To the paradise and beyond. Cuban chronicles. Day 14.

Once again, our early and sort of anxious breakfast before leaving for a new place, almost our last one. Today is the time to know the famous Varadero, its beach of course, but the town too as well, so we wouldn't be so much stubborn as not to go there.

Once on the road, the gps failed once again and suggested a longer route until we saw a sign on the road that said "Varadero". We took the sign's advice and turned off the gps.

Ladies and gentleman, we are arriving to Varadero.

We entered the peninsula, it's crowded with thousand stars all inclusive resorts, just like the ones you can find in any other place, one among many non-places. That's the reason I'm not a fan of these kind of places. We got to the end of it and went to the beach we could enter, because just like in Santa Maria Key, almost all the beach entrances belong to hotels. The sea...woow, it's turquoise. I was told the sand here is extremely white and thin, and it is indeed, but nothing you can see here (the sand of course, we won't ever see the sea like that here in Uruguay).

A little selfie in paradise never hurt anybody.

But first things first, to the sea. After a good swim I started to search for seashells on the shore and I found a big big snail. I took it to show it to my dad and R with the excitement of a 6 year old girl, so we all went to continue searching. Inside the water, there was a man walking from one side to the other. He was also searching for seashells and gave one to me and one to R.

After a good relaxing beach time, we went to take a short tour around town. My main mission was to find a bar I had seen in a video when I was doing my research before the trip. It's called The Beatles and it's on Av. 1. There, I listened to all the rock n'roll i heard on my time in the island. There are cover bands every day, and from what I could see, pretty good ones. And of course, I took my photo with the fab-four from Liverpool. We kept walking and tried to eat at two different places that said open 24 hours but their kitchen was closed. It's Rocha (in Uruguay) all over again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxOKA4LMtMk

Always next to Harrison, my favourite Beatle.

With the bad mood of three hungry people we took off to Matanzas, the place we are spending the night in. It's quite a big city, we didn't know it was so big. With the already typical difficulties of the traffic and the directions we found our inn, "Río Real". It's a beautiful, colonial house, with giant bedrooms and a patio that you don't want to leave, but after a nice shower, it's time for dinner.

The patio right outside the bedrooms. It's so calm it is like a refuge from the noise typical of a centric street.

So close to the inn, right in the corner, there was "Vinos Pizza" restaurant, this franchise we had dinner at in Caibarien. It's so cheap it's fantastic. For example, we found a menu that was 2 CUC each. However, the best part was the tetra brik packed rum, what they call "planchao", and it's 1 CUC the 200 ml pack. Score! And yeah,we ended up a little drunk.

The starring combo of the night.

After dinner we walked to the main square, or the park as they call it, five blocks away from the house. Today, just 36 hours before leaving I could get some wifi. It's time for bed. I have tv in my room tonight, so I watched the Brazilian soap opera I've already seen, followed by an awful tv show called Reign I had watched in Cienfuegos. Of course I watched it again.

Ok, time to sleep, tomorrow it's time to say goodbye to Havana.

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