Baracoa

After a long bus ride we arrived in Baracoa which seems a nice place, a lot quieter and more rural than the other towns/cities we've been to. Looks like it's the place to come if you are into tramping with plenty of walks and tramps mentioned in the guide books. The region is also the biggest producer of cocoa in Cuba, though we didn't see much for sale in the town.

Stayed in a casa again which was very good, almost as good as Trinidad, almost. The food is a bit different here, a couple of ingredients we haven't had anywhere else in Cuba. And we had a rooftop terrace which is great, have to get one of those in the future.

Our only full day in Baracoa was spent visiting a lady who is very into chocolate. I was expecting a bit more from the visit and based on the tour notes thought we were stopping by a factory and would see the process of making chocolate, but it was literally the lady's house where she told us a little about the process, showed us raw cocoa beans (which we sampled) and saw some of the cocoa trees. We did try some chocolates she'd made with condensed milk like filling which were great. And also got 2 different mixes of 100% chocolate to bring back so we can try making a few different things with it. The different mixes have different amounts of cocoa vs cocoa butter.

Next stop was a village at the mouth of the yumuri river where we were having a picnic up the river. When we got there we were greeed by what seemed like the entire village and were mobbed when we gave out our pens/pencils/paper we brought them. There were a few times I thought a fight might break out.

It's said that the Yumuri river was named after a tribe of native indians who when the spanish came, those that could not escape enslavement by the conquistadors jumped off the cliffs along the river to their death shouting "Yumuri" and cursing the spanish.

We headed a little way up the river by boat to our picnic spot. We were of course followed by some of the villagers who talked to us a little, good chance to practise a bit of spanish. Hung out and had lunch. During lunch we found some tiny fingernail sized frogs, got some pictures which will hopefully show the size. Afterwards we headed back to the bus.

This is when things got interesting. All throughout the picnic I was expecting to get hassled for clothes, soap, sunscreen or plain old money but we didn't. On the way back however things changed, everyone in our tour group pretty much got separated out by themselves and then told about the hardships of the villagers and asked for money mostly for clothing or shoes. The way it worked was pretty much the people who we had talked to on the way over and always matched guys with guys and gals with gals. I was expecting this but I still felt like it detracted a lot from the whole experience and we didn't know how genuine they were being through the day when they were asking us questions and showing us things. Nicola felt it ruined the entire day out to the village.

Got back to Baracoa and had some hot chocolate at one of the casa's. It was fantastic and I've got a little idea how to make it so will try when I get home. It's made from the pure chocolate/cocoa that we are bringing back mixed with sugar, a little cornflour and either milk or water. The host said it takes about 1.5 hours to make so there's a bit of heating, dissolving and reheating to be done.

No one really up for a night out we hosted some cards on our rooftop terrace. Was going to polish of the sugar cane I'd been carting around but it'd dried out and tasted a little arse so in the bin it went.

Left the next day and headed back to Santiago. Stopped in the mountains to buy stuff from the local vendors. Also stopped on a hill with a long distance view of Guantánamo Bay (the better lookouts are closed at the moment) which is actually quite a large town with a shopping mall, gift shop and the only McDonalds on cuban soil. All of this for the 1000's of US military and their families stationed there. This of course is separated from Cuba proper by plenty of barbed wire and the largest minefield in Latin America, installed by the US. When the Platt Amendment ruins it's course and the lease expires in 2033 I wonder who will get the clean up bill.