Guanabo

Guanabo

Not the best place in Cuba by any stretch of the imagination. In our guidebooks this town is described as a lovely little beach-side town which still has kept it's old world charm. This may have been true in 1933 as in this photo.

I would describe it as a Mad-Max type post apocalyptic hell-hole that attracts the worst elements of Cuban society and the worst type of tourist. It is very run down, dirty and sleazy

One example, whatever you do, do NOT go to this beach bar.

. Naturally there were nice people there as well and many locals from Havana came for a day at the beach because it is quite cheap to get there by bus.

I must make a special mention of the Police because they tried really hard to make us feel safe and welcome. We did have an “opportunity” to visit the station after one of the Ladies in our group, Andrea, had her backpack stolen on the beach. Claudia and Andrea, who you met in my last blog-entry, were sunning themselves on the beach using their backpacks as pillows as they had been advised to do many times by the police. Andrea lifted her head to take out her MP3 player, put it on and lay back down again and her pack was missing. A matter of seconds! Claudia was lying right next to her reading a book (no MP3) and heard and saw nothing. Incredible. I accompanied the ladies to the station to help translate.

We were interviewed by the local chief of immigration who spoke good English and several other officers who helped write out the report in great detail. They all went to enormous amount of trouble, including sending out several squad cars and making numerous phone calls to try to find the bag. So I would like to extend a warm thank you to the Guanabo Police. They are doing a great job in a difficult situation. Unfortunately they cannot be everywhere at once.

Lada or Moskovitch? I can never tell the difference. These are the Cars the Police use.

Of course it was not all bad, we met many nice people as well, had nice food in the two Italian restaurants, Don Peppo and Italo nova

Cadillac? Behind is the Italo nova.

 and saw many nice old cars and other methods of transport.

Horse + Buggy

Water delivery? The tap water is salty here and undrinkable.

Now it's time for some more pics of nice old cars. Since I am not such a car buff you will have to identify some of these yourself.

Many are Taxi's

I got this one! FORD!! :-)

There are worse places to end up in but not in Cuba. At least there is almost no violent crime, just theft and tourist hunting and ripping off. At any rate, I am glad to be back in Havana at the Riviera hotel and am looking forward to the tournament starting tomorrow. After the tournament I will show you the nice places in Cuba of which there are many.