POST 32 – HEAVEN TO HAVANA: DAYS 52-54 (7-9 February 2026): CUBA: Laguna Guanar, Cienfuegos, Bay of Pigs, Havana.

STOP PRESS:

Welcome to the last post of Cuba.

At the bottom of this post are two special posts. The first summarises the failed attempted invasion of Cuba by the USA in 1961 in the “Bay of Pigs”, which we visited on 8 February 2026. The second summarises the “Cuban Missile Crisis” which is the closest the planet has ever come to all-out Nuclear War.

Cienfuegos is only 83km from Trinidad. A cool, glorious morning. The weather of the past few days was very comfortable, in fact cool to cold at night and in the mornings – just like home. We made a morning visit to Laguna Guanaroca, a large semi-salt, semi-freshwater lake home to 600 Pink Flamingos and a whole host of other birdlife. The lagoon is surrounded by mangroves. Small row boats of 3 each took us out to see the birds with the highlight being the Pink Flamingos. They are scaredy cat birds so you cannot get too close before they fly away. They are pink because they eat on shrimp and get their colour from their favourite and only food !!! They gather in several groups during the day and sleep together in one group at night. They are also monogamous with only one life-long partner. It was a worthwhile visit. Please enjoy then here…

We arrived into Cienfuegos just after noon and headed to the main central square called “Parque Central Jose Marti”. It is a very impressive plaza with very impressive buildings. Each one a classic. We then headed to the harbour waterfront which was very disappointing. Only one restaurant with outdoor furniture and nothing else. We didn’t even get our order and left hungry with a refund. Such was the sophistication of the so-called “waterfront”. From the waterfront we visited a huge mansion called “Palacio de Valle” built in 1917. This mansion combines classic Spanish and Moorish architecture. It is now a hotel and restaurant with great views of the harbour.

Cienfuegos (Pop 178,368, Elev 25m) was founded in 1819. Since the late 1960s, Cienfuegos has become one of Cuba's main industrial centres, especially in the energy and sugar sectors. At the end of the 19th century, many Spaniards, made a fortune from Sugar and built many of the most emblematic buildings of the city. In 2005, UNESCO protected the centre of the city. We stayed only 700m from the central plaza in the stand-alone house of Lily and Fel, a lovely old couple with a German Shepard called Gino. A picture of their son-in-law meeting Pope John Paul II hung proudly at their front door. It was just Pats, Nick, Bundy and me in this house, which we called “the Ozzie house”. Everyone else was in other separate and neighbouring homes. We showered and we Ozzies went back to the central square to change money and find a restaurant for our last group dinner. We returned to our Ozzie house with money and venue. The icing on the cake was “ma and pa” internet, strong enough for me to upload POST 31 – I was so relieved. Dinner that night was a success. I newly opened restaurant serving delicious cocktails and pulled-beef to die for. Everyone turned up and thoroughly enjoyed the food, drink and company.

The following morning was our last group tour day taking us some 230km from Cienfuegos back to Havan via Playa Giron, the infamous landing site of the failed 1961 invasion by the USA in the Bay of Pigs (see bottom of this post). A terrific last day of morning sunshine and cloudless sky made the 2hr drive to the Bay of Pigs even better. This is a postcard place. Typical Caribbean. Calm crystal-clear water, coral and coloured fish. The drone shots below are magic. I completed a titanic 2.63km swim here – the best of my trip to date and the 3^rd best of all my travels behind Tuvalu and Solomon Islands. What made a bronze medal winner was the perfect conditions: calm, clear water and so much to see underneath. Hard to believe that this place was the site of an invasion designed to kill people and claim a country.

WHAT A GREAT GROUP !!!

Our accommodation in Havana involved a slight heart attack. Our home-away-from-home minivan pulled up in front of a narrow poor-condition building with two abandoned buildings on either side that looked like buildings I had seen in Syria and Iraq. After a heartfelt farewell with group the van drove away with Patsie’s main bag in the back !!! Our emotional farewell had claimed our attention to detail. Lucky for us we realised this and stopped the van. Back to the heart attack. It stopped when we reached our second-floor apartment directly across from the ocean separating Cuba from Florida. Facing west with balcony for a brilliant sunset. The famous MALECON boulevard is in front of us and all the 1953s American Convertibles pass by us – only 15% of Cubans own cars. We set out at 7pm for our dinner at a very touristy narrow side street. Tonight, we watched the movie I AM LEGEND featuring Will Smith living in an abandoned New York City because it reminded us of Havana !!!

Our final day in Havana and Cuba on 9 February began well with a 10km run along the Malecon followed by a lovely balcony breakfast. Today was easy. Slow walk through the Old Town to get more Pesos and find internet in a fancy central hotel. Both achieved. After a streetside Pork Roll I headed back to the hotel to fly my drone and interview Danny who looked after us in our accommodation. We celebrated our final night with a Cuban dinner of the famous shredded with darkened rice and black beans. Back at the Malecon sea-facing apartment I set up the living room with rum, wine and the movie “THIRTEEN DAYS” starring Kevin Costner that details the 13 days of the Cuban Missile Crisis that I gladly summarise for after the Havana images  below…

SPECIAL POST 1:

THE BAY OF PIGS FAILED US INVASION OF CUBA IN A NUTSHELL

The Bay of Pigs Invasion was a failed military landing operation on the southwestern coast of Cuba in April 1961 by the United States and the Cuban Democratic Revolutionary Front (DRF).

The DRF consisted of Cuban exiles who opposed Fidel Castro's Cuban Revolution, secretly financed by the CIA.

In early 1960, President Dwight D. Eisenhower approved an invasion plan to remove Fidel Castro to prevent an arms build up by the USSR in Cuba.

Eisenhower ordered the CIA to fund the DRF in the USA and use them to invade Cuba since they knew the territory and Castro’s army.

When John F Kennedy became President, Eisenhower convinced him to continue.

JFK was reluctant and hit Cuba with sanctions that caused Castro to fully engage with the USSR and heighten the Cold War.

This pressured JFK to go ahead with the invasion plan but his advisors convinced him not to use air support to heighten the element of surprise by the DFR on foot with boat landings in the Bay of Pigs.

This was the catalyst for failure because Castro had no Air Force and quickly overwhelmed the DRF and US Army and without air support they were killed or imprisoned.

JFK took full responsibility for the failure and  solidified Castro's role as a national hero pushing Cuba closer to the Soviet Union, setting the stage for the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.

SPECIAL POST 2:

THE CUBAN MISSLE CRISES IN A NUTSHELL

The Cuban Missile Crisis was a 13-day confrontation (16 to 28 October 1962) between the governments of the USA and USSR, when American deployments of nuclear missiles in the United Kingdom, Italy and Turkey were matched by Soviet deployments of nuclear missiles in Cuba.

In 1959 the US government deployed Thor nuclear missiles in England, an initiative known as Project Emily.

In 1961 the US put Jupiter nuclear missiles in Italy and Turkey.

All were within range of Moscow.

After the failed US invasion of Cuba by the USA in the Bay of Pigs in 1961, Fidel Castro did a deal with Nikita Khrushchev to allow the USSR to store nuclear missiles in Cuba to prevent the USA from invading Cuba again and a USSR response to the USA storing missiles in Europe.

A U-2 spy plane captured photographic evidence of the USSR nuclear missiles in Cuba.

On 22 October 1962, JFK ordered a naval blockade to prevent further missiles from reaching Cuba. He referred to the blockade as a "quarantine", not as a blockade, so the US could avoid the formal implications of a state of war.

At all times, JFK’s military advisers pushed for invasion but JFK’s brother Robert Kennedy pushed for the blockade followed by a “deal”.

The “deal” was an agreement between Kennedy and Khrushchev. The Soviets would dismantle their offensive weapons in Cuba in exchange for a US public declaration and agreement not to invade Cuba again and a private agreement to dismantle all of the offensive weapons it had deployed to Turkey.

The “deal’s” success was put down to Robert Kennedy and the Soviet Ambassador in Washington being able to establish a direct and secret “hotline” between Kennedy and Khrushchev to avert nuclear disaster in critical finger-trigger record time by avoiding the time-consuming grind of official diplomatic and media channels.

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