We traveled on May Day, the international day for celebrating the worker. Havana was set up for a massive parade and speeches. We departed early for our long drive to Trinidad.
Our stops for snacks and lunch provided Paul with opportunities to bird. He added to his life list with the sighting of a Cuban green woodpecker, loggerhead kingbird, and a red legged thrush as well as a couple we are still trying to identify. It is migration season for the land crabs, so the roads closer to Trinidad were often covered with them scampering into the brush to mate.
For the next two nights we are staying at the Brisas, a Cuban version of Club Med. the property is nice enough, it suffers from a bit of infrastructure neglect or perhaps just hard wear and the effects of humidity and salt air. As with our other stops, beer and mojitos are the drink of choice. Wine is included, so I tried the Spanish house wine – a dry blend. Nothing special and certainly not worth looking for at my favorite wine shop.
It is both frustrating and freeing to be off grid this week. Internet access is limited. There are public cyber cafes, but they are few and far between. At the hotels Internet access is about $10 per hour. The cafes are less, as I haven’t seen one, the lower cost doesn’t make much difference.
