We took a long taxi ride all the way across Havana and out the east side of city to Mi Cayito beach, a place recommended by our friends. It sits on a strip of land between the ocean and Laguna Itabo, a mangrove lagoon about 200 meters behind the beach. When we arrived there was an old farm tractor towing a wagon full of laborers collecting beach debris like sea weed, palm leaves, and whatever else was laying on the sand. Two interesting aspects of this were that they were sorting everything in the wagon, evidently for future use, and also that there were clearly more workers than were needed, with only a few doing the work and the rest watching or just riding in the wagon.
This conjures up the popular saying heard in communist countries "They pretend to pay us and we pretend to work." I don't believe this was invented by Cubans but it certainly applies and is proclaimed here. We were told that it is not uncommon for a physician or other highly esteemed professional to suplement his/her income by driving a taxi - an entire year's salary can be earned in a month of driving tourists around Havana.
We rented lounge chairs and parasols for 2 CUCs each, the standard price on the beaches near Havana. For refreshments we bought coconut waters in fresh coconuts just picked and slashed-open, and relaxed and played. There is not much here, but there is always someone willing to slash up coconuts for a buck apiece, a great wage compared to the Cuban standard. This beach is pretty clean and for the time being, the beaches in Cuba are not crowded - it's winter here. Since there was no decent hot food to be had nearby and we wanted to try out a restaurant we'd read about, Jake and I took a taxi into Guanabo for takeout lunch.
On the way to and from Pizzeria Picolo, our crazy taxi driver almost ran down several people crossing the streets in the town of Guanabo, a couple of kilometers to the east. He was driving like a maniac and continuously beeping his horn to warn drivers and pedestrians of his approach. In Guanabo, we rode to the far east end of town, at the assumed extreme limit of our zone of allowed diplomatic travel which is somewhere around 15-20 kilometers from the city limits of Havana. The sign marking our travel limit is on the beach here somewhere nearby but we didn't go to see it. Guanabo is an old town with a great deal of activity, people, tractors, trucks, horse drawn carriages, cars and farm animals all sharing the old broken pavement of bumpy streets. Animals like chickens, mules and horses stroll about freely.
The Pizzeria Picolo is very colorfully and attractively decorated, and open to the outdoors with seating in all sorts of nooks and crannies both in the sun as well as under various roofs and trellises of palm leaves, tree roots, netting or other materials. It is also an organic farm where they grow and produce everything that goes into their pizzas. As I stated earlier, everything is organic here even if they wanted nasty fertilizers and chemicals. We wished the others were here to enjoy this place and eat lunch here. We rode with the same maniac driver on the return trip to Mi Cayito. The fast driving here reminds me a little of Italy with one big difference - in Italy the cars are in good condition and capable of handling at high speeds. Here cars like our old beat up 1951 or 52 Chevy have no seat belts and have worn out suspension. Accidents here likely generate serious injury or death.
Our pizzas on the beach were a great treat. We walked, watched people and waves, and explored the river between Mi Cayito and Guanabo which lead back into the lagoon. There were two bridges, about 50 yards apart that crossed the river, and although the maps show a road going into the town of Guanabo from here, both decks were washed away and probably even God doesn't know if or when they will be rebuilt.
Returning to our casa, we walked to Carboncita for comida para llevar (dinner to go) to eat on our patio, a truly pleasant place for evening relaxation. We spent the evening at our casa dining and sampling fine Cuban rum. So far the weather has been perfect, upper 60s F. at night, near 80 during the day and nearly always a breeze blowing - for us northerners, winter days in Cuba are like splendid summer days back home.
Fresh coconut waters
