Cuba 18 & 19th August 2009 "Travelling with Jermain Defoe"

I visited Cuba on a family holiday (also involving my Step-son's wedding) in August 2009, of course we were staying in the resort of Varadero, also referred to as Playa Azul (Blue Beach), set up to cater for most of Cuba's beach tourism, it's a bus ride from the town of Cardenas (in the province of Matanzas, Cuba's 2nd largest city).

I had looked into local train workings with the hope that at some point I could get to Matanzas and cover the 17:00 locals to Agramonte and Los Arabos Neuvo, in the hope of travelling behind an MLW loco.

Tuesday 18th August 2009

I left the hotel promising to be back by the end of the day, armed with my CUC (convertible peso) currency.

There were still two currencies in use at the time, normal pesos for Cubans and these CUC pesos for tourists, the idea being the locals could travel or buy goods for peanuts but any visiting tourists could be charged 10 times as much for the privilege.

A straightforward start with the bus to Cardenas picking up outside our resort hotel and soon depositing me in town. It's a nice place, buoyed by the extra money tourism brings full of Art galleries, cafes and stalls selling the usual tourist-trap merchandise.

The next step might not be so easy, officially only 2 to 3 seats available on longer distance coaches for tourists and you had to ask at the bus station ticket office if a seat was available. No problem at Cardenas, August is very hot in Cuba so the locals keep indoors a lot and think we are a bit mad wanting to visit at this time of year so the coach wasn't busy.

We set off towards Matanzas, among Cuban provinces one of the most industrialised, with petroleum wells, refineries, super tanker facilities and 21 sugar mills to process the harvests of the fields of sugarcane in the province. It's a big sprawling Industrial town, we passed through the outskirts before eventually arriving at Matanzas Bus station. This is located in the former railway station building, that was before Castro took over & moved all the stations a couple of miles out of town - it discourages people from travelling so they can run less trains and save on diesel costs. Well that's my view!

Armed with the information that I faced a good walk out of town, in the sweltering afternoon sun, I set off at a good pace until I came to a railway crossing, I could see my route to the station from here and would make the trains ok.

On approaching the station I was very pleased to see BOTH trains had MLW locos on the front!

MLW 52402 on the coaches for the 1700 to Agramonte & MLW 52443 on 5 Taino coaches for the 1700 to Los Arabos Neuvo.

As I was staying in Varadero I went to the ticket office for a ticket to the town of Colon on the Los Arabos Neuvo, hoping to change there for the 1903 motor coach to Cardenas then a taxi back to my hotel.

On getting to the front of the queue and asking for a ticket much consternation occurred - the ticket office staff didn't know what to do with my CUC (convertable peso) currency. In the end they called the guard of the train and he just told me to get on the train - no ticket required!

I had no problems at all in photographing both locos and trains, although due to the ticket office problems I only had a couple of minutes to take some before departure time. Both trains left promptly, we overtook 52402 a few kilometres outside Matanzas.
Most windows in the front coach were open & 52443 performed really well - this loco is obviously in very good internal condition & the thrash was good. It looks very smart externally too - unlike 52402 which was filthy outside - you could just make out its blue livery under the muck!
It was a good run, we lost about 10 minutes on the 1hr 45min run to Colon. At Jovellanos I noticed the branch off towards Cardenas looked very overgrown/rusty & unused.
On arrival at Colon there was a single motor coach, loaded with passengers - but no info as to where it might be going. My guard, who was such a lookalike for my former West Ham hero of Jermain Defoe it was downright uncanny, told me it was not the 1903 to Cardenas and once again the branch off towards Cardenas looked very overgrown/rusty & unused.
This left me with two options - try to get to Agramonte for 52402 back to Matanzas the following morning

(about 12 miles away by road) or stay in Colon for 52443 back to Matanzas in the morning.
After a long walk into Colon town centre, I could not locate a taxi or bus to get to back to Cardenas, for the same reason I couldn't get to Agramonte either. I did find a CubaCar hire centre , I'd noticed they had a branch in Cardenas - Doh! If I had my drivers licence I could have hired a car and got out of Dodge!

Anyway I returned to the station - you've guessed it a couple of miles from the town centre, with a view of walking through the night to Agramonte. One week when I used to commute to/from Sittingbourne to London for work every day I over-dossed (beer induced) through to Faversham on the last train TWICE the same week & ended up walking the 8 1/2 miles back home (& its not flat round there!) so 12 miles would be no problem - it was the huge trucks hurtling up & down the unlit roads that I would need to walk on (with no pavements) that thwarted that idea!

So a night in Colon to look forward too. Not the stuff that dreams are made of. I traipsed back into town, luckily the owner of a fried chicken shop accepted some of my CUC currency & also pointed out a small shop selling refrigerated beer. So I sat on a bench on the main square, eating chicken & chips with a beer to wash it down. I could almost have been a local.

With Cuba being so very poor and everything falling apart (with the exception of about 3 streets in Havana which have been restored to former glories) my next task of locating one of the 2 Gran Cariba chain hotels was upon me. Not liking the look of the one near to the main square in Colon, I went down to the other end of the "High Street" to check out the other. Closed for repairs, scaffolding all around it - it looked like it was probably closed for good!

Gran Cariba are the only official hotels outside of the tourist areas & are Cuban government run. I returned to the one by the main square and checked in, as expected it cost 50 CUC (the advertised Govt price when I checked from the UK) and they lock your passport in the safe overnight (which I also knew).

There were 2 people in the Reception/Lounge area, the woman took me to my room. The first couple of floors were not very promising, we passed room after room with fallen in ceilings. Finally we came to the only two rooms in the place still usable as these DID have ceilings!

A single bed, a rickety chair and a table that had already fallen to one side. Luxury. Oh I forgot to mention the shower/toilet which had no door on it, no hot water and the cold water constantly dripping, the noise from which there was no escape!

Is the room ok she asked? Of course - when you've no other choice!

Not very good for sleep, I'm pretty sure there was a storm later that night as well, with an enforced early start next day (0400am) due to the fact there is only one local train a day, the long distance trains run once every 2 days & I had no idea if they ran today or not (besides which they would have new Chinese locos on not MLW's!).

Wednesday 19th August 2009

When I awoke at some ungodly hour to the sound of my alarm I got a cold shower then thanked the stars that the chair hadn't collapsed under the weight of my clothes and got dressed.

When I got downstairs the same 2 people were asleep on sofas in the lounge from last night, the lady sleepily returned my passport then re-locked the door after letting me out so she could return to bed!

I walked back to the station, very pleasant it was too. No, actually it wasn't. I could hear loud music (at 0420am!) and the nearer I got to the station the louder it got. The Govt had converted a house, fitting it with speakers all around so it could blast music out all night, every night. This must be what local people in Cuba want. I think not!

I would like to say I arrived safely at the station but not so, a pack of street mongrels seemingly didn't want to let me past! Barking and growling as I tried to make progress, luckily a local came out of an alley on his way to the station & shouted at them, they ran off so we walked to the station, arriving at 0430 for the 0500 departure. I was somewhat disturbed by the sight of the man in full military uniform with a machine gun standing guard in the station lobby opposite the ticket office!

When trying to buy a ticket at the ticket office my CUC's again caused mayhem! I was ushered away by the armed man, he motioned for me to sit in the lobby. About 5 minutes later I was called to the ticket counter again, amazingly the lady gave me a ticket anyway - for no money - then called me back and gave me a cover note, which she stamped, she then gave me a 10 peso (none CUC) note as well !!

She couldn't have been more helpful. I knew the guard on the 0440 Los Arabos to Matanzas would probably be the same as the night before but with no Spanish I couldn't explain this to her.

Sure enough 52443 rolled in about 10mins late and I jumped on, no problem getting a seat in the front coach (it had no glass in some of the windows) for the MLW thrash. When the guard came thru it was my mate Jermain Defoe from the day before, he laughed and tapped me on the chest - he gripped my ticket for the fun of it!

I was hoping the train would be delayed into Matanzas as it would be too early (0650 a.m.) for photographs, however we arrived Matanzas only a couple of minutes late, still too dark for photos, 52443 then propelled its stock out of the station towards the depot down the docks branch.

I knew the next booked coach back to Cardenas wasn't until about 10am but made my way to the bus station anyway in the hope of getting a ticket for it. No chance, the woman in the ticket office seemed intent with shrugging her shoulders and indicating she wasn't interested in what I was trying to get across.

So with hours to wait before I'd have a chance to see if I could get a ticket off the driver I cut my losses, instead I approached the line of refurbished and souped-up cars parked outside.

They can't be taxi's as that's not allowed of course. I was directed to the lad who's turn it was NOT to be a taxi and offered him a wedge of CUC's to take me through to the resort. No problem, he knew the way.

I jumped in the back and he told me of course he was NOT a taxi and i was his "friend" if the authorities stopped us to ask. In Cuba if your on the road and anyone puts their arm up you are supposed to stop and pick them up, so on my part I asked if he would be avoiding that? "I don't want them in my car either!" came the reply.

The journey was uneventful, the driver was a bit worried at the check-point on a bridge outside Cardenas, it's to stop people illegally ferrying tourists around so the authorities can keep track of the tourists, luckily we passed thru ok. A bit further on a couple of blokes did indicate they wanted to hop in but the driver must not have seen them, the way he speeded up like that.

Phew! Back at the hotel, I thanked the lad (who'd just made a small fortune off me) and retired to the delights of 5 star inclusivity. I may add its about 4 stars compared to one in the same chain of hotels in the Dom Rep I previously stayed, mainly cos in Cuba they have nowt!

I also hoped to travel on the reportedly MLW hauled 0830 from 19 de Novembrie (Havanna) to Artesima & 1225 return during my trip but was eventually unable to cover it during a two day trip to Havana.

Not for the feint hearted but the Hellfire MLW was worth it! I even got double the mileage due not getting back the first day. As previously reported all my digital photos from this period were lost when both the fotopic website & my home computer both crashed the same week, a shame as I had half a dozen good shots of the MLW action. Cheers Poodle.