We rode quite a while, over some dodgy roads, until we came to a settlement in the forest. I was videoing this cool oxcart, and then realized it was for us...
See Baracoa 1
to cross a couple of streams that had gotten too swollen to wade.
The hike was tough, a lot of climbing and sharp descending on rocky and muddy trails, but I wasn't complaining - it beat sitting in the Casa listening to the rain. We had an excellent guide, Karel, another English teacher turned guide for tips, who knew a lot about the flora and fauna and was quite helpful to all of us.
Although it wasn't the high orchid blooming season, we saw two.
We also saw a lot of "life" birds (being Cuban species), including the Cuban trogon and Cuban parrot. The only one I managed to get an image of was a little beauty, the Cuban tody.
The guide was pretty excited, he'd only seen one other in several years of guiding. It's a good first birding day when you see two of the birds on the cover of your bird book.
We also saw the world's smallest frog (in a Tupperware thing, a local guy had it) about the size of a house fly, tho they get bigger, about the size of a fingernail. We also saw some really big millipedes, and one of the famous endemic polymita snails. They are quite colorful...
and thus have been collected for adornment, these on the hat and necklace of a local celebrated musician...
but the one we found was less so, because it was dead.
An oddity on the trail was crab legs - the hawks (which we also saw) catch them on the beach and bring them up into the hills.
Dana had a fun encounter with some kids near the end of the trail. One little boy in a group of kids gave her an Asian pear and she started talking with them. Inevitably, they asked for pens. As usual, she said she had none, but the boy who had given her the pear pointed to the web in the back and said yes you do. Tho his big sister tried to shush him, the jig was up, and D had to
oblige them. Fortunately, she had enough for each of them. They followed her for awhile then, and jumped in to help her when she crossed the stream.
She graciously spared them the hokey pokey. We then spent an hour or so on a beach.
When we got back to town, D insisted on hitting the local Casa de Trova (where a band was playing) before doing anything else, so we went in there in our soaked, dirty clothing with our packs.
See Baracoa 2
My legs were cramping, so D asked a guy to dance, but he turned out to be the only guy in Cuba who couldn't dance, and moreover had no apparent sense of rhythm.
We again finished off the day on our rooftop restaurant, and the waiter surprised us with a complimentary chocolate/ vanilla dessert that was incredibly flavorful.
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Location:Baracoa
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