After a few days of touring Havana, we decided to change the scenery. Cities are great and all, but when exploring a new place, I think it's important to get a little off the beaten path. I have found that it's on the more rustic trails that you get a truer taste of local culture. We decided on Las Terrazas for our day trip. Allegedely one to two hours from Havana, the distance seemed just right for a day trip. The tourist book described the Las Terrazas area as a small eco-village with great paths for hiking and swimming opportunities in the Banos del Juan. We asked Maruchi the night before on her opinion of Las Terrazas and she thought once again that we were crazy. "What do you think you're going to see??" and "wow, that's exotic" was her feedback. We decided to push on and just go for it despite her skepticism. She arranged for a fellow to drive us there and he arrived within an hour. Once he arrived we showed him where in the guidebook we wanted to go and his eyes caught two important words "Hotel Moka". Once Maruchi found out we wanted to go to "Moka" her skepticism of our plan vanished. She explained that no one uses the term Las Terrazas to describe our destination, it is singularly known as Hotel Moka. So to hotel Moka we embarked.
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| Banos del Juan |
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| Hami, our driver |
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| Restaurant among the hills |
On the way to and from Las Terrazas we took a two lane highway. The road was well paved and in good repair. We saw many cars but also a healthy number of horse drawn carriages. And by carriage I mean horses pulling what looked to be homemade wheelbarrow boxes. We also noted people selling things on the side of the highway such as a man holding a pole with two rows of whole roasted chickens hanging from it. Unfortunately we passed too quickly to snap a picture.
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| Hami's car. |
Later that evening we talked with Maruchi and asked her what her daughter did for week. We were curious and she was happy to tell us that her daughter was a model and had been in some music videos. Of note, she was the main girl in the latest Enrique Iglesias video. So here is a video with Maruchi's daughter Karina:
The video is shot in Havana.
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