The Rum Diaries Part XXXVIII

Ron Cubay Añejo was next up on the list. Another good value rum at around the CUC$7 mark- I really liked this one!! We cracked it open on our lovely roof terrace in Trinidad, and then finished it over the next few days between sightseeing, and Cuban-style: on the beach. Martijn also got into the only other thing that Cubans make well- cigars.

The Rum Diaries Part XXXVII

Bienvenidos a Cienfuegos!! La ciudad que Benny More le gusta mas!!

Cienfuegos' main plaza is just about the most sparkling collection of buildings in Cuba. In contrast to Havana's eclectic range of building styles, Cienfuegos boasts mainly neoclassical, french-influenced architecture and was home to one of Cuba's favourite musos- Benny More. 

It also hosts our next Rum Diary installment!! Our next bottle of Cuban rum we purchased in the plaza's Teatro Tomas Terry for the low, low price of CUC$9 (about the price of four beers- bargain). 

Havana Club Añejo Especial is the workhorse of Cuban rum- reliable, awesome value for money (about $5 in a shop), damn smooth and tasty straight (which makes Martijn happy) and goes well with soda water (which makes me less drunk).

It also seemed to be the rum of choice for a group of guys we met by the beach. We bonded over our respective bottles and discussed the price of gold in Cuba (not such a random topic when you  consider how much bling some of the dudes were covered in). 

The Rum Diaries Part XXXVI

Brace yourselves. There are a lot of Rum Diaries on the way. 

Rum is cheap in Cuba. I mean, it's been cheap pretty well everywhere we've been over the last 13 months, but in Cuba it's the ONLY thing that's cheap and that made us love it more. 

Our first bottle was purchased in the beautiful Viñales Valley- heart of Cuba's tobacco growing region, where Martijn puffed on his first habano; and where we had the best coco locos in Cuba...happy days)

Our first bottle of Cuban rum purchased was Guayabita El Pinar El Occidental, a locally made rum flavoured with guava (and with two baby guava's, hence guayabita, in the bottle). Unsurprisingly, it was kinda fruity and sweet, though the 40% alcohol content ensured it wasn't too cloying. Neither of us were really that into it but maybe with ginger ale or something it would go down a bit easier.

The world's best-traveled percolator

South America may grow some of the world's finest coffee beans but finding someone to brew a decent cup is damn near impossible. And if there is one thing we can't tolerate, it's shit coffee. 

So while it doesn't exactly qualify as a must-have for traveling light, buying a percolator in Buenos Aires made perfect sense (to us). It has earned us a few strange looks from other travelers but after the kindles, it is the single most loved item in our backpacks.  Best random buy ever. 

The Rum Diaries Part XXXV

Ok. I am pretty sure this will be the last Rum Diary entry for Central America. At least, it should be ...seeing as we only have three full days left in this part of the world. We've been eyeing off the 12 year edition of Ron Botran for a while now, but it wasn't until we saw it for the low, low price of Q.75 (about AUD$10) that we finally bit the bullet and bought it. Such bargain hunters we are.

We came to the conclusion that the Botran rums are much of a muchness- i.e the 12 year is not significantly better than the 8 year, which in turn is not a huge improvement on the 5 year. Not to say they are not all tasty, Just that (unlike Flor de Caña) the subsequent increase in price is not reflected in the quality of the rum. 

Next up is Cuba. Good God help us all. 

One year and counting...

Exactly one year ago today, we arrived in Buenos Aires and celebrated day one of a long adventure with our first Latin American beer (Quilmes) in our San Telmo apartment. During the last twelve months we have seen and done some pretty amazing things (and drank a fair few more beers along the way).

We have also inevitably missed out on some exciting stuff at home including the birth of a friend’s son (and are set to miss another bub’s arrival in October) and two weddings. Luckily we have Facebook to keep up with how cute Ollie is getting (very), how many Sunday sessions at Melbourne pubs we are missing (many), how our friends scrub up when they slap on some fancy clothes (damn! we have good looking friends) and life in general back home.

So. How to condense 366 days of new experiences, different cultures and exotic places…

Number of countries visited: 10

Total distance travelled: somewhere around the 12,000km mark

Favourite places:

H: Isla del Sol (Lake Titicaca, Bolivia), Semuc Champey (Guatemala), La Guajira Peninsula (Colombia), Magdelena/Bellavista (Bolivia)

M: Salar de Uyuni (Bolivia), southern Colombia (San Agustin & Popayan), Colombia’s Caribbean Coast, Semuc Champey

Best dish/ drink:

H: Ceviche in Arequipa’s market; lulada (amazing smoothie from the famous lulo fruit) at the vegetarian restaurant in San Antonio, Cali; bbq prawns in Palomino; tapado (Garifuna seafood stew) in Livingston, Guatemala.

M: Empanadas in Argentina; ceviche in Peru; fried cheese empanadas in Trinidad, Bolivia.

Tapado

Number of bottles of rum tasted: 34 different varieties (actual number of total bottles consumed unknown).

Best rum: Flor de Cana (in all its various incarnations), Isla N (Tucuman, Argentina), Abuelo (Panama), Botero (Colombia)

Most colourful character: Hmmm, would it be the former Department of Defense employee who was stabbed at the US embassy in Lebanon; who went on to play in a rock band that supported Guns n Roses, who had a penchant for girls less than half his age, and whose resemblance to the original P.I earned him the nickname Magnum?? 

Or maybe the Northern Californian pro-gun freak who claimed to have been in a Mexican drug gang and gave us a business card which described himself as ‘world traveler extraordinaire and entrepreneur'?

Even with that kind of stiff competition I think the prize would still have to go to our illustrious captain on the boat from Colombia to Panama, Michel, whose theories on the origin of oil (Venus) and various other out-there conspiracy theories earn him the blue ribbon in this event.

Best beer: Club Colombia or Tona from the ‘regular’ beers; Patagonia (Argentina) and Sierra Andina (Huaraz, Peru) from the boutique selection

Worst hangover: waking up at 4200m in Potosi after beer, wine & rum were combined to produce not only the worst hangover of the past year, but potentially the last ten years. Lesson: high altitudes and drinking don’t mix.

Best fiesta: Andean New Year in Potosi, Magdelena's annual fiesta in Bolivia, five days continuous party on board the Yacht Independence

Getting loose on the high seas

Definitive music tracks: Perra by Los Palmeras (played on repeat throughout Bolivia for the entire three month duration of our stay); Bad Boys by Inner Circle (heard from the Caribbean coast of Colombia to the lowland tropics of Guatemala and everywhere in between); Cali Pachanguero  (salsa fave of Cali’s feria and one of our favourite tunes to practice to); I'm sexy and I know it (if I ever hear this song again it will be too soon); The Whistle Song (extra points for mind-invading quality of the whistle bit). 

The Rum Diaries Part XXXIV

Nothing goes together like hiking and rum. What a way to warm the cockles after a long sweaty day trekking up and down Guatemalan mountains!! Straight rum tastes better in the highlands; no need for pesky ice (or even glasses). 

Ron Botran 5 Años is the latest in our exploration of Guatemala’s second best rum producer (second out of two, that is). It went down particularly well in a hot chocolate at the end of the days 20km trek and could even be said to have medicinal qualities by aiding as a partial muscle relaxant. Mmm, justifying drinking. Sounds like it should come right after denial on the symptoms list.