Day 28: Veradero III

We started the day with a power walk on the beach a little after sunrise. The sand was so powdery one could even walk through the deeper stuff with ease. There was a crew picking up trash, including a guy with a metal detector, plus several guys with litter spike poles who appeared to be volunteers.

D had another memorable Etecsa experience, which she will describe (it gets a bit gross), but she did manage to get a message through to her cousin about our arrival in Cancun, and to hear from Adam that the Seahawks were winning the Super Bowl, and from Janet H. that there was snow in Portland.

We finally got on the tourist bus about 10.
Veradero 3

First stop was at a park where Cuban bikers who looked like Hell's Angels, were having some sort of rally.
Veradero 4

That was strange enough, but they were sharing the park with a recital of amateur pre-teen girl dance teams.
Veradero 5
Veradero 6
Veradero 7

Next stop was The Beatles Cafe, for which I'm sure there's a rational explanation, but I prefer the oddness of it.



Then a stop at a very nice park with duck-shaped paddleboats, but whose most interesting feature was a pigeon apartment complex...




followed by a visit to the municipal museum, in a neat old wooden building,



and a peek at the Mansion Xanadu, built by Irenee DuPont, the chemical company founder, now a very exclusive hotel...



ignored by the folks from the cheaper hotels learning salsa on the beach.
Veradero 8

Our last stop was the Reserva Ecologica, which has some unusual foliage...




including a 300 year old cacti that can grow to 500...


and that injures itself with needles that poke into the tree and leak water...



and has a strange relationship with a Ficus that strangles it, provides shade for it, and does not outlive it.



The plants grow on sharply eroded limestone that makes for a rough path



but also produces intriguing formations, including caves...



in one of which the 2000 yo bones of an extinct aboriginal were found, along with some utensils.



The place even has a history of occupation by Barbary pirates (called "muslims" by the Spanish) who used the mounded limestone as a lookout point for the Spanish fleet.

We returned to Salsa Suarez (the restaurant from last night) and had another great dinner. The restaurant is private, run by a Cuban who does a lot of traveling and picks up great ideas for food.

Location:Veradero