Rum, Women and Song (1)
Wednesday, January 6, 2016
Well, today was a day to remember. We did a 2.5 k hike up to a waterfall in the rainforest and went for a swim, then did a walking tour of Trinidad, and after that we had a salsa lesson. We also ate at two more picturesque and distinctive paradores (“home restaurants”), and we concluded the day with rum-soaked toasts to two members of our group who were celebrating birthdays.
Dr. Dan Riskin, Biólogo (aka, my elder kid)
Even before all of that, I had the utterly mind-boggling experience of seeing my elder son on Cuban television. Our host at the casa had turned on her TV while we were waiting for our bus to arrive. She started changing channels and all of a sudden Arnie yelled, “Stop! Go back! Go back!” Lo and behold, there was an episode of Monsters Inside Me, a show about parasites that is broadcast on Animal Planet. And there was Dan, who is not only the co-host of Daily Planet on Discovery Channel in Canada, but also does the scientific explanations on MIM. Only it wasn’t his voice: it was a Spanish voice that had been dubbed in. I was yelling “Mi hijo! Mi hijo!” and I think our host thought we had lost our minds. But we finally explained it all, and went on with our day.
Hiking, Swimming and Bats
The bus collected us at 8:30 am and took us on a bumpy ride up to the parking area for the hike to the Salto del Caburni, a 62m waterfall that drops into a wonderful swimming hole and stream. After a beer (or gaseosa for some of us) we set out on a beautiful hike through the rainforest – bumpy and uneven in some places and uphill for part of the way, but easy walking for the most part. About half way up, we stopped at the cabin of a farmer who had lived in the same house all his life and raised his family in it. It is completely constructed from royal palm. He served us tea that he had made from various herbs.
We then followed the stream further up the mountain to where it widened into a pool of clear blue water below a waterfall. We swam into the waterfall and beyond – and inside the cave behind the falls, at least two species of bats were trying to get a decent day’s sleep. Disturbed by our splashing and calling, a few of them flitted around above us which, of course, made me very happy as my bat-loving son has fostered in me a great affection for the little beasts. I wished I’d had a camera with me and am hoping someone got some photos (Andrew? Isobel?). The swim was wonderfully refreshing and the setting magnificent.
Unlike several others in our group (mainly guys, although Isobel bravely contemplated a leap for quite a while), I’d walked into the water from a rocky platform rather than jumping off a high cliff into the deep pool that had formed beneath the pounding water from the falls. A couple of those who did jump regretted it afterwards, Will from Australia in particular. He suffered a bruised coccyx, which made sitting on buses quite difficult for him for several days. Salto means “jump” so it was hard to resist the urge, I guess.
In addition to intriguing flora, rock formations, the bats and a few lizards, we were fortunate to see several birds on our hike. A highlight was a sighting of Cuba’s national bird, the tocororo (aka Cuban Trogon, or Priotelus temnurus), which is red, white and blue like the Cuban flag. We also walked past almond trees and tried (without much luck) to get the nuts out by cracking dried fruits on the ground with rocks.
Back in Trinidad, we enjoyed yet another delicious meal at yet another attractive and surprisingly large family-owned restaurant. I had pollo tropicale and it was muy delicioso. We were seated outside and during lunch, a bird (not a tocororo) pooped on me. All of us agreed that this was a sign of exceeding good fortune.
(See next post for the second part of our day in Trinidad, which was far too busy and fun to describe in just one post.)
After breakfast, our group set out on a walking tour of Cienfuegos. The city was founded by Don Louis de Clouet, who came to Cuba from France via Louisiana. He worked to build up the city’s white population by inviting families to join him from New Orleans, Philadelphia and Bordeaux. As a result, much of the city’s early architecture is neoclassical French.
After a smooth flight on a Sunwing plane that we figure was originally owned by a Czech airline (see image to the right), we arrived at the Varadero airport at about 9:30 a.m. this morning (Jan. 3). We cleared customs with no problems, then changed some money into Cuban Convertible Pesos (CUCs, which everyone calls “kooks”). CUCs are one of two kinds of Cuban money; each CUC is equal in value to approximately one USD. There are also Cuban pesos (CUPs), which look a little different from CUCs (they have photos of revolutionary leaders on them rather than monuments) and one of them is worth about 1/25 of a CUC. Cubans use mostly CUPs, travellers use mostly CUCs. So it can get complicated. When you don’t know the difference, as most newcomers don’t, opportunities proliferate for getting ripped off by paying for something in CUCs and getting change in CUPs: i.e., getting 1/25 of the change you are actually due. (Update: No one ever tried to pull this trick on us.)
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