Santa Clara

I traveled here by viazul, a reliable bus company that connects all of Cuba.

Most transit companies can arrange tickets (although the one resort in Varederos professed to be ignorant of any other service than their own).

The Havana - Santa Clara trip cost $18 and took 4 hours (which includes a 45 minute stop over they took at a roadside bar which at least was nice enough). At the rest stop I met an Italian professor who was meeting friends in Santa Clara.

On arrival he set me up with another casa particulares.

It seems the standard rate for registered ones is $20 (although I believe the black market ones are $15). A family ran this new particulares. My room was double the size of the last with air conditioning and a private shower. This was actually a lot nicer than the four star hotel I stayed in Varederos.

All of the fixtures were new and they even had a television set although I am having trouble understanding the Cuban soap operas (although the bad acting in this is universal).

Walking the streets of Santa Clara is very different from Havana. I had only been stopped twice for requests and much more politely than in Havana. There are more "nuclear families doing things together either on the street or in their houses.

The roads and houses in Santa Clara are much better kept than in Havana, although I believe this may be related to much of the old Havana has been declared a world heritage site and reconstruction and upgrades must be fully authorized.

Complicating this is the lack of certain raw materials needed.

There is a great black market in construction materials for people wishing to fix homes.

Our guide told us a Havana saying - "when a building falls down in Havana they build a park".