A change in the road, we're going to Caibarién. Cuban chronicles. Day 11.

After deciding not to roadtrip around the whole island and stay in the western half of it, we had to decide a new itinerary. A tempting option was Santa María Key, it wasn't that far away from Trinidad, we just had to go all the way North.

In the key, the only accomodation available are all inclusive hotels, and according to our hosts in Trinidad, the fares are from another planet. Truth be told, they weren't, you can get really good deals, but I didn't have internet connection to do one of my searchs. And that's how we ended in a town that so far I hadn't even heard of, Caibarién.

This town is located next to the road exit to Santa María Key. The trip was fine, it wasn't that many miles. We got there around noon, so we changed our clothes and went out to have lunch. In front of the boardwalk, we ran into a place that didn't seem much and reggaetón was coming out of there big time but we had a pleasant surprise. They had fries and some really good homemade burgers.

Filled with food and thus happy, we started our walk to the local beach, it wasn't very close. The beach wasn't that good (for Caribbean standards of course) but we could swim. Now that is winter (yeah, it's really weird being in winter and having more that 25 degrees Celsius) the sand is hard and full of small rocks and in some areas the sea is crowded with seaweed. We were told that this changes during the summer. But the sea is just fine, just like in the eastern cost of Uruguay.

From the beach, over the sea you can see the road to the key, the cars look like fleas. Further away there are some elevations and there, in the middle of nothing, there's a lonely one that looks like a little mogote. We called it "el mogotito".

The town beach in Caibarién. Not bad, huh?

The lonlely mogote and the road to the key. On the right side, you canspot a tiny car. Well, a regular car, but looking tiny.

After the afternoon in the beach, we headed back home and went off to see the town. It looks abandoned, like no one cares, it's really different from all the other places we've been so far. There isn't so much tourism here, even less during the winter, maybe it's beacuse of that, or maybe this is the real Cuba, far from the touristic spots. I guess I'll never know.

*This town was hit really bad by Hurricane José in 2017. We didn't have the contact information of Osmani's house to check how they were and see if we could help in some way from here. Now I see the place is still working, so I'm glad they're back on their feet.

We went back to the house for dinner. I haven't said this, but we're staying at a little, quiet paradise in front of the sea. Osmani and his wife made us this awesome meal, all seafood based and it was delicious. We even had leftovers, but far from that being a problem, Osmani used them to feed the turtles. Yeah, that's right, there are turtles at home! They are so cute raising their heads out of the water, some of them even feed out of our hands. Osmani rescues these turtles from the sea when they're small and vulnerable. He feeds them at his house in tanks he has for this purpose until they're grown and strong enough to make it on their own. Then, he realeses them into the sea again. Hands up to him.

The banquet. This is the proper way to call this meal.

We hanged out for a while in the hammocks at the front of the house before going to bed. But let's get to rest that tomorrow it's time to go to Santa María Key.

*You can read the original version of this post in Spanish here.