Puerto Padre and Herradura.

One of the things I find hard to understand in Cuba is why it is so hard to get down to the beach. The country is a very thin Island with coastline everywhere but compared to Australia, very little beach culture. Most of the people we met can't swim! As usual we got up later than expected and didn't hit the road till after the crack of noon :-)  A girl we had met on a visit to Holguin two years ago offered to guide us to a beautiful beach called Herradura but instead of meeting us at the hotel at 11am as agreed she turned up just before 1pm. Nothing unusual. We did however assume that she knew the way. Oh well. One thing about Cuba that one needs to get used to is the lack of road signage. I did read somewhere once that in some area the signs had been taken down to make life harder for the yankee invaders and I guess they have just forgot to put them up again. Our guide, Yusmary, was good at leaning her head out of the window and asking people for directions. What if there are no people around to ask you may say? Doesn't happen. There is always someone around....everywhere.

 Anyway, we missed the turnoff and ended up in Puerto Padre. A  lucky mistake as this charming little town is not listed as a tourist attraction in our tourist guide but deserves to be.

The main street leading to the port

where a sailing club seems to be.

Don Quixote?

next to a windmill.

And next to the Church

Jose Marti!

So what is this? Next to the church we thought this was a grave but it bears the inscription of Jose Marti... but this Cuban hero (well worth clicking the link) is supposed to be buried in Santiago de Cuba. We remain confused. The beach beckoned more than historical curiosity. On our way out of town we passed a fortification. 

the front

I would love to tell you what it is but since it was already late afternoon and we had already spent a few hours on this detour we left. 

This time we found the turnoff and got to a nice bay with a small beach and no other tourists except a Cuban-American visiting his family. He had not seen them in years as only recently were family visits allowed by the US government and only once a year for 21 days I think. Since we were talking Spanglish I may have some of the details wrong but anyway, here is the beach.

and the other direction.

This town had suffered a lot of damage during the last Hurricane so there was not a lot of infrastructure.

Like everywhere else we were offered Lobster but a word of warning. They are often not fresh. On the right was a plate of Banana, not potato chips. Delicious.

And our guide Yusmary enjoying her food. Were were not dining in a restaurant but rather a private house.

as you see the accommodations are quite modest. By the time we had finished Dinner, which turned out to be more than agreed upon (not much) we drove back to Hoguin.

But not before spotting another Rainbow :-)