The Cactus Trip Diaries

The coral limestone around Cabo Cruz had looked promising yesterday, so we returned, but this time had to pay the CUC$ 5 per person admission to the Parque Nacional Desembarco del Granma. When we drove past here yesterday, it was late and everybody had gone home. There was a nature trail and archaeological site (El Guafe) with guides to accompany us on the two hour walk (S1694) all included in the admission fee. Fortunately our Spanish has improved enough to beat our guide’s knowledge of English, which was nothing.

We told her that our main interests were cacti and that Mike was also a keen bird spotter. While she was quite good on the birds, her knowledge of the cacti was less impressive, but at least she could recognise plants in the family and point them out, leaving us to murmur a genus name followed by ‘sp.’, but not at all sure of their precise identity – although we did find some plants that had been labelled by a touring botanists, including a Selenicereus boeckmannii (now a synonym of S. pteranthus). I think that we were on safe grounds with our ID of a gigantic Dendrocereus nudiflorus, with roots sprawling out along the ground for several meters and with Pilosocereus brooksianus that here was a forest dweller growing in the dense vegetation. Of the non-cactoids, we saw a tree that looked like a Ceiba and a Ficus (strangling other trees). We also saw quite a few ‘curly tailed lizards’ Quite a curious tail, was it trying to imitate a scorpion? Or was the waving tail meant to fool would be predators, inviting them to attack the moving parts while the important head and body remained absolutely still?

Very satisfied with our morning’s exploits, we drove to the end of Cabo Cruz and found a snack bar to have a tin of lemonade – honest. Then it was back to Niquero and on to Pilón. East of Pilón we should find a coral limestone terraces full of Melocactus nagyi but alas our car did not get us that far.

The plan had been to find rooms in Pilón. On arrival we learned that there was no hotel in town, but there were some holiday complexes 18 km east of town, along the Caribbean coast.

We had passed one when I spotted the sign to a Cactus Garden. Too good an opportunity to miss!. Chance to see all the local plants (and more?) with suggested names and may be a knowledgeable person to point us in the right direction for spotting them in their natural habitats. There was no one there. As Cliff reversed the car, the gearbox finally gave out.  It had been a ‘very loose’ gearbox right from the start, as was to be expected for the age of the car. Now however, it seemed that the gear stick had jumped out of its gate so that the car was permanently stuck in third gear (or was it second?). We managed to push the car round so that we were facing the road and then, by slipping the clutch, managed to drive it along the main road in the direction of the hotels.

Reception at the first one looked down their nose at us, dressed in our field clothes. A similar story at the second hotel was almost similar – these places were used for block bookings by large travel firms. They had a double and a single at around US$ 218. We were not that desperate. We explained our dilemma to the lady at reception who took pity on us and suggested to go back past the Cactus Garden at the hotel we had passed earlier. They used to belong to the same group as the larger hotels, but in these hard days of financial recession had been cast off and were glad of the business – nice cabaña plus breakfast for CUC$ 48.

They also helped us to ring the car rental firm who immediately agreed to send a replacement car on its way. That car arrived at around 21:45 having driven some 168 km from the nearest depot. By the light of Cliff’s torch the mechanic discovered that the gearshift linkage between the gear stick and the gear box had become disconnected and had been ‘fixed’ before with a piece of wire that had now become undone. We were given a Peugeot 206 with 117,093 km on the clock – well run in, but only as a stop gap emergency until we arrive in Santiago de Cuba, the island’s second largest town, where we will change this car for a ‘proper’ replacement. Closing mileage on our Partner was 114,940.

Anyone coming to Cuba would be naive to think that it is possible to pick up an almost new rental car. It was reassuring that when something goes wrong, it is put right quickly and without fuss. It is perhaps worrying that a car can be handed over to a customer for a 25 day rental period with such defects and that is something that we’ll be discussing in more detail with the people at the desk on our return in Havana after we have enjoyed the remainder of our holiday.

At least tomorrow we are in the right place for a bit of cactus exploration between the hotel and Santiago.

We woke up to a nice bright sunny morning – what a difference a day makes!

We had vague plans to make this another driving day, but I realised that again I was not best prepared and that we ran the risk of passing by interesting cactus populations without realising it. I therefore moved to the back seat while Cliff carried on as driver with Mike navigating. I made use of my ‘rest day’ by scan reading the ‘Melocacti of Cuba’ book. My worst fears were confirmed, we had passed two habitat locations of different species of Melocactus already. But not to worry – we could not have stopped for good photographs in the rain and we would be passing by here on the way back anyway, so we will take a look then.

We quickly reached the town of Las Tunas, where a large round-about had a nice coffee stop lay-by plus a large image of Che Guevara supervising the proceedings. (S1691). Always on the look out for a photo opportunity I spotted a large pile of what looked from a distance like Opuntia. When I got closer, it actually turned out to be Nopalea, N. cochenillifera (Not Consolea macracantha as reported earlier)  and an Euphorbia sp. growing intertwined with each other. As luck would have it, the Consolea was in bud, flower and fruit, demonstrating their floral adaptation to hummingbird pollination. As Cliff and Mike were making up their minds if the flowers were worth getting their cameras out of the car for, a humming bird started feeding on the nectar of the Nopalea flowers. I was the one with the camera and within seconds had added another half a dozen images of a hummer feeding on cactus flower nectar. Excellent.  Cliff and Mike came back with their cameras, but as the bird did not re-appear, they decided to do some car repairs – fixing the fuse of the cigarette lighter that stopped Mike from charging his mobile phone and Cliff from charging his camera batteries. While they were playing car mechanics, the hummer briefly returned, but I guess the breeze was getting too strong, so that a quick health & safety check indicated that the risk of being blown onto sharp spines was too great. Never mind – I have some great pictures (he says modestly). The other target for my camera was a small, bright green Anole lizard, Anolis sp. as identified by Mike. 

When we approached Bayamo, it was decision time. Should we go to Santiago de Cuba and make some trips from there, or head to the south west of El Oriente, to Manzanillo and then on to Niquero. We chose the latter. S1692 is for pictures taken along the way – primarily of one of the many Euphorbia hedges with ceroids poking their heads through and for another hedge made up of Bougainvillea in flower.

We found clean, comfortable and affordable accommodation at the Niquero Hotel, but it was still early, so after Cliff had ‘modified’ one of his electrical adapters, to allow him to use his camera battery charger from the air-conditioning socket, we went for a quick exploratory drive to the lighthouse at the end of the world at Cabo Cruz. This is the farthest point west of the southern Cuba ‘peninsula’. Detailed observations have been recorded from the coast line between Pilón and Santiago de Cuba, but the question remains if this trend continues another 20 km to the east to Cabo Cruz.

Things did not look too promising as human habitation and agriculture seemed to have pushed out natural vegetation. All of a sudden, a strange sight, a large cabin cruiser / boat on very large trailer had apparently been parked along the road and a metal open sided barn had been built around it to protect it. A quick investigation told us that we had found Granma, the boat on which Fidel, Che and their fellow combatants had sailed from Mexico to liberate Cuba. I had read that he had landed near Niquero, but had not expected to see the actual boat, apparently without security or signage, along the road. Later I learned that the boat was only a replica.

We completed the last few miles to Cabo Cruz and found that the substrate had turned to coral limestone, with dense natural vegetation growing on it. We will return tomorrow to take a closer look for Melocactus that could grow in clearings between the vegetation.

During dinner, we heard the sound of a Cuban band outside. Curious as ever, we took a look to find a small percussion based band accompanying the sounds of an old street organ with a range of tunes that included ‘Roll out the barrel’ I quickly fetched my camcorder and now have enough footage of live raw Cuban music, with people dancing in the street, to use as closing credits during my Cuba presentations in months to come.

Another great day where the unexpected far exceeded what we had hoped to achieve.

We had a nine o’clock appointment with a Peugeot Partner, so after packing and breakfast we started the paperwork circus. We had agreed to each pay CUC$300 in cash and the balance on our credit cards. Credit card payments incorporate a 11.14% tax.

The first impressions of the car are fine. It is certainly not new, with 113,872 km on the clock (first time round?) and the ‘service due’ light on. The next challenge was to find the way out of town. In Latin America this can be quite a challenge as you’ll know from previous Diary entries over the years. This time we had a map and instructions, missed the appropriate turn but followed the fairly scenic route around the bay and found the freeway, A1, without much delay.

We passed through quite green looking countryside, much of it developed for agriculture. The A1 here consists of 4 (!) lanes each way! Traffic was about as heavy as it was in the UK during the petrol strike, a few years ago. Near road junctions people are waiting along the road to hitch a lift, waving cash at drivers to persuade them to stop. Public transport is just not sufficient to meet demand, as demonstrated by the few busses that were chock-a-block. There were also a number of cattle trucks jammed full with people. It all looked a bit primitive, but when you think about it, it is no worse than the London Underground at rush hour – it’s just that there, the standing is in an enclosed carriage hidden from view in dark tunnels.

We decided to make a toilet call & leg stretch at a service station and as we were about to get back in the car, were approached by a couple of ladies who asked if we were going to Camagüey. Yes, we were. Could we give them a lift? We had enough space, so why not get into the Cuban Socialist spirit. It paid off, in that on a couple of occasions they could tell us which way to go at un-signposted crossings, and once in Camagüey, to point us at a safe and reasonably priced hotel.

Around 3 p.m., the rain started to come down. Soon afterwards, the vast A1 Freeway turned in a main 2 lane country road. At times the surface reminded us of roads in Bahia, Brazil, but in general, so far, they are in much better condition.

The rain taught us that a) the windscreen washer bottle of the car was either leaking or missing and b) that the windscreen wiper blade on the passenger side was not a Peugeot standard, about 2" shorter than it was meant to be and c) that its fitting was improvised, so that we had to stop a couple of times to put it back in place, with Cliff using a bit of brute force and ingenuity to make it stick.

All in all, we learned a lot about the island, stuff that you read in books, but don’t believe until you see it. The country side so far is flat – like Holland with palm trees. There is no point in looking for cacti here, except now that we arrived in Camagüey, where we saw some trees heaving with Tillandsias and, potentially, epiphytic cacti. We’ll check them out tomorrow or on the way back, if the sun is out and the light is better.

Today’s pictures are just a few shots from the car window to remind me of what we saw – A wide road, getting narrower as we went on, on a cloudy day that turned wet. No need for a stop number – they are just filed by date/time stamp.

Our mission this trip, as usual, is to look for, photograph and record cacti in their natural habitat. 

All very well, but if you arrive in a new country for the first time, it would be impolite not to take a look at various tourist aspects as well. We also realised that we still had to map out a rough itinerary for the coming days, so sat around with maps and books and soon confirmed that the majority of cacti seem to be spread around the island, but that the more attractive ones are found in the South East of the island, not too far from that well known landmark – Guantanamo Bay.

Now better aware of where we wanted to go we had chats with a tourist rep, about the state of main roads (narrow but good), ease of booking accommodation in Cassa Particulares along the road, at this time of the year and again were told, no problem. That just left transport to arrange so we made some enquiries about the possibilities of renting a car. Again, we were pleasantly surprised that this seemed to be quite straight forward with costs similar to anywhere else on the planet.

By now it was midday, so we set off for our touristic stroll, choosing to follow the circuit recommended in one our guide books. During the stroll I rediscovered how hot the sun is here, and that I’ll have to dig out my hat to protect my scalp at the first opportunity.

Before too long we passed a small bar where the waiter was extolling the virtues of its food and drinks, and as we were now passed midday, that seemed a good idea. So a light snack, a mojito (rum based cocktail) and bottle of beer each later we continued our stroll.

Just before sunset we arrived back at the hotel – one of the advantages of staying in a 25 floor hotel is that you can see it from afar – at least when we were on the first half of our walk, we would catch glimpses of the hotel when we looked down the side streets. Not so on the way back, when we strayed a bit farther in-land and were walking through narrower streets. Eventually a friendly Cuban gentleman, spotting us looking at maps, came to our rescue and pointed us in the right direction. I still managed to snap some 180 images that reflect my first impressions of Havana, all filed away under S1689.

Tomorrow we plan to visit the Botanical Garden.

Just three weeks after coming home, we’re off again to sunnier climes. During these three weeks I had seen and felt snow, rain and strong winds with very little sun light. The mercury in the outside thermometer had occasionally strayed above the 0 C (32 F) mark, known as freezing. All in all a great reminder of why I try to be out of this part of the universe at this time of the year.

Peter was so kind to as to give me a lift to Gatwick Airport where I would meet up with my compadres for this trip, Cliff Thompson and Mike Harvey.

Days before our departure we had read scary reports on the world wide web that Cuba is still ruled with an iron fist with strict controls over what comes into the country. Amongst the items listed were laptops and GPS equipment. What a blow! Regular readers of these pages will know that they can only be delivered to your computer via the wonders of technology that includes the Internet. We also take a ridiculous amount of pictures that are best down loaded from camera cards to the laptop and we also rely on GPS equipment to guide us to the more difficult to find locations.

If such equipment was found at the point of entry into the country, it will be confiscated and held until your departure.

Various internet forums suggested that it was not as bad as that and that you were allowed to take this equipment into Cuba after completing numerous forms stating the you were importing the equipment for your own personal use and that you would be taking it with you again when you left the country.

Fortunately our experience was that the reception in Cuba was no worse than chaotic, when a small numbers of officials in an equally small number of immigration gates where faced by two jumbo jet landing almost together. There were insufficient landing forms available during the flight but we were told that these would be handed out by Cuban Officials on our arrival. And indeed, several officials were handing out forms. As 460 people looked for pens and something to write on, the semi automated luggage handling system chocked.  Passengers were three rows deep and then a helpful soul started to remove bags as soon as they came around, so that most of the bags never reached their waiting owners. Fortunately all our luggage was retrieved relatively quickly.

We had wandered about transit arrangements to the pre-booked hotel. We turned out to be correct with our worst case scenario assumption: ‘No arrangements – get a taxi’ Again, no problem. The hotel used to be the Havana Hilton before Fidel Castro took it over has a military HQ during the Revolution. It is clean and comfortable enough with nice views over Havana from our 7th floor balcony.

We already saw a large number of 1950’s cars on the road – can’t wait until we go sight seeing tomorrow!

Sorry – no pictures today.