We stopped at the old Australia sugar mill which was used by Fidel as the command post during the failed Bay Of Pigs invasion of 1961, when cuban exciles backed by the US tried to overthrow Fidel. There's a museum there now with lots of information, equipment, pictures and some maps used during the invasion. They've also got the original desks and phones used by Fidel. It was good to finally get close to some of the history I've been reading about.
We also had a short train ride to some sugar cane fields and sampled some of the good stuff. They talked a little about the industry, mentioning that in 2002 Fidel shut down around 1/2 the mills in Cuba as they were no longer economically viable.
Well worth the stop.
Also passed by Elian Gonzalez's house. He was in the news around 1999-2000 after being found by the US Coastguard floating in a tire tube after his mother had drowned. Big custody dispute between his father in Cuba and his other family in Miami. At the time this was more political than anything between the Miami Cubans and the Cuban government. The immigration officials raided his home and he was sent back to Cuba.
Onto a crocodile farm where they're repopulating the Cuban species. And finally Hotel Giron for a couple days in a resort style facility. Felt like a holiday camp from hell and not really worth spending 2 days there (one of which I was sick).
We mostly spent our time lounging in the sun, pool volleyball, more lounging in the sun, walking to/from our cabins (5+ mins each way) and the others took adavantage of the free drinks. Nicola tried out the snorkelling down the road but was disappointed as we had better in Vanuatu so I didn't miss much being sick that day. Miriam from our group won the Miss Giron contest. We had some more Salsa lessons (Kevin and I did our best to frustrate the teacher with our lack of skills).
Onto Trinidad.
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