A brief stop in Holguin for me was nothing more than a strategic way of breaking up the tortuously long bus journey from Santa Clara to Santiago. As expected, it offered me pretty little. Happily, the budget Casa Particular (bed and breakfast) had air conditioning and internet that actually worked some of the time, which enabled me to catch up on blogs and planning.

Sadly the recently established trend of me either being hassled every 10m or ignored as if I didn’t exist continued in Holguin. As a place with very few (no) tourists it turned out to be the latter. In the centre of town there’s a reasonably nice plaza area with café style tables and umbrellas, there were a few locals enjoying some beers in the late afternoon sun and I did my best to join in but did feel quite removed from it all.

The only other thing of note about Holguin is massive set of stairs up a hillside to a cross at the top. I set myself the challenge the following morning but the 30 degree + temperature didn’t help matters. As I staggered, out of breath and drenched in sweat, up the last few steps I imagined that the vultures circling overhead could sense an animal about to die so I quickly scurried to the shade of an awning before they struck.

The following morning I arrived at the bus station the obligatory (and inexplicable) hour and half early before the 8am departure to check in. 8am came and went, as did 9, 10, 11 and 12. At 1 the bus finally arrived, the passengers shuffled off and it limped off for “repairs”. This didn’t quite work out so we had to await the arrival of another bus. At 3 (yay!). I managed to take it all in the stride without getting too wound up (pats self on the back).