A glimpse of Cuba (4)

Day 7: Varadero

Local day tour with Gaviota (tour operator in Cuba) - Jeep Safari > River Cruise > Snorkeling at Playa Coral > Cueva Saturno

Our last full day in Varadero, we decided to join a local tour which ended up being a really good idea. We still got to swim - which is what I wanted to do if we had stayed at the resort anyways.

We joined a Jeep Safari tour with Gaviota - although we signed up through the airline that we booked our flight & hotel package, all the tour groups are arranged by Gaviota but the airlines seem to offer a much better discount that Gaviota themselves. On this tour you get to drive your own small Suzuki Jeep - however, they only have manual jeeps, so we couldn't drive our own and went in one with the group guide as our driver.

Although it's called a Jeep Safari, we don't actually get to go on a safari to see animals, we ended up going to different locations within the same town to do different activities. Our first stop was for a "river cruise" where we got to drive our own speed boat - that sounds like FUN!

When we got there, I saw how tiny the speed boats were, they are also really simple, just a steering wheel and the gear to adjust the speed. I was also quite surprised that they allowed us to drive our own cars and speed boats - that usually never happens in other countries unless they make you sign a waiver and check your driver's licence and stuff, but for the speed boat you didn't even have to have a driver's licence and you could still drive it! :S....... only in Cuba...

 

As we drove the speed boat I realized that even at full speed it wasn't going super fast.... and it was not too difficult to handle. It really was quite fun. There's not much to actually see on the river cruise, it was more to experience driving a speed boat.

After the river cruise, there was a mini performance by some of the aboriginals of Cuba, they did a dance and a ceremony where they blessed some of the tourists who volunteered to be in the dance. Then we had a 10cuc lobster before heading to the next location - Playa de Coral for snorkeling.

When we got to Playa de Coral, there was a small bar and seating area, and just a few steps from there is the shoreline. There wasn't really any beach, it was all rocks and the waves were quite big. We got into the water and put on our flippers and swam out to the reef. There's not much colour in the reef but we did see lots of different fishes swimming around.

When we got out, we took a quick shower at the outdoor make-shift shower, it was two buckets with holes in them, hung on a pole and a staff would pour water into the buckets and that would be our shower. It actually worked, I got all the salt water off of me.

We kept our swim suits on as we made our way to the next location - Cuevo Saturno (Saturn's Cave). This is a fresh water cave and you can swim in it - it's 22 meters deep and the water is FREEZING cold but you adjust after a while.

When I did my research, I also wanted to visit Saturn's Cave on our own (if we hadn't joined the tour), and people said you had to hike to it, but actually it's not difficult at all. There are some stairs going down into the cave, but it's not bad at all. It's not really a hike and you don't need proper running shoes, we just went down in our flip flops.

After a long day of playing in the water, we finally made our way to lunch at a farm that used to grow coffee. They no longer grow it here because the climate is not suitable, the best coffee in Cuba is grown in the South East mountain region of Sierra Maestra.

They usually drink it as an espresso coffee and you can add sugar if you like, usually I had to add a little bit of sugar, unlike the ones I tasted in Europe and Russia where it was fine on it's own. Then we walked around the farm and they gave us a tour - but there's not really much to see, most of the buildings where the slaves who worked on the farm used to live, are almost all gone, maybe just a corner wall of the house is still there.... but it doesn't give you any idea of how big the house was or what was in it.

Lastly they also let us ride their horses, at no extra charge! That also doesn't happen on these tour groups. Usually there's a fee to ride the horses. So everyone took a turn and the horses looked really tired. Actually all the horses, cows, and other farm animals in Cuba all look really skinny. They never look well-fed.

That concluded the end of our Jeep Safari and then we went back to Varadero. The contents of the tour were quite good, we had fun swimming in different locations and doing different activities, but at the end of each activity we were always asked for tips, so it felt like I gave out like 20cucs in tips that day..... That's the thing about Cuba, when I was planning my trip I was thinking that 500cucs will be plenty, but I didn't even buy any souvenirs (not that I planned to buy any anyways), and spent all the money on tips - it's a bit annoying, although all the people who worked with us told us that they live off of tips.

Also, I didn't take too much photos of our resort - actually I didn't take any at all even though it's my first time at an all-inclusive resort, but there's really not much. It has the basics and the rooms don't look amazing. If you go online and search for hotels or resorts in Cuba/Varadero you'll see what they look like.

So that's the end of the trip, the next day, we flew out of Varadero at 12:00noon, but we had to leave for the airport after breakfast anyways so we didn't do anything that day. It was a long trip in Cuba, exhausting because of the heat and packed itinerary, but I'm glad we got through it. I enjoyed all the swimming opportunities as I don't usually get those when I travel.

Beaches all along the coast of Cuba