Another early start to the day took us to the beach for another beautiful sunrise. The only other people we could see were fishermen on small boats traversing the coast and baby crabs nibbling on what looked like sand, but probably small pieces of bread left over by humans from the previous day.
After a very meaty breakfast we headed over to the beach where we were yesterday for a day of swimming, snorkling and chilling. When we got to the beach we found many people occupying the best spots already. Not sure what was going on as it was a Wednesday, but we assumed after someone in Havana told us that many cubans dont work on Wednesday. That might explain it. We were good enough to bring with us two pairs of swimming goggles so that we could dive with the fishes and explore some of the nearby reefs without hiring some gear. The water was crystal blue and when the sun shined through the water, it was a amazing to see the local fruits of the ocean.
We are tightening our belts at the moment, whereby we have put ourselves in a position where we need to survive on 10 CUC (€8) / Day in order to meet our budget as we cant change any more euros right here. We would have to go to the nearest town. Previously the main cost was the evening meal where we could easily spend the day budget in one shot, so we were forced to find alternatives. The other day a guy said that they sold bread in our campismo, so I went on a mission to find out. I went to the shop to ask and he didnt have any so I ended up buying a beer instead, however he did show me where I could buy it. I went over to the house where they make Hamburgesas and a fruity drink and asked how much a piece of bread was. She quoted “3 CUP” (National Cuban Pesos) which is approx €0.10!). I ordered “diez pan” (10 pieces of bread) and she went away. It was taking really long and I started to wonder, is she baking the bread… or am I getting hamburgesas? But I thought how could you make a hamburgesa for 10 euro cent? About 5 mins later she came back with a tray full of hamburgesas to my suprise. I handed over the 30 CUP and she was happy, so I quickly ran off with my 10 hamburgesas and wondered… what am I going to do with 10? We only wanted bread for making sandwiches! When I got back, Victoria laughed. We sat down on our little terrace and used the gouda and avacado that was in the fridge to make some tasty cheeseburgers :)
After stuffing down two burgers each we headed up the mountain that overlooks the campismo and the surrounding beaches. It was a very steep climb and part of the way had railings, but even those were falling apart. We eventually made it up to the top for sunset and when we got there we saw some of our neighbours who we got talking to. One girl was from Spain and was here on holiday with her cuban boyfriend. The rest of their friends were cubans. It was cloudy and not much of a sunset. It looked like it was about to rain but it held out while we were getting eaten alive by mosquitos! During the day there are basically none, but before the sun comes up and after the sun sets they all want to come out and play.
At the top we had a well deserved rum with coke and took a few pictures. I also took the opportunity to draw a circle showing where the apartment was where we were staying. We eventually headed down the mountain with Victoria’s headlight that her colleagues gave her as a leaving present. It worked really well and it guided us to safety :)
When we got back we played the game “shithead” with the playing cards we brought with us. After a few games we drunk enough confidence to go over to the campismos’ nightly entertainment, which was basically a group of all ages watching a few guys making jokes, acting and dancing. Needless to say, we had troubles understanding the fast paced spanish and evidently the humour. We stayed around for a while, but then went back to play a few more rounds of shithead before bed.
