Ruminations of an Expatriate

We stayed for two nights in the small town of Remedios, a few miles from the North coast about an hour’s drive North of the larger City of Santa Clara. Our hosts were Gregorio Fong and his wife Deisy in one casa and their daughter Greisy at the casa next door. The two house were until recently one house, which was divided, I suppose, so the family could rent four rooms. Casas particular are limited by law to the rental of only two rooms.

North of Remedios is a 50 kilometer causeway which connects a series of islands, “cayos”, and on our second day there we rented a car for a visit. It is not possible to hire a máquina for the trip as one must pass through a “punto de control” to pay the entry fee of $2 USA per car.

The rental of the car was a breeze. We had checked at the agency the day before to determine the cost and rental process, and was assured that a rental agency representative would call us the next morning at our casa, the phone number of which the agency already had. Later the same day Sr. Fong informed me that the agency representative had called and would stop by the house with a car at 7:30 the next morning.

Sure enough, the next morning a very pleasant fellow showed up with a small Hyundai and within five minutes had completed the paperwork. The car was $50 for twelve hours, including twenty letters of fuel and there was a $200 insurance deposit, returnable when the car was returned with no damage. I was the only authorized driver, and in the event of an accident in which I was at fault we would be charged a maximum of $350, unless I was drunk, in which case I would probably have to buy a new car and have problems with the police. The agency representative told me I could have two or three drinks and that the passengers were free to drink. If there was an accident not my fault the deposit would be returned. Fortunately there were no problems and our deposit was returned.

There are a number of upscale hotel developments amongst the cayos, some already completed. We opted to visit Cayo Las Brujas, the site of a less expensive hotel, a palapa restaurant, and an amazingly beautiful white sandy Caribbean beach. The water was the amazing turquoise color one might imagine of the Caribbean and which I think is imparted by the white sandy shallows.

Entrance to the beach was $5 USA and included two soft drink or bottles of water and a sandwich . We opted to order meals from a very pleasant waiter who speaks English very well.

Following a meal and a swim we drove to the end of the roadway where we stopped to talk to a couple of fellows who were harvesting sponges. The cayos are very much worth a visit.

Remedios is a quiet little town with two churches adjacent to the central park. Locals say that inside the church is amongst the most impressive in Cuba. Also adjacent to the park is the cafeteria El Louvre, which Sr. Fong informed us his dad had owned, along with a small market down the street, until the mid-1960s when it was appropriated by the government.  Sr. Fong’s father immigrated to Cuba in 1917.

We spent a couple of pleasant evenings sitting at the outdoor tables of El Louvre drinking Bucaneros and commiserating with the locals. There we encountered a fellow employed teaching young folks to play chess and who speaks English very well, though a bit of a Caribbean accent, it seemed.

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