Cuba Independently? Es Posible! #5: Las Terrazas/Sierra De Rosario

Las Terrazas/Sierra De Rosario

Another long drive from Maria La Gorda to the La Moka Ecolodge. In the self-contained eco-community in the village of Las Terrazas around 80km west of Havana, we give another hitchhiker a lift who turns out to work for the Ministry of the Interior and helps us navigate through the streets of Pinar Del Rio. This four star hotel (the best by far we stayed in) was booked by us before we left the UK as we wanted to stay here due to it’s ecological policies and the fact that we could hire a local guide to do some birding and hiking. A stay here is well worth paying the extra cost, and it is very advisable to book this before you leave home, as the chance of getting a room on spec is impossible.

The hotel offers spacious rooms and has a dining room serving both breakfast and evening meals of good quality. It helped having a smattering of Spanish as the serving staff had very little English, which we coped with but it has to be said that Brits abroad are terrible at even attempting to master a few simple phrases.

We felt very smug as we ordered our breakfasts in Spanish one morning whilst a wealthy middle aged couple decided that the best option was to speak louder and slower (in English) when asking for grapefruit juice for breakfast, when they could have known that they only had the option of Papaya or Orange. They were not impressed when three scruffily dressed (after an early morning’s guided walk) twenty somethings’ managed to get served before them and with much more courtesy all down to a few words of rudimentary Spanish!!!!

The palador at Union Jardin cannot come more highly recommended as we again found that meals in such establishments were excellent compared to the buffet fare offered in the hotels (exceptions being the Nacional and La Moka). We were told by one of the guards at the gate, which signals the start of this community that this was the best place to get home-cooked food. No doubt he was on a kickback from sending us there, but everyone has to earn money somehow!

A three course meal cost $15 a head, with chicken being the staple food along with rice and beans. Remembering the offence we caused by refusing dessert in previous casas we remembered not to say no and were indeed treated with some ice cream to die for, and the only thing that can be said about the coffee is that it is so good (especially when taken with sugar and black in Cuban style) that it should be added to a list of banned substances!! I think we found that three refills was about as much as we could cope with before losing the ability to walk (our tolerance to rum based cocktails was much higher!!).

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