Cuba - Day 9 and 10 - January 11th and 12th

January 11,  was a day for some "housekeeping" including getting Bob's glasses fixed and picking up our concert tickets at the Teatro.

From the theatre we walked down to the water front on our way to lunch at the paladar La Aché, which was highly recommended by the Lonely Planet folks.

On the way we passed this amazing tree which we have still not identified.



The photo to the right looks across the bay to an area which we plan to visit in the next few days, a trip which proved to be quite interesting.

At the paladar Aché the ambience was pleasant  and both the service and the food were very good, though I say that about the food without much basis as I am still being very careful about what and how much I eat. Bob is feeling much improved so he had a more complete meal and pronounced it very good.

After lunch we went home hoping Amed had found us a new place to check out but he hadn't. He did, however, have some good suggestions of places we might like to explore in the coming days.

January 12th.  Today is our last day at our current Casa and, in the morning, we still do not know where we will go next. After breakfast, we went with Amed to a possible new place quite nearby. This place was certainly acceptable but the owner, unfortunately, speaks virtually no English so we had to look further.

Amed went off on his own errands and we went to the internet cafe for Bob to check his email as he was waiting for something important, then to a restaurant for some fluids and, as neither of us is completely well yet, we are off beer and into juices and water.

Then back to our casa for a bit of a rest before checking out the next possible place for us to stay. This one, which is on the Prado nearer to the central Plaza de José Marti, turned out to be acceptable to both of us so we now had our digs and it was a relief to know where we were going to be for the rest of our time here. More about our new hosts and the accommodation later.

With that settled, we decided to walk down to the water and along the malécon to La Punta Gorda (punta means "point") which is on an isthmus  that extends into the bay area in the southern part of Cienfuegos, a walk of about 1 to 1.5 kilometres.

This area is definitely more middle class with a lot of new and well maintained houses, many Casa Particulares and at least a couple of very upscale hotel, as well as the rather exclusive looking Cienfuegos Club (below).

We stopped for some juice at one of the hotels and sat where we could look out over the bay and harbour.

If you click on the photo to the left and look carefully you should be able to make out a dome like structure on the horizon. This is part of the joint Soviet and Cuban nuclear village and power plant project which, near completion, was halted and "mothballed" under pressure from the US (and likely other countries). It is not accessible, even for us.

Next to the hotel where we drank our juice, there is a building, originally an ostentatious home, now a restaurant. It was built by an extremely rich fellow who apparently died a year or two after the building was completed. It appears to me that it was designed with the Alhambra in mind.

This is not the first Moorish architecture we have seen in Cuba - remember images from Havana with Moorish arches in the Plaza de Catedral as well as the tile work in both the Hotel Sevilla and the Hotel Parque Central - but it is definitely the most spectacular.

During our walk home a lovely sunset was developing, so we stopped a couple of times for pictures.

We were pretty tired after the walk so rested a bit before dinner after which we left, with our host, Amed, for the Teatro for a concert. This was a special event as the string orchestra, The Northwest Sinfonietta Orquesta de camera, was comprised of a group from Seattle with other players from Cuba and a conductor from France. And it was an excellent program with a mix from Carmen to Vivaldi ending with Beethoven's fourth piano concerto with string accompaniment. Both soloists, a woman violinist from Seattle, and the pianist, Joel Fan, were extremely good.