El Nicho

We met that rarity of rarities today, an American traveling around Cuba.
He's staying in the casa beside ours, and when we talked about visiting El Nicho, a waterfall laden national park outside Cienfuegos, he mentioned he'd met a Cuban who could drive us there. A much better option than taking a tour bus and cheaper to boot, we jumped at the chance.
And so the next morning we crammed into a brown, stereo system laden lada, ready for some cascada based adventures.

Despite the fame of Cuba's iconic American roadsters, one in four cars in Cuba is in fact a Russian-built lada. The car was the butt of so many jokes when I was a teen in England, has helped keep Cuba mobile in throughout the revolution.
True to form this particular vehicle broke down twice, but as we all got out to give it a push start, it just seemed to add to the adventure of the day - as well as giving us yet another glimpse of the sad realities of daily life in Cuba..

El Nicho itself was a pleasant surprise, with views that went on for miles and a 'Lost World' ambience that felt more like South East Asia than Cuba. With turquoise plunge pools, crystal clear rivers, and all manner of different waterfalls it was a real slice of paradise.
We stayed for hours exploring the different areas, amazed at all the natural beauty. On the way back to town we stopped at a huge, bedraggled botanical gardens. Housing over two thousand species of plants, it was founded in 1901 by a US sugar baron who wanted to study various strains of sugar cane. He soon got giddy though, and began planting exotic tropical trees and plants from around the globe.

Before heading home we stopped off for food, where I discovered the joys of tamales. The consistency of plasticine, they're made by grinding corn with shredded meat. Surprisingly tasty, plus hearty and filling, they rocked my world. It was the first time I'd seen them in Cuba and unfortunately, due to a nationwide corn shortage, it may be the last.


Choosing one of the ten thousand waterfall pictures I came home with today was nigh on impossible, but this was one of my favourites.