Cienfuegos - The Pearl of The South - Rosie and The Operator

Cienfeugo is one of the most modern cities in Cuba and was one of the most affluent in its 50s/60s heyday. Built off the back of booming shrimp, fishing, sugar and oil refining industries and nicknamed ‘La Perla del Sur’ (the Pearl of the South) by locals, it certainly lived up to its name.

The area we are staying was was built in the 1800s as residential homes for the sugar plantations wealthiest. Elaborate houses such as the Arabian Nights inspired Palacio Del Valle was built by a rich Spaniard.

It now is government owned and an upscale restaurant where you can access the terrace up top and get a grand view of the area plus a nice stiff breeze off the sea.

The Blue Palace (Palacio Azul) and Club Cienfiegos are also other notable builds of this grand era.

In and amongst these fine homes, you are still reminded you are in Cuba…on what should be the most expensive land in the city there are still empty sections and a couple of boarded derelict houses.

Today, this city is another time capsule to the revolution. It is painted in pastel and whites and is much more oppulant, modern and maintained. Horse and carts still traverse the streets with their drivers talking on the latest mobile phones.

The roads and streets are all curb and channel in the town and the roads are well kept with no potholes. This is a total crazy juxtaposition to what we have seen so far. The vibe of the town is more upbeat too, people have ‘known’ more, once upon a time and seem to want more, although quietly, today.

Rosie and the Operator head toward town, it was nice to stretch our legs after the drive to Cienfuegos. The breeze is refreshing in our faces and the azure harbour was being whipped up. We stop for a beer at Cafe Covadonga, according to the black and white picture Fidel had Paella here eons ago in the 50s and the grainy head shot of him eating a mouthful of fish in his combat hat sooooo supports this.

Further on down the Malecon we come across a 60s looking Hamburger Bar…yes, it does say this on the sign, Hamburger Bar. The guy inside is wearing a starched white collared shirt and a starched white apron and sporting a jaunty white diner hat rakishly angled.

It is a small place, straight out of a 50s Happy Days sitcom. Rosie looks around to see if cameras are filming. There is no inside dining, the service bar is a hatch that opens on the side and there was a big marquee style sunshade with outdoor tables and chairs under it on the tarmac. They sell beer and rum here too, of course. Mmmmm, French Fries said Rosie, a diet of rice and beans was wearing thin and after yesterday Rosie felt like fries and another beer.

The lads at the table next to us had bought a 750ml rum bottle from the diner, one can of cola and asked for 4 cups. They had a plastic cup full of rum with a dash of coke in each…they looked barely 18 and were asking all the girls that walked past to join them.

The table on the other side of us was full of men in thick gold jewellery, RayBan sunnies, enormous gold watches, tight white TShirts and fancy jeans. A group of young girls, very young girls, in short shorts and singlet tops walked down the street and across to this table. The lads at the other table knew better than to proposition these girls…the men were the girls fathers, they greated their ‘papas’ with a kiss and Papa dutifully went and bought them a beer.

Walking into town we reach the vast centre square, Parque Marti, the heart of Cienfuegos and a monument in itself to the colonial era as is testament to the impressive, colonial buildings surrounding it.

There appeared to be abit of a political rally going on in front of the statue to Cubas national hero, Jose Marti. The writer, poet and revolutionary philospher of whom the park is named after. Everybody was standing to attention facing a band playing some sombre music, national anthem? As soon as it had finished everyone resumed what they were doing. A speaker started droning on to the people and ragged cheers arose intermittently from the crowd.

The square was big and had plenty of shady trees, we also found a wee tourist train that took us around the town for $2 showing us the sites we had already walked past. We have not come across this kind of tour based organised tourism in town before. It was a great wee ride from a very politically proper young man who leant toward full and proper explainations of the revolutionary monuments and government offices we passed. We drifted around the town and ended up down by Fidels Paella Restaurant where we first stated.

The tip of Punta Gorda is a small park, with a bar, a formal box hedge garden and steps leading into the sea.

The Operator had a dip in the Carribean while Rosie sat under a shady palm tree with a mojito and watched.

There were a few people bobbing around in the ocean, Rosie called out to The Operator to ask how deep it was, the Operator promptly stood up, it was only up to his waist!

That night we had a lovely dinner in a local restaurant, charcoal slow cooked pork with the usual, rice, beans, cucumber and tomato…..plus they had a lovely cocktail inspired by a Pina Colada and served in a hollowed out pineapple to which we added our own rum.

The bar tender saw the glint in The Operators eye and wasn’t entrusting him with the bottle to pour his own. He kept asking The Operator, enough, enough,? As the rum trickled out…the operator kept waving his hand to keep going….enough? enough?….after what seemed like an embarrassing long time the Operator calls time ‘Si gracias’.

When The Operator went to go to the toilet Rosie snuck a sip out of his pineapple….she actually choked a little….the bar tender saw this and laughed…it was so vially strong!

The sleep we had that night was awesome, the air con was great and the room naturally cool already as no sun could get in. We awoke in the morning and headed back to town.

This is where all the locals come to shop, a marbled paved shopping street with beautiful light posts and ferns hanging off them, plus, they were actual shops, side by side in a small precinct, overwhelmed with people.

Rosie saw an Optometrist! She scuttled over for a browsy as having worked in optics herself for a decade she was curious about the eye fashions available.

Well, Rosie was aghast, the government style spectacles on offer were a lot to be desired. It was a real shock to the system seeing the ‘antiquity’ of them and limited choice, these pics were basically the whole stock on offer.

The next shop was a haberdashery store, it had counters and quite a lot stock, eclectic and one choice for every type of product.

Check out the prices on the goods and do the conversion….when you consider how much they earn, you can see that day to day living is not cheap.

After a good nosey around we went into a peso (local currency) sandwich store for a beer, the shade was so inviting under the terrace yet it was still amongst the hustle and bustle of the street, perfect for people watching.

It was lunchtime and the outdoor menu was displayed only in Spanish with the prices. They were selling sandwiches made in what we would call hamburger buns. The pensioner aged waitress was giving service to all the tables but Rosies. We should have cut and run but hey, we were after the local experience.

Rosie goes up to the counter window and asks for 2 beers and 2 ham and cheese sandwiches in her bestest Spanish. She had been practicing at the table with her guidebook. The cook, come server on the other side of the window just grunted and walked away. Rosie, trying to be positive sees this as acknowledgment and backs away.

We do get our beer and sandwich and the ham is some indescribable mechanically reclaimed meat of some form from a tin with a funny taste and texture to boot. The Operator has already wolfed his as a lady gestures to share our table to have a beer. The lady drinks the beer and disappears while Rosie is checking her guidebook and choking back her fake ham and cheese sandwich.

Rosie asks for the bill and is waved back to the counter where I ordered. The cook writes down the order and prices for me…very helpful, 2 beers $2cuc and 2 sandwhiches $2cuc – cant go wrong with a $4 lunch plus beer and it wasnt squirming in Rosies tummy.

Rosie pays and we walk out, we are then manhandled by the pensioner waitress back to the cook and a rapid Spanish exchange happens. Rosie has no idea what is going on but they are talking to me! No ‘Hablo Espanol’ shrugs Rosie.

The cook takes control and gets her pad out and says 3 beers and 2 sandwiches she points at me then at the third beer on her note paper. No way, the lady that sat with us had skulled her beer and done a runner with out paying! They thought she was with us! It was only a dollar but Rosie was standing firm!

‘Dos cervesa and dos bocadito’ said Rosie – ‘nada, no more – La Quente quattro cuc – nada no more’.

Rosie turns to leave, the cook shrugs but the feisty pensioner still wants a go. Adios said Rosie and dragged The Operator out with her. The sandwich wasn’t worth the showdown but still, it didn’t give Rosie the squints either.

Back to our strip of beach we went to while away the hottest part of the day. The Punta Gorda area we were staying in was the furthest point away and a good walk from town, there were plenty of motorbike taxis towing little carts to get us to and from town and plenty of bici drivers as well, each journey one way was $1.

Our Hotel was called Los Legartos, a legartos is a native lizard, they have a set of lovely contrete lizards gracing the entrance to the hotel.

The low and behold, The Operator noticed the real deal sunning itself on the wall next to us. It was a cute little thing with a very long body, apparently, when they get agitated, their throat blows up like a piece of bubble gum bubble and it is bright red.

It was before the dinner rush and Rosie and The Operator, you guessed it, were in the bar before we went into town for tea.

We were the only ones there and the staff were fishing from the restaurant deck. They were throwing breadcrumbs into the water to attract the fish. Look close, you can see the wee fishies in the pic below.

There were swarms of tiny little fish mooching around. They would then through a hand line baited with a hook and bread ball under the deck. This is where the bigger fish are that eat the smaller fish…well, as soon as the hook was in the water, 5 seconds later they had a bite. They had a bucket of herring size fish in no time flat. Too easy!

Cienfuegoes Paseo del Prado is like Havanas, a pedestrianized strip down the middle of the street with regal houses and restaurants down either side. This Prado comes into its own in the evening being the direct route to the harbour side Malecon from town.

During the day it was too hot to linger with little shading and blistering hot white concrete. In the evening as the sun sets, couples came out and sat on the seats, or lingered as they walked this thouroughfare toward the cooling breeze of the harbour. We had dinner that night on a balcony overlooking the Prado in what once was a beautiful townhouse. It was still regal and beautiful and Rosie could certainly imagine calling this home!

Rosie and The Operator wandered off home as the sun set, this was certainly a town that was different again to what we have encountered so far. We cant wait to see and compare more!