Cienfuegos is a total surprise, the architecture is of obvious French (complete with the one third size ‘Arc de Triomphe’ in the main square) and Moroccan persuasion. You could easily feel that you were taken back to Morocco in the 1950s with the bustling pedestrian street full of people shopping and not a mobile phone to be seen (nearly). The hotel here was the first outside of Havana to offer Internet. This was presented in the form of 4 PCs that were connected to the Internet, Wi-Fi was not available. If you do get a decide to go back into town from the hotel go into the Coppelia ice cream examine the board outside to select what type of ice cream you want and go inside and wait at a table to order (don’t expect all the flavours, everything in Cuba is ‘it should be’ but the facts are sometimes different). It’s hot and packed, the staff take a while to get to you but it’s worth the experience. Drinks and dinner at the mansion next to the hotel was a highlight with amazing sounds coming from the band and a beautiful sea breeze.
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