The 12-Hour Drive in Cuba: Getting lost, flooding, running over a dog and complete darkness
For my Cuba blog entries, I am about 70% through. My Cuba trip last May was an around-Cuba-trip starting with Havana (north), going down to the south, then to the west, and finally the east. The eastern part of Cuba will be blogged soon.
At this point of the travel, and for this particular blog entry, we are now located in the western part and are staying at a 4-star beach resort, Hotel Tryp Cayo Coco, a hotel in the Cuban keys that hasn’t been updated since the rise of the Castro regime. It is our last day in Cayo Coco and we are preparing for our next destination: Viñales
The distance between Cayo Coco and Vinales is 680 kilometres, roughly 8 hours and 50 minutes as advised on Googlemaps. See here our road trip itinerary: Cuba Road trip
Ideally, we would have taken a stop-over in between. In our earlier trips around Cuba, we usually drive a maximum of 4 hours before we call it a day and stay at the place we stop. But because we are running out of days for this holiday and we cannot—or do not want to, change our flight booking, we opted to take this long drive.
Blondine and I agreed that we will be taking 2 stops to refuel, eat and drink, and perhaps sightsee as well.
So we started the day with a nice buffet breakfast at Hotel Tryp Cayo Coco. We both had omelette and some fruits. This is by the way the only place in Cuba that we had bad coffee. Really bad coffee that I did not want to drink it. It was an American-style instant coffee vending machine in the buffet restaurant. Tea was much better here.
Since we will be on the road the whole day, we took some cookies from the buffet with us as well.
Before leaving, we had another round of coffee at the bar. Here, coffee was much better (than at the buffet restaurant).
Now, while Blondine was getting all the baggage ready, I went to pick up the car. Naturally, I parked in front of the hotel so it would be easy for us to load the luggage. While finally done loading the luggage we took turns to go to the toilet for last minute stuff. Very important when travelling on a long-haul drive.
A female security guard then came forward and told me to leave because we cannot park in front of the hotel. I told her we are leaving in a few minutes, just waiting for girlfriend to come out of the toilet. Unfortunately, this female security is not budging and she doesn’t speak English as well—although I know she understands, she just doesn’t want to entertain me. With a grim face, she stuck to her argument and she ordered me with her hand pointing to the road—YOU LEAVE.
Naturally I was annoyed, so I started a heated exchange with her in my best Spanglish! Great start of the day, arguing with a security guard.
Later, we were told by a male hotel worker that the female security guard is a known bitch especially to female guests. Huh, whatever that is we were glad to leave.
We left the hotel a few minutes before 10:00 in the morning. In the picture above we are cruising on the man-made dike highway that connects the keys to mainland Cuba. Rain in the form of light showers started to fall.
When we arrived in mainland Cuba, we reached a detour, the road is barricaded and a police officer was busy guiding everyone to take a different route. In a country where English is not spoken, it is always a challenge to understand what is going on. Luckily, I understand some Spanish words. It turns out that there is heavy rainfall in the middle part of Cuba. The bridge in Santa Clara, which is our route, and the main highway as well, is under water!
We have no choice but to take the detour via the villages.
In Cuba, it is impossible to drive outside the highways without getting lost, and I am not joking. Outside the highways there are literally few to almost none directional signs. So we were really worried about driving through the villages. How are we going to pull this through?
True enough, Blondine and I were sitting in the car in the middle of nowhere in front of a road intersection without signs. We were like, ‘WTF!? Where do we go from here?’
So we drove around the area hoping to see some signs of life and ask for directions. There were no houses here, there was an abandoned airport, the roads up to some point ends with a grassy field and there were no people. Let alone, there were no cars.
Luck was with us and we saw another car with Spanish-speaking tourists in it. They were lost as well. I am not sure where they were from but it was heaven-sent that we can tag along with them because they speak Spanish. We followed them as they asked directions from the locals and eventually we separated ways when we reached a familiar big town.
By this time rain has started to pour like mad.
In some villages we had to drive slow because of the overflowing waters. Either the drainage system in Cuba is crap or the rains are just too heavy.
Blondine and I are a bit worried that we will get to Vinales very late but then again we are now going through a real (driving in Cuba) adventure. Getting lost in a foreign land and driving on flooded streets!
We reached the next town and the rain stopped. Sigh--thank you. It is never easy driving with hard rain falling and flooded roads. Tropical monsoon climate, which is typical for the Caribbean, as well as South East Asia where I come from, so I am quite familiar with this, thankfully.
By this time we have probably logged more than 4 hours of driving and we have not reached the highway yet. It will take us another hour or two before we reach it. Patience girls!
Then the unexpected happened...
As I was driving on the 2-way provincial road, I suddenly saw, from the right hand side of the road, a dog that is about to cross. In my mind, ‘Oh no, this cannot be.’ But I knew in my mind and heart that I will hit the dog with the car.
On the other hand, Blondine beside me was screaming: ‘HOND!!!’ (dog)
Driving 80 kilometres per hour on a narrow 2-way road with no flexibility and space to maneuver, put me in a very difficult situation. I cannot step on the brake as it is too late. I cannot shift lanes as well because that would send us catapulting to the other side of the road. Should I save the life of the dog? Or should I save ours? Actually, while I was debating these options in my mind, for the few seconds left that I need to make a decision, I was quite proud of myself that I can calmly and clearly think things through in the middle of a highly crucial within-a-matter-of-seconds action.
I have decided: OUR LIVES ARE MORE IMPORTANT SO I WILL RUN THE DOG OVER.
And so I did, while Blondine was screaming at the top of her voice beside me. Then we checked the side mirror and saw the dog get up from the road and run to the other direction. We looked at each other, ‘HUH?????’
Of course we did not stop the car.
Tip: Never ever stop the car if you run over an animal in a foreign country. The more underdeveloped the country is, the chances are that certain locals will blackmail you. Of course not everyone has mean intentions but we have learned our lessons hard and very well as we have been SCAMMED TWICE in Havana.
Finally, we reached the highway and took shelter in a parador called El Ranchon and had coffee. Strong Cuban coffee. We need the coffee to recover from what we have been through. Whew, lol.
This is sure an adventure-filled drive!
After having our fill, we continued to drive to the direction of Havana. This time Blondine was on the wheel. She was careful to drive on the middle of the highway because you never know what obstacles you will encounter on the right part of the road. We saw some locals lounging (this one, he was sleeping) on the right lane? I mean hello!!! Suicidal? But hey, this is Cuba =)
So now we have probably clocked 7 or 8 hours driving when we were approaching Havana. If we look at our original plan, we would have been approaching Vinales already, but because of the flood, the detour and us getting lost, we are still hours behind. We do not know anymore what time we will arrive in Vinales.
Sunset in Cuba is around 8PM and we knew for sure we will arrive in Vinales later.
Passing by Havana, we lost our way, again. There were no clear signages going to the eastern part of the country. When you ask for directions from the locals, some would ask money in return. It is very annoying! I did print out the directions from Googlemaps but we cannot seem to follow it. GPS does not work in Cuba and it is illegal to bring them into the country anyway. We also have a map of Cuba but there are no details on the highways and national roads. The problem is, in order to go to the eastbound highway, we need to pass by Havana. There is no short cut.
Eventually we were driving on the right highway to the direction of Vinales and Pinar del Rio. Thanks to a policeman we saw parked on the highway in the outskirts of Havana who gave us directions.
By this time, nightfall has come upon us. It is half past 8PM. The highway to Pinar del Rio has become dark. In some parts of the highway there were no lights, and if there are lights, they are not bright enough. Another thing is, the cars and trucks, especially the trucks, many are not equipped with correct lighting. So you have to be always on alert because anyhthing can happen. Before you know it, you have a truck 2 metres in front of you (with no light) or a motorcycle (with no light). And Blondine was getting scared because of the darkness.
The light at the end of the tunnel came when we saw the exit to Vinales. I remember the girl whom we booked the tickets to the Cabaret dance show in Havana. She said that the road to Vinales is dangerous; it is small, narrow and unpaved. So that made me worry a bit.
Well, it turns out that the road to Vinales was indeed small and narrow, but it is paved. The road is a winding road that climbs and there were very little signs. It was very dark, there were no lights, and it was really getting late. On our clock, it was half past 9PM and we are somewhat, for the nth time, lost.
Have you ever been in a foreign country, inside the car and have lost your way? And that outside is very dark with no signs of life? Something told us to panic, but we just cannot.
Moreover, Blondine kept telling me to drive slow because we are driving on a zigzagged road and who knows how high up we are on the cliff but when I look at the meter, I see 40K/PH. We had a little bit of exchange about my driving. You know, I must admit that I drive like a man. But I was in control of the wheel and I was quite confident of my driving. It's just that the long haul drive has taken a toll on us, I mean we have been driving the whole day already and under eventful circumstances even!
Nevertheless, we have both become irritable, haha! Plus Blondine was really scared being in the middle of nowhere, in total darkness, and the whole scenario of not knowing where we were and where the hotel is, is driving her nuts. Where is the darn hotel???!!!
We saw a tourist center and a restaurant on a corner junction and saw a man standing outside. We asked directions to Hotel Los Jazmines and he told us that its just a few hundred meters further, then we have to turn right on the first street and the hotel should be there.
And indeed, after turning right, we FINALLY saw the hotel. We were overcome with joy, we could almost kiss the ground. WE HAVE ARRIVED! HALLELUJAH! Still, we were so annoyed WHY the hotel has not posted any sign outside the road? ARGH.
We checked in at the hotel at quarter to 10PM and the guy at the reception told us to go upstairs and have dinner right away because they will be closing the restaurant at 10PM. We were very hungry and were ready to devour everything that was left on the buffet.
Afterwards, we lingered a bit at the pool area and had mojitos before calling it a night. After a grueling 12-hour eventful drive, we needed the mojitos so badly. But moving on, we could not wait to wake up in the morning to see the glorious view of Vinales valley, a UNESCO world heritage. That would be my next post.
Travel Period: May 2012
Destination: Cayo Coco (Ciego de Avila) and Vinales (Pinar del Rio), Cuba
Keep in touch and follow me on Facebook: Travel & Lifestyle Diaries by Dutched Pinay Travels
Happy Travels! Enjoy Life =)
At this point of the travel, and for this particular blog entry, we are now located in the western part and are staying at a 4-star beach resort, Hotel Tryp Cayo Coco, a hotel in the Cuban keys that hasn’t been updated since the rise of the Castro regime. It is our last day in Cayo Coco and we are preparing for our next destination: Viñales
The distance between Cayo Coco and Vinales is 680 kilometres, roughly 8 hours and 50 minutes as advised on Googlemaps. See here our road trip itinerary: Cuba Road trip
Ideally, we would have taken a stop-over in between. In our earlier trips around Cuba, we usually drive a maximum of 4 hours before we call it a day and stay at the place we stop. But because we are running out of days for this holiday and we cannot—or do not want to, change our flight booking, we opted to take this long drive.
Blondine and I agreed that we will be taking 2 stops to refuel, eat and drink, and perhaps sightsee as well.
So we started the day with a nice buffet breakfast at Hotel Tryp Cayo Coco. We both had omelette and some fruits. This is by the way the only place in Cuba that we had bad coffee. Really bad coffee that I did not want to drink it. It was an American-style instant coffee vending machine in the buffet restaurant. Tea was much better here.
Since we will be on the road the whole day, we took some cookies from the buffet with us as well.
Before leaving, we had another round of coffee at the bar. Here, coffee was much better (than at the buffet restaurant).
Now, while Blondine was getting all the baggage ready, I went to pick up the car. Naturally, I parked in front of the hotel so it would be easy for us to load the luggage. While finally done loading the luggage we took turns to go to the toilet for last minute stuff. Very important when travelling on a long-haul drive.
A female security guard then came forward and told me to leave because we cannot park in front of the hotel. I told her we are leaving in a few minutes, just waiting for girlfriend to come out of the toilet. Unfortunately, this female security is not budging and she doesn’t speak English as well—although I know she understands, she just doesn’t want to entertain me. With a grim face, she stuck to her argument and she ordered me with her hand pointing to the road—YOU LEAVE.
Naturally I was annoyed, so I started a heated exchange with her in my best Spanglish! Great start of the day, arguing with a security guard.
Later, we were told by a male hotel worker that the female security guard is a known bitch especially to female guests. Huh, whatever that is we were glad to leave.
We left the hotel a few minutes before 10:00 in the morning. In the picture above we are cruising on the man-made dike highway that connects the keys to mainland Cuba. Rain in the form of light showers started to fall.
When we arrived in mainland Cuba, we reached a detour, the road is barricaded and a police officer was busy guiding everyone to take a different route. In a country where English is not spoken, it is always a challenge to understand what is going on. Luckily, I understand some Spanish words. It turns out that there is heavy rainfall in the middle part of Cuba. The bridge in Santa Clara, which is our route, and the main highway as well, is under water!
We have no choice but to take the detour via the villages.
In Cuba, it is impossible to drive outside the highways without getting lost, and I am not joking. Outside the highways there are literally few to almost none directional signs. So we were really worried about driving through the villages. How are we going to pull this through?
True enough, Blondine and I were sitting in the car in the middle of nowhere in front of a road intersection without signs. We were like, ‘WTF!? Where do we go from here?’
We tagged along with the Spanish-speaking tourists in this car.
So we drove around the area hoping to see some signs of life and ask for directions. There were no houses here, there was an abandoned airport, the roads up to some point ends with a grassy field and there were no people. Let alone, there were no cars.
Luck was with us and we saw another car with Spanish-speaking tourists in it. They were lost as well. I am not sure where they were from but it was heaven-sent that we can tag along with them because they speak Spanish. We followed them as they asked directions from the locals and eventually we separated ways when we reached a familiar big town.
By this time rain has started to pour like mad.
In some villages we had to drive slow because of the overflowing waters. Either the drainage system in Cuba is crap or the rains are just too heavy.
Blondine and I are a bit worried that we will get to Vinales very late but then again we are now going through a real (driving in Cuba) adventure. Getting lost in a foreign land and driving on flooded streets!
We reached the next town and the rain stopped. Sigh--thank you. It is never easy driving with hard rain falling and flooded roads. Tropical monsoon climate, which is typical for the Caribbean, as well as South East Asia where I come from, so I am quite familiar with this, thankfully.
By this time we have probably logged more than 4 hours of driving and we have not reached the highway yet. It will take us another hour or two before we reach it. Patience girls!
Passing through one of the towns we saw these 2 guys carrying roasted pig heads.
Then the unexpected happened...
As I was driving on the 2-way provincial road, I suddenly saw, from the right hand side of the road, a dog that is about to cross. In my mind, ‘Oh no, this cannot be.’ But I knew in my mind and heart that I will hit the dog with the car.
On the other hand, Blondine beside me was screaming: ‘HOND!!!’ (dog)
Driving 80 kilometres per hour on a narrow 2-way road with no flexibility and space to maneuver, put me in a very difficult situation. I cannot step on the brake as it is too late. I cannot shift lanes as well because that would send us catapulting to the other side of the road. Should I save the life of the dog? Or should I save ours? Actually, while I was debating these options in my mind, for the few seconds left that I need to make a decision, I was quite proud of myself that I can calmly and clearly think things through in the middle of a highly crucial within-a-matter-of-seconds action.
I have decided: OUR LIVES ARE MORE IMPORTANT SO I WILL RUN THE DOG OVER.
And so I did, while Blondine was screaming at the top of her voice beside me. Then we checked the side mirror and saw the dog get up from the road and run to the other direction. We looked at each other, ‘HUH?????’
Of course we did not stop the car.
Tip: Never ever stop the car if you run over an animal in a foreign country. The more underdeveloped the country is, the chances are that certain locals will blackmail you. Of course not everyone has mean intentions but we have learned our lessons hard and very well as we have been SCAMMED TWICE in Havana.
Finally, we reached the highway and took shelter in a parador called El Ranchon and had coffee. Strong Cuban coffee. We need the coffee to recover from what we have been through. Whew, lol.
This is sure an adventure-filled drive!
After having our fill, we continued to drive to the direction of Havana. This time Blondine was on the wheel. She was careful to drive on the middle of the highway because you never know what obstacles you will encounter on the right part of the road. We saw some locals lounging (this one, he was sleeping) on the right lane? I mean hello!!! Suicidal? But hey, this is Cuba =)
So now we have probably clocked 7 or 8 hours driving when we were approaching Havana. If we look at our original plan, we would have been approaching Vinales already, but because of the flood, the detour and us getting lost, we are still hours behind. We do not know anymore what time we will arrive in Vinales.
Sunset in Cuba is around 8PM and we knew for sure we will arrive in Vinales later.
Passing by Havana, we lost our way, again. There were no clear signages going to the eastern part of the country. When you ask for directions from the locals, some would ask money in return. It is very annoying! I did print out the directions from Googlemaps but we cannot seem to follow it. GPS does not work in Cuba and it is illegal to bring them into the country anyway. We also have a map of Cuba but there are no details on the highways and national roads. The problem is, in order to go to the eastbound highway, we need to pass by Havana. There is no short cut.
Eventually we were driving on the right highway to the direction of Vinales and Pinar del Rio. Thanks to a policeman we saw parked on the highway in the outskirts of Havana who gave us directions.
There are very few cars in Cuba, thus traffic does not exist here. Only in Havana you will experience a little bit of traffic, in the centre.
By this time, nightfall has come upon us. It is half past 8PM. The highway to Pinar del Rio has become dark. In some parts of the highway there were no lights, and if there are lights, they are not bright enough. Another thing is, the cars and trucks, especially the trucks, many are not equipped with correct lighting. So you have to be always on alert because anyhthing can happen. Before you know it, you have a truck 2 metres in front of you (with no light) or a motorcycle (with no light). And Blondine was getting scared because of the darkness.
The light at the end of the tunnel came when we saw the exit to Vinales. I remember the girl whom we booked the tickets to the Cabaret dance show in Havana. She said that the road to Vinales is dangerous; it is small, narrow and unpaved. So that made me worry a bit.
Well, it turns out that the road to Vinales was indeed small and narrow, but it is paved. The road is a winding road that climbs and there were very little signs. It was very dark, there were no lights, and it was really getting late. On our clock, it was half past 9PM and we are somewhat, for the nth time, lost.
Have you ever been in a foreign country, inside the car and have lost your way? And that outside is very dark with no signs of life? Something told us to panic, but we just cannot.
Moreover, Blondine kept telling me to drive slow because we are driving on a zigzagged road and who knows how high up we are on the cliff but when I look at the meter, I see 40K/PH. We had a little bit of exchange about my driving. You know, I must admit that I drive like a man. But I was in control of the wheel and I was quite confident of my driving. It's just that the long haul drive has taken a toll on us, I mean we have been driving the whole day already and under eventful circumstances even!
Nevertheless, we have both become irritable, haha! Plus Blondine was really scared being in the middle of nowhere, in total darkness, and the whole scenario of not knowing where we were and where the hotel is, is driving her nuts. Where is the darn hotel???!!!
We saw a tourist center and a restaurant on a corner junction and saw a man standing outside. We asked directions to Hotel Los Jazmines and he told us that its just a few hundred meters further, then we have to turn right on the first street and the hotel should be there.
We looked quite harassed here in the picture haha. Taken at the hotel in Vinales by the pool before we called the long exhausting and eventful day a night.
And indeed, after turning right, we FINALLY saw the hotel. We were overcome with joy, we could almost kiss the ground. WE HAVE ARRIVED! HALLELUJAH! Still, we were so annoyed WHY the hotel has not posted any sign outside the road? ARGH.
We checked in at the hotel at quarter to 10PM and the guy at the reception told us to go upstairs and have dinner right away because they will be closing the restaurant at 10PM. We were very hungry and were ready to devour everything that was left on the buffet.
Afterwards, we lingered a bit at the pool area and had mojitos before calling it a night. After a grueling 12-hour eventful drive, we needed the mojitos so badly. But moving on, we could not wait to wake up in the morning to see the glorious view of Vinales valley, a UNESCO world heritage. That would be my next post.
Travel Period: May 2012
Destination: Cayo Coco (Ciego de Avila) and Vinales (Pinar del Rio), Cuba
Keep in touch and follow me on Facebook: Travel & Lifestyle Diaries by Dutched Pinay Travels
Happy Travels! Enjoy Life =)
