Our Cuban Adventure- Part 3

On day five in Cuba, we woke up early; we were saying goodbye to Havana and heading to the beach, our Taxi Collectivo was picking us up at 8:30 and we wanted to be ready, we packed our things and settled our account with Marlene and with a few minutes to spare, I sat on the balcony and posted my goodbyes. Internet was not included in our new Casa Particular in the beach town of Rancho Luna, 20km outside the historical town of Cienfuegos.

Taxi Collectivo's are a very popular way for both tourist and Cubans to get around, even intercity trips or around the city itself. Although the passengers of Collectivo taxis are mostly Cubans, we preferred using them because it gave us some autonomy. It's like a mixed bag, you get all kinds of cars, old new, ancient, some comfortable some not so very. There are iconic vintage cars everywhere and many of them display a TAXI sign in their windscreen, or on the roof, and a quick barter around the price of your destination and you're in the car and away you go. They are on almost all main roads and in almost every town.

Our Taxi Collectivo was waiting for us outside our apartment. It cost us 30 CUC each (about R900) to travel about 160km, and we shared the taxi with a cool Spanish / Argentinian couple, who now live in the USA. We chatted the whole way about the scams we had encountered so far in Cuba. Silvana was upset about the socialite regime and could not tolerate many things. We told her about our cigar scam (We bought cigars at a ridiculous price compared to the price we were later offered by our Casa host), she in turn told us how they got conned into supporting a restaurant of their taxi driver's choice.

What happened was, Silvana had a planned itinerary, she really wanted to have lunch in one of the Trip Advisor's recommended spots so they got a taxi to take them to the place, however when she got into the taxi, and they were well on their way, their taxi driver told them that the area where the restaurant was situated had been sprayed with a vicious mosquito repellent, and that he could not take them to that area. However he would take them to an even better place, far away from the dangerous fumes. She tried to argue but it did not work, they were charged a fortune for the taxi ride and were dropped off at some horrible place where the food was rank and disgusting.

Wherever you go in Cuba, you will hear stories about the scams, no matter how savvy you are, you can't escape the sheer boldness of the long tales of lies. But you know what Its all a matter of adventure, embrace the conman and you'll have a fabulous time in Cuba.

If you want to have a great holiday in Cuba, we recommend staying with Cubans in the Casa Particular system, and get a taste of real local life.

Rancho Luna has a nice beach but its not a reason to visit this little coastal town, there are lovely little beaches and even a dolphinarium, which we did not visit.

We booked La Loma, on Air BnB, the place was filthy and we got badly bitten by flies. The house offers a fantastic panoramic view and a kitchen.

On our first day on the beach we met a Polish family and they came over to our Casa to visit. Soon we were well advised on where to shop, which taxi driver to use to do the shopping and how to navigate the Cuban landscapes.

The next morning we hired Wildo Cesar as our taxi driver to take us shopping and we bought half of everything in Cienfuegos. It's the first and only time we found so much delightful food. Very expensive but we brought it because, believe me, when you see food in Cuba, you must line up in a queue and buy whatever they are selling.

That afternoon when we got back to our casa, we lit the ancient bread stove that was at the back of the house and made pizzas for the whole village. Using the boxes we brought from our shopping we cut pieces of cardboard for plates and delivered fresh hot pizzas to our neighbours.

From that point onwards, the village became our family and we were just so grateful for they way we were welcomed into this community.

Christmas was spent with the fabulous couples; Mariano, Silvia, Edilia and Raul who when seeing us coming up the hill shouted "Ola Familia." We were family.

The fire was roaring and the grill covered in meat. In Cuba the diet is "Carne, carne, carne." South Africans are right at home in Cuba.

We had outlived Rancho Luna and it was time to pack the bags and get ready to move to the next province, our next town. We had selected another beach town called La Bocca, and had no idea of what awaited us in this sleepy little settlement. Join us next week.