A Beach Day and a Cave Party

In the morning we find a Lada taxi whose driver agrees to take us to a beach about 60 kilometers away, wait there for several hours, and then drive us back.

The roads along the way are rough in many places — about as bumpy as some streets in Tallinn — but we still manage to get there and back without any problems.

Later that evening we take another taxi a few kilometers outside the city to attend a party held in a cave, which one of the locals had recommended to us the day before. We ride there in a taxi driven by his friend — although the price ends up being exactly the same as what our daytime taxi driver had quoted.

Our helpful advisor also takes 1 CUC commission from our tickets. In Cuba, nobody recommends anything purely out of kindness. Still, to be fair, he shows up at the same party later that night himself.

Inside the cave there is first a dance performance, after which the music continues and people gradually start dancing. Soon almost everyone in the cave is moving to the rhythm.

At one point I run into a Cuban girl with whom I had danced the previous night at another party, though she leaves quite early.

As the night goes on, the atmosphere becomes increasingly wild. People start pouring drinks over each other’s heads — mostly beer — while everyone laughs and treats it as part of the fun.

Eventually I also get lightly soaked, and after that my enthusiasm for dancing disappears somewhat.

Around 3:30 a.m. I decide it’s time to leave. I ask a small group of people I had chatted with earlier at the party if we could share a taxi.

It turns out the driver is one of them.

He is definitely not sober, but there are no better options around and the distance back to town is only about five kilometers. The car already holds four other passengers, yet I’m still asked to pay the full price of 5 CUC before the ride even begins.

At least he drops me right at the door of my accommodation.

Unfortunately, there isn’t much time to sleep — in two hours I have to wake up again to begin a long bus journey to the next city: Trinidad.