No products in the basket.
Camagüey, a less travelled city
December 29, 2029
Camagüey, is a less travelled city situated further east than most tourist destinations. It is a four hours taxi journey away from Trinidad. The city seems difficult to navigate for taxi drivers due to the many one way roads. We asked our driver to drop us at the nearest location to our casa particular, Casa Los Tinajones, and proceeded on foot for the remainder of the way.
We then discovered that Google map proved to be unreliable as the casa was at least two blocks away from where it was pinned on the map.
After dropping off our luggage, we ventured out for coffee and a stroll to orient ourselves. Despite Camagüey’s larger size compared to Trinidad, there are fewer attractions and sights to explore.
Nevertheless, there is a whole road dedicated to the cinema, where most of the businesses have a movie related theme. According to Lonely Planet, the various cinemas on that road had fallen into disrepair in the 2000s, but the Casablanca cinema multiplex reopened in 2014 after undergoing extensive renovations.
There are fewer tourists in Camagüey. Many casa owners reported that their accommodations remain unoccupied despite the high season. It is likely that this is due to the ongoing supply issues in Cuba, which have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
As an example of the supply issues faced by the Cuban people, today, there was no coffee or bottled water in two of the establishments where we intended to have lunch. we had to settle for lemonade instead of a cappuccino and later had another lemonade with our toasted sandwich.
Visitors tend to focus on the western part of the island, traveling from Trinidad to Santa Clara before looping back to Varadero or Havana. We, on the other hand, are attempting to venture all the way east, but are starting to see that shared touristic transport is not as accessible than in the west of the island. We already had to catch a private taxi from Trinidad to Camagüey as there is no Viazul bus between those two places.
Due to our budget constraints, you may remember that Cuba is a cash economy, we are reviewing our itinerary and decide to forego the trip to Baracoa. We have planned to visit Santiago de Cuba and a trip to Baracoa would have taken us even further eastward.
After two days in Camagüey, we catch a Viazul bus to Santiago de Cuba, with a travel duration of almost 6 hours. Depending on our experience, we will then determine our next steps, which may involve traveling to Holguin and taking an almost 9 hours bus ride from there to Santa Clara.
