Latin America 2018 - Day 53. The beach

I have run out of things to do, so I will have to spend another dreaded day at the beach. As a kid I absolutely loved going to the beach to play with my brother, make sand castles with my Mom, or go swimming into the surf with my Dad. I did the same thing with my daughter, lifting and throwing her to dive under the breaking waves, digging endless pits in the sand, or bobbing up and down as the waves came by. Now, however, without someone to play with I find the beach quite dull.

From Trinidad I took the beach bus, which for 5 CUC’s will take you to playa Ancona and bring you back. Going there, however, we passed a small town called La Boca (of the Río Agabama), which seemed to have a healthy number of Cuban families having fun. When we got to Playa Ancona I found the perfect tourist beach, with coarser sand formed by shell fragments, where you can lay under the sun until you are broiled, play in the waves, or drink and read under a shade structure. That was good for about a hour, and then I took the bus back to La Boca. I got there when the sun was at its hottest, but fortunately there were trees allover the beach (and palm trees and shades), so I could go the full length of the beach by connecting from shade to shade.

The scene was fun and local. The kids are in their summer vacation for the whole of the month of July, so many families were enjoying their last chance to bring the kids to the beach. The offer of food and trinkets was meager, but I bought myself a plate of spaghetti with cheese that was enough to tame my hunger. I went all the way to the mouth of the river, hoping someone would offer me a boat ride through the estuary (nobody did ☹), and on the way back I spied a small sign offering Crudo de Pescado (raw fish). Hmm, I wonder how tasty is that? In my mind it would have been some sort of ceviche, but it was not. Apparently it is made from an “oily” fish, such as mackerel or sierra, that is cut in 1 cm-thick slices and quickly fried to separate the skin from the flesh. Afterward it is marinated in vinegar, salt, and white pepper for several days. The skin is then removed and the whole thing is mushed with bell pepper, and is then eaten with genuine Cuban crackers (smaller than the ones we used to buy in Mexico, but otherwise just as tasteless; the Latin version of hard tack).

I spent the afternoon reading at home, and when I was gathering strength to go for an early evening walk it started raining. I thus turned in early and very comfortably read my way through hurricane winds and a veritable deluge.