tiggymalvern | Cuba, Beyond Havana (Reply)

Once you get beyond central Havana, things start to change, and fast. On the outskirts of the city, on the way to the airport, the streets look more like this:

There are horses and carriages in central Havana, but those are for giving rides to the tourists.

Half an hour on the coach heading west from Havana and suddenly you're in a world where large numbers of people still use a horse and cart as practical daily transport.

And drive them along the major roads.

The hills of central Cuba had some beautiful scenery, but we just drove through them on the bus and didn't have time to stop and admire.

Small Cuban towns.

Sunset at the harbour in the small town of Jucaro, where we joined the diving boat.

This is the Jardines Aggressor 2. We were on the sister boat, the Jardines Aggressor 1. It's much easier to photograph the one that you're not on board!

Caribbean sunset on a cloudless evening with a flat sea. We looked hard for the green flash yet again, but it wasn't there. I swear it's a myth that people tell to tourists.

One of the dive tenders returning to the boat. I was lazy and skipped that dive and drank cocktails watching the sunset instead.

We visited one of the small islands among the coral reefs and mangroves, where iguanas and hutias live. There are twenty species of hutias scattered around the Caribbean islands, and this one is the largest endemic mammal of Cuba. You tend not to see them on the Cuban mainland, because they get eaten. Nobody does that in the Gardens of the Queen reserve.

Iguanas!

This iguana may look like it's sticking its tongue out at us, but it's eating a piece of fruit we fed it.

The hutias eat fruit too. They're actually omnivores and will eat just about anything, which is how they can manage to live there. Ecology wise, they take the role of large rats.