Playa Giron

Yudy and Risber in front of their house "Guanaba's Nest."

We thoroughly enjoyed our time at this casual, chill little town. Staying in a room in a house put us in more contact with our friendly hosts, Yudy and Risber, and with other travelers. Our beach experiences, diving, snorkeling, swimming, relaxing, and exploring, and our non-beach experiences were all wonderful.

Our casa, Guanaba's Nest, was cool and comfortable. We appreciated the ample closet space, lights on both sides of the bed, and both fan and quiet air conditioner in our room. A!

A relaxing spot on the front terrace.

Our conversations with our hosts taught us much about the challenges of life in small town Cuba. It was fascinating to hear about Risber’s plans for their casa, his travels to Panama to make necessary purchases (TV, bicycle, air conditioner, to name a few). He can travel because of his dual Spanish and Cuban citizenship (if I understood correctly), and can bring back up to 120 pounds of goods once a year. (Risber—- if I get any of this wrong, please comment!) One night he concocted rum drinks for us as we relaxed on the front terrace. Mmmmm… Yudy was so sweet and extremely helpful in many ways.

Seemed like I was always asking Yudy for help! We had decided that it didn’t make sense to go to Cienfuegos to catch a nonexistent bus (see previous post), so we asked Yudy to call our Cienfuegos host to cancel, and added one more day to our two in Playa Giron. We also asked Yudy to call ahead to our Viñales casa to let them know we might be arriving late. (Our journey there would involve a bus ride to Havana followed by an unknown length of time arranging a collectivo from a Havana to Viñales.) In Cuba, we were unable to access our Airbnb account to make changes to our itinerary. Yudy spent a good deal of time on the phone trying to figure out the correct way to cancel and rebook to stay on the good side of Airbnb Cuba. On top of all of this, she arranged our two dive/snorkel days after discussing with us the particulars of each of the many options along this coastline.

Dinner at El Cocodrillo

Lobster dinner in casa provided by Yudy

Winsome beggar at

El Cocodrillo

One night we enjoyed Yudy’s wonderful soup, veggie, and lobster dinner, followed by sweet, creamy flan made by a neighbor down the street (20 CUC$ included dessert). Another night, we sampled the lobster at El Cocodrillo right across the street (20 CUC$ included two drinks.)

Craig chatting with Marcos.

Craig enjoyed chatting with our first casa neighbors, a young couple from Oregon and Denmark who inadvertently absconded with our Lonely Planet guide book. (Word to the wise—-get out that Sharpie and write your name on the cover. Every English-speaking traveler is toting this book because it is so worthwhile, and they all look the same!) Both Craig and I got to know Marcos, a teacher and film producer from Chile. In fact, Marcos turned out to be Craig’s dive buddy on one of our dive trips.

Playa Giron is a favorite place for divers and snorkelers. The water is clear with lots of great dive sites accessible from shore; no boat required. There are so many choices for snorkelers and divers: shipwrecks, cenotes, underwater caves to explore, and, of course, fish and all the curiosities and loveliness below the sea. We chose places where Craig could have a fascinating one-tank dive while I snorkeled independently, and afterward we would have time to swim and snorkel together if we wanted. 25 CUC$ paid for our transportation by taxi, Craig’s dive gear, a guide for his one-tank dive—-all in all, a 4-5 hour experience.

Our first trip was to Cueva de los Peces (Cave of the Fish). Craig dove on a shipwreck while I swam about gazing at corals and pretty fish. Upon his return we jumped in the cenote about a hundred feet in on the inland side. There was not as much to see in the cenote, but it was fascinating nonetheless, especially swimming through the rocky crevices. I have no photos of this because we chose to bring nothing but our gear and a bit of cash divided between a pocket in Craig’s swim trunks and a ziplock bag stuffed in my bathing suit.

Our second dive/snorkel trip changed location because we arrived at the same moment as the coastal dive bus. Our guide suggested we avoid the crowd and drive a short way down the coast to a deserted and equally good spot and site of another shipwreck, which sounded good to the three divers in our group.

It was a beautiful place to sit, Caribbean blue all around and little fish swimming about below, while the divers prepared to enter the water. But when the last of the divers’ bubbles were no longer visible and our cab driver was napping in the car, I sat by myself on a rocky ledge a few feet above the pulsing waves, trying to summon the courage to go in. The coast was extremely rough and rocky with only one exit point nearby, a rusty looking metal ladder attached to the rocks at an angle for swimmers to be able to climb out. It was just me and the sea, and I wasn’t sure I had the courage to swim by myself and tackle that old ladder in the surging waves. I climbed around on the jagged shoreline for awhile... Sat again somewhat glumly, feeling like a complete coward. Finally, I awakened the cab driver to find out the time so I could gauge when the divers would return. I decided that I would wait until I saw the first bubbles far from shore, signifying the return of the divers, and then jump in with my snorkel gear. Getting in would be a snap! This plan would give me time to snorkel, but not so much time that I would grow chilly and have to confront that sketchy looking ladder all by myself. Good plan, eh? For a chicken! It worked, though. As it turned out, climbing out was fairly easy and not as risky as I had feared.

Getting in and out was easier at the soft sandy beaches closer to Playa Giron.

The soft, sandy beaches are uncrowded places to relax and unwind, with plenty of shade from palm-thatched palapas and trees. I watched one sweet family for the longest time on our first night in town. Of course, we had gone straight to the beach! The sun was low in the sky, but the air was still warm and comfortable.

Trying to get a selfie at sunset.

There’s a fascinating, decrepit concrete breakwater that protects a long stretch of sandy shoreline. It was built many years ago to protect the beach from the fierce

storms and hurricanes that ravage the Caribbean. Craig and I thought we could walk the length of the breakwater, but the broad, decaying stairway up should have been a first clue.


The breakwater turned out to be gloriously and savagely eroded. It was a dramatic walk with

Sunset over the sea wall on our first night in Playa Giron.

waves continually smashing and splashing over the sea wall. Staying dry took some planning, but I was entranced by the beauty of the place. From shore we hadn’t been able to see the places where past storms had bitten huge chunks from the breakwater.

 

End of the road... We decided not to leap the gap in our flip flops!

Along our stroll we came across this concrete curiosity. I imagined more adventuresome twenty-somethings stashing their bicycles against the back wall, sweeping out the debris and camping out, perhaps taking refuge in a storm.

Isn't it intriguing? There's even a stairway, or the remains of one, up to the roof.

Perhaps my Cuban friends will be able to share information about this unusual structure and its history.

My main goal at Playa Giron had been to snorkel and enjoy the warm water. Of all of the places we visited, this was the one most likely to channel my inner child and trigger magical memories of sun and sparkling water from my three years of living in Cuba as a girl. No epiphanies were forthcoming, but we had fun discoveries—- on sea and on land, too.

El Cocodrillo was a delightful restaurant right across the street from our casa where we sampled some tasty lobster. Just to the right of El Cocodrillo was a little casa that sold ice cream out of a side door. That's it... You can see it through our bedroom window in the picture below. Two benches and one tired chair rimmed a small patio where we could wait for and eat our ice cream. Our son, Ty, had told us about government-sponsored ice cream shops that were supposedly everywhere. We didn't know what they were called, but we thought that we had found our first one in Playa Giron. For the equivalent of 20 cents each we would receive a cone or bowl, sometimes with a little chunk of sweet cake and dollop of frosting. Funny thing was, no matter what we ordered, we were served something else. I think they were messing with us! Turns out that we were wrong again. We never did find a Coppelia, the government-sponsored chain. You can see an aerial view of a particularly massive Coppelia in Vedado in Patrick McGrew's article about Havana architecture: https://www.linktv.org/shows/artbound/a-california-architect-visits-cuba
That Coppelia serves more than 4,250 gallon of ice cream to 35,000 people every day! Our little Boca ice cream "shop" probably counts their daily servings by the dozen.

One day, while walking down a new street, we happened upon a man cutting hair beside a barn. The customer sat on a narrow stump. Craig had been complaining about his long hair for weeks and saying he’d get it cut in Cuba. Well, here was a unique opportunity! We decided that my Spanish was good enough to communicate desired length. We had noticed that most Cuban men had hair buzzed very short on the sides, with variations of longer on top. Craig did not want his sides cut “muy corto!” We opened the gate and approached. The barber soon finished with his customer, disappeared inside the barn, and reappeared with a chair. Evidently tourists rate a real chair. We asked the cost (about $1 in USD) and I explained Craig’s desired trim. There was lots of laughter as the barber draped his frayed cloth around Craig’s shoulders and got down to business using a comb and pair of scissors. The locals who gathered round were as entertained as we were. It turned out to be a very good cut!

A fascinating land-based discovery was Museo Giron. We had spotted it when we had first arrived. Hard to miss the huge Cuban flag, fighter jets and armored vehicles out in front! It was a fascinating presentation through artifacts and enlargements of photos and historical documents of Cuban struggle and heroism in the face of foreign interference during the Bay of Pigs misadventure and the revolutionary period of Cuba’s history. For one CUC I was free to take pictures. I took dozens of photos of the huge printed displays so I could study and read them correctly later. More on the museum in a separate post.

Raul, Obama’s body double, was a delightful discovery. I didn’t realize it at first glance, but when we ran into him later at a small eatery, Cafeteria La WiFi, it hit me. Costume parties are a no brainer for Raul. When we bumped into Raul a third time, as we were waiting to catch our bus to Havana, I asked for his picture.

Cafeteria La WiFi is wistfully and comically named since

there is no wifi in town, not even in the one small resort hotel.

     

Abigail haggling with the men over prices. Barbara looking on, eager to have me take her picture.

We met Abigail from Arizona on our final morning while waiting for our bus. Fun and feisty, she enhances her Cuba experience by peddling slacks and jeans out of her rental car. Evidently, all it takes is a whisper, “I’ve got jeans to sell,” and customers materialize; plus it's easy to gather an audience (sometimes unwanted) when you're a woman traveling alone Abigail was horrified (but not surprised) to hear our tale of being hustled in Havana, and treated us to our only free meal in Cuba. Traveling on this day with her Cuban home stay host, Barbara, Abigail was able to score the cheapest (local Cuban) prices.

I would love to spend more time in Playa Giron investigating the many intriguing dive and snorkel sites, chatting with the locals, growing my courage, and being open to all of the surprises that Cuba offers.

Continue to our next stop:
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