We're ready to come home, but with one last full day we decided to take a train ride around the Valle de Los Ingenios. Bless the folks who run the train, but the ride was underwhelming to say the least. (At this moment I really hope I don't sound like a snob. I don't think I am, and jenny and I always put on a good face for everyone: "the food was delicious! The train ride was fun!" But the reality is that the tourist infrastructure is not strong in Cuba. You have to appreciate what it is, and not what you want it to be).
It was basically a 6-hour open-air train ride into the country and back. I love trains, and quite enjoyed the breeze. We made two stops: one at a small town where you could walk up a tower where the overseer would observe slaves working in the sugar fields, and another at an old plantation house. The house was kind of interesting in that it revealed a hard life: living in the heat, far from town. Of course this is the case in many other parts of the world. We stayed at the house 30 minutes longer than scheduled while we waited for a few members of our group to eat lunch. Jenny and I chatted with a nice German couple while we waited. It was hot as hell.
Later, Jenny and i serendipitously found an international hotel that felt like an oasis. Very happy, we ate hamburger and croquettes.
That evening it rained again. I tasted some expensive-ish rum (delicious) back at the hotel and checked internet.
Retrofitted bus on train tracks
On the train ride
Jenny's sweaty back. It's hot in Cuba
Hotel!
Happy to be eating hamburgers
Our casa - built in the 1700s, I believe
Rain
Rum
Saul, our casa owner's son
It was basically a 6-hour open-air train ride into the country and back. I love trains, and quite enjoyed the breeze. We made two stops: one at a small town where you could walk up a tower where the overseer would observe slaves working in the sugar fields, and another at an old plantation house. The house was kind of interesting in that it revealed a hard life: living in the heat, far from town. Of course this is the case in many other parts of the world. We stayed at the house 30 minutes longer than scheduled while we waited for a few members of our group to eat lunch. Jenny and I chatted with a nice German couple while we waited. It was hot as hell.
Later, Jenny and i serendipitously found an international hotel that felt like an oasis. Very happy, we ate hamburger and croquettes.
That evening it rained again. I tasted some expensive-ish rum (delicious) back at the hotel and checked internet.
Retrofitted bus on train tracks
On the train ride
Jenny's sweaty back. It's hot in Cuba
Hotel!
Happy to be eating hamburgers
Our casa - built in the 1700s, I believe
Rain
Rum
Saul, our casa owner's son
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