I knew it was rustic. We stayed at the Playa Larga hotel for one night. It was fun hanging with locals in the bar there watching Cuban baseball. You think Canadians are passionate about hockey, they are about 15 games into an 87 game season and they are bouncing off the walls, yelling, screaming debating and hanging on every pitch, it is nuts.
We did get to appreciate the beauty of the land. We rented our our car and made the VERY interesting journey from Havana to Playa Large and further to Giron. The 'potholes' on the Autopista look like exploded land mines. But our car survied, a white Geely Emgrand was our ride. It didn't have a straight panel on it, despite having only 27,000 kms on the odo, lol. The think looked like it spent 20 years navigating parking lots at Metrotown.
The wholesomeness of the people, I can appreciate that. They are great. At the same time, at 50% of our interactions, we were scammed, or a scam was attempted on us. We are friendly, happy go lucky travellers. The people were warm in return, but with a clear alterior motive. Take a couple dollars off of the "Yumas". It was very frustrating, and extremely tiresome.
We did hit the Cueva de lost Peces. Too bad it smelled like sewage. We still went in. Didn't matter, because when we showered later at the Playa Larga hotel, the water smelled the same there. Lol.
The Blackberries, well, we forgot to the bring them. Only one made it into our luggage and our Havana guide on the first day essentially begged us for it.