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Day 3 and 4: Playa Giron All inclusive safe haven for Germans.
So we decided it was time for some relaxation after two full days of holiday stress. We got up early and asked the receptionist to confirm if the Playa Giron hotel had some rooms. The receptionist was friendly enough, but after making the phonecall charged us 3 dollars for a two minute phonecall. Anyway, we made reservations for one of those “All inclusive” places, as we had heard about them and boy, did this appeal to our sense of relaxation!
We drove in the direction of Matanzas, along the coast and saw some really beautiful landscapes. We learnt that Cuba produces some oil, passing the oil wells on the coast. After passing Matanzas we headed inland, to drive to playa Giron (remember, where the Cubans kicked U.S. ass at the Pigs Bay in the 50’s) We took the route via Union de Reyes. We were becoming seasoned Cuban drivers now: we had learnt to do some stuff:
1) Take Hitchhikers (we mostly just took women and children to be on the safe side, but we have taken all sorts of people and we have only had fun. Some people did not feel like talking, but when they did we learned a lot of things about Cuba)
2) Ask for Directions (But you don’t need to if you take hitchhikers!)
Especially when you drive through the smaller villages in the inland, it is extremely difficult to decide what road to take. You just have to ask. We learnt some things about small Cuban villages too: All of them are full of people. They all have their own school(s), and many have small clinics. Healthcare is free. All Cuban children go to school. All Cubans can read. As one of the propagandistic road signs put it:”In the world there are 20 million children living in the streets. Not one of them in Cuba”. We decided that this is very true.
After crossing the inland we came to the start of the famous Pigs Bay. As this is an important place in Cuban recent history, there’s even more propagandistic road signs here than in most other places. I wish they’d put as much effort in normal road signs!
Apart from that, we saw the most beautiful blue waters that looked straight out of an ad for tropical islands. Yes! And we would be enjoying this spectacular water from the comfort of an all inclusive resort……Wheee!
The playa Giron All Inclusive is nice. We had a gigantic two bedroom bungalow all to ourselves. There’s three swimming pools and three “restaurants”. There’s a stretch of private beach. It’s peaceful. The staff were really nice, all was clean and well organized.
But it’s also boring. Why? The resort is full of people that do nothing all day long. They sit and play cards by the pool, sipping the “cocktails” (rum-cola, rum-soda, rum-something – served in plastic cups and of “medium” quality) and wait until it gets dark. Then they take a shower, eat in the “restaurant” (It’s buffet style of course, and the food is Okay but hey, the same restaurant every night for two weeks? Come on!? ) and after dinner they sit and watch the animation show. We had enough after two nights. To give you a very subtle clue: the Cuban animation man speaks fluent German. Do we need to say more?
One thing you should definitely do is visit Caleta Buena. Make sure you get there early, otherwise the best places are taken. It’s a sort of natural pool formed in the coral. A small stream of sweet water runs into the Caribbean sea here. You can rent diving goggles & flippers for 6 dollars a day. Do this (or bring your own). The water is spectacular. When sweet & salt water mix you get some turbidity though. Also: watch out if you swim through the opening that goes out into the sea: there’s a reasonably strong current. Out is easy, it took me quite some trouble getting back in, even with flippers. Without flippers, I doubt that I would have been able to get back into the caleta.
We spent the whole day in Caleta Buena, we saw loads and loads of fish. After we had enough we went to visit the museum in Playa Giron. In the museum you can see how the Cuban People kicked out the vile mercenaries and bandits that, with heavy aid from the US military and the CIA attempted to overthrow the Cuban Revolution. The information given in the museum is not exactly objective, but hey, neither is most of the stuff CNN feeds us, now is it? Go and see for yourself!
So after two days of taking things very slowly, we left Playa Giron and went to test our luck in Trinidad. We had been trying for two days to make a reservation in the las Cuevas Hotel. They never picked up the phone,.
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