Trinidad to Varadero
Varadero is a typical beach place with hotels. The beach is on the ocean side of it, very beautiful, one of the best in the world and I had seen many of them ‒ Cuba was the 95th country that I visited. In the morning, I went to the beach for a swim. The water was crystal clear with nothing in it like fish or seaweed. The waves lapped lazily rocking me. Other beachgoers were boating and parasailing, but mostly they were sitting in the water or tanning themselves on the fine white sand. I returned to the casa, changed and faced a problem: what to do after the beach?
Being in my casa room was impossible. The sun heated it to the point that I could pass out. An ancient a/c wall unit in the room was useless. It produced a frightening noise when I turned it on and began coughing out copious amounts of dust that accumulated inside. I switched off the a/c and tried two fans that were hanging over the bed. They buzzed busily bringing no relief either.
Unlike Trinidad with its authentic Cuban look and feel where I could wander for hours, Varadero is a city that could be anywhere in the world. In an attempt to kill as much time as possible I tried to find a new place for my every next meal. I soon learned that there were few opened restaurants and I had to eat at the same place more than once.
In the evening, I went to the bar at Pullman hotel nearby and sat there listening to the music. One night they had a really good band playing there. The drummer was a skinny teenager, totally blind and very talented. He played so passionately that I had a sudden urge to try myself at drumming knowing that it was a ridiculous idea. The crowd went wild cheering him. The guests were mostly locals with a few tourists.
Gin and tonic at Pullman was only $1, cheap enough to relax my spending rules. I stayed at the bar sipping the drink until late and walked back to my casa. It felt safe to be on the streets alone after the dark for a solo female traveler in Cuba.
At night, I threw the window open to let in at least some fresh air. The temperature did not drop much after the sunset and there was little wind. The room got filled with an amazing variety of flying insects despite the curtains. Some were annoying but harmless and others bit viciously even through the bedsheet. Tiny, almost invisible motes were the worst. Mosquito repellent did not work against them. By morning, a fresh crop of angry red dots decorated my skin and itched all day.
I recalled a woman who stopped me in Trinidad and asked for skin lotion. She lifted her top to show bites on her stomach and gestured to indicate how itchy they were. In a rapid Spanish, she explained that the cost of lotion was absolutely unaffordable for her. I did not need an interpreter to understand that.
Another thing that kept awake was noise. I turned off all electrical appliances in my room including the refrigerator that rattled like a tractor but I could not do anything about the outside noise.
The street with only a few small private houses was deceivingly quiet during the day. It came alive with sounds at night. The residents sat by their houses talking and laughing loudly; dogs, sleepy during the hot hours, barked; someone worked in the garden hitting the ground hard, another neighbor renovated his roof and so on. I lay awake most of the night waiting for the noise to subside that usually happened by early morning and then I could get 2-3 hours of sleep before the sun was up.
I wished I could return to Havana earlier but I paid for 4 nights in Varadero in advance. It did not feel proper to request the money back and my limited funds did not allow me to pay twice for accommodation. I could only stay there and keep myself sufficiently caffeinated to last through the day. Didn’t I want to see how ordinary Cubans live? Well, I got what I asked for. Every trip has its ups and downs and this one was no exception.
I bought a thick volume from a used book store and read it in some shady corner or listened to audiobooks on my phone. Having access to the Internet would help to pass time. I heard that it was almost impossible to get it in Cuba and it was expensive. However, both casas in Havana and Trinidad provided free Wi-Fi to their guests. The casa in Varadero did not have WiFi. I got 2 cards at an ETECSA office, one card was good for 1 hour of public Internet and it cost 20 pesos (20 cents). Buying Internet cards required showing the passport. The information about long lines at ETECSA was not true or perhaps I was lucky. This public Internet was not widely available but my 2 hours were enough to check email and sometimes I could use someone else’s connection.
I could not buy a ticket at Varadero bus station for the same reason as in Havana. Cash was not accepted and my cards did not work. A nice lady at the ticket office told me to come at 10 am on the departure day. If they had vacant seats on the bus, they were allowed to sell these tickets for cash. She assured me that the tickets would not be all sold out.
On my last day in Varadero, I went to the bus station early to be first at the ticket office. There is one bus daily to Havana that leaves at noon and I did not want to miss it. I paid $9 cash for a ticket, returned to my room to pick up the backpack and walked back to the station. I had 3 more days in Cuba which I was going to spend in Havana.