May 25, 2015

What happened…

Andrew writes: Well, we woke up today and decided that Playa Giron just isn’t the kind of place that we see ourselves taking a break. My legs feel like they could use one though! Yesterday was probably a little bit more than I’m accustomed too; 95km, and over 6 hours of cycling along sand and stone. Instead we ate a quick breakfast at the cafeteria, and headed down the Bay towards Playa Larga.

Along the way there are many opportunities to dip ones toes into the water, and when we saw a school bus parked on the side of the road, with a half-dozen people snorkelling, we decided to stop and give it a try. The water is crystal-clear! There are loads of fish, jellyfish, squid, sponges, coral, and miscellaneous sea-life to see…it’s amazing! Maybe not so amazing if your name is Amanda..who it appears is allergic to life – at least sea life.

Ever since Mexico, whenever we go swimming in the ocean, Amanda seems to come out with her skin on fire. I think it’s a reaction between the salt-water, her mosquito repellant, sunscreen, and soap…she thinks it’s jellyfish and sea lice. Whatever it is, it is causing her a lot of discomfort. Today, she couldn’t get out of the ocean fast enough, saying that it felt like her skin was on fire! Normally quite shy, she stripped out of her clothes in front of everyone, hoping to find some relief in fresh, dry cotton.

The rest of the ride to Playa Larga was again flat, with the wind at our backs, and we had one of our fastest average speeds of the trip. The distance travelled was like 30km, which had us arriving in town in time for lunch. In fact, the pizzeria ran out of pizza just after we ordered ours, so it’s a good thing we got there when we did! We selected a Casa in nearby Batey Caletone, since Playa Larga seems mainly hotels. The two communities are joined at the hip really, so it’s all one and the same. Again, everything in this part of Cuba is expensive, but we’re seeing more tourists too, so I guess it just goes hand in hand with supply and demand. We’ve determined from talking to some of them that they fly into Havana, take a bus for a few hours to Playa Larga/Giron, spend a day or two on the beach, bus to Trinidad, and then back to Havana because their week is up. I’m not sure when they find time to relax between all those buses.

As our Casa is literally right on the beach, I suspect we’ll take a day off tomorrow. We spent the afternoon playing in the surf, and even blew up our surfmats to enjoy some small wave-action out front of our place. I’d say this is one of the nicest looking Casas of our trip.

Amanda writes: A flat road with an gradual elevation change of maybe 3 meters. This road is along the coast almost the entire day with incredible snorkelling spots. This is the place that had the best snorkelling that we found of the entire island. You can easily stay in either Playa Giron or Play Larga and snorkel for days leaving from your casa. Dozens of casas to choose from in Batey Caleton which is beside Playa Larga. We got a nice waterfront one (Casa Yaime & Manolito) that we opted to stay in for two days because it was so nice.

Today’s Photographs

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