A Pretty, Yet Pointless Nut & the Third Most Important Fort in Cuba

I had a vague idea of a plan for Monday’s touring – figure out what we saw Sunday, give my three faithful traveling companions some options, and then have the hotel hire us a taxi with air conditioning (Lucy’s one request, and it was quite a reasonable one)!

So, the options were:

1.  Travel the 80 kilometers to Trinidad and spend the day sightseeing there (I had          originally tried to work a day in Trinidad into the plan, but was worried it would be too much travel in a short period of time);
2.  Spend the day at the beach, and maybe see a few sights; or,
3. Go to the Guanaroca Lagoon where flamingos winter, the Botanical Garden of Cienfuegos, and Castillo Jagua – the old fort from 1745 that guarded the bay from pirates.

Lucy, Charlie and Carol were unanimously for the third option, so Carol and I made it happen.  All three sights were out of town, and our first stop was the lagoon.  Alas, upon our arrival we found it out the tickets for the day had already been all sold, so we hopped back in the cab and headed for the botanical garden.

Our driver spoke no English, and seemed to understand less, but Carol’s Spanish improves daily here, so communication was not the problem to be answered.  The botanical garden features trees from all over the world (tropical ones), and was quite beautiful.  There was a huge eucalyptus tree and stands of giant bamboo.  We were able to walk “inside” the trees – they formed huge circles enveloping us – a cathedral of trees. 

The most interesting tree to us were the two varieties of Brazil nut trees.  The Brazil nut, which is the most pointless nut known to mixed nuts, is very cool to look at on the tree.  They grow in cases where the bottom drops off and then the nuts fall to the ground one at a time.  You don’t actually see the nuts until the bottom falls off and the nuts fall out (when they are ripe).

(Blogger’s Note: If you are preparing to contact me with a missive detailing the health benefits of Brazil nuts, I have a better idea.  Don’t.  Just Don’t.  That is all – thank you.)

The first cases we saw were all over one tree, and they were smallish, about the size of softballs.  Charlie and I (mostly Charlie) struck up a conversation with a Cuban woman who was leading a guided tour in Spanish.  She is a horticultural engineer, and, like many professionals here, spoke excellent English.  She was happy to fill us in.  The small cases hold around six nuts, but she told us about a nearby tree where each case holds 20.  

We wandered over to the tree, but couldn’t spot any.  She then helped us out – the huge cases (about the size of soccer balls) were not as plentiful – we only saw four or five total on the tree (no doubt there are more, but we only looked from a few vantage points).  

I have a new, healthy respect for Brazil nuts.  But, I will still skip over them as I take a fistful of mixed nuts in the future.  Just because I now know they grow in a very cool way doesn’t mean they will taste any better.

We continued on, adding a stop to Rancho Luna Beach (which is the beach we would have gone to if folks wanted a beach day).  The reviews on TripAdvisor were mixed at best.  Some people called the beach beautiful, while others noted it was the dirtiest beach they had ever seen.

I could see both sides of the argument.  There were beer cans and broken glass, but it was not as bad as I expected.  The beach itself was not the sugar sand smooth we found in Varadero, Cuba on our trip in 2016, but it was still beautiful.  Being a Monday, there was almost no one there.  

We didn’t stay long, and so it was off to the castle.  We did stop for a photo opportunity at a lighthouse (not open to the public).  Not sure how well the photos will turn out, as the sun was at the wrong angle for where we were.

Then, we headed down a dirt road, leading to another dirt road.  Don’t worry – both had equal numbers of potholes, so neither road could feel superior to the other.  

Following our driver, we walked down to the dock along the channel that leads from the Caribbean Sea (remember from your Cuban geography class – Cienfuegos is on the south side of the island, not the north (Atlantic Ocean) side.  

Cienfuegos Bay is the most protected bay in the world, as the narrow channel means that land surrounds most of the bay, protecting it more from bad weather and storm surge.  Also, the narrow channel also means that ships could not charge into the bay en masse.

The hill above the channel provided a natural place for a fort, which was finished in 1745 as a way to fight off pirates.  The Castle actually has two names, but we’ll go with the more-used Jagua Castle, which is the name of the Native tribe that was here when Columbus sailed into the bay in 1494.

While we waited for the ferry to come back across from the western shore, we watched lots of fish dart in the dirty waters below.  Down the channel, closer to the ocean was a large sign that reads “Nidos Cuba Socialism.”  As Charlie and Carol speculated on the meaning, I noted that the “U” had probably fallen down, so it likely read “Unidos Cuba Socialism” – essentially Cuba united in socialism.  Beautiful country, great people, but how’s that working out for you? Socialism is the sports participation trophy of life.

At first there were only a handful of people waiting for the ferry, but once it came, many more streamed down the hill to cross the channel.  It was a short go across, and we made one stop first (there are three stops, and there is no rhyme nor reason to the direction the ferry goes in – sometimes clockwise, sometimes counterclockwise).  It doesn’t really matter, as the three stops are all very close.  We did get good views of egrets and pelicans near the first stop.

After disembarking at the second stop, our driver and Charlie were besieged by restaurant callers.  If you’ve traveled, you know the type – they try cajoling you to eat at their restaurant.  Ignoring them, we headed up to fort, trying not to step in the dog crap or the horse manure on the street.  We were successful (there is no other way to measure poop stepping – either you fail by stepping in it or you succeed by not stepping in it.  “Almost” definitely does not count in poop stepping.).

We crossed the drawbridge into the fort.  A guide started talking to Carol in Spanish.  Lucy had decided to not go in, as the heat was getting to her.  Charlie wandered around for a brief time before going back out to check on Lucy.  So, we had a guided tour of the fort, with Carol occasionally translating.  

The fort had commanding views of the channel out to the sea, and had two San Juan-style turrets, as well as the big cannons.  At the urging of our guide, we went down the algae-covered stone staircase to view the well (neither of us slipped, so that’s win!).  Saw the dungeon, got a tour of the museum, and then headed up the narrow spiral stone stair case to the top of the fort, where we were afforded wonderful views of the bay, the channel, and the sea.

The fort is considered the third most important fort in Cuba, which is good to know if you are ever on Jeopardy, and you are asked about it.  We've been to the most important fort (el Morro in Havana) but not to the second most important fort (it's in Santiago de Cuba).  Our goal is only to go to the top odd-numbered forts in the country.

I would give you more of the history of the fort, but you really don’t care, so why put you to sleep, my dear reader?  And so it was back over the ferry, and then in the cab to Cienfuegos.