(We finally have wifi after several days at our B&B...although now I am in the huge lobby/swimming pool/continuous music playing area of our resort on Playa Coco!!)
The alarm went off at five and we had our bags out at six and we piled onto the bus. Our schedule is a little mixed up as the hotel we were to stay at last night, La Moka , overbooked and couldn’t accommodate us at the last minute so we spent last night in Soroa. They were not prepared to serve breakfast at 6 AM, since they are not used to birders and their crazy hours. So we drove off for an hour into the dense fog of early morning, arriving at the Hotel Mirador in San Diego de Los Banos where we were to have stayed night 2.
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| Cuban Pygmy Owl |
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| Tawny-shouldered Blackbird |
We had a makeshift breakfast there of ham and cheese sandwiches, hard-boiled eggs and yogurt, and then drove towards the coast. The fog was very dense and we couldn’t tell what kind of environment we were traveling though until we drove into a campground of colorful concrete cabins where we parked.
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| Bromeliad & Kapok-covered Magote |
The mist cleared as we walked a short ways and found ourselves surrounded by large, steep magotes, impressive limestone monoliths, that were covered with bromeliads and kapok trees. The area was full of very colorful birds, Green-backed Woodpecker, the trogon again, Smooth-billed Anis and many more.
We followed a stream that flowed under a natural bridge and walked along paths and climbed up stone steps that led us into Che Guevara’s hideout during the Cuban Missile Crisis!! His actual bed and table where he played chess were sitting there. There was no trash or graffiti anywhere, just a beautiful and interesting national monument.
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| Che's hideout |
We spend several hours there, finally leaving about 1 PM and drove out the now-sunny valley of small farms between the high limestone hills. We returned to the Hotel Mirador where the large swimming pool was filling up with ninos and riotous music was playing. We went to an outdoor pavilion where were served a lunch of shrimp with rice and plantains.
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| Entrance to cave area |
After lunch we drove a short distance to the fabulous pleasure estate of José Cortina, built in the 20s & 30s and a perfect example of why Castro succeeded. It is now a public park and pleasant place to walk around and bird.
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| Entry to Jose Cortina's estate |
At four we boarded the bus but turned west on the A-4 freeway, drove a short ways, made a u- turn across the center median (!) and stopped at a fish farm to pick up quite a few birds, but most of them familiar shore species. It was getting late and I was hoping we wouldn’t get to our hotel too late, as it’s supposed to be the nicest one of the trip and only a one-night stay!
We finally pulled into the community of Las Terrazas at 6:00. The town was built as an idyllic eco-village in 1968. It is very self-sufficient with its own hospital, school, and farming industry. Everyone lives in similar apartment buildings surrounded by beautiful gardens, arts center and workshops. It is now a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, and I was hoping to see a bit of it.
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| Hotel Moka |
We had 45 minutes to move into our nice rooms at the Moka Hotel with spacious balconies overlooking the town. We had been told that the minibar was included in the room price so we grabbed a couple of Bucanero beers and settled on our porch chairs. I had purchased wifi cards from the front desk and attempted to send out the first blog post. Needless to say, we didn’t have time for showers before joining the group for the List and then hoping on the bus for the short ride into town for dinner.
We stopped at a lovely little restaurant, El Romero, which is one of the few vegetarian places to eat in Cuba. We were served a delicious set menu of salads, beet soup and platters of various wrap, veggie sushi, and other things. Very good and quite elegant.
Back to our hotel for the night.
