Day 192 - Who'll stop the rain?

Viñales to Cienfuegos

We woke up at 6am with rain still falling, so we had to drag our luggage to the bus terminal in the dark and wet. It continued to rain throughout our trip to Cienfuegos, but at least the bus was comfortable and the road was good. It was surprising how little traffic there was, it was almost as if only tourist vehicles were allowed on the road, though we did see the occasional car, truck, and horse & cart.

We had hoped that we could put some distance between ourselves and the rain, but it was still going when we arrived in Cienfuegos. By late afternoon it had slowed down a bit, so we braved the elements and went for a wander around town with our umbrellas handy. The city was pretty deserted and a bit drab looking, and after three days of heat in Havana followed by two days of almost constant rain we were feeling a bit down about Cuba, wondering if our trip was turning into a washout. We suppose this might be payback for thinking we could get away with travelling in the wet season, we'd been pretty lucky so far with only one bad day in Costa Rica.

Having said all that, the city did look quite nice, the French influence showing in the buildings around the main square and along the Prado, which is the main street that follows the edge of the bay. Hopefully the weather would improve tomorrow!

The prices in Cuba are generally quite cheap, even the really nice places we'd been booking to stay in were AU$30-40 a night. Restaurant prices were also good, even at "tourist" restaurants we'd seen cocktails for 2CUC, amd only 3-4CUC for some main courses. It may be expensive to get to Cuba but once you're there you can have a pretty cheap holiday, though transport between towns can be expensive if you stick to the tourist transport (like we did).