Cienfuegos, so called La Perla del Sur which means Pearl of the South was our next stop. The city is situated around one of the most beautiful bays in Cuba – Bahia de Cienfuegos. City is listed on World Heritage List by UNESCO, because of it’s Neoclassical architecture. Centre of sugar, coffee and tobacco trade is right here, in their lovely port. It’s very easy to get around the city, hard to get lost thanks to Spanish grid street plan. So streets are like grid, one way they are Avenidas and the other way is Calle, then you just follow the numbers. It’s that easy, but of course not all streets are like that.
We only stayed here for one night so we wanted to see everything that day. Feria del Libro was happening that day and there was also a street party next to our casa. Perfect spot to really experience how locals live and party. Homemade beer was dirt cheap as well as street food and both of them were delicious. You need your own bottle so that they can fill beer for you. Price? 1,5l is around 20cents CAD. Yes it’s true! And street food was so delicious. They were roasting whole pigs, chickens and fish. We were main attraction just because we were only tourists there. Homemade beer in one hand and pork sandwich in the other dancing down the street to Cuban music. It was for sure one of the highlights!
After some food and beer it was time to explore the city. We walked to Plaza de Armas which is beautiful, every single building surrounding it’s amazing. Here you have Parque Jose Marti, his monument, Catedral de la Purisima Concepcion, Palacio de Gobierno, Palacio Ferrer and Teatro Tomas Terry.
We continued our walk towards an old cemetery called Cementerio de Reina. This cemetery is incredible. Old headstones and old statues make this place perfect for taking photos. Weather this day was bad, cloudy and raining and we were without umbrella walking down the streets. But we enjoyed it no matter what.
Our last stop was walk all the way to the tip of Punta Gorda, to amazing building Palacio de Valle. Already on the way there you can see big mansions where rich people used to live, now they are open to public. Palacio de Valle is mixture of many different architecture styles. From Gothic, to Romanesque, Baroque, Mudejar and many more. Incredible building to see for sure.
Cienfuegos is also birthplace of famous Cuban singer Benny More. You can find bars and clubs called Benny More all over Cuba.
Cienfuegos has also another big cemetery called Tomas Acea cemetery which is the only garden cemetery in Cuba. You enter through huge Neoclassical pavilion that reminds of Parthenon in Greece. There are famous and poor people buried here.
We finished great day with even better dinner at our casa. On the picture below you can see what it means when you eat at your casa. Tons and tons of delicious food.
There is even more photos of Facebook here!
Next day we were off to El Nicho waterfalls and Guanaroca Lagoon.
