This morning around 8am, i brought the rest of my internetcard and the rest of our rum to Sharky. Het wanted to give me another mango. But we still have 2 giant mango's from Fidel that we will take with us to El Nicho and how many mango's can you eat before your 'system' starts 'protesting'..

We have booked our El Nicho trip via Cubanacan tours. We get picked up in a mini bus and we are with 9 'white tourists' in total; us 3, a Danish couple Gita & Nils, 2 Irish girls -Jennifer & the very funny Deirdre, a crazy Irish girl – also a teacher!, and another flemish couple (Peter & Leen). Nice Group.

El Nicho, is an area of gorgeous waterfalls located in the Sierra del Escambray, The way to it is beautiful! Great nature. But a very very bumpy road.
After a while, i réally needed to go to the toilet. I mean, i réééééééally needed to go. Normally i can 'hold it' for a while, but the bumps in the road only made it worse.
So i asked the lady from Cubanacan, "are we there yet, cause i réééally need to go to the toilet"- She said 'another 20 minutes' – "Well, i'm sorry, can't hold it anymore, i need to go now".
So we jumped out and she asked local people if i can use their toilet. (i'm ashamed). I went true their small living room, and stood immediatly outside in the backyard, i went into a small shed. And there was 'the toilet'. Well half of a toilet was placed above a hole in the ground – lets spare you all the details, but lets say i took one good look and wasn't going to do that twice, hehe.

The signora that lived there said 'not to sit down', no worries, wasn't really planning to – i quickly did what i had to do and left 'the building'. The lady of the Cubanacan tours apologised for the toilet, the people here in the mountains don't have streaming water, they have to get their water out of a nearby river. Ah well, i didn't mind, i was already glad that i could do what i had to do.

"El Nicho"
Its a bit touristic here. No wonder, the waterfalls really are very beautiful. The first waterfall we walk to is "Poceta de los enamorados" – 'the waterfall for couples in love' a small but very nice waterfal but a bit crowded here, so we walk on towards 'Los desparramaderos' – a big impressive beautiful waterfall.
The 3rd waterfall we see is "Poceta cristal" – this was my favourite place here at El Nicho and we had a little swim here. Cold but very refreshing.

I wanted to stay here a little bit longer. But the guide says we can only swim for 15 minutes. (!) A guide here is obliged, you can only go to El Nicho with a guide. I didn't réally like the guide, he started of wel the first 10 minutes, with giving some good explanation about the fauna & flora, but then he stopped talking and raced us from one waterfall to another not even watching if the Group is still together. All while we just wanted to enjoy our day, chill, enjoy the falls & nature, learn a bit about the area, walk around, have a nice swim, - cause it is very nice here. I don't even understand why we nééded the guide (cause of the money of course)- Its not dangerous here and its a very easy walk, peanuts compared to "Salto de Caburni", in Topes de Collantes, where we only had to pay the entrance and do the walk on your own.

20 minutes later we are walking towards a viewpoint, where you can overlook a nice vieuw over the Sierra del Escambray. Then the guide raced of again, we just let him go and go at our own pace, taking little sidewalks with dead ends but nice vieuws... we will catch them up later. I guess he didn't even notice we were not 'there'.

At the last waterfall the guide leaves us behind (just as well) with the message that we get 1 our and then we need to be back @ the restaurant for lunch.
We go for a swim, but not before i cut the 2 mango's -Fidel gave us- in peaces. Mmm very lovely, sweet & juicy – just how we like them. The last falls are very pretty as well, and although we are 'restricted in time', we still enjoy it here very much.

Some Cuban children are sitting on peaces of palmtree-bark and gliding down on the slippery clay next to the waterfalls.

El Nicho is great, but i wonder if i would ever come back if there is another way to do it, then you can make a whole day of it.

We chat & laugh the whole bumpy way back to our hotel with Jennifer & Deirdre and Peter & Leen.

Back in the hotel we go lay down again for the last time under 'our' lipi lipi tree with a vieuw over the see & the 'Punta los Colorados'... chilling, reading, writing, mojito...

Our last day @ Rancho Luna – Tomorrow we go back to "Habana".