To get to Cienfuegos from Sancti Spiritus, we first need to get to the bustling, coastal town of Trinidad. But, Sancti Spiritus isn't fully awake and the transportation options to the bus stations are limited. Alisa decided we weren't going to be "ripped" off and pay 15 pesos (about 75 cents) to get to the station by horse-drawn taxi and instead we paid the local price of 3 pesos each to get to a place half-way there and walk the rest of the way.
We hop on the truck/bus for 15 pesos each for the two-hour ride to Trinidad. Trinidad is full of foreign tourists but no one is looking to go to Cienfuegos. Our choices are to wait four hours for the 3pm bus for 6 CUCs each or find a taxi that will take us for 15 CUCs total and, perhaps, share the taxi if we can find anyone else who wants to go.
We find a taxi driver who will make the drive and he disappears looking for other passengers to share the ride/fare with us. Instead, he returns with another taxi driver who is from Cienfuegos looking for passengers for the ride back. It's a government taxi (very cushy and new) and the driver is wearing a crisp taxi-driver uniform. He's a little officious and not chatty but he's very customer-sensitive and when I take out my camera to take photos along the way, he slows down so I can get a shot.
We stop along the way so that he can pick up some mangos at a road-side stand. He says they are the best mangos and he gets about 10 for a peso. The very cute girls are very interested in us and happily mugged for the photo.
We get dropped off right at our next casa particular. It is conveniently close to the center of town without being touristy.
Alisa enjoying the excellent coffee on the roof of the casa particular.
We hop on the truck/bus for 15 pesos each for the two-hour ride to Trinidad. Trinidad is full of foreign tourists but no one is looking to go to Cienfuegos. Our choices are to wait four hours for the 3pm bus for 6 CUCs each or find a taxi that will take us for 15 CUCs total and, perhaps, share the taxi if we can find anyone else who wants to go.
We find a taxi driver who will make the drive and he disappears looking for other passengers to share the ride/fare with us. Instead, he returns with another taxi driver who is from Cienfuegos looking for passengers for the ride back. It's a government taxi (very cushy and new) and the driver is wearing a crisp taxi-driver uniform. He's a little officious and not chatty but he's very customer-sensitive and when I take out my camera to take photos along the way, he slows down so I can get a shot.
We get dropped off right at our next casa particular. It is conveniently close to the center of town without being touristy.
We're in Cienfuegos to meet up again with Die Stahlratte which will moor here until it leaves for Mexico on 5/18. It will arrive tomorrow so we enjoy the town:
Alisa enjoying the excellent coffee on the roof of the casa particular.
The next morning we take a short ferry ride out to Castillo de Jagua, a castle on an island built in 1740s to keep pirates and the British out.
We see Die Stahlratte in the port.
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