27.02.2020 Camagüey to Manzanilla

It is raining heavily, it is not possible to take a walk through the city.

We try to contact our car rental company and manage to replace the broken tire with a new one without any discussion, admittedly not pleased, but then forcibly.

Before we can continue our journey, we need gasoline, both gas stations have no fuel and so we line up, hoping it won't take too long. The system at the gas stations is opaque, nothing happens for a long time, and if it does, there is a lot of talk. The fuel pump with the special fuel is rarely used, but we can't get past the other vehicles. Some motorcycles run on a mixture and add oil from small cans themselves. Finally, it becomes clear why it takes so long, older men keep coming back, they fill up 5 liter canisters and disappear again, and since we keep seeing the men, we suspect a supply and distribution system.

After an hour, it's finally our turn and we are pleased that there is still gasoline. Women mostly line up across from us and wait to be allowed into a store, there is soap.

We continue our journey through a rather unspectacular landscape today, characterized by bushes and shrubs. It only becomes exciting when agriculture is possible, then we see people working and waiting for something.

Finally, just before our destination for today, we see rice fields and hundreds of herons flying behind the tractors that are preparing the fields to eat exposed worms. We also see some of the rare black herons.

Arriving in the town of Manzanillo, we see the real Cuba. Tourists rarely get lost here. People live in small huts, also made of wood, and in housing complexes near the waterfront. There is no beautiful beach, but everywhere people are working, preparing for a new season. Only a few guests have checked into the hotel, we seem to be the only foreigners, except for a man with a very young woman who has been living in Cuba for years, but is actually from Erfurt. The cost of a meal in the restaurant is now only 2 CUC, in Havana they wanted 10. There has been no beer for days, but there is wine from Spain.