645suep
We booked the Thomas Cook recommended tour entitled Guama, Steam & Sugar - the date was 22/09/2014. We were collected on time, no problem, & arrived safely at the Sugar factory. The tour was to be honest quite boring, and the ' you get to taste the sugar cane extract' was of course not a freebie, but yet another opportunity for another peso, and the delightful trio playing Cuban music, again needed a peso contribution & not forgetting the obligatory souvenir shop. Next onto the steam train, which ran on diesel & the locomotive looked very impressive to be fair. It had 2 metal open carriages attached to the back of it, with bench seats in. We then set off out into the surrounding countryside & small village, which also included swamp land = mucho mosquitoes! which feasted themselves on the unsuspecting tourists, & yes we had all come equipped with bands and sprays but were all bitten in equal measure! To then cap it all on our return to the factory the 2nd carriage, which we were in derailed! Yes jumped right off the tracks at the points, the engine & 1st carriage carried on whilst we screamed at them to stop. We were all covered in rust & metal from the carriage roof & watched in horror as the coupling twisted & snapped free, which in hindsight saved us from toppling over completely. The majority of us were shaken up, I suffered a headache, neck ache & nausea, husband back ache, however still not as unfortunate as the elder lady who lost her footing, & spent the rest of the trip with a cold towel to her face, as she had badly bruised & swollen cheek, & also had injured her back. We were hastily ushered onto the other carriage, & returned to the factory, the n boarded the coach & left. The tour guide showed compassion for the injured lady, but no concern to the rest of the party, and we were not offered the opportunity to return to our hotel. The tour guide directed us onto the next stage of our tour, which was a lunch stop, with a meal which by Cuban standards was lovely, however another band played, another hat passed around, & another CD offered for sale, & there was opportunity to pass through the souvenir shops, all the same stuff as at the sugar cane factory ! And on exiting here you could have your picture taken with a baby croc, & a snake for 1 peso! Then onto Guama, for a river boat ride, very good & exhilarating, however slightly marred by the mid lake pit stop, presumably as they had ran out of petrol however it actually was to wait for the other boat to bring us 2 extra passengers, who were transferred from 1 boat to he other in the middle of the lake!! & you guessed no life jackets on. On arrival on the island we passed through 2 souvenir shops, onto the main walk around, very interesting, then into a replica of an Indian home which was unavoidable, where they painted your face, danced with you, brushed you over with some itchy branches, then charged you 1 peso to exit. My husband named this the ancient mugging ceremony carried out by peso hunters. We were then led to the bar area to try the local drink, of coconut water & rum, along with some crocodile meat for a few more pesos. Then we left back to shore to visit the main crocodile farm. There was a further opportunity to part with pesos for croc pics, then we watched the larger crocs being fed, just the other side of a low wall & chain link fence, of which there were visible signs of damage & poor repairs, to be tole these beast can jump their own body length, some of the,easily reaching 8 fleeting, so this just wasn't adequate protection to me. The man feeding the crocodiles did this, then held his hand out for you guessed it 1 peso from all. So in summary, a very long scary day, no health & safety observed, all that was required was a fat wallet & the actual trip had cost us £100s. We did formally complain in resort however we were not offered an apology nor a refund. I would definitely not recommend this day trip.