorda:

We got very familiar with the hitch-hiking procedures in cuba, meaning, if you have a spare seat in your car (or truck, tractor, horse, carriage, bike, trike, etc. etc.) you're morally obliged to take in some cubans for the ride. Which came in very handy, knowing that there are no indications on the road and poor maps..

Cayo Jutias was our first white powdered playa, no one around to hassle us, quite impressive. Unfortunatly we couldn't stay the whole day because we needed to look for a place to stay, on the cayo there were no sleeping facilities..

After a quick dive and a drink we headed on to Maria La Gorda ("Fat Maria"), the most western point of Cuba, a genuine diving paradise. Cruising to Maria was exhausting but in every way worth while; the scenery was gorgeous.. We arrived there at dusk, just in time to check in in the hotel. the ONLY hotel around. Nice room though, bit more expensive then we are used to.

Day 2: Maria La Gorda - Soroa

The day after we explored the rough, untouched, beaches- biggest contrast ever with resort Varadero. Around three, after some snorkling, swimming, diving, etc we head on to Soroa, a quiet little mountain town that to our surprise was completely destroyed by the hurricane from last year, including the campismo where we were planning to spend the night. Plan B: rhum + casa asap 

BTW, we noticed that all the best chefs in Cuba are men!! Women are just being grumpy and dominant! The food here in the casas is quite good, but a bit monotone and meat/fish is prepared with 3liters of butter. We just became vegetarians, which has a good influence on both our stomachs and budget!

Day 3: Soroa - Las Terrazas - Bahia de Cochinos (Playa Larga & Playa Giron)

Now that we are official veggies, El Romero (Cuba's only 100% full blown eco restaurant-bar) was an inevitable stop to have a smoothie! It's positioned in the middle of the community Las Terrazas. (google the place) We continued our trip to Bahia de Cochinos, getting lost in Havana for an hour -> no hitchhiking Cubans heading our direction 

Playa Larga turned out to be "Playa Nada", so we got a beer and drove on to Playa Giron where we checked in at our next casa particular for 2 nights. We are not exagerating when we say we got a nice welcome, incluido tres botellas de ron! Again male cook that prepared great vegetarian meals!

Day 4: chillin at Playa Giron

Initially we wanted to go to Caleda Buena, an all inclusive all you can eat / drink isolated bahia / cove for swimming and snorkling at the cheap price of 15cuc/pers.

But, a million of killer crabs crossing the road to reproduce in the mangroves boycotted our master plan  It was like a mixture between National Geographic's "the hunter hunted" and Hitchcock's "The Birds"!!!!!! Fataal/F***ed up/fuori di testa

Our car smelled for days like crab salad  Koen, the only driver who had the guts to face them must have killed hundreds.. the poor boy still has nightmares..

Again plan B: peacefull day at the beach with a good book in the hammock!

PS: this is where Nele lost connection with the world! Please switch to textmessaging on Koen's phone (0032 476 872041)

Day 5: Playa Giron - Cienfuegos - Trinidad

We left immediately after breakfast direction Cienfuegos. At this point we noticed the effect of killer crabs on our tires: luckily we have our personal mechanic with us! Quick visit in town and then off to el Jardin Botanico (92 hectares of trees, trees and some more trees under the burning sun). Around 4 we left for Trinidad. Arriving here is very chaotic: lots of jineteros offering illegal sleeping places. After 3 hours of searching for official casas (mentioned in our guides) we found a very cosy and surprisingly cheap one!! Moral boost!!  We booked for minimum 3 nights, to relax from the hectic but satisfying roadtrip!

Hope everything is fine in capitalistic Europe 

We need to run, happy hour starts now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cun - Nelly - Sofia

xxxxxxx besos xxxxxx