Saturday November 15, 2014

We had decided to make Santa Clara a two night stop, even though we have only cycled for a couple of days. Santa Clara is the capital of the Province Villa Clara and has many heritage sites.

It’s main square Vidal Park is surrounded by several architectural diverse buildings. From the hideous hotel to the beautifully restored library.

The Provincial Library was the former government palace.

After a fabulous breakfast, we headed out for a walk around the City. We needed to go to the bank as after Remedios (our next overnight) we are back to more rural towns and we are not sure about accessing banks. I also needed to check the email again regarding our storage unit and I updated the blog. Once again Ralf waited in line to get the money and I went to the hotel to check the email etc. After about 20 minutes Ralf was back, the bank couldn’t access the account, so he had to wait in line at another exchange office – Western Union! It didn’t take him very long and I was just about done on the blog.

Saturday mornings seems to be the day when people stroll around the park. The little kids are taken for rides on goat carts.

We then wandered around the main square and then went down the side streets for about two blocks and made a big square around the main square. The difference is quite amazing. The main square is clean and well maintained, the streets two blocks over are tired and some are falling to ruin.

We have noticed Cubans wander around with cakes, very fancily decorated in pinks and greens. I wander if they get them home before the icing melts into one big gooey mess. We noticed a cake shop selling slices of these fancy cakes and we couldn’t resist but have a slice. Four pesos (about 5cents) for two slices. I had the fancy gooey mess cake and Ralf had a sponge cake that was dripping with honey. It needed a cup of coffee to go with it, but there wasn’t a coffee shop nearby.

I think Santa Clara is the shoe capital of Cuba, there was one street which had numerous little stores selling shoes. Another street was selling primarily jewelry and another street had the bigger commercial items, like washing machines, stereos etc.

We had a sandwich for lunch in a cafeteria and then headed back to the casa, to drop of our bottles of water. We have been told to buy bottled water on this trip, as the cities and town water is not very good. Varadero is the only place where the water is good to drink from the tap. We still bought bottled water, in Varadero, just to be on the safe-side.

We headed towards the Nuestra de Carmen church built in 1754. There was a service being held so we couldn’t go inside. During the independence wars it was used as a prison for women. A monument has been built to commemorate the Santa Clara patriots.

We wandered down to the train station where a train was in the platform.

I asked at the information, if we could take bikes on the train. He said we could if there was room. We wandered down to have a look at the train. Eurostar eat your heart out – the height of Cuban luxury.

I was feeling a little tired and grubby, so I came back to the Casa, while Ralf carried on his exploration of the city.

We are eating in the casa tonight, if this mornings breakfast is anything to go by we will not go to sleep hungry.

I was right way too much food.