Today we drove from Viñales to a deserted Cayo Jutias Beach. The road was really quite bad from Viñales, but we did enjoy the beautiful views on the way.
There was a lot of domestic animals on the road.
Once we arrived to Cato Jutias we were charged 3CUC for guarding our car. We could ignore the guy and not pay (we learned that!), but it is generally safer to pay if you do want to find our car intact and without scratches. It is quite common to pay for “guarding” in Cuba.
A walk to that deserted beach was quite long. We passed the commercial beach, where most of the tourists end up, with restaurant and sun beds. Then we continued along the shore.
Eventually, we had to turn from the beach to follow the path through the bushes. We walked around 30min and then the path was completely gone. It looked like a part of the beach, but quite abandoned. It looked liked almost like a swamp, but just with a sand. We just pushed further.
In some parts we would end up walking again on bits of the beach and it had some people.
Finally, the path and sand was gone and we had to go through the rain forest, which later turned into a thick forest. It was full of mosquitoes and spider-webs and old tree branches.
At some point we were thinking to turn back as it was getting denser and denser. There was also what looked like real swamps on the side with palms. However, we turned towards the sea and through pine trees we could see the white sand! There was Matahambre mines beach. Almost untouched by tourists. It was full of star fishes, crabs and other animals on the shore. It was completely deserted and looked really beautiful – just literally out of this world!
Do not collect the star-fish, shells or corals from the beach. They all make the local ecosystem and that’s what makes it so beautiful and also provides shelter for other animals.
While we were on the beach there was only another couple not far from us on the beach. The guy was working out with a log. Lifting it as if he was in the gym. It was quite funny.
At some point we’ve noticed another local guy came in to the beach and he was collecting the star fish from the shallow waters. I guess to sell them to the tourists, but they were still alive! A lot of them where washed out during the hurricane to the shallow waters. So we decided to help out the nature, and started throwing the star fish into the deep water. This way that guy cannot collect them anymore as it would be too deep to reach without diving in.
One seagull was standing for awhile close to use. And it seemed very curious or just wanted food. I could literally come to it up close and take pictures and videos.
It was a bit windy, so we couldn’t feel the blazing sun. I thought I needed some tan, since I was putting 50SPF sunscreen before, so now I decided just to let it burn, to get a bit of the colour.
At 2:00 pm we decided to head back since the way was quite long hike to the car. We packed everything in our backpacks and went through the shore and sea instead of the forest (those spider webs were disgusting). It was a bit easier, but I could feel sun burning my shoulders and back. Only then I realised how much I have burnt! In some places it was impossible to go via the beach and we had to into the water. I would highly recommend having swimming shoes as I did step on some stones and shells. Also, best to walk in your swimwear as in some spots it was deep to a waist! I think it was also a high tide so it was getting deeper. Anyway, the way back was quicker via the shore for sure, but still it took us around 40min.
After we reached the car, we went on our way back to Havana. It was getting dark and we still had to go for another 70km to Havana. Luckily we reached home safely.
For dinner we went to La Cathedral restaurant. We found out that tapas and starters were so big that we didn’t need the main. Also they had spicy salsa, which was really spicy! I’ve ordered some chunks of pork, but they were a bit dry. In general the place was quite cheap and cocktails were great!
