If you were to follow the road, you'd come to a traffic circle, ignore the left branch that would take you to the hotels and instead follow the right road past the buildings in the picture above. You'll travel along the strewn houses that form the village of Santa Lucia, and you won't be alone: as this image of local traffic shows. These are local folks that may be just heading towards a bus stop too far for a walk.

   Roads are generally good with smooth tarred pavement, but a recent hurricane marred the island. Sand has covered the road in a few places,

and some houses have severe damage, like the one in the next two images. Approach the building from the right, it looks OK.

   But the left shows how the wind and water ripped away walls and structures.

   One fellow bemoaned that he cannot repair the house because the government has no materials. At another instant, I heard that one may not be able to rebuild as the location is too exposed. There may be other reasons: I believe the area was meant to hold a much larger tourism development (like in Varadero), and the government may be eager to assume ownership of the land. Who knows.... There are some parallels to our own society.

   Away from the highway, at the northern end of the barrier island is a village, quite picturesquely situated at the mouth of a huge bay. It's a different village, called Playa de Boca, probably grew naturally from a few houses and a bar.

   To get there, I shunned the sandy and worn car track closer to the shore but took the paved and (mostly) excellent road that parallels it a it to the south. Nothing special to be seen there, except I had a chance to take pictures of flowers. That was a treat because, at this time of the year, flowers seem to be somewhat rare. The images below will enlarge when you click on them.

   After two days of exploring the area, I head out across the country side to visit the closest town and stay a night.