I decided to break up my visit to Habana into two parts and visit a bit of countryside in between. So today I'm heading to the far west of Cuba: the valley of Viñales.
On my way to the bus station, I come across yet another piece of socialist architecture: the Plaza de la Revolución and the huge monument to José Martí.
To get an idea how big the thing is, just look at the size of the streetlights and the people in the distance... I can't help thinking that socialist regimes are just another breed of megalomaniac. Why on earth do they need all these huge empty spaces and oversized monuments?
Since I remembered to finally take a picture of the bus today, here's a note on how I've been traveling around - remember that Cuba might look small on a map, but is still more than 1000 km long...
As Cuba doesn't really have a reliable railway system, I've been using long-distance buses to get around. There are two companies (or should I write "brand names", since both are state-run, of course): Astro and Viazul. Astro is intended mainly for Cubans - allegedly they only have two seats for foreigners on each bus. Viazul is slightly more expensive, and therefore almost exclusively used by tourists. They have a fleet of modern Chinese Yutong buses, like this one:
I haven't really been able to figure out the timetables - the information I got off their website three weeks ago is no longer correct - but surprisingly, everything has worked out well so far. I'll keep my fingers crossed for the one trip (back to Habana) that remains ;-)
On my way to the bus station, I come across yet another piece of socialist architecture: the Plaza de la Revolución and the huge monument to José Martí.
To get an idea how big the thing is, just look at the size of the streetlights and the people in the distance... I can't help thinking that socialist regimes are just another breed of megalomaniac. Why on earth do they need all these huge empty spaces and oversized monuments?
Since I remembered to finally take a picture of the bus today, here's a note on how I've been traveling around - remember that Cuba might look small on a map, but is still more than 1000 km long...
As Cuba doesn't really have a reliable railway system, I've been using long-distance buses to get around. There are two companies (or should I write "brand names", since both are state-run, of course): Astro and Viazul. Astro is intended mainly for Cubans - allegedly they only have two seats for foreigners on each bus. Viazul is slightly more expensive, and therefore almost exclusively used by tourists. They have a fleet of modern Chinese Yutong buses, like this one:
I haven't really been able to figure out the timetables - the information I got off their website three weeks ago is no longer correct - but surprisingly, everything has worked out well so far. I'll keep my fingers crossed for the one trip (back to Habana) that remains ;-)
