Originally, Varadero wasn't on my plan for Cuba. But I figured since I was already in Santa Clara, only two hours away, I could just as well do some tourist-seeing ;-)
So I booked another two all-inclusive nights at the cheapest place on offer and decided to find out what the ordinary tourist sees of Cuba. In short, it's this:
One thing I noticed very quickly is the amount of really polished and gleaming old American cars, mostly serving as taxis. In the other cities, most of the cars are rather shabby and run-down, but is seems that with the amount of tourists in Varadero, taxi owners really have to make an effort to get people to use their taxi instead of a nicer one. I won't post pictures now - a collection of cars in Cuba is coming separately :-)
The hotel included a day pass for the tourist bus running the length of the peninsula - "Varadero" is stretched out over a 20 km long peninsula featuring 20 km of white sand beach on one side - so it's not really convenient to see on foot.
Most of the people on the bus seemed to use it only to have it take them once around the peninsula, and maybe to one of the big souvenir markets. I wanted to see a little more, so I stepped off the bus at some points.
One was to see the Varahicacos natural preserve - a glimpse of how the peninsula looked before all the hotels came. The trail was beautiful, and populated by thousands of small lizards:
There were also a few small caves - some were quite spooky to explore because I was the only one there...
My next stop was the Cueva Ambrosía, a cave populated by ancient drawings and lots of bats.
I was the only one there (again), and this was a really great experience. The cave is entirely un-touristy: there is no illumination inside - you get a hand lamp - and there are next to no written explanations - the person at the entrance explains everything you need to know about the cave. So then you have a lamp and are left to explore the darkness by yourself, with bats fluttering about, and the occasional drawing appearing on the cave walls. Wow!
So I booked another two all-inclusive nights at the cheapest place on offer and decided to find out what the ordinary tourist sees of Cuba. In short, it's this:
One thing I noticed very quickly is the amount of really polished and gleaming old American cars, mostly serving as taxis. In the other cities, most of the cars are rather shabby and run-down, but is seems that with the amount of tourists in Varadero, taxi owners really have to make an effort to get people to use their taxi instead of a nicer one. I won't post pictures now - a collection of cars in Cuba is coming separately :-)
The hotel included a day pass for the tourist bus running the length of the peninsula - "Varadero" is stretched out over a 20 km long peninsula featuring 20 km of white sand beach on one side - so it's not really convenient to see on foot.
Most of the people on the bus seemed to use it only to have it take them once around the peninsula, and maybe to one of the big souvenir markets. I wanted to see a little more, so I stepped off the bus at some points.
One was to see the Varahicacos natural preserve - a glimpse of how the peninsula looked before all the hotels came. The trail was beautiful, and populated by thousands of small lizards:
There were also a few small caves - some were quite spooky to explore because I was the only one there...
My next stop was the Cueva Ambrosía, a cave populated by ancient drawings and lots of bats.
I was the only one there (again), and this was a really great experience. The cave is entirely un-touristy: there is no illumination inside - you get a hand lamp - and there are next to no written explanations - the person at the entrance explains everything you need to know about the cave. So then you have a lamp and are left to explore the darkness by yourself, with bats fluttering about, and the occasional drawing appearing on the cave walls. Wow!
