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<\/a><\/p>\nIt was a short ride. He dropped us on the main road in front of the little row of houses, and motioned that the entrance to the one where he had just stopped the carriage was a \u2018paladar\u2019 with very good food. It was early afternoon and we decided to eat there in the front garden that had a little tiki type roof over a sitting area. The garden was full of bromeliads and bougainvillea and even a large red rose bush in full bloom! Lunch was delicious! I had small shrimp (peeled) served over a pool of lemon, butter and garlic. Perfect!<\/p>\n
We have noticed that the salads served throughout our stops in Cuba are among the prettiest concoctions I have ever seen. We have been leery of eating most of them, but they are quite delectable looking. They are all composed salads, and so far none of them have had lettuce. Mostly we\u2019ve seen a little pile of completely white cabbage, shredded and molded into a dome in the middle of the plate. Surrounding this are little composed lumps of other veggies\u2014consisting of canned beets, canned corn, fresh carrots julienned with a little chopped herb on top. Herbs might be sprinkled over the entire plate with a drizzle of beautiful green olive oil. Sometimes there is no drizzle, but in that case a little cruet holder of oil and vinegar will be on the table. For such simple food, and some of it canned, it is a wonderful display.<\/p>\n When I looked deflated about the lack of food shopping in the town, the carriage driver asked me what we were hoping to buy. I answered ‘huevos y cafe,’ eggs and coffee. He made some kind of reply that made me think he would get them for me while we ate lunch. He was back again almost to the moment when we had finished. I swear these towns-people have some line of communication with each other\u2014and it\u2019s not by phone!<\/p>\n Anyway, he did not have the goods but he offered to drive us to the local hotel (outside of town) where we could get internet. We both wanted to post to our blogs so we took a horse drawn carriage<\/em> to a hotel to get internet. What a contrast! Check out the sights along the route to get to a modern hotel…<\/p>\n The hotel was considerably bigger than the one we\u2019d encountered up on the hill in Chivirico, and it was again geared mostly to Canadians. It looked like a nice place to escape Canadian winters, although quite rustic. The internet was spotty, and it took me more than half and hour on my limited one hour access just to get connected to my website.<\/p>\n And interestingly, again, our driver showed up just as we finished up using the hotel computer.\u00a0\u00a0 The ride back to the beach where our dinghy was tied up was the most interesting part of the whole day ashore. Along the dirt road that led to the beach were some very modest houses. He stopped in front of one and called out to the woman who lived there with her family.<\/p>\n She came out with a well used cartoon of eggs, 13 in all, and a well used plastic container of ground, very black coffee. We asked how much and she said it was her gift to us. She then asked if we had anything she could use\u2014clothing especially, or shoes\u2026for her kids. Well, I don\u2019t have anything on board for children, but since I saw no children I had no idea anyway what size children she meant.\u00a0\u00a0 She also sent us with a bag of 8 tomatoes in various stages of ripeness, and sold us a rum bottle full of honey from her bees\u2014for 4 CUC. We felt we\u2019d hit a treasure trove. Back on the boat I dug up what I could to give to her. I hope she can use what I gave her.<\/p>\n And this situation brought up an interesting subject for Bob and me, and generated a long conversation about the value of what she gave us versus what we gave her. I wanted to give her much more than Bob did. We actually had to compromise on what he took back ashore to her. In my mind the value of what she had grown and raised was higher than the value of what we\u2019d bought at Walmart to bring as \u2018gifts\u2019 (read tips) to the various officials we\u2019d encounter at each port. In this climate she had worked hard to grow those tomatoes (I haven\u2019t smelled tomatoes with such strong tomato-ness even from my own garden! And they tasted as good as they smelled!), as well as to keep her chickens and keep the bees. Bob, on the other hand, was thinking what it cost us to buy coffee and tomatoes and eggs at home vs. the cost of the t-shirts and the shoes I sent to her (used shoes I might at, but new shirts). I still don\u2019t think that is the way to look at this exchange.<\/p>\n And now I have to add that we have not actually tried the eggs yet, even though we have been out of eggs for some time now and I\u2019ve been craving them. I can\u2019t quite make myself crack one open. I need to face that fear soon. From what we\u2019ve seen, chickens just roam all over the place, and roosters do too. How on earth do they know which eggs are not fertilized? I am quite worried about what I\u2019ll find when I crack an egg, and I\u2019m quite put off by that. Just the though of it has cured my desire for eggs. But we can\u2019t just carry them around for the rest of the trip!<\/p>\n After Marea del Portillo we stopped at Cabo Cruz, with its well known light house used n many guide books. \u00a0This is the point where the truly southern coast jogs northward a bit.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n