February 7, 2019 to February 11, 2019
Jim and Sue in Lala Land
We woke up and by unanimous accord decided to head up to Varadero today. Why you ask? Well, the neighbour with his early morning music might have played a role in that decision. Also, we wanted to stay somewhere for 4 or 5 days and it just doesn’t look like there is enough to occupy us here for that length of time, so we bid our lovely Teresa goodbye, but not before enjoying our wonderful Casa breakfast, of course!
Back into the wind we ploughed, knowing that it was a short short ride up to Varadero and looking forward to seeing what the beach there had to offer.
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In no time we were pulling into the town of Varadero. Immediately we were passed by a group of cyclists from Quebec who stopped to chat for a bit. They are staying out at the resort area and were just out for a group ride, but it was nice to compare notes about how nice it is to be here in Cuba while it is snowing up north! After our biker friends left, we saw a couple coming out of the big hotel (another Caribe hotel) so I sent Jim to ask them what they thought. They said it was ok for a couple of nights, but pretty pricey at $100/night. We decided to ride on in search of a Casa. Unfortunately for us, we have chosen a very busy time to come here and the first few Casas we came to were full. Just when we thought we might have to go really far out of town to find something, we stopped at another small hotel. Jim asked they guy at the door about space and he said something about making a call. Ok. Not sure what that meant, but we waited until he came back out and asked us to follow him. Around the corner we went, then across the street and down another and around another corner. We really weren’t sure where we were being led, but eventually we came to just a lovely lovely little place with a really sweet owner. Although the room she had available had a bathroom across the breezeway from our room, we immediately took it, knowing that our chances of finding anything else this close to town were slim to none. And the price? $30 per night! What a steal!!! Happily we unloaded our gear, parked the bikes, changed into our swimsuits and headed for the beach – a mere 2 blocks away. And what a beach it is!!!!!
We have decided to plunk ourselves down here for 4 nights so that we can enjoy the beach and check out Varadero. It seems like a funky, touristy kind of town with enough activity to keep us busy but not a super rich touristy vibe. Since we won’t be doing a lot of cycling other than to head to the end of the peninsula, I will just put all of our adventures over these days in one blog post and give you our overall impressions of this area.
Sleeping in Lala Land
If you ever decide to stay in Varadero, rather than at a resort way way out of town, be prepared for some changes to your sleep patterns. On our first night, we were just settling down to sleep when we heard a band start up somewhere not too far away. We figured that this would go on until maybe 11 or so but no, it kept up until around 2 in the morning. In addition, the sounds were not consistently loud but would grow loud and then soft, making it pretty much impossible to ignore. In the morning I asked our Casa owner about it and she said it was coming from a bar down the road. We checked it out that day and found The Beetles Bar, which has live bands doing covers of all sorts of big groups. Their nightly show starts at 9:30 and goes until 1:30. Ah! This must have been it! We decided to change our schedule and go out that night to check it out. It was one of those weird weird experiences that you only have in a tourist place like this. Lots of people hanging around and drinking and cheering on a band that was ok doing covers of pretty much everything. We actually had a lot of fun sitting across from the club so we didn’t have to pay a cover charge and enjoying a couple of beers. When it was late enough, we headed back towards our Casa thinking that we had figured out the situation only to find another club with all night Karoke closer to us and oh man, were some of the “singers” … well, lets just say I hope they never quit their day jobs! Now we knew that there were two competing sets of noises we would be dealing with! We decided to be proactive and when we got back, we pulled out our little speaker and I put on some ocean waves that I had saved for just such occasions. Listening to the sounds of waves crashing drowned out the crazy music and we were both able to get some sleep – hurray!
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On our third night, we thought we had it all figured out except of course, we didn’t. There was a Harley Davidson gathering in town this week and the final event was held in the park about two blocks from our Casa. We had heard it would finish this afternoon and wouldn’t be an issue tonight but that info was wrong. When we got back from dinner, we thought we would hang out in our room and listen to a podcast before heading back to the Beatles Bar again. However, halfway through the podcast the band for the wrap up party started up and it was so loud we actually couldn’t hear anything else. Windows here are basically just blinds – there is no glass as its not necessary in this climate. So noise really travels and this noise? Well, we just couldn’t ignore it. So, thinking it would be better to go and check it out, we wandered over to the park to listen to the live band and they were actually pretty good. Oh well, we thought, may as well hang out and enjoy the music and we did. The selections were mostly in Spanish of course, but once in a while they would toss in something we knew such as Neil Young’s Rockin in the Free World, which Jim got a big kick out of. It was really surreal, rocking to the tunes in Cuba with a bunch of Harley folks – can’t get much weirder than that! Until it did. Right in the middle of a song the skies opened and it just started to pour. At first the band tried to keep going, but the power went out and the rain increased and everyone (us included) headed for a tree to get out of the drenching rain. We stayed for a few minuted until it let up a bit and then headed the very short distance to our Casa where the owner was thankfully there and opened the gate for us. Both of us were drenched to the skin and freezing. You wouldn’t think you could get so cold here in the tropics but in fact, you can. We each took a nice hot shower and hopped into bed to warm up. What a crazy night!
Of course, the rain didn’t stop the folks at the Karoke bar from singing all night, so we passed yet another night trying everything in our power to block out the noise, to little success. On our final evening though, we found peace at last! Apparently the wild bar singing happens from Thursday thru Saturday nights, so Sunday night was thankfully quiet and we slept like the dead! So, unless you are intent on doing the late night bar thing, our suggestion for staying in Varadero would be any day from Sunday thru Thursday!
To the end
Of course, we couldn’t not go out to the end of the peninsula here at least once, so on this morning we declined our Casa breakfast and packed up sandwiches made with the last of our peanut butter, along with some fruit saved from another day. It was actually longer to get out to near the end than it was to get to Varadero from Playa Camarioca, oddly enough. It was, of course, back into the wind, but at least we weren’t carrying all of our gear. Heading along the highway, I was looking for a landmark mentioned in our guidebook, but since the book is almost 20 years old, things have changed just a bit out here! We passed a whole lot of resorts and none of them looked quite as splashy as the ones we passed in Mexico – none of the ostentatious gates or signs and from the road, they didn’t look all that fantastic. However, I’m sure that once you get inside they are just as wonderful and hey, they are on that beach! Eventually we realized that we had gone too far and looped back to find a way to get out to the beach, luckily finding a lone little zone between two resorts where we could ride the bikes just about to the beach. Here we stopped to enjoy our little breakfast and watch the early morning activities of the patrons, who didn’t look a whole lot different from folks at our end – neither did the beach, for that matter. Oh well, I am sure that there are a whole lot of good reasons to spend a whole lot more money to stay way way out of town like this. One thing we did make note of and it bodes well for our return trip to Havana. On the way out, into the wind, we were averaging about 9 – 10 miles per hour. However, once we turned around and headed back we found the cycling so much easier and I was surprised to look down and see our speed was between 15 – 16 miles per hour! Wow!!! Now that says something! Thank goodness we will have the wind at our back the whole way to Havana!
Shopping
Ok, ok, I know what you are thinking. We have no room for anything else! But that didn’t stop us from looking in on the many markets in town. There is a distinct difference between the art markets and the government run stores. In the market, you can browse, pick things up, feel fabric and try things on while chatting with the owner. But in the government stores, everything of any value I guess, is behind the counter. So, for example, if you want to look for a new swimsuit because yours is starting to fall apart (or is too loose from losing weight?), you would have to ask the woman at the counter to get it down for you. Now, I don’t know about any of you, but that is just not how I shop. I don’t want to make some poor person get a bunch of things down for me and then not find what I want and walk away. So, needless to say, we stuck to the markets. They are plentiful in this town, but really, once you’ve been to one, you’ve been to them all pretty much. All the same stuff which kind of takes away from feeling like you’ve found something unique. That being said, I did manage to purchase a new top while we were there.
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Eating
There are lots and lots of bars and restaurants all along the Ave 1a, which is the main drag. Lucy had recommended one on our first night that serves pretty simple but tasty food at a fabulous price. It is not much to look at and pretty crowded. We sat at a table which we shared with several other couples and ordered – me chicken breast, Jim pork chop. There was an American couple sitting just behind us who placed their order at about the same time, so of course our poor waiter got flustered and gave us their food. Communication being what it was (limited on both sides) we assumed that he had just put our order in wrong, told him it was fine and started eating. A few bites in we noticed the Americans looking our way. Then came the realization that we had been given their food! We apologized profusely and they just laughed, taking it all rather well I thought. The poor waiter felt horrible and quickly managed to bring them what they had actually ordered. It turned out that we loved the food they ordered and thanked them for ordering it! The whole bill (2 dinners and 2 beers) came to all of $8.00! Wow!!
The second restaurant we went to was a little more upscale than that, with a nice patio and a little more to offer on the menu. We both loved the food here, in particular because there were actual vegetables on the plate. In lots of places in Cuba, salad consists of chopped cabbage and tomatoes, but here there was actual lettuce, some green beans, pickled beets and carrots – so yummy! I ate all of my salad before touching my shrimp which was also very good. We went here again on our last night and I ordered their vegetarian dish because I just wanted to eat vegetables and again, it was amazing! The price at this place was a little more than the other one ($20), so we ate at each one twice, making a good compromise we thought.
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Beach time
Neither of us has ever been the type to lie in the sun and bake, but we have found that here in Cuba, we are enjoying so much more beach time than we ever have before. Here in Varadero, our beach time would consist of finding a shady spot to put our towels, but still be able to watch the waves come in and people watch, of course. We might have lunch with us and usually I had a book to read. I find the sound of the waves so relaxing and so at some point we would both just fall asleep (probably had something to do with our lack of sleep during the night!). After a nap we would either go for a walk along the water or jump in to play in the waves. Of course, we were on the lookout for Man o Wars but we never did see any while we were in the water, thank goodness. We really loved our time at the beach here and will sure miss it when we leave!
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Cars
Of course there are cars here! The same ones we saw in Havana, as well as many horse carts. But there was a new twist here – old fashioned jalopies! There were a bunch of these and of course, Jim catalogued as many has he could!
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All in all, we enjoyed our 4 days in Varadero. It is a fun place to be a tourist and hang out, but I’m not sure I could last more than a few days, to be honest. There really is only so much time you can spend laying about and we pretty much hit our limit, so tomorrow (Monday) we are heading back to Matanzas for a couple of days. We are hoping to stay at the same Casa as before and looking forward to cycling with the wind at out backs!
Today's ride: 40 km (25 miles)
Total: 1,531 km (951 miles)
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