Punta Gorda

April 4th: 

We left La Boca at 1010am. 90k/Taxi = $50. We flew down the road – the cab was in great shape and he speeded like hell! We arrived at the Hostal Red Coral, owned by Alejandro, at 1150am. 

There was very good water pressure and hot water in the shower. A large fridge/freezer was in the hall outside our door. Plenty of closet/drawers for storage. A dining table with 4 chairs – we really liked that for playing cribbage -- TV, AC and 2 fans. 

Alejandro is a very nice man but we had to find him when we needed something. He was usually in his room watching TV. He didn’t like to cook dinner so I just had breakfast there, then we’d go out to eat somewhere else. 

The AC didn’t work -- only blows air like a fan! We'd been there 12 hours and the room still wasn't cool. This turned out to be a huge factor in deciding to find a new casa for our next trip. There was lots of street noise (odd since we were in a quiet neighborhood, not on a main street), and a dog barking after 830pm into the night. 

Punta Gorda has lots to do: a bowling alley we didn’t know about until the last day – will go there next trip, rowboats/paddle boats, an occasional concert at the Cultural Center which was 2 blocks away, lots of nearby restaurants -- some weren’t open until 6pm for dinner only. It was only a $3 bici-taxi ride to the big square where there are museums, crafts, and a bank one block before the square.

We went to an outdoor concert at the Cultural Center. It was cool and breezy to sit and watch the live band and the dancing. We had a good time enjoying the music and not being up to late. Concerts only go from 6pm to 8pm – that’s perfect for us! 

                                                      Cultural Center concert area

Two nights, we had dinner at an outdoor restaurant called Finca Del Mar (it was open all day/evening so when we were hungry by 5pm we would go there) with a beautiful view of the sea and cool breezes blowing on us – that felt good after being in our hot room. 

                                                         Finca Del Mar restaurant

I had been without ice for my tea, for over a week so, one night, I filled two 1 qt. Ziplock bags part way with water and froze them. The next morning, I brought one into the bathroom, dropped it on the ceramic tile floor. The chunk of ice broke into manageable pieces. I had ice -- wonderful, glorious ice!! It’s funny that I never had any cravings for any foods back home but I sure missed having ice! 

One morning I went out to the fridge for tea, turned to go back into the room, and saw a little lizard (4 inches long) on the floor. He was headed toward the dining room -- looks like I'm having company for breakfast! *grin* 

I had a breakfast of papaya (my favorite fruit - similar to cantaloupe), a banana, and homemade bread with guava jelly along with coffee. On the way back to the room, the lizard was in front of our door. He stood very still, just looking at me. When Brian walked up behind me, the lizard went into a guarded stance and his whole head turned bright red! Oh my! Seems he was either scared or angry, poor little guy. We went on in to the room. I checked a bit later and the lizard was gone. 

One morning, Brian came in with 5 roses which he’d bought off the street. He handed them to me with a kiss. Alejandro gave us a vase to use and said Brian was so sweet! 

Around noon, one day, Brian went to the Club Cienfuegos Yacht Club to find out about boat rentals. He’d asked about HobieCats and rowboats. Somehow, there was a communication gap and he got kicked out of the boat club! We were going to go again, and take my tablet with us so we could use the translator to be understood, but we never did. 

We took a bici-taxi down to the park on the bay. Brian had a beer while we sat in the gazebo awhile. We noticed a lot of the bici-taxis had small Canadian flags decorating their bikes. I guess we are popular here. 

We saw a couple rowboats and paddle boats down by the beach. It turns out that a guy there rents them for 30 minutes at a time. Brian chose a rowboat to take out. The oars were of a cheap wood and there were no oar locks. Brian had the guy tie the oars to the small posts with rope and we took off. The water was very choppy due to how windy it was. It took us 20 minutes to get past the gazebo area (200 yards from where we took off). The guy whistled for us to come back that way, seems we weren't supposed to go past the gazebo. We could go further out, in front of the beach, but not past the gazebo. Brian was getting tired anyway so we just rowed back in. With the wind behind us, it only took a few minutes to get back to the beach. 

 Brian got another beer and we sat on a shady bench to rest. There was a couple across from us and we started chatting. They were from Holland. We had a lot of fun, they were so funny! 

A couple nights before we left for Matanzas, to return home, there was a rainstorm. Brian was asleep and I was sitting next to him reading myself to sleep. It was so hot in the room since the AC wasn’t working, so I opened a window to see if any cool air would come in. After a couple minutes thunder crashed REALLY loud and lightning cracked like it was right outside the window. Brian woke up yelling, scared the shit out of him!! He got up and was limping, in a great deal of pain. He’d been lying on his side and, when he jerked from the crack/crash of the storm, his right heel slammed back into his left shinbone. The knot was baseball size (no joke) and his leg was swollen all the way down including his ankles – all of it black and blue! 

It hurt to walk the next day but he did it anyway. It was still swollen badly when we got home a week later. He went to the doctor but was told nothing was broken and it’d heal in another week or so. As I write this, it’s been a month since it happened and his shin still has half a baseball size knot on it and still hurts. He may need to go in for x-rays after all! 

On the 13th of April, we returned to Matanzas to stay 2 days, then fly back home. What a journey this trip had been – mostly great experiences – some good learning experiences for future trips because, yes, we will go again next year.