What we really wanted to do was work our way back to Havana via the coast. However, almost all Horizontes Hotels were in the inland. So we headed to Holguin, from where we could reach Guardalavaca beach easily. The road from Santiago to Holguin was difficult to find (even when we took hitchhikers) and it was the worst road we have driven on in Cuba. I think this is where we busted one of our tires sides, even though we did not notice it yet. Also, we had been a bit optimistic about finding a gas station. On Cuba, the gas stations can be quite far apart, so its generally a good Idea to gas up whenever you can. We came rolling into Holguin on gasoline vapour only. Our hitchhikers flipped out when I filled the tank for 32 dollars (that's half a years pay for most of them).

We then found our Hotel (Pernik). There was a baseball game that evening (Holguin vs Sancti Spiritus team) and the hotel was filled with the players. We dropped our suitcase and immediately headed for Guardalavaca Beach, about 40 km from Holguin.

We had lunch there (beer & pizza....yummie). We rented some snorkeling gear but we got burned. After paying the girl & guy told me it was for one hour only. I became angry and managed to prolong this to two hours. Anyway, the gear was of poor quality: water kept entering my goggles. In Guardalavaca, there's huge fields of sea grass that you have to swim accros, perhaps as far out as 500-600 m before you see some interesting things. We saw some nice coral and lots of fish. I liked Caleta Buena better though, but perhaps this was influenced by the quality of the stuff we rented. Next time I go to any tropical Island, Ill be sure to bring my own....

We took a picture of a typical dutch public transport bus, in its second life on Cuba. It was quite funny to see so many of them, often with the signs saying "Alkmaar oost via Koedijk" adding some absurdistic feeling. But you'll only understand this If you're Dutch. We saw loads of old Canadian school buses as well!

That evening was Valentines day, 14th of February. As our hotel was once again very far from the center, and Holguin did not seem like the most interesting place we decided to go and eat in the restaurant next door to our Hotel. We called it "el Rancho de Pancho" but the real name of the place is Taberna Pancho. It was party time inside for many Cuban families. We found out that as many Cuban restaurants, this one operated in 'shifts'. One shift from 18:00 to 19:45, and another one from 20:00 until 21:00 . We came in around 19:00 and so we had to wait.

The "Rough Guide to Cuba" claims that you cannot get draught beer on Cuba: Pancho is one of the many places that proves them wrong. They serve beer in almost german-style biersteins or stone mugs, about half a liter in size. The beer was cold and very tasty after a day at the beach. While we waited we enjoyed looking at the Cuban family-parties.

The rough guide also says that Pancho specializes in "foamy beer" and "fatty-luke warm sausages". We know that the British are paranoid about foamy beer (Dutch people and Germans actually like a bit of foam on top of their beer, but Spanish also seem to dislike it, why? Must be culturally induced....) but since when do the British dislike fatty sausages? Anyway, I did enjoy the butifarras (yup, that's what those sausages are called) even if they weren't piping hot.

By the time we got to eat, the restaurant had nothing else left from the menu, and we were very hungry. We had some serious fun (we were the only tourists that evening) observing Cuban culture again, and the waitress was very nice to us. We enjoyed Pancho. But the food was not the main reason for that. So we left Holguin without having seen it.