Gibara 1

I had under a week left of my Cuban sojourn, so I'd decided to chill out in a seaside town called Gibara, roughly north of Holguin. (Guardalavaca is roughly north-east.) I walked to the central plaza, stopping for a guarapo on the way. I had to search a bit as the taxi rank was not obvious. I accepted an offer to take me to Gibara for $17. We were stuck behind a horse cart and a hearse for part of the way. Well the occupant of the latter was in no hurry any more. When we got to Gibara, the driver had to ask people for my destination casa. I had no map, and not all the street signs were visible. I gave the driver a $1 tip for his trouble.

The casa was comfy compared to previous accommodations—it had a few rooms so the dueña was doing serious business. There were several Dutch people staying there. One couple was cycling, another had come by bus, and two men had come by rented car. There was also a Canadian couple. In one corner of the courtyard was a parrot on a perch. There was a shy cat. But perhaps not so shy as to not molest the bird; I saw the bird being moved somewhere safer that evening.

I walked around town to have a look. Like at Guanabo and Baracoa, there was a constant breeze flowing. There was a small fishing harbour in Bahia de Gibara.  I could see a better looking beach on the other side. This could be a day trip later.

In the centre of town was a huge tree with most peculiar seed pods. They were all sizes and seemed to dangle from random places on the tree. I felt uneasy in the presence of such undisciplined fecundity. The guide book said that this was a roble africano, an african oak. (Note from the future: A search for roble africano or african oak on the Internet turned up mostly hits from the same guide book. I couldn't find any pictures resembling this tree and also oaks have acorns, not pods. I found a suggestion that african oak can be a misnomer; it could refer to oldfieldia africana which is not of the quercus family, but I couldn't find any confirming pictures. So if anybody can positively identify this tree, I'd be grateful.)

I bumped into the Dutch couple from Holguin the day before having a peso lunch. I joined them. She had a Thai father and Dutch mother so she had one of those tongue twisting Thai surnames. We walked up to the citadel and mirador on a small rise overlooking the town. These schoolkids couldn't resist clowning around for the camera.

Afterwards we had guarapo from a stall to cool off. We encountered beggars in the streets, but the townsfolk were in general more friendly than in the cities of Cuba. We noted that there would be a rock and bolero night at the casa de cultura so we arranged to meet in the evening.

Dinner was not preordered but made on request so I was late meeting the Dutch in the centre. There we met a German couple on their honeymoon. We walked along the sea wall, but there was nothing to see there, just a strong cooling breeze to enjoy.

Back at the centre, we found townspeople gathering around the musical stage. The musos were playing loud rock but nobody was dancing. A Cuban student who had spent 3 months in Germany as an exchange student chatted to us. He spoke good German and English. A Cuban man hung around us chatting. He told us that his forebears came from the Canary Islands. I jokingly translated this for the Germans as he says he's a little yellow bird. He tried to persuade us to go to a disco. Some Cubans hang around tourists like that, hoping to touch the tourists to pay for their entertainment.