Published: 29.02.2020
26.02.2020 Trinidad to Camagüey
After breakfast, we walk along the beach, search for corals and swim. It rains a little from time to time, cormorants dry their wings in the wind, small crabs lurk in their freshly dug tunnels for prey. When we humans stomp on, they disappear.
Today seems to be our unlucky day. We leave the resort at 11 o'clock and have about 250 km to drive. We leave the coast and drive inland. After about 100 km, a tire spontaneously loses a lot of air, and in a few minutes, the fun of driving is over. We look at the spare tire, which is new, but it has a bump, a blowout preprogrammed. We ask for an air acrobat, a man hops on a horse and brings us to the airman. He checks, pumps, and explains with a toothless mouth that there is nothing to do, it's broken. Spare tire, very questionable, drive slowly to the next town and seek help.
We do as told and ask, an excited crowd points straight ahead, there we would find help, and we keep asking again and finally, in a place that is hard to find, a tire fitter is sitting at a table and tells us to wait for a moment, but then he looks, checks, fixes, and mounts it. And 60 minutes later we drive away from the yard.
The fun of driving lasts for good 100 km, coming straight out of a larger town, the rear right tire says goodbye. It seems to be going in turns today. Again we change to the bumpy tire, drive back to the town. This tire artist also certifies us that we can't drive with the bumpy spare tire. He repairs the flat by inflating it, we put the tire back on, lesson learned, and continue driving. By the way: The ponchero, who patched the tire for us twice, asked for 8 CUC, which we found appropriate, the second one, just an inflator, wants 10 CUC. We think 3 CUC is enough and he has to accept it.
We are even more careful, but we arrive in Camagüey, find the hotel and explain at the reception that we are looking for a restaurant recommended by the travel guide. The lady at the reception doesn't understand, 800 m is too far away, but that doesn't help her. We start walking, through dark alleys, find the restaurant, unfortunately, we are the only guests, but most restaurants are in the same situation today. There are simply too few tourists on the road.