I was lucky that I drew a chatty driver for the 300 km
between Trinidad and Varadero. We talked about our families, exchanged recipes
(I explained in detail how to make masa
para tortillas, how to make cochinita
pibil, and how to make flautas de
pollo, and he gave me instructions for marinating pork, chicken, and fish
for a grilling party), talked about the Cuban revolution, and I also told him
in detail about my trip through Latin America. In the back seat we had three
Swiss girls, but they had very limited Spanish and chose instead to sleep all
the way.
Varadero has been a vacation destination for many Cubans,
but in the last 10 years the government has granted some concessions to big
European hotel chains, such as Meliá and Barceló, to develop a key, 15 km long,
with super luxury resort hotels. It looks a bit like Puerto Vallarta, where you
have the charm of the old town (plus housing for the hotel employees), and a
different world behind fences where tourists stay for a week or two in an
all-inclusive environment. The tourists get to “travel to Cuba” and still be
isolated from the country and its people (I saw the same phenomenon in
Jamaica).
Wondering how I was going to survive three days of beach I
walked down the street and finally found a place that would rent me a scooter.
If I could come back at 5 pm I could have the scooter for 24 hours for 35 CUC!
So I went for a walk, bought some necessities (like a pint of Havana Club rum
and a liter of coke), read in my room for a while, and in no time whatsoever I
had wheels. I was ecstatic. It has been convenient being driven from one point
to another, but I am a free spirit and needed the freedom of going wherever I
felt to.
Varadero is a long skinny city built on a barrier island (or
cayo), such that it has beach on both
sides, has only four streets and a freeway parallel to the shores, and maybe 60
blocks, the whole for a total length of maybe 3 km. That is the old part of the
city. The new Riviera Varaderos is
the continuation along the barrier island for another 15 km, and it was here
that I headed in my maiden voyage of scooter exploration.
Wow, the new developments are in the grand scale of what you
see in the Riviera Maya! Some of the resorts are still under construction, but
many of them looked fully operational to me (although only on one occasion was
I able to spot actual tourists within them). The marina is totally amazing,
with a fleet of at least 25 huge, brand new catamarans. Clearly Cuba intends to
compete for tourists in the Caribbean!
I got back home as dusk was starting, and stopped to have
dinner at a fish restaurant. I ordered a whole fish, which took a long time to
arrive but when it did was both huge and very tasty. The cook was very
appreciative of my praise and shared that they had just caught that particular
fish an hour ago. Yum, yum, fresh fish 😊
No comments:
Post a Comment