F: Kuba I

In the meantime, we have acclimatized well in Cuba. The first thing you realize is the abundance that we have at home. There are not 17 different oils in the store like here. There is the two-liter canister of oil (imported) or no oil. It's that simple.

The famous Havana, with its Spanish colonial buildings often in a dilapidated state, is actually as impressive and beautiful as it is said everywhere. Among well-preserved houses, there are often completely hollowed out and collapsed objects - but wherever there are 3 walls, someone lives. The streets are bustling 24/7. At 11 p.m., work was still being done with a grinder and disco music was playing at full volume in front of our guesthouse. In the morning, street x is closed off (with a string with red pieces of fabric attached) and 30 men and women do the exercises that the person on a balcony is demonstrating.

Meanwhile, we are in Viñales, a small town in western Cuba. Not two minutes outside the town, you enter rural, real Cuba. Between the limestone hills with vertical walls (Mogotes), there are fertile plains. The farmers here cultivate fruits, rice, cassava, corn, coffee, sugar, and partly tobacco by hand (!).
Recently, we cycled to Valle de Ancòn. In the village of Ancòn, the road ends and as expected, we were received as guests. For 5 Swiss francs, a "guide" took us through the undergrowth to a breathtaking viewpoint and further to his waterfall with a natural swimming pool in the middle of the jungle. Back in the village, we were served a mango juice - for two Swiss francs each and because the man didn't have any change, as he said, he kept another 5. According to our experience so far, Cubans are super nice, but also cunning.

And today, for the first time in my life, I was on a sandy beach like from a travel catalog: palm trees, fine sand, turquoise water that is lukewarm... :-) We saw a silvery, spear-like fish and a green-pink striped one, otherwise there was only algae and sand to see. That's why our next destination is probably a snorkeling area.