HOTEL CARISOL LOS CORALES AND SANTIAGO DE CUBA, JANUARY 8-22, 2020

Blog in Polish/blog w języku polskim: http://ontario-nature-polish.blogspot.com/2020/08/hotel-carisol-los-corales-and-santiago.html 

More photos from this trip: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jack_1962/albums/72157715783102422

It was our 15^th trip to Cuba since 2009 and third to the Hotel Carisol los Corales, so we knew what to expect. We paid $1,295 CAN per person for 2 weeks (from Toronto) for a junior suite in the Carisol Section.

Junior Suite C-3

Before our January 8, 2020 departure (from Toronto to Santiago de Cuba), we had booked our Sunwing seats online 24 hours in advance and got the boarding pass. We thought it was a great idea—until we got to the airport (Pearson’s Terminal 3). We had to deal with the kiosks to print luggage tags and figure out how to put them on our luggage, which was not as easy as it looked, there were plenty of confused tourist and two employees were quite busy helping them. Then there were problems with placing our suitcases on the conveyor belt, somehow they were not ‘recognized’ by the scanner. We had to carry our baggage and line up to another conveyor belt and airport employees had to help us a lot. Overall, we spent more time than in the past checking in the luggage.

Club Amigo Carisol

We were told to go gate B26 and get on the bus. On the BUS? I thought she meant the PLANE? Actually, we did get on the bus and after a 10 minute ride, we ended up at the Infield Terminal, which I had no idea existed! Later I found out that this overflow terminal was rarely used, but in December, 2019 Sunwing Airlines moved their operations there. It is also frequently used as a location for major motion pictures and TV productions.

We also enjoyed the company of various animals, grazing just in front of our room

The plane was leased from the Czech Republic (hard to believe now, during the coronavirus situation, but at that time there was a shortage of planes due to the Boeing 737 Max airliners grounding) and it had bilingual signs—in Czech and English. The take-off was late due to deicing. Dinner was no longer served onboard, just coffee and other drinks, but it was possible to buy or pre-order extra food. The flight lasted 3 hours and 41 minutes and we landed in Santiago de Cuba. Two weeks later we flew back home, no problems, and again landed at the Infield Terminal. Overall both flights got us from point A to point B, no complains.

The Sunwing plane

Because of TripAdvisor’s Cuban forums, I knew that unexpectedly the US dollar had become a hot commodity in Cuba—and we happened to have plenty of US dollars anyway. Within minutes of getting on the bus we exchanged $200 US and got 200 CUC—more than enough for our whole stay. I also ran to the nearby kiosk and got 2 cans of Cuban beer (Cristal). It turned out that I bought the last 2 cans—and that was the only Cuban beer (in cans or bottles) I had during my whole trip. Some tourists also discovered that their luggage was not on the plane and it was supposed to be delivered the next day(s). It took us over 1 hour to get to the hotel. Our very nice and personable rep on the bus, Sahidy, told us a lot of interesting things on Cuba.

On the beach

HOTEL

We got the Junior Suite C-3 (upper level). We were not very thrilled with the room (or rather the location of the building), but decided to stay—we liked better the Junior Suite H-4, where we had stayed previously. We had the same maid as 2 years ago, Martha.

The staff was overall nice and helpful, although I saw a lot of new, young people working at the reception and most of them barely spoke English—and I had a feeling they were not too eager to practice their meager linguistic skills with tourists.

Inside our Junior Suite C-3

The two-level room was nice, but there was cold & hot water, although the pressure was bad in peak hours. Otherwise everything else worked (A/C, TV, fridge, hairdryer). There was no phone in the room. We had to ask for the safe a few times—eventually it was brought (!) to our room and bolted to the wall (2 CUC per day). Both the safe and the room use traditional keys, so bring a lanyard.

Some outlets in the room were 110 V, others 220 V and they were NOT clearly marked, so ASK the maid before using them or you might damage your electronics! We brought a small coffee maker (and coffee) along with a surge protector bar—2 year ago, due to a spike after a power outage, we had lost our coffee maker. 

Sunset at the beach

There was no Canadian channel on TV, only the CNN, which I never liked watching. We tried to watch the 6 pm news, but sometimes such ‘momentous’ news like the story about the royal couples announcing their intention to step back as senior members of the royal family took up the first 20 minutes, relegating other ‘inconsequential’ news items as the Ukrainian plane disaster, Iranian Crisis or the coronavirus outbreak in the background! That was why we spent just minutes watching TV. 

Ruins of the old hotel buildings, destroyed years ago by a hurricane

From our balcony we could see the ocean and, mostly covered by vegetation, the ruins of old hotel buildings (disco), destroyed years ago by a hurricane. There were always various animals grazing the grass around, mostly horses and donkeys (with cattle egrets hanging around them), which gave this place a very rustic look. Cats and dogs were not as numerous as in the past.

The beach was nice and the beach guys quickly brought us loungers. The coco bar served cold beer and other drinks—Frank the bartender did a great job and I especially loved the piña colada. There was a massage place on the beach and Catherine had a massage every day. I hoped to do snorkeling, but every day was quite windy and there were relatively high waves near the reef, making snorkeling there too risky. But closer to the shore I did see a lot of colorful fish and even a moray eel, luring from an opening in a rock.

I brought a relatively new book by John Grisham, “The Reckoning”. It was certainly NOT a typical legal thriller that one would expect from this author. The story was set in Mississippi, in the 1940s, and in addition to some courtroom drama, it contained a lot of other elements, such as family matters & secrets, life on a cotton plantation and race relations. And from the flashbacks to the Second World War I learned a lot about the Japanese invasion of the Philippines, the surrender of the U.S. forces and the Bataan Death March.

We had the best January weather ever in Cuba: every day was sunny, about +30 C and it rained a few times, but by the time we reached our room, the sky was blue again. Because of the wind there were no mosquitos or other bugs.

Exposición Mesoamericana close to the hotel. Apparently it is genuine fake pre-columbian art!

The Carisol section (where we stayed) was much quieter than the los Corales section, where all the entertainment took place—and it was one of the main reasons we decided to stay in the Carisol part of the resort.

On the bus to the resort we ran into a couple from Streetsville that we had met at the hotel two years ago and during our stay we frequently enjoyed dinners together. We also (finally!) met in person two well-known TA members, Cubacarol and CoralQueen, whose posts I had read for many years and often relied on their valuable advice. In fact, it was CoralQueen who had recommended our casa particular in Santiago de Cuba in 2010! We met Karen from Quebec, with whom we had gone biking two years ago to the Jardin de Cactus and whose excellent Spanish greatly enhanced our outing! Besides, we often intermingled with other tourist from Canada and exchanged a lot of interesting stories on travelling in Cuba and in other countries.

FOOD/DINING

The food was average, but tasty and I had no complains. For breakfast I always had fried eggs, coffee and yogurts. Most of the time we skipped lunch, but a few times we went to the Ranchon Restaurant for excellent ribs and fish. Dinners offered a lot of various dishes. I loved grilled pork at the cooking station, it was delicious—unfortunately, twice I tried beef and it was tough & stringy—well, at least the local dogs enjoyed it… We brought several salad dressings which greatly enhanced the taste of salads. Yet after a week I did experience some mild stomach problems—there was nothing wrong with the food, but I guess the greens did not agree with my gut flora. Although we never noticed any beer or wine shortages in the resort, the wine was ‘rationed’—the servers poured only half a glass of wine and never left a bottle of wine on the table.

The (very noisy!) Cuban band

Every evening a Cuban band would provide musical entertainment while we were dining. I had really mixed feelings about them: on one hand it was nice to listen to one or two songs and admire their artistic talents, but after a while they kind of overstayed their welcome, making it literally impossible for us to conduct any meaningful conversation at the table. The performers were standing very close to our tables and were very deafening! Even if Frank Sinatra were singing like that, I’d say, “Get lost, Frankie, and pop up somewhere else!” We were often relieved when they finally went elsewhere in search of other victims... I mean, tourists!

During our stay a painter created this mural

HOTEL STORES (TIENDAS)

For the first time in 11 years it was impossible to buy any Cuban beer in the hotel stores! What’s more, on the second day after our arrival I purchased one bottle of mineral water and 2 bottles of Cuban liquors—it turned out that from then on there were no liquors and no mineral water available at the store! I brought tabasco sauce, hoping to make a Bloody Mary—but there was no vodka and no tomato juice in the store either. Well, I’m glad that there was draft beer at the bars. By the way, during our two trips to Santiago de Cuba, it was impossible to obtain Cuban beer and I only managed to get Heineken. At Plaza Dolores two restaurants had no beer and the third one eventually got some. I could not even find mineral water and I got very thirsty.

Catherine with a broken bike. As you can see, despite any predicaments, she is always smiling! After all, 'es Cuba'...

RENTAL BIKES AND WALKS AROUND THE HOTEL

We had been looking forward to renting bikes at the hotel and exploring nearby attractions. This year there were only 4 bikes available for rent. We rode to the blow holes (past the aquarium) and then Catherine’s bike got a flat tire—it was literally peeling off the wheel, so it was impossible to even walk the bike. She rode my bike to the hotel and sent a horse carriage to pick up me and the broken bike. 

The blow holes several kilometers from the hotel

We got another one and the next day in the morning rode to the village of Baconao—just in time to see the start of the elementary school at 8:00 in the morning, where students were reciting some revolutionary stanzas and singing. Later we toured the small school and spoke to the teachers, giving them several bilingual periodicals. 

Since we were supposed to return the bikes at 10 am, I was already at the rental place at 9:45 am, but it was still closed. I waited for over one hour (in the meantime, two people wanted to rent scooters and another tourist was impatiently waiting to return one), but the rental place remained closed, its sole employee nowhere to be seen. Just before 11 am I dragged the bikes to the reception and in spite of the protestations of the reception clerk, I placed them in the storage room. I suspect that the hotel is going to be very pleased when the remaining bikes finally break down—one less issue to deal with!

School in Baconao village

In the morning we walked around the hotel and twice explored the nearby caves along the coastal cliffs with indigenous cave art from Central and South America (Exposición Mesoamericana). On a couple of occasions we spoke to the gardener working there—he showed us bats (“murciélagos”) attached to the caves’ walls. We also noticed that the restaurants that we had seen two years ago now were gone—a tourist told us that they were private and too successfully competed with nearby government establishments…

Start of the day in elementary school in Bacono village

The hotel offered a free trip to Santiago de Cuba, which was leaving at 10 am on Saturday and we took advantage of it twice. The first time the bus was full, the second time there were two buses and there were still some empty seats on the second bus. Each time Julio, a very entertaining man, was our guide on the bus and kept regaling us with a lot of interesting stories. The bus dropped us off—and later picked us up—from Plaza Dolores. 

Monument of Francisco Vicente Aquilera

There were many restaurants and the old church of Dolores, converted into a concert hall, as well as an impressive monument of Francisco Vicente Aguilera (1821-1877), a Cuban patriot, mayor of Bayamo, Vice President of the Republic and insurrectionist.

Calle Jose Antonio Saco, a.k.a. Enramada

Just steps from the plaza was Calle Jose Antonio Saco, a.k.a. Enramada, closed off to traffic, always full of pedestrians, shops, restaurants and other businesses. We walked along this street several times, bought several delicious ‘churros’ (paying with CUP, or “Moneda national”) and also visited a number of casas particulares, some were quite nice and offered a great view of the city. There was even a shop offering “Las Mascotas”—yes, it was a pet shop!

An antique vehicle on Plaza Dolores, which I was not supposed to photograph, according to one funny Cuban fellow!

There were plenty of Cubans at Plaza Dolores—indeed, some tried do beg and asked for money, but most of them did not bother tourist. Two years ago I had taken a video of an older Cuban gentleman who was playing the guitar and singing, which I later posted on YouTube.

With a guitar player

Later, as I was taking photos of surrounding buildings, I spotted a beautiful antique car which I commenced to photograph. All of a sudden an agitated man showed up and, while hurriedly waving his arms, was shouting that I was not supposed to take photos of the car without paying (him?). Of course, I totally ignored him and continued my business. As quickly as he appeared, he was gone—and to make the story even more amusing, the car did not even belong to him!

This Cuban girl was so adorable!

While waiting at Plaza Dolores for the hotel bus to pick us up, we sat at the outdoor patio of the Restaurante Don Antonio and ordered a couple of drinks as well as cold beer—it was the only establishment in the vicinity that had beer, the other ones had none. There was a Cuban family sitting nearby and I took a series of amazing photographs of their adorable daughter! The servers were quite nice and I am grateful that they managed to find beer—who would have ever guessed beer would become so difficult to find? 

Festivities at Plaza de Marte

Twice we walked to Plaza de Marte, where some kind of festivities were taking place there, the surrounding streets were closed off to traffic and there were plenty of various booths/kiosks selling food. Of course, the plaza was teeming with Cubans, who were strolling, sitting and checking out the attractions. Unfortunately, it was impossible to purchase any Cuban beer anywhere nearby and only after searching several stores I managed to buy German-made beer “Heineken”, created to commemorate Havana’s 400^th anniversary. Very close to the Plaza was a Communist Party of Cuba Provincial Head Office—since there were a lot of photographs hanging in the lobby (most likely related to the Cuban Revolution), I asked if it was possible to take a look at them, but the guards did not let me in. I wonder why?

Los Angeles Hospital

On our way to the Moncada Barrack, we made a shortcut through the Los Angeles Hospital grounds. Built decades before the Revolution, it was quite impressive. On our way back we also wanted to cut through the hospital’s grounds, but that time a security guard said ‘no’ and was very adamant not to let us through. The only explanation is that between certain hours tourists are not allowed on the hospital grounds…

The Moncada Barracks, with bullet-pockmarked walls

The highlight of the trip was the visit to the Moncada Barracks. In fact, we went there, albeit briefly, during our first bus tour to Santiago, but only during the second bus trip to Santiago we spent over one hour inside the building and saw the exhibits.

The Moncada Barracks, today an elementary school and a museum

I had seen the building numerous times on TV, in books, magazines and propaganda materials. Indeed, it is called the cradle of the Cuban Revolution. It was here that on July 26, 1953, the 26-year old Fidel Castro, along with a band of 111 ill-armed men attacked the Moncada Barracks. It was a total failure—some 60 men were shot or tortured to death, the rest, including Fidel Castro and his brother Raul, fled. Later Fidel Castro was captured by Lieutenant Pedro Manuel Sarria Tartabull who, instead of executing him on the spot, as ordered, kept him alive. It was during his trial that the uttered the now famous words: “History will absolve me.” He was sentenced to 15 years, yet released after 2 years. Soon Fidel and Raul Castro left for Mexico, where they befriended an Argentinian doctor, Ernesto “Che” Guevara. On November 25, 1956 Castro (incidentally, he would die, to the day, 60 years later), along with 81 revolutionaries, left Mexico on a decrepit boat called “Granma” and landed in Cuba on December 2, 1956. The landing, like the Moncada Barracks attack, was another disaster—62 of the rebels were killed or captured. After a 2 year guerilla war, Batista fled into exile on December 31, 1958 and the next day Castro proclaimed the victory of the Cuban Revolution. That is why the number “26” has become a symbol of the revolution and can be seen everywhere in Cuba.

In front of the Moncada Barracks

The building has this very distinctive mustard-and-white color. Part of the building is a museum, the other part a school. The museum exhibits plenty of photos, uniforms, maps, torture devices and photographs of Castro’s men who took part in the attack. At the entrance to the barracks there were a number of photographs depicting various dignitaries visiting the Moncada Barracks, often guided by Fidel Castro himself. I immediately recognized Henryk Jabłoński, head of state of the People's Republic of Poland between 1972 and 1985, who paid a visit in 1979. Unfortunately, all the descriptions in the museum were in Spanish, not in English, so I was not really able to comprehend and understand much. It is quite puzzling—after all, I believe that it would be in the interest of the Cuban government to inform tourists about its revolutionary history.

The bullet holes on the Moncada Barracks' facade. Not as authentic as one would think, though--yet Catherine's smile is 100% authentic-she's happy that the Cuban Revolution eventually succeeded and we can enjoy visiting Cuba!

One of the most prominent features of the building’s façade are the bullet holes, allegedly made by the rebels’ inadequate weapons. Recently I found out that they were not real! According to an article by Stephen Hunter from “The Washington Post” (2003), as well as according to Dr. Antonio de la Cova’s presentation on his new book, “The Moncada Attack: Birth of the Cuban Revolution”, the original bullet holes had been eradicated by the Batista regime after the attack. It was only after the Revolution the holes were re-created by the new government. Besides, Dr. de la Cova said that the holes had NOT been made by the rebels, but by the soldiers.

The Moncada Barracks

I also discovered another interesting bit of history about the Moncada Barracks attack. According to Dr. de la Cova (a native of Havana and an assistant professor of Latino studies at Indiana University), in July 1953, more than a dozen soldiers killed during Fidel Castro's attack on the Moncada garrison were interred in the Cuban Constitutional Army pantheon at the Santa Ifigenia Cemetery in Santiago. After the rebels seized power, they cleared out the pantheon of the remains of their former enemies and incinerated them, added the word "Revolutionary" after "Armed Forces" at the entrance, and interred Communist soldiers in it. 

I would also like to mention the Siboney Farm, where the rebels had been preparing for the Moncada attack—and it was from this farm that they left for Santiago to carry on the attack on the Moncada Barracks. After the attack some of the rebels returned to the farm. The same day soldiers discovered the farm and eventually sprayed the façade of the house with a machine gun—the bullets holes are still visible. Since the Farm is just meters from the road between Santiago and our resort, we passed it many times.

No roof? No problem, the umbrellas will protect you from rain! I remember a Polish song by Maria Koterbska, appropriately called "Umbrellas, umbrellas"; its refrain goes like that: 
Umbrellas, umbrellas for adults and for children!
Umbrellas, umbrellas – they won’t let through a single drop!
Umbrellas, umbrellas, very cheap umbrellas!
Umbrellas, umbrellas – please buy them, ladies and gentlemen!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yugEIsB2wV0
  

On the last day of our stay the weather took a turn for a worse and supposedly stayed that way for a while. At the Santiago airport it was impossible to pay with CUC, only CUP and US dollars (and probably other currencies, too, but then there was some kind of surcharge). I quickly bought two bottles of rum. Some tourists were quite upset at the new regulations.

Comandante Juan Almeida Bosque, Fidel and Raul Castro

The flight home was uneventful, we again landed at the Infield Terminal in Toronto and had to take a bus to Pearson Airport’s Terminal 3. Incidentally, that very day (January 22, 2020) a man in his 50s arrived from Wuhan, China at Pearson’s and he became the first case of the new coronavirus in Canada.

Salud! And to our next trip to Cuba!

Overall, we experienced less problems than 2 years ago, the weather considerably better and we had a very good time. Of course, we always travel to Cuba with a very open mind and do our best to overlook as many flaws as possible—after all, we come to enjoy our vacation, NOT to complain! Yet it’s obvious that this resort needs a lot of renovations and enhancements—thus, I’m not surprised that some tourists are disappointed. Unfortunately, given the current economic problems in Cuba (furthermore exacerbated by the unexpected coronavirus situation), I’m not very optimistic that any significant improvements will take place any time soon. So if you go, just focus on the positive and have a great time!

Blog in Polish/blog w języku polskim: http://ontario-nature-polish.blogspot.com/2020/08/hotel-carisol-los-corales-and-santiago.html 

More photos from this trip/: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jack_1962/albums/72157715783102422

TWO WEEKS IN THE HOTEL CARISOL LOS CORALES AND A DAY TRIP TO SANTIAGO DE CUBA—JANUARY, 2018

More photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jack_1962/albums/72157711427720396

Blog in the Polish language/w języku polskim: http://ontario-nature-polish.blogspot.com/2019/10/dwa-tygodnie-w-hotelu-carisol-los.html

Our 13^th trip to Cuba in 9 years and 2^nd to the Carisol Los Corales since November, 2010 commenced in Toronto on January 4, 2018 by Air Cubana. We immediately recognized the 23 year old, all-black livery Airbus A320, as we had flown it to Cienfuegos in January, 2016 (LY-COM). After a 3.5 hour flight we landed in Santiago de Cuba just before 6:00 pm. Upon arrival I exchanged money, getting 153 CUC for CAD $200 (i.e., 76.50 CUC for CAD $100), the hotel offered 74 CUC for CAD $100. The only problem was a small musical band that suddenly materialized next to me, playing loud music while I was busy counting & checking the money—they could not have chosen a worse time & place for their performance! Furthermore, they expected a tip—in your dreams! The bus ride to the hotel took over one hour and we still managed to have dinner.

Junior Suite H-4, Carisol, which we got the second day and spent there 13 nights (upper floor, on the left). In spite of all the predicaments we faced, it was quite nice!

Two weeks before the departure, we had sent an email to the hotel, asking to either upgrade us to a bungalow at additional cost (bungalows were not offered by Hola Sun) or give us a quiet room, far from the pool and the entertainment area. Unfortunately, we got a room in Los Corales in the 500 section, number 520, which almost exactly met the conditions that we had NOT asked for. It was facing the swimming pool and the entertainment area, so the first night it was quite noisy because of the show and later people kept congregating in the bar area. The back of the hotel building faced two abandoned structures and a field where various farm animals grazed. The following day after 10:00 am the pool music began. By the way, in 2010 we stayed in room 516!

View from our balcony-yes, that's a horse! We saw horses, donkeys and even a herd of cows/goats passing just in front of our door!

We were determined the change the room. The next day we approached the front desk, only to be told by a stern & rude clerk that there was no availability of any bungalows or rooms. We insisted on speaking to the manager who was much more receptive and said that with a fee of 20 CUC per night per 2 persons we could move to a bungalow at Los Corales or a junior suite at Carisol.

View from our balcony-a storm and rain are coming!

Incidentally, the previous evening, upon our arrival at the hotel, we inquired about upgrading to a bungalow and the stern clerk at the reception desk told us it would cost extra 30 CUC for 2 persons per night; apparently the price had gone down overnight ;). We went to the Carisol, spoke to the person at the reception desk there, were given an upper level junior suite in the “H” section and soon we moved in—Angel, a very nice hotel employee, drove us & our 5 suitcases in a golf cart.

Another view from our balcony on similar bungalows.

The next day we paid almost CAD $400 for the upgrade and the safe (2 CUC per day). However, from the outset we experienced a plethora of problems (which I mention later in this review) and my friend demanded a refund of the extra money we paid for the upgrade. Fortunately, she did get it back, albeit in CUCs.

At the beach, original carvings by tourists from Poland

During the first 7 days of our stay we had the worst weather ever in Cuba—it was cold, windy, cloudy and raining (one evening we experienced such a heavy rainfall that we were unable to go to the dinner), so we never spent any time on the beach. I was sorry for those who came for vacation for just one week! The weather improved significantly during the second week, it was sunny and hot (up to +30 C), although it rained at least once.

The bad weather almost forced me to spend more time than I had been planning on reading books. The first book I read was “Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar” by Simon Sebag Montefiore. Although it was quite long, it was also very readable and I finished it in just several days. I had read several books on Stalin before, but this was probably the most comprehensive and impressively researched. A book about a monster and his evil lackeys, who blindly follow him and carry out his every order, no matter how thoughtless, cruel or reckless.

The second book, “The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini, was a wonderful book. The story was incredible, yet very painful—so much so that eventually I found it quite difficult to read. Yet I am glad I did.

On the beach with the hotel's employees

Certainly, the Carisol is much quieter than the Los Corals, as the latter has nightly entertainment and other activities. We could freely use all facilities & restaurants at both hotels and did not mind the 5 or so minute walk to the other hotel and back. At 10:30 in the morning a very entertaining & inspiring Cuban lady was conducting stretching exercises on the beach. Catherine heartily participated and she really enjoyed them. The beach was quite nice, but there were not enough palapas or trees providing shade, so we had to ‘reserve’ them early in the morning by 8 am. 

Is it really a Tarantula?

At Carisol, around the pool and after the rainfall, we saw many toads and several times they gave a unique & noisy performance in the evening. Another evening, on our way to dinner, we spotted a big spider—we were told it was a tarantula. Just a few days later Catherine spotted an identical spider in the resort’s washroom and she said it was a very unnerving encounter. There were plenty curly-tailed lizards all over the property, which often chased one another on the beach the way chipmunks do in Canada.

Then we moved to the Carisol section and got a junior suite in building “H”. The junior suite was on the upper floor, facing the ocean, and had a balcony with two comfortable chairs. We also had a view of the mountains. There are 4 units in each building, 2 on the ground floor and 2 on the upper floor. We were never bothered by entertainment noise or any other sounds and never saw any bugs in our room, except for tiny ants which were usually on the balcony, attracted by drops of liqueur. On the balcony we spotted a large green leafcutter-type grasshopper and a small gecko. From our room’s balcony we often watched horses & donkeys grazing the grass just in front of our room (what a wonderful environmental way to mow the grass!). On two occasions we were quite surprised to witness a herd of about 10 big bulls and cows passing just meters from our room as well as a herd of goats. Some horses had bells, so at night we heard them long before we saw them. Actually, we enjoyed those animals very much, as they gave a genuine rustic touch to the resort.

From our room #520 in the Los Corales section we could see such animals and the abandoned buildings, supposedly a hotel for the resort's employees.

Unfortunately, encountered a number of problems during our stay:

• There was NO hot water whatsoever for the first 7 (seven!) days.
• Cold water was just trickling for the first 7 days, so even our cold showers were difficult to take.
• We (as well as many other tourists) had NO water (cold or warm) at all on 3 separate occasions and such shortages lasted from about 3 to 20 hours at a time. Some newly arrived tourists were very upset as they desperately wanted to take a shower after their flights.
• One evening the balcony, bedroom & bathroom lights suddenly went out. The technician was unable to fix them, but they were back on the next afternoon.
• The air conditioner did not work for the first 2 days (the remote control was missing), but since it was cool outside, it was not a big issue then. Later it was functioning, but every while it stopped (probably the circuit breakers tripped and had to be reset).
• During the second week we had no A/C for 2 nights, even though we notified the front desk numerous times. Eventually a maintenance guy came, reset the breakers and showed me how to do it. Yet the A/C stopped working just minutes after he left. Despite my resetting the circuit breakers many times, they kept tripping every few minutes and after 1 hour we gave up. It was quite hot, we left the door open, but mosquitoes got into our room and finally we had to close the door and ended up having a rather uncomfortable night. The air conditioner seemed OK after something was replaced, as it kept working without interruptions. We also got our lights back after a night of semi-darkness.
• Power went down about 6 times, but it was restored immediately, within less than 20 seconds. Yet probably due to the power surge the coffee maker which we brought from Canada broke.
• The TV set worked, but the audio sound was very distorted and the closed captioning did not work, so we never turned it on again (in our case, it was not really a problem, as we do not have TV sets and do not watch TV back home anyway).
• There was no telephone in the room—each time there was an issue with our room, we had to walk all the way to the reception to report it.

The food was not bad and probably both of us gained several pounds!

There was plenty of food and it would be difficult to go hungry, but it was quite repetitive and relatively basic. Well, I never go to Cuba expecting gourmet cooking—yet I still managed to gain about 5 lbs.! We had meals at both Carisol and Los Corales—the latter was more crowded. Outdoors dining at both hotels was awesome (one of the reasons we went to this resort), but not always available. Breakfast egg stations served eggs & omelets, but most times they were slow and inefficient, some inexperienced cooks had problems even with cracking the eggs! Lunch & dinner: cooks prepared pork, beef, hamburgers, hot-dogs, turkey—but I never saw shrimps & fish. The buffet food was quite tasty & healthy, yet almost identical every day. For dinners we ordered red wine, which was below average—well, nothing really unexpected. Service was spotty—some servers were very good, others mediocre. At Carisol a 7-person Cuban band played Cuban music, but a little too loud, it was often impossible to conduct a conversation. Besides, when the band was playing inside the restaurant, the acoustics was terrible, the cacophonous sounds were deafening! At Los Corales there was probably a different musical band—one evening it played excellent Cuban jazz music which I loved. At Los Corales there was a restaurant adjacent to the main one, which offered pizza and spaghetti. We went there once and had a pizza, which was OK.

A short ride in this boat on Laguna Baconao was quite pleasant

We only went once went to the outdoor a’ la carte restaurant at Carisol (La Piazza). We waited for one hour for the food, the order was not correct and could not be changed. The beef was like shoe leather and the desert consisted of… melted ice cream. In addition, the 7 or 8 piece musical band was standing very close to our table and was very loud; I considered tipping them NOT to play. Overall, it was a disappointing experience and it was relief to leave—it is much better to go to the regular buffet.

Of course Catherine did not pass this occasion and immediately posed next to this antique car for a photo! 

It was a pity that we stumbled upon so many problems—especially that some of them were eventually rectified AFTER our (often repeated) interventions—meaning that they could have been fixed BEFORE! Besides, many other hotel guests we met had had similar (and even worse) problems, some had to change rooms several times, especially after the heavy rains, which caused inside flooding and leaking. I guess a proactive approach is not the hotel’s forte. Overall, I would give the resort 2.5 out of 5 stars.

This donkey was a frequent habitue of the resort grounds

In spite of all the predicaments we encountered, we had gone to Cuba with a (very) open mind and we made our vacation enjoyable, taking whatever occurred in strides. Besides, we enjoyed the surrounding mountainous scenery, bike riding, visiting nearby villages as well as watching the ocean, mountains and the horses, donkeys, cows & goats from our balcony.

Would we return to this resort? Incredibly, the answer is ‘yes’, provided that we could ensure getting a problem-free, ocean-view junior suite in Carisol.

Blow holes near the hotel

Our Hola Sun package included a free trip (by a horse-drawn buggy) to Laguna Baconao & the crocodile farm. We also had a 20 minute boat tour (3 CUC extra per person) on the lagoon—the scenery was beautiful, as it was surrounded by mountains. The crocodile farm basically consisted of 4 cages containing large dozing crocs, do not expect an eco-tour ;).

Pumpkin in Jarden de Cactus with our rental bikes

The hotel (Los Corales) offered free bike rental for a 24 hours period, to be returned at 10:00 the next morning, but their quantity was very limited and were often unavailable. But at least they were maintained on a regular basis by the guy in charge of the rental. We rented bikes on 3 occasions and rode to the village of Baconao, Laguna Baconao, Jarden de Cactus, Hotel Costa Morena, the Blow Holes (!) and the Aquarium. Easy, yet awesome jaunts!

Elementary school in the village of Baconao, Marti's bust and a Cuban flag

When we had visited the village of Baconao in 2010 (by a horse carriage), I had taken a number of photos of local residents. This time I brought them with me—and yes, I met two women whose photos I had taken 8 years ago! The village now had a nice restaurant where we had beer. We also walked on a narrow path between homes, sometimes talking to the residents. We also met one guy who spoke English, we talked to him, his mother and his brother. He asked us if we had any hats—we promised to bring him some and indeed, we rode to the village again several days later and brought him two hats. There was also a school; since it was morning, a lot of kids were coming from various directions. Nearby was a gate manned by a guard—the road was off limits to non-Cubans because it led to the vicinity of the American military base in Guantanamo. Supposedly the area around the base is full of mines.

This road leads to the vicinity of the American military base in Guantanamo and is off limits to tourists. In the past we saw a guard there, but this time the booth was empty and Catherine wanted to take advantage of this situation and ride there

At the hotel we met a very nice woman from Quebec who also spoke fluent Spanish. Incidentally, she had some major problems flying Air Cubana to Cuba—she was kicked off the flight, then had to take a different flight, landed in Cienfuegos, I believe, took a bus and then a cab to get to the hotel. We talked to her on several occasions and one day the three of us rode the Jarden de Cactus (as per her suggestion). What a great garden! The gardener in charge of the place showed us so many different plants (and our friend graciously translated everything for us) and at the end took us to the very top of the hill—the view was awesome, we could see the ocean and the Hotel Costa Morena. Later we rode to the hotel and had a couple of drinks there.

Blow holes near the hotel

We also saw the Blow Holes (just past the Aquarium). We left the bikes and descended to the rocky shore, where they were located. They are formed when the sea caves grow landwards into vertical shafts, which can cause abrupt blasts of water from its gaping hole. There were many of them and we could hear them ‘breathing’; then every minute of so, as the waves the rocks, water and air rushed into these crevices and burst out. I found one hole which was probably too far from the see and instead of spraying water, it only released air. I covered the hole with a coconut—and suddenly it was pushed about 10 feet up in the air! We spent some time, enjoying this interesting spectacle.

Goats in the village across from the hotel

There was also a small village vis-à-vis the hotel. We walked there on our last day and visited several farms. One had plenty of cute goats. Then we took another dirt road and eventually reach the hotel.

Only for pedestrians!

We had also planned to go to Santiago de Cuba and stay there for one or two nights. Because just before our trip I had gotten an extremely nasty flu, which almost caused me to cancel our vacation, we decided to shorten our trip to this lovely city for just one day. Since the hotel offered a free bus ride to Santiago on Sunday, we took advantage of it. We took advantage of a free bus trip to Santiago de Cuba on Sunday—it was certainly a highlight of our stay at the resort. 

It departed from the hotel at 10:00 am, arrived in the city at 11:30 am and left back for the resort at 4:00 pm, giving us just over 4 hours to explore the city. We managed to walk from Plaza de Dolores along the main pedestrian street (Francisco Vicente Aquilera) to Parque Cespedes. There were plenty of shops & shoppers and no cars! I took several photos just in front of the building with a blue balcony—it was there that Fidel Castro had announced the triumph of the revolution on January 1, 1959! Then we talked to a taxi driver—his antique American car (Willy Jeep) from 1942, was quite unique, only a very limited number of such model were still extant and his was the only one in Cuba. In 2010, at this very spot, I had taken a photograph of a very nice Cuban lady—I brought this photo with me and the driver immediately recognized her. She was not there, but he said he would give the photo to her.

A new taxi driver in Santiago de Cuba!  On the left the building with a blue balcony—it was there that Fidel Castro had announced the triumph of the revolution on January 1, 1959!

We wanted to see the Cathedral, but it was closed. We just went up the stairs and had an awesome view of the whole Plaza.

In front of the building with a blue balcony—it was there that Fidel Castro had announced the triumph of the revolution on January 1, 1959!

While walking around, we met Alfredo, an English-speaking, 37 year old Cuban guy who became our unofficial guide. Catherine remembered one man’s words of wisdom—“Hire a local guide and he will keep the beggars away”. We walked with him to Tivoli and the waterfront. There were lots of industrial buildings, but no big ships. I took several photos of kids playing in front of a house. 

Then we hailed a horse carriage and asked the owner how much he wanted to take us to the Cementerio Santa Ifigenia and back. After some haggling we decided on 10 CUC and rode there. As we got there, some Cuban told us that we should quickly walk there to see the 2:00 pm change of the guard at Fidel Castro’s grave. 

The grave, consisting of a granite boulder, is decorated with a plate that reads simply: "FIDEL”. It was located very close to the tombs of Jose Marti and other Cuban heroes. Nearby were the graves of fallen participants of the Cuban Revolution, but unfortunately, we were not allowed to go near them, I only saw a myriad of plates with their names. There was a security guard, telling us where to take photos and where not to go. Uniformed soldiers were standing under shaded structures. Then at 2:00 pm a number of guards emerged from the adjacent building and marched towards the various tombs. Overall, it was an interesting spectacle. We quickly walked to the horse carriage and rode back to the town center. Our guide remained with us; we invited him to an outdoor bar for beer and at the end gave me 10 CUC and two razors for which he seemed grateful. 

We were back at Plaza de Dolores at 3:30 pm. I walked around the Plaza, took some photos and then spotted a Cuban guy singing a song—I videotaped him and almost missed the bus that started leaving without me!

Santiago de Cuba is a very beautiful time and I wish I could spent several days exploring it—well, probably I would not mind walking at the Cementerio Santa Ifigenia for the whole day, as it contains so much of Cuban history.

More photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jack_1962/albums/72157711427720396

Blog in the Polish language/w języku polskim: http://ontario-nature-polish.blogspot.com/2019/10/dwa-tygodnie-w-hotelu-carisol-los.html