We woke at 5:30am, had breakfast and were ready for our 7 o’clock pick up.
We witnessed more interesting scenery on the three hour taxi trip from Trinidad to Varaderos. A large section was agricultural. There were a large number of ugly derelict buildings in the farming areas. Apparently these were high schools, students were sent there not only for education but also to work on the farms, unpaid labor. The villages were also not the prettiest, the houses were 1970’s concrete round roof structures. Common of the Russian architecture of the time.
Varaderos is a resort town and we had been booked into a ‘luxury’ hotel for our last night in Cuba. The ‘luxury’ Solymar Hotel, gave cause for concern as we drove up to the entrance. It was bright yellow and blue, with a smattering of maroon to compliment. This was Cuca Club Med. After negotiating the busy lobby area adorned with cascading fountains of creepers, we discovered we could only book in at 4pm. Fortunately we were able to store our luggage. We put on cossies and headed outside. We avoided the busy pool area and walked down to the beach.
In sharp contrast to the gaudy hotel, we came upon one of the most beautiful beaches, easily comparable, if not better than those in Seychelles and Zanzibar. Pristine, white sand with deep shades of the blue hues. The water was warm and gentle and we spent over two hours wallowing in this Caribbean paradise.
Lunch was something else, you had to queue up outside the canteen like dining room for a surprisingly ok buffet. At 4 we checked into our room, it was 1970’s style – not retro 1970’s, old 1970’s.
On a financial note, we had pooled in our pesos and cucs and elected Wayne as banker for the holiday. In a slight panic the day before Jean discovered we were short of cash, no one takes credit cards, so her and Wayne scoured Trinidad for a bank to exchange pounds. It’s like a walking a tight rope, you need cash but you don’t want to be left with any at the end of the holiday.
We went past the Diesel’s room to pick them up for our all inclusive dinner in the hotel canteen. Wayne had however discovered that he had set aside 100 pesos and forgotten about it. This put a whole new spin on our dinner plans. We asked reception for recommendation for a restaurant in town with a sunset view. They recommended Du Pont, which was out of town. As we were splashing out, we drove in style in a pink 1950 Chev. Du Pont was a mansion built between 1920 and 1930 and cost a whopping $1 000 000, at the time. It is on the sea and surrounded by a golf course. We went on a tour of the house from the basement wine cellars, to the library with original masterpieces, to the beautiful views of the third storey, now a bar. We sat on the veranda and delighted in our meal of veal and duck, washed down with a Faustino Rioja. The sunset dinner was one to remember.
Driving home in our pink Chev, I felt a bit like Cinderella on her way home from the ball.
Pandas in Africa 