Vitamin R.....

It's true, Cubans drink a lot of rum! We can barely make it to lunch everyday without being offered rum! I feel it only polite to accept such generosity and they do refer to it as Vitamin R!

After my sense of humour failure, and being awake for sunrise, we had our last Cuban Massage down from the mountains and said goodbye to the truck, before heading into sugar plantation territory. We stopped at Valle de Los Ingenios, Valley of the Sugar Mills, which was the centre of the sugar production in the 18th century, and is home to Torre de Manaca Iznaga, a UNESCO world heritage site. The 7 floor tower used to watch over 30,000 slaves to ensure they didn't try to escape. It was hard work getting to the top because by then it was midday and incredibly hot. 

We briefly stopped in Sancti Spiritus, one of the original seven settlements founded by Diego Velasquez to admire the church before continuing our drive to Camaguey, Cuba's third largest city. Our hotel was faded Art Deco grandeur and a welcome sight after sleeping in tents. There was a roof top bar and a few of us languished there, all clean, no mosquitos, and had a number of piña coladas for our dinner!