Sun. 26th August 2012
I was woken in the night by rain falling on the roof and wondered if it could be Hurricane Isaac heading our way. The map few days ago showed we should be safe in the far west of Cuba. I was later assured this was only a tropical storm and Isaac had headed further east and I believe Miami has had the worst of it. However the rain continues sporadically throughout the day, heavy at times and the wind gusts.
We are later shown photos of Havana taken today by a Croatian couple whose transfer to Vinales is cancelled due to the bad weather. The waves are enormous breaking over Malecon, the main road along the seafront, which had to be closed to traffic.
However in Vinales we had great plans for today, firstly to join an organised walk but as the rain continued we decided against it. After our lunchtime pizza for less than a £1 we decided to hire bikes for the afternoon – too late, all gone.
How about a trip to the cinema to see if the films are in Spanish or in English with Spanish subtitles, we will never know as the sign said “Equipo roto” which with our Spanish we knew was equipment broken! Never mind, Dave is sure there is internet somewhere. This is available by buying a scratchcard for 3CUCs (£2) allowing 30 minutes access. You also need to show your passport as locals are not allowed to use the internet without permission and a good reason. It is not possible to achieve much in the 30 minutes at the very slow access speed!
Studying our Spanish books is on the agenda, as is reading the 99p books I loaded onto my Kindle.
Tonight we will spend time over a few Cuba Libres catching up with our new Tasmanian friends Graham and Chris, who we have unexpectedly seen again in Viñales!