Friday, 28 October 2022: Slipping and Sliding Up and Down the Alturas de Banao

 

When my alarm goes off at 5:00 AM, I’m pleased that the fan is on, meaning there is still power.  So I flip on the lights and rush into the bath to take a shower.  There is lots of hot water and good pressure.  At 5:40, the power goes off again as I’m starting to get dressed so now I have to struggle with my flash light to get ready for today’s hike.  No rush as breakfast won’t be ready until 7:00.  I get down to the courtyard a few minutes early and am pleasantly pleased that Héctor has managed to get my breakfast ready early despite the blackout.  He must be used to them and has a system worked out for dealing with these annoyances.  He brings me an omelet with cheese, the usual Cuban fruit plate, bread, tea, and guava juice.  I eat most everything by the light of a battery lantern.  Then the lights come on now that the sun is up – go figure. 

 

I walk up to the plaza to see if I can get a moto-taxi directly to Banao rather than screwing around with taking a moto-taxi to the bus station and then trying to find a regular taxi or colectivo.  There are only two moto-taxis here at 8:00AM.  The first guy wants 1500 pesos ($10) for the 18 mile ride.  Too much – the second driver will take me for 1000.  He will drive me to the town but not up to the park and I realize it’s probably too steep for his underpowered, 3-wheel, glorified lawnmower.  I’ll have to figure out how to get to the park once I get to Banao. 

The driver takes a screwy way out of town trying to avoid kids assembling for parades.  I learn that today is the festival commemorating Cuban Revolutionary hero, Camile Cienfuegos, and many of the streets are already blocked by the police.  The driver fucks around for 15 minutes wasting his gas and my time before he finally takes a direct route to the main highway which the dumb ass should have done in the first place.  These moto-taxis are really slow.  I doubt he gets it up to even 25 miles/hour going downhill.  Finally at 9:00AM, we arrive in Banao.

The driver drops me off at the corner of a road with a sign pointing toward the Lomas de Banao Reserve.  But how am I going to get there?  It’s a steep 2+ mile uphill road which will sap too much of my energy before I even get to the trailhead.  So I start asking around.  One guy tells me I’ll have to first go to the park headquarters on the other side of town.  He finds me a horse-drawn cart which takes me to the park HQ for 20 pesos (about 13 cents).  I’m in luck - there is a 4WD park vehicle leaving in a few minutes.  The driver has a couple other passengers and stops at five different places in town for a passenger in a felt hat who picks up and drops off stuff.  I’m certainly not going to get impatient – I’m just happy to have a ride up to the park (and it turns out to be free).  We cross a couple of wet, muddy sections and I realize there is no way either a moto-taxi, or even a regular taxi, could have negotiated this 2-track road.

We arrive at the Jarico Field Station, a nice facility with an outdoor bar/restaurant in a verdant setting.  The woman in the office collects the 140 pesos (93 cents) entrance fee from me.  I tell her I would like to hike the Sendero la Sabina (which I’d read about in my Lonely Planet Guide).  No, it’s not allowed as I’d get lost.  Well, could I go with a guide?  Sí.  She leaves for a few minutes and comes back with a pretty, thin, fairly tall, coffee-colored young woman with a nice smile who will be my guide.  GREAT!  I learn that her name is Nana, she’s 25, and she works here on a forest conservation project.     

 

The lomas (Spanish for knolls or hills) de Banao are higher than hills.  They are also called the Alturas (heights) de Banao which seems a more appropriate name.  They are low forested mountains with rocky cliffs here and there.  Through later research, I learn that they are formed in some of the oldest bedrock now exposed at surface in the Caribbean islands.  This rock is metasedimentary, especially schist and marble.  It was formed by recrystallization of mudstone and limestone buried under younger rock, then subjected to high pressures and temperatures.  These rocks date from the Jurassic Period (around 150 million years ago).  At this time in geologic history, the supercontinent Pangea was slowly breaking up and, in this part of the earth, the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean were forming.  Pangea had been a continuous land mass that included all the current continents.  I suspect that the schist and marble are harder and less-easily eroded than the limestone hills and valleys in the surrounding area.  Hence, over millions of years they have endured to form these “alturas”. 

Nana tells me that there are more than 200 species of trees in this tropical forest.  Only one wild mammal lives here – the jutia (a small relative of the marmot).  She says there are no poisonous snakes in Cuba.  Good – I don’t have to worry as much about where I step.

We first walk a short distance to La Cascada de Bella (the falls of beauty), then start up the Sendero de Sabina.  The Lonely Planet Guide says it’s 6 kilometers long so I figure it will take a couple hours.  However, I wasn’t counting on treacherous stream crossings with slippery rocks (some with moss on them) and some rocks which I have to step on that are below the rapidly flowing stream.  At least ¼ of the trail is very muddy and it’s hard to stay upright.  At one point, I take a clumsy fall, almost recovering twice, before I’m down in the mud.  Nothing is hurt but my pride.  The trail and stream crossings are hard to find in some places.  I’m glad to have Nana along as she is a strong hiker who knows the trail very well.  

After almost two hours, we arrive at a Las Ruinas de María Antonia. There is little evidence left of the ruins but there is a small cottage at the site where I meet a farmer who offers me bananas which I’m glad to accept.  I share some of my vegan chocolate balls with him and Nana.  There is another fellow up in a tree lopping off big branches and sections of the upper part of the trunk.  Whereas, the lush forest has prevented me from seeing the mountains for the past two hours, there is a nice view here.  We take a break for lunch.  Afterword, the farmer gives Nana a big bundle of fruits and vegetables to take home. 

After lunch, Nana offers to continue on to end of the trail at La Sabina or another 1000+ feet up to the top of a neighboring mountain but I figure there is not enough time and the humidity will kill me.  On the way back, we meet a couple parties of tourists as well as the reserve manager and his family who are all riding mules to or from La Sabina where there are cabins for overnight visitors and a cook.  I decide that riding a mule would be the better way to take this rough and mud-laden trail.

We arrive back at the trailhead about 2:00 PM without incident.  I ask Nana how much I owe her.  There is no actual fee – it’s up to me.  I give her a tip (but worry the next day that it wasn’t enough).  She tells me there will be an employee bus leaving for the town at 4:00 which I can take.  In the meantime, I look at displays on forest ecology and visit a group of jutias in their jutiario, an enclosed area which the reserve is providing them as a safe breeding space protected from local dogs and cats.  Then, I read my book of short stories by Pedro Juan Gutierrez.

 

The “bus” which arrives at 4:00 is actually a truck with an open sitting area in the back.  When we get back to the town of Banao, Nana finds me a ride in a Peugeot to Sancti Spíritus for 600 pesos.  The driver tells me he can take me to Trinidad on Sunday morning for 3000.  

Let’s see…today, I used six forms of transport:

- a three-wheeled moto-taxi

- a horse-drawn cart

- a jeep

- a big truck

- a Peugeot sedan

- and, oh yes, my La Sportiva hiking boots.

 

When I arrive at the Hostal Paraiso just before dark, the power is off again, and Héctor tells me it will come back on at 8:00 PM.  Apparently, there is a blackout schedule which the locals know about.  However, the restaurant two doors down has power (maybe they have a generator).  Nice atmosphere but same old menu I keep encountering – pizza and spaghetti seem to be the only vegetarian options.  They also have a guacamole appetizer with crackers so I order two of them.  They are very good but I wish these places had a little more variety for vege-heads.  None of the restaurants seem to even have rice and beans.  I guess the Cubans are part of the worldwide movement to destroy our environment through excessive meat consumption.  Oh well, to paraphrase Miss Scarlet at the end of the movie: “Tomorrow is another laundry day.”  I better get ready for bed before the power goes off again.  

              

© Will Mahoney 2022

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