Buses are the only way to get around unless you hire a car - the major company is called Viazul - the buses themselves are quite modern and reliable despite the ferocious air-conditioning that means I need to wear a fleece! What is not modern is the booking system - want to book in advance at the station - not possible - you can book online but only for buses for than a week in the future - want to get online - most small towns have no internet - travel agents can book you a ticket - but only departing from the town where you are - if they can get through to the Viazul station on the phone - which is not often! So the only option is to turn up and wait and hope - its the Cuban way - Espera! When you do get to the front of the ticket queue - its not quick - first your name - passport number - destination - seat number - all written in longhand in a leger - the ticket can be issued - all the information has to be written on the ticket - then laboriously she pokes little holes in your ticket in various little boxes - I'm not sure why - I'm not sure if she knows why - perhaps Fidel knows - anyway I now have a ticket - I can get on the bus - no - I have to join another queue to check in my luggage - he gives me another ticket - now I can get on the bus!
Cocoa Pod
Cuban men never lose interest in a nice culo!!
Buses are the only way to get around unless you hire a car - the major company is called Viazul - the buses themselves are quite modern and reliable despite the ferocious air-conditioning that means I need to wear a fleece! What is not modern is the booking system - want to book in advance at the station - not possible - you can book online but only for buses for than a week in the future - want to get online - most small towns have no internet - travel agents can book you a ticket - but only departing from the town where you are - if they can get through to the Viazul station on the phone - which is not often! So the only option is to turn up and wait and hope - its the Cuban way - Espera! When you do get to the front of the ticket queue - its not quick - first your name - passport number - destination - seat number - all written in longhand in a leger - the ticket can be issued - all the information has to be written on the ticket - then laboriously she pokes little holes in your ticket in various little boxes - I'm not sure why - I'm not sure if she knows why - perhaps Fidel knows - anyway I now have a ticket - I can get on the bus - no - I have to join another queue to check in my luggage - he gives me another ticket - now I can get on the bus! Baracoa is a nice little town - on the coast with a nice promenade along the sea - A Malecon - Havana has the most famous one in Cuba - there is some nice country scenery too with hills to climb surrounding the city and rivers to swim in. Chocolate is big in Baracoa - the cocoa tree grows well here. It was the first town founded in Cuba in 1511 and not a lot has changed - well a few things have...it has 3 forts one containing a museum that was not under repair!
However Baracoa is most famous for the Cuban Visa Crisis - not the Cuban Missile Crisis - that happened somewhere else - for details of this traumatic interaction with Cuban bureaucracy see my next post!
