Cuba - Lonely Planet [197]
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HORSE CARTS
A state-owned horse and cart around Varadero costs CUC$5 per person for a 45-minute tour or CUC$10 for a full two-hour tour – plenty of time to see the sights.
MOPED & BICYCLE
Mopeds and bikes are an excellent way of getting off the peninsula and discovering a little of the Cuba outside. Rentals are available at most of the all-inclusive resorts, and bikes are usually lent as part of the package. The generic price is CUC$9/24 per hour/day, with gas included in hourly rates (though a levy of CUC$6 may be charged on a 24-hour basis; ask). There’s one Palmares rental post (Map; cnr Av 1 & Calle 38) in the center of town with mopeds for those not staying at an all-inclusive. This guy also has a couple of rickety bikes with no gears and ‘pedal-backwards’ brakes. Go for a test run first and pay no more than CUC$2/15 per hour/day.
TAXI
Metered tourist taxis charge a CUC$1 starting fee plus CUC$1 per kilometer (same tariff day and night). Coco-taxis (coquitos or huevitos in Spanish) charge less with no starting fee. A taxi to Cárdenas/Havana will be about CUC$20/85 one way. Taxis hang around all the main hotels or you can phone Cuba Taxi ( 61-05-55) or Transgaviota ( 61-97-62). The latter uses large cars if you’re traveling with a bike or big luggage. Tourists are not supposed to use the older Lada taxis.
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CÁRDENAS
pop 98, 644
It’s hard to imagine a more jarring juxtaposition. Twenty kilometers east of the bright lights of Varadero lays shabby Cárdenas, home to countless resort-based waiters, taxi drivers and front-desk clerks; but with barely a hotel, restaurant or motorized cab to serve it.
Threadbare after 50 years of austerity, Cárdenas is the Miss Havisham of Cuba: an ageing dowager, once beautiful, but now looking more like a sepia-toned photo from another era. Streets once filled with illustrious buildings have suffered irrevocably since the Revolution, leaving this former sugar port a shadow of its former self.
It hasn’t always been like this. Though spurned these days by most modern travelers, once gentile Cárdenas has played an episodic role in Cuban history. In 1850 Venezuelan adventurer Narciso López and a ragtag army of American mercenaries raised the Cuban flag here for the first time in a vain attempt to free the colony from its complacent Spanish colonizers. Other history-making inhabitants followed, including revolutionary student leader Antonio Echeverría, shot during an abortive raid to assassinate President Batista in 1957.
Famous for its pioneering spirit, Cárdenas was the first city in Cuba to have electric lighting and a leading player in the early railway industry. These days the pace has slackened somewhat and the dilapidated facades can be a shock to travelers on a brief sojourn from Varadero. If you want to see a picture of real Cuban life, it doesn’t get more eye-opening than this. If it’s minty mojitos and all-day volleyball you’re after, stick to the tourist beaches.
Orientation
The northeast–southwest streets are called Avenidas and streets running northwest–southeast are called Calles. Av Céspedes (Av Real to locals) is Cárdenas’ main drag; the avenues to the northwest are labeled oeste (west), and those to the southeast are labeled este (east). The city’s main northwest–southeast street is Calle 13 (Calzada); Calles are numbered consecutively beginning at the bay.
Cárdenas residents (confusingly) use the old street names.
Information
BOOKSTORES
Librería La Concha de Venus ( 52-38-06; Av Céspedes No 551 cnr Calle 12; 9am-5pm Mon-Fri, 8am-noon Sat) Has a decent selection of books in Spanish.
INTERNET ACCESS & TELEPHONE
Etecsa Telepunto (cnr Av Céspedes & Calle 12; 8:30am-7:30pm)
MEDICAL SERVICES
Centro Médico Sub Acuática ( 52-21-14; channel 16 VHF; Calle 13; per hr CUC$80; 8am-4pm Mon-Sat, doctors on-call 24hr) It’s 2km northwest on the road to Varadero at Hospital Julio M Aristegui. Has a Soviet recompression chamber dating from 1981.
Pharmacy ( 52-15-67;