The Cubacar Diaries

I wish our adventure to Maria La Gorda has been as noble as Che’s ride through South America. And while “noble” isn’t the word I would use to describe our road trip, it was nonetheless a road trip through Western Cuba and as such, an adventure.

We started out as a group of nine American students in two small rented cars departing from Havana two weeks ago. It was only a weekend trip, but we planned to make the most of it. Heading west, we saw lots of farmland, billboards praising the Cuban Revolution and other billboards urging the release of the Cuban Five. At one point, we even saw a military tank on the side of the road! They must have been conducting an army training exercise, but to have only seen billboards and farms for the first 30 miles and then glance to the side of the road and see a tank rolling around, its artillery aiming in different directions – truly a Cuban experience.

Then nightfall came and although we had made plans to stay at a beach villa, we were turned away and told it was full. That also happened again at the next place we tried. Before we knew it, it was half past midnight and we were parked at a gas station, ready to sleep in the cars for the night. On a whim, we decided to ask inside if anyone knew of a casa particular [*houses in Cuba where guests rent a room] nearby where we could simply sleep for the night. A woman and her daughter said that they had a friend that they would call, but it ended up that they couldn’t get in touch with her. So rather than letting us sleep in the cars in the middle of nowhere, the woman and her daughter welcomed us into their own home, no questions asked. They offered us food, let us park the cars in their yard and the next morning, went to the bakery and purchased a bread roll for each of us. They also introduced us to the litter of puppies their dog had recently had and we were awakened by the loud grunts of their two, very hungry, 800-pound pigs! While aspects of our stay were quite funny, the generosity of their family was all too kind. After breakfast we thanked them for everything and continued on our journey.

The morning drive went much better, but the dive time that we were trying to make was 11 am. We pulled into the parking lot of the scuba dive office at 10:45 am and somehow, made it on the boat clad in swim wear and scuba/snorkel gear by 11 am. Only two of us (including myself) were certified to dive and while everyone else snorkeled, we explored the ocean floor of the western-most point in Cuba.

Unfortunately, there really wasn’t that much (in terms of fish and other ocean creatures) to see, but we did see a manta ray and an eel and a few species of very colorful fish. The water, though, was crystal-clear. I think my favorite part of the dive was when our dive instructor led us through two high walls of coral that were so large, it felt as though we were swimming through an underwater cave. It was incredible.