Our first morning in Cuba had a strong of a start as any: full breakfast up on the top terrace.
Sun, food and a great view – we could get used to this!
We enjoyed the view over the neighboring rooftops, filled our bellies with warm bread, fresh eggs, strong coffee, and fruit salad featuring incredibly sweet and juicy mangos – literally plucked from the towering branches over our head on the terrace!
This is a ludicrous amount of fresh fruit and we ate all of it!
All mangoes aside, as we ate, we were joined by a lizard… then another… then another. Feeling happy and inspired, we of course decided to start narrating a brief lizard telenovela, starring Manuel (with the curly tail), Manuelito (like Manuel, cury tail and all, but smaller), and then dun-dun-DUN! El Jefe (the biggest of them all!).
It was hard to catch them on camera, but this is El Jefe, who was probably about a foot long!
Fortunately, we were also joined by real personalities – a nice Kiwi couple from New Zealand who ironically, also booked their Cuba arrangements through Jorge. We chatted and they gave us a restaurant review, Restaurant San Jose, for dinner.
After breakfast and socializing, we were picked up and driven to Topes de Collantes (Top of the Hills). We stop to take in the view, get offered the chance to hold a pair of giant crawling tarantulas (we declined, but smiled at the other tourists who took up the offer). We then drove a little further to meet our guy, Uri, who explained the nature walk we’d be going on after serving us piping hot shots of espresso. We were joined on the tour by two Israeli guys who, yes, of course, booked through Jorge! The hike / walk was up, down, and over hills, across streams, through forests and farms, and was littered with wildlife along the way: hummingbirds, cuckoo, National bird of Cuba, chameleons, a teeny tiny frog, some pigs, and even a pygmy owl! The hike also included a steep climb down to a gorgeous 40 meter waterfall. Sadly it had just rained the night before, so the pool at the base just seemed too dirty to take a dip, which left us clean, but very, very sweaty!
After the hike we were of course, a bit hungry, so decided to try Restaurant San Jose (the Kiwis’ recommendation) where we enjoyed plantains with cheese and shrimp, deep fried ham bites, a Cubano especial sandwich and beer. As luck would have it, the clouds that had been building for the past few hours decided to drop their rain as we ate, so we lingered to wait out the storm before heading back to our Casa for a siesta.
Back home we chatted with Cesar and Alejandro about school, and then opted for some rocking chair time on the terrace.
Watching the storm roll out to sea and the sun set – with Mojitos and rocking chairs, of course!
Before we knew it, time for dinner! We strolled over to the center of town to eat on the tiny balconies of Los Conspiradors that overlook the central plaza. Grant got their famous Fisherman’s Rice, and Jess enjoyed a hearty black bean soup. The people watching from the balcony was awesome, thanks to live music, the mix of tourists and locals, and of course, the tasty Chanchacharan drinks we were enjoying (which are made of rum, honey, lime, and ice).
Grant samples the delicious (but mighty!) Chanchacharan.
There’s basically an entire lobster in this fisherman’s rice – delicious!
After dinner we went back to our Casas to meet Cesar, who earlier had offered to show us around the local nightlife. We start by heading to Casa de la Musica, which is a series of tall, wide steps right near the central plaza where you pay 1 CUC to enter and get to listen to traditional Cuban island music with cultural dances while paying American prices for beverages. All in all, pretty fun, but felt a little too touristy for us, so we opt to move on. The next stop was really something special. After following Cesar out of town through a series of odd back alleys and dark streets, we emerge at Disco Ayala. Long story short, it was a discoteque UNDERGROUND IN A CAVE. You can’t hear a peep outside, but inside it’s a full on bumpin’ club! We were there a little early, but as we sat surrounded by rock walls and stalactites, it filled up and offered up some great people watching! Before we realized, it was 1am and definitely time to head home!
– J & G