Ready for a bit of normality we winged our way back in to Cancun. After having quite a good time there the day before we flew to Cuba we were expecting Cancun and Mexico to be easy in a way that Cuba had not been. On arrival it took us quite a long time to get through customs and then I was randomly selected to have my bags searched. Why is the random selection always for bag searching and never for a free first class upgrade?! By the time we got through we had just missed the bus going to Cancun and had to wait for another 30 minutes for the next one. This was not going to plan...Tired and hungry we finally arrived at our hostel only to discover that it really wasn’t the hostel we had been hoping for. No window (as in the glass was missing from the frame) meant that it was dusty and noisy and the spotty Wi-Fi was really not what we needed after 2 weeks of being out of communication with everyone over Christmas and New Year. We are not normally travellers who are particularly bothered about being ‘connected’ but having been totally out of touch we at least wanted to the chance to check in quickly with everyone! Although we desperately needed to stop and gather ourselves for a few days we decided to push on to Merida (384MX/$26.30 AUD/20.45 USD for a? Hour journey on ADO) and give ourselves time to settle there. Those of you who are already long term travellers will likely be familiar with traveller’s fatigue and for those of you wanting to travel long term it’s something you should be aware of. People at home don’t generally understand that long term travel is not a permanent holiday and that it’s a lot harder than all the “totes instagramable” pictures suggest. It can really wear you down and make day-to-day existence really hard. We find that we have about a 3-month cycle and every 3-months we try to plan some time where we just stop and catch our breath for a while. We had a 9-day break planned in New York at the end of the month so instead of stopping we decided to carry on as planned in Mexico. In hindsight this made Mexico feel a lot harder than it really was and after Cuba, Mexico is a dream to travel around but we were tired. We decided to splash out and upgrade our accommodation in Merida to treat ourselves and try to shake off some of this travel fatigue. Unfortunately as nice as the room was there was something about the giant cucarachas in the bathroom that would have stressed out even the most relaxed of individuals. Dani decided that the best way to feel a bit better about the city was to book us on to a walking tour and once again we used the tour to orientate ourselves. We can highly recommend the Pink Cactus tours as a great way to see the city as well as get the local tips on where to eat as it is one of Mexico’s great food cities (try the gorditas on the left hand side of the Cathedral they’re divine). Merida is also a good spot to visit Uxmal ruins from. Despite having a 1 temple ruins per country rule in Central America we feel that Uxmal was definitely worth breaking the rules for. It’s not the biggest or the grandest but its beautiful and has a highly impressive pyramid at the entrance. It’s an easy day trip from Merida. You go to the second-class bus station (round the corner from the 1st class ADO station) and get a return ticket to Uxmal. Don’t worry your return ticket (130MX/$8.90 AUD/6.90USD) is open so you don’t have to figure out how much time you need until you’re there. We found that 2 hours was plenty of time and pretty much everyone on our bus to Uxmal came back with us at the same time. Merida is also famous for its Sunday food market so we had planned to leave on the night bus on Sunday night so that we could check it out. The food was good and the market was nice but I have got to say that it may not be worth planning your whole trip around being there for the market, which we do know some people do. After our day at the market, not really feeling totally ready to leave, we headed to the bus station to catch our night bus to Palenque (420 MX/$28.80 AUD/22.40 USD using ADO from the 1st Class bus station). We pulled into Palenque at 4.30am and knew that it was too early to go out in search of accommodation, so we made ourselves as comfortable as we could in the very cold bus terminal. At 5.45am Dani sent me off into the dark to try and find us somewhere to stay and I was lucky enough (after 45 minutes) to stumble across Hotel El Chechen. I’m still not sure how I got this beautiful, newly renovated room for only 400MXP ($27.45 AUD/21.35 USD) but I ran quickly back to Dani because he was even letting us check in at that point rather than waiting until a reasonable hour. I’m not sure our plan around Palenque helped with the travel fatigue but 2 hours after checking in (8.30am) we were off to the ruins. The ruins are really easy to get to from the center of Palenque without any need for over priced tours and shuttles. There are mini vans that run when they’re full for 20MXP ($1.40 AUD/1.10 USD). They leave from the center of town but ask anyone and they will point you in the right direction. They stop for you to purchase your park ticket 34MXP ($2.30 AUD/1.80 USD) at the entrance and then carry on to the ruins, which cost you a further 70MXP ($4.80 AUD/3.7USD). Palenque is beautiful and well worth the effort to get to just make sure you get in early before the tour groups arrive. It’s quite different from other ruins and has some fantastic hieroglyphs in some of the temples but the jungle setting is not quite what you imagine if you have already been to Tikal. We did however manage to spot some toucans flying over the ruins though which was pretty special. After a few hours wandering around we headed back to town, which was just as easy as, getting there as there was a minivan waiting at the entrance which cost the same 20MXP ($1.40 AUD/1.10 USD) to get back. Now, there are a few options from Palenque to San Cristobal, which is most people’s logical next stop. You can either catch the ADO bus that goes the long way around to avoid the illegal “tolls” or you can combine transport and a day trip via Agua Azul and Mi Sol Ha waterfalls which only costs you just over what the ADO bus would cost (330 MXP/$22.60 AUD/17.60 USD + 70 MXP/$4.80 AUD/3.75 USD for entrance to the 2 attractions). Mi Sol Ha is pretty enough but it’s really Agua Azul that makes this option worth it. The many aquamarine pool tiers that culminate in a stunning set of falls makes this trip totally worth your time. Our only tip for this trip would be that you should agree with your tour company that you will pay your own entrance fees and do this yourself don’t hand the money to the driver as the driver often ups the prices and takes a cut. You may also have read about this highway and it’s tolls and to be honest when you read about them the people who man them they sound terrifying. Most of the time these tour vans are not stopped but if you are, I promise they aren’t violent horrible criminals who are trying to rob you. These men are genuinely collecting money for the local area to help develop the community, as they are getting nothing from the government. No, what they’re doing isn’t legal but they are trying to support a very poor area. Men in balaclavas stopped us but they were polite and friendly and asked for 100MXP for the car making it only 5MXP each. After learning more about their plight in San Cristobal it seemed only fair that we pay their tolls as they have not been treated fairly and receive no help for their community from the government or local authorities. They are not the terrifying criminals they are made out to be.
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It was time to brave the Cuban transport system again and head to Cienfuegos ($6 CUC/7.80 AUD). Thinking we were being a little ridiculous we headed to the station a full hour early for the bus we had booked when we had arrived in Trinidad (if you are going to bus around the country we would recommend booking each journey at least a few days in advance) only to discover that the ticket we had been issued (yes this time we had paid for and been given a ticket even though it was the same bus company) was not our real ticket but the one we needed to check in with then exchange for the one to use on the bus. Leaving Dani with the bags inside I stood in line to receive my new ticket and I waited, and waited and waited! A full 45 minutes later I was about 12th in line thinking I may never get on the bus when Cienfuegos is called and all of us patiently waiting were ushered to the front of the queue. After exchanging our tickets we were told that we must put our bags in the holding room (despite being due to depart almost immediately) and then get on to the bus. Not really trusting the system, we watched anxiously as they loaded every single bag but ours onto the bus and I am not joking when I say Dani literally had to get off the bus and bring our bags over to make sure they got on while I informed a woman we had met that her bags had just been put on another bus. Once seated, Dani decided to inform me that while she had been sitting in the station waiting she had watched a scene unfold where not 1 but 7 people who had booked their tickets online for a bus to Santiago de Cuba had not had their reservations honoured by Viazul and the only bus going there that day was full. These were 7 people who didn’t know each other and had booked in advance between 5 days and 3 months prior to travelling. Viazul response “not my problem”. When we pulled out of the station 2 off them had boarded the bus anyway and we’re in a standoff and the bus had been due to leave 45 minutes before ours. The moral of the story is that you’re better off not using the Viazul buses as they are unreliable, slow and almost as expensive as a collectivo without the ease. We did finally make it to Cienfuegos, after our driver stopped several times to run errands and pick up some chicken and we vowed that we would avoid the company for the rest of the country if possible! We arrived at yet another lovely casa in Cienfuegos ($19 AUD/15 CUC) and were once again greeted by a lovely family. We would definitely recommend this casa as fantastic value but did feel after some exploring of Cienfuegos that a casa in Punta Gorda would be much nicer, simply in terms of location. We had given Jess from Trinidad our address so that she could leave us a note if she wanted to meet up (old school right) and we had arrived to a note saying she’d swing by at 6pm if we were up for dinner. We headed to a place around the corner, which became our regular for the next 3 days called Big Bang. It had the best value vegetable rice dish ($4 CUC/5 AUD) and certain items on their menu could even have been described as tasty. Cienfuegos’ old centre is beautiful. It’s got a great central square that is full of unusual architecture and the theatre is definitely worth checking out ($2CUC/2.50 AUD). There is also a great sea walk down to Punta Gorda which is filled with 50’s Miami style beach houses and at the end is a strangely beautiful Moor inspired palace/restaurant. There are also plenty of casas available down here that looked great. We had decided on a day trip to see the flamingos at Laguna Guanaroca while we were in Cienfuegos. The entrance to Laguna Guanaroca is $10CUCpp ($12.95 AUD) and can be purchased from a tour agency in town the day before you go or at the laguna itself for the same price (you will be prioritised at the gate if you’ve pre purchased). We had of course waited the now customary hour to get tickets the day before as we had been told we would need them, only to then arrive and have to queue for the voucher we had been given to be exchanged for an official ticket once we got there (are you noticing a trend here?!). In terms of transport we had arranged for a taxi to pick us up that morning, wait at the laguna for a couple of hours and then return us to Cienfuegos. The going rate for this service from everyone in town was 10CUCpp which didn’t seem unreasonable. This trip was very pretty and we had the most fantastic guide who had an awesome sense of humour, but I’m not sure it was worth the money. Dani and I have been lucky enough to see flamingos in Chile and Ecuador so in comparison this trip wasn’t quite what we’d hoped but I think we would recommend it if you haven’t had other close up experiences with flamingos before. One thing I really admired about this trip was how respectful of the flora and fauna the guides were throughout. Cienfuegos had been a great stop and we were finally ready to head to our last stop in Cuba. We had arranged a collectivo to Viñales and we were picked up on time and taken to Havana where we were transferring to another collectivo to finish the journey. All went well until Havana where we were transferred to another car and asked to pay for the first car. Not a problem you may think but we had agreed not to pay until we reached Viñales (which was the norm on all other collective journeys, pay on arrival in your final destination) and now here we were, only half way being asked to pay $50CUC of the $70CUC we’d agreed on. After an initial stress we decided to pay the money and thought we’d soon be on our way to the next destination. Not so! Having had our bags put into one car soon after arriving, we were then informed we would be changing cars (but obviously we were not told why) and then had to wait for over an hour to actually get going. Stressed and annoyed we arrived in Viñales to discover that the casa ($21.15AUD/16.80CUC) we had booked was out in the middle of nowhere. Luckily for us our concerns about this melted away once we met Leticia, our casa owner. We had potentially found the loveliest woman in the whole of Cuba. Set out in the countryside it was peaceful and relaxing and we were there, at last! Viñales is quite different to the rest of Cuba due to its location. I’m not sure I’d agree with the common perception that those from Viñales haven’t noticed that tourists are there when every second house is a casa and all food is quoted in CUC (a CUP restaurant is always cheaper and often found in local’s areas) but it’s warm and welcoming. Leticia and her husband offered to arrange a horse-riding trip for us with a local guide. At 5CUC ($6.30 AUD) and hour it seemed like really good value. We were taken to a tobacco farm where they also explained how to roll a cigar and gave us one to smoke. On site there is also coffee grown amongst fruit trees all of which is explained. We then rode up through really pretty scenery to a viewpoint over the valley before heading back via a lake. It’s a great 4-hour trip and we were both really glad we had done it. Due to our location we didn’t really do much else other than walk around the area but Viñales was a relaxing last destination. Leticia’s breakfasts were legendary so after stuffing ourselves silly on our last morning we were ready to head back to Havana. We had arranged our own transport and we were surprised when it did not show up, either on time or the reasonable 30 minutes after. Panicked we went back to speak to Leticia’s husband who said he would help us sort it and less than 15 minutes later up pulled another car ready to take us. Pushed into the back of the car with six other passengers, we were soon speeding down the road back to Havana. One thing we had noticed an abundance of throughout our travels around Cuba was broken down cars on the sides of roads. This was no great surprise to either of us as most of the cars on the road where somewhere in the region of 50-60years old. Clearly, a trip to Cuba would not be complete without our very own breakdown, so imagine our joy when about 70km outside of Havana our car rolled to a stop on the motorway. In true Cuban style the driver said absolutely nothing to us and just proceeded to open the hood of the car and stare into the engine redundantly and then walk away. We finally established after about 20 minutes that he had called someone to come and pick us all up but he was at least an hour away. So we sat and waited, and waited and waited. A full 2 1/2hrs later, up pulled our replacement car and we were finally back on track to get to Havana. As I said earlier we had saved the Revolution Museum for when we got back to Havana. We should have done it when we had the time because our driver had no idea where he was in Havana (this is really unusual) and he took another hour and a half to get us to where we were staying after we had arrived back in the city. This coupled with the delay meant we had no time to do anything other than eat as it was gone 4pm by this point, way past the midday arrival time we had anticipated. Overall we had a fantastic time in Cuba, but travelling around as a budget backpacker, while absolutely doable is hard work. Cuba is an extremely interesting, vibrant, resilient country but no systems or at least logical systems are in place even for tourists. Examples of this are that you can catch buses in one direction (Viñales to Cienfuegos) but not in the other (Cienfuegos to Viñales) or how you can get into a queue at a supermarket to buy soda, wait in line for 20 minutes only to be told that this is the line for the canned fish and you are going to have to get into another line. The trick is to just let Cuba happen. It’s hard work but worth it and we’re both so glad that we went. To help you through a backpacking adventure in Cuba here are our top tips... Rule number one in Cuba - always do something the first opportunity you get don’t think “oh I’ll do it later” because later it will be closed (the times on the door will say it should be open), they will decide to take a long lunch that day, the new rules say that activity only runs on Thursdays and every alternate Sunday, or you can only go in if your socks don’t match and at least one has pink spots. Bring things to make food taste of something: spices, Marmite, hot sauce, ketchup etc. Swap some CUC for CUP in ‘Casa de Cambios’ but only a little at a time because things are so cheap in CUP we struggled to spend the $40CUC we had changed in 2 weeks and you cannot change it back. Do follow the normal route around the country Havana – Viñales -Cienfuegos/Trinidad - Santa Clara - Havana don’t deviate it makes it much harder. Accept that things will happen, just on Cuba time not yours. This means making sure you are back in the city you’re flying out of at least a day in advance. Don’t bother with Viazul buses. They aren’t reliable, they take longer and they often cost a similar amount to collectivos but collectivos always drop you off at your casa particular rather than a central location. Also if your collectivos has been arranged by your casa it will be a door to door service. LGBT:Cuba is a pretty LGBT friendly country. We had no issues here despite sharing a double room across the country in Casa Particulars. We also learnt that Castro's neice who is a well respected politician in Cuba has been very supportive of the LGBT community over recent years which has helped changed attitudes in the country. Castro himself also urged for better treatment of the LGBT community during the last years of his life. Strangely unlike the rest of Latin America Cuba is actually more acceping of gay men than lesbians. This in part has been attributed to a film called Fresa y Chocolate which was released in 1994 that allowed everyday Cubans a glimpse into the world of gay men and see that this was not threatening. Cuba also allows free gender reassignment surgery and has done since 2008. Budget Time $$$Money wise Cuba was nowhere near as hard as I had predicted it was going to be. The dual currency, no American dollars, ATMs rejecting foreign cards, horrendous exchange rates…worries I had had and that had kept me up for multiple nights prior to arriving in Cuba turned out to be largely unfounded.
Here is what I learned:
What it really cost: $1,307.40 Accomodation: $485.72 Transport: $326.10 Food: $189.74 Entertainment: $135.44 Drinks: $104.14 Miscellaneous: $57.48 Souvenirs: $7.80 After the world’s longest wait at check in (you would not believe how much luggage/items people were checking in...hello karaoke machine) we were finally winging our way to the mysterious land of Cuba. Everyone has the image of Cuba being stuck in the 1950’s but I’m not sure how much you really believe this is true until you touch down at the airport. Even Havana airport is still decorated in red plastic with designs that were the height of sophistication in the 50’s and no, they haven’t decorated it this way to stick with a theme it really hasn’t been updated in 60 years! Out of customs and into the humid Cuban air, we were greeted by exactly what we had been promised…classic cars waiting to whisk us off to Havana. It took us a while to get a taxi to agree to take us but we were soon in the back of a stunning mint green classic ($20 CUC/25.75 AUD). Because we were going to be in Havana for Christmas we had decided to book an apartment ($37.94 AUD/30 CUC via Air BnB) in Vedado, instead of staying in a traditional casa particular (these are the original Cuban AirBnB effectively, and where you will stay if you are travelling Cuba on a budget). This turned out to be a fantastic decision because not only was it a gorgeous little apartment all to ourselves for Christmas but it was run by a really lovely young woman Anna, who was able to help us really get to grips with Cuba early on. Now, we had been pre-warned about Cuban supermarkets and the availability of food before we got there so we had stocked up on some basics to self-cater while in Havana (refried beans, canned fish, spices, hot sauce, flour for tortillas etc.). We were both fairly certain that this was going to be entirely unnecessary, but better to be safe than sorry…boy were we wrong! We fast learned that you don’t enter a supermarket in Cuba thinking “I need to pick up [insert required item]”, you enter a supermarket in Cuba and think “what can I do with [insert random items found on sparsely filled shelves]”. Available in abundance just before Christmas were canned mangos in 5kg cans, vegetable oil and soda. I managed to queue up for over thirty minutes to get some cheese and picked up some soda and felt like I’d achieved something as I exited with my purchases. We also managed to find a vegetable stall and picked up 2kg of tomatoes, some green peppers, cabbage and some dried black beans, which only cost us 71CUP ($2.70 CUC/3.48 AUD). Christmas was going to be strange but tasty this year. First full day in Havana we were up early and ready to catch a taxi ($5CUC/6.45 AUD) into the old town and see what all the fuss was about. We had booked ourselves onto a walking tour to get a better grasp of the city, as well as learn a bit more about Cuba in general. We found the tour really interesting and the guide was wonderful, but Old Havana itself lacked the character and charm of the rest of the city. It felt more like a Cuban zoo where gringos come to gawp at Cubans smoking cigars and eat in the only places in Cuba that can dream of getting ingredients other than rice, beans, chicken, bread and cheese. It’s got a crumbling beauty, and with all those classic cars in the background it’s “totes instagrammable” but it’s not real Cuba. Because of the time of year we had decided to visit, we spent our time in Havana exploring Vedado and Central Havana on foot. The great thing about Havana (and actually Cuba) is everyone is living their lives on their front doorsteps, so all areas are great to just wander around. We visited Plaza de Independencia and decided that we would go to the Revolution Museum on our return to Havana at the end of our trip. Due to it being Christmas and New Year while we were away we had booked our all accommodation around the country in advance, which is not something we usually do. In hindsight this was probably unnecessary but something to note is that the same properties are much cheaper on AirBnB than they are on the ground so it may be worth booking in advance to save money. Getting between cities on a time limit was concerning, as we had learnt the hard way (we went to book at the bus station) that certain routes are booked up weeks in advance and that collectivos are become your only option. Our next stop after Havana was Santa Clara and there wasn’t a single seat available on a bus for the next week and a half. Asking around we were quoted a minimum of 30CUCpp ($38.65 AUD) for the journey which would have only cost 16CUCpp ($20.60 AUD) on a bus. This was not a good start but luckily we discovered that collectivos from outside the National (local) bus station rather than the Viazul (tourist) bus station were cheaper. When we arrived there the morning we intended to depart we only had to wait 20 minutes for the car to be full and we were on our way (25CUC/$32.45AUDpp). As a point of reference, this is true around the whole country. Collectivo drivers with wait outside the Viazul and National bus stations (if they are different) in all cities and towns, without exceptions the drivers outside the National bus stations were offering more reasonable rates between locations. After an easy and efficient station to front door journey, we arrived at our casa ($22.67 AUD/18 CUC), which was another lovely house. Pedro, our host, had maps and advice for us and was able to provide us with breakfast everyday (5CUCpp) should we have wanted it (we found eating at local CUP places much better value for much the same food). The point of visiting Santa Clara is doing the pilgrimage to see Che Guevara. The actual memorial and location of his body is surprisingly understated compared with how revered he is around the country/world. Within the complex in addition to the mausoleum and memorial, there is a small but interesting museum dedicated to his life, which is well worth a visit and the whole complex is totally free. Also worth visiting while in Santa Clara is the ‘Che with a Child’ statue which is, we felt, a much better tribute to the revolutionary. It’s intricacy is fascinating and as a sculpture lover I really enjoyed this piece. Being in Cuba we had also wanted to visit a cigar factory and the one in Santa Clara came highly recommended, but you have to book your tickets through the government tour agency in the centre of town before visiting. When we went to enquire about tickets there on the morning of our first full day and the woman in the shop told us to return in 45 minutes despite being there to answer our question and not seeming to be in anyway busy. On return I asked her about going on the factory tour and her answer was “no”. I asked her why we couldn’t go on the tour and her answer again was “no” I would at this time like to point out I had asked her these questions in Spanish so I am still perplexed when I try to understand why the answer was no and why they had the tour written on their sign if they didn’t offer this service. This kind of inexplicable uselessness/lack of functionality within certain service based industries in Cuba is something we quickly had to learn to live with. Suffice it to say we did not get to visit the cigar factory that day, but we did walk past it and it looked pretty cool from the outside! In spite of not being able to visit the factory we spent a lovely day walking around exploring and observing the day to day life in Santa Clara. Honestly, Santa Clara is a small place and there is probably only a days worth of actual stuff to do but in hindsight it was probably our favourite place in Cuba if only because the pace of life there was so relaxed and with the exception of the Che memorial there seemed to be no other tourists anywhere. While trying to figure out how to get to our next stop in Trinidad we experienced our first (but certainly not last) mysterious lack of any logical system in Cuba. We intended to attempt to take the bus and so went to the bus station to try and arrange this. We arrived and having stated our intentions, were swiftly ushered into a small room where a man at a desk was playing on his phone. After standing there for the better part of 2/3minutes he finally looked up and asked us what we wanted. We explained that we would like to book tickets to Trinidad at which point out a children’s notebook, opened it on what appeared to be a totally random page and asked us to write our names down. No ticket was issued and he refused to take our money, from this point on he would not speak to us again and went back to playing on his phone. So, unsure as to whether we had a ticket or not we appeared to have been dismissed. On return the following day a good hour and a half before our bus ($8 CUC/10.40AUD) was due to leave we arrived at the station wanting to make sure we had tickets and to pay for them, or find alternative transport. This time there was a much nicer lady in the little room who confirmed we did have tickets for the bus but that we could not pay for them for another 45 minutes (WHY?!!!). This whole system made no sense, didn’t seem to follow any logical pattern and indeed would change through the rest of the country depending on what mood the person you were dealing with was in or what day of the week it happened to be, but we were yet to learn this.
Only 10 minutes late, our bus pulled out of the station and we were off to Trinidad. The place we booked ($26.90 AUD/21.35 CUC) was a quick walk from the bus station and Juan Carlos was probably one of the most welcoming hosts we had throughout our time in Cuba. Trinidad is a pretty city just to wander around and it was wandering on our first day that we ran into a woman I had met on the bus and her 2 friends that we ended up spending the rest of the day with. This is how we met Jess who convinced us to take the ‘Train of Tourists’ (literally what it translates to from Spanish) to the old sugar plantations, which was one of our highlights in Cuba ($15 CUC/19.45 AUD). This is a full day trip that takes you through some truly beautiful scenery. At the first stop (Manaca Iznaga) you can watch cigars being rolled and climb a tower that gives you some fantastic views of the surrounding countryside and at the second stop (Feneta) there is an old sugar mill factory you can wander around but it’s the seemingly untouched landscape that really makes this trip worth it. It being New Years Eve the day we did this trip, upon returning we then headed to the main square for some mojitos, daiquiris and salsa music. Unfortunately I wasn’t feeling well so Dani and I headed home to see out midnight watching movies in our casa. On New Years Day we decided to treat ourselves to a lunch buffet ($10.50 CUC/13.65 AUD) they have in Trinidad because they had an all you can eat salad bar and we were both starting to feel the effects of no fresh fruit or vegetables in Cuban cuisine and although it had the familiar flavourlessness it was definitely one of the best and most nutritious meals we had in Cuba. Needing to walk off lunch we decided to explore some of the surrounding neighbourhoods. Trinidad has some interesting areas to wander around and we found the Santa Ana church particularly interesting because not only are the ruins of the church quite cool but the offerings around to all the Santaria gods were really fascinating. There is no denying that Trinidad is obviously a very touristy city (by Cuban standards) and that affects the vibe and the people in less than positive way. However, having said that, we did really enjoy our time there and took full advantage of the smaller areas around the centre that could be explored. To be continued... From Toronto we were heading to Canada's next "big city" nicknamed Winterpeg by Canadians due to its extremely low winter temperatures. Winnipeg on our arrival was surprisingly warm. The journey from Toronto is long.... 38 hours to be precise. This is also providing that the train is running on time, which VIA rail are very quick to point out may not be the case. Unfortunately this is also one of Canada's less scenic route so come prepared to entertain yourselves. We were stocked up on food, snacks and had our travel kettle prepared for tea and coffee. Food on board is expensive so make sure you get it before you get on board because there are very few stops along the way. We were staying with a friend we had met while staying in Halifax. Tara our friendly Canadian had spotted fellow lesbians at the hostel and had approached. What quickly ensued was what Tara describes as the friend U-Haul. Within 24 hours of meeting she had decided we were cancelling our reservation in Winnipeg and staying with her. We rocked up to Tara's place after our epic journey and were welcomed into her home. Luckily we had Tara because I'm not sure what one does in Winnipeg without friends. We ate some really good Japanese, went down to the Forks, which was a First Nations trading post, and for the rest of the time we netflixed and chilled (the non dodgy kind) with our U-Haul friend. We sadly waved goodbye to Tara and Pusspuss (the cat) and headed towards Edmonton. We were stopping in Edmonton to stay with friends of ours we met and traveled with on our first trip. We had the most wonderful time during the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend being welcomed by our friend’s family for a big Thanksgiving dinner. Edmonton is another one of those places that you should really have friends for. We did enjoy our trip to North America's biggest mall though. From Edmonton it was off to Jasper. A word of warning the train is almost always delayed arriving in to Edmonton and it gets further and further behind schedule from there. This train journey is spectacular and if you can get a good seat in the dome carriage to view it will be well worth it. From here you can spot wildlife such as long horned sheep, bears, moose, caribou among other things. There are also beautiful mountain vistas and river views. Jasper is a great little mountain town, which is a jumping point for hikes and the Jasper National Park. We stayed at the H.I hostel 7km out of Jasper ($27.50 CAD pp. for a 36 bed female dorm) which runs a shuttle to and from town ($5 CAD) several times a day in summer and twice a day in winter but there are often people from the hostel who are driving to and from town. The walk in to town is also very pretty. If you are hoping to head to Banff from here be warned that other than hitching a ride with another traveller (possible at certain times) there is only one company that do this and it costs around $120 for the relatively short journey. While you're in Jasper something worth trying is the Bear Claws from the fudge shop in town. Also if you're coming from Vancouver or Edmonton it may be worth getting some groceries there, as they are expensive in Jasper. Due to the characteristically late arrival of the Jasper to Vancouver train we ducked in to the local microbrewery The Jasper Brewing Company (here we go again with the beer) to sample some of Jaspers finest brews. This was to be our last train journey in Canada and was just a gentle overnight trip arriving the next morning at 9am. This is another very scenic journey and well worth the trip. We were heading for Vancouver and the other coast of Canada. Vancouver is a great city for food and has some good tourist hotspots such as Gastown, Chinatown and the Grandville Market. It is a very walkable city and easy to navigate. We have a couple of friends in Vancouver so we split our stay between a friend’s house and an Air BnB ($70.60 AUD) in a central location. They have a thriving gay scene and until marriage equality was achieved in the states it was the most popular LGBT wedding location in Canada. Just be careful with the weather in Vancouver, as it is often wet. We also highly recommend the walking tours here (listed on our walking tour page) of Gastown, which was really interesting and also finishes up close to a very cool microbrewery called Steamworks which was worth a visit. Our last stop on our Canadian Tour was to Victoria on Vancouver Island. This involves a bit of an obscure journey from the centre of Vancouver. To get to Victoria we needed to catch a bus to the train station a train to the bus station then a bus to the ferry port ($5.50 CAD for bus/train and $17.20 CAD in for the ferry). This is a time consuming journey but is a lot cheaper than the alternative, which is a bus then ferry for . It is also well timed and a lot easier than it appears on paper. Once you reach Vancouver Island by ferry it is another bus to Victoria ($2 CAD). The ferry journey is an hour and a half, which is just long enough to grab a good buffet lunch on board. Seems a little strange but it’s a good buffet and some actually catch the boat just for lunch. In Victoria we stayed at the Ocean Island Inn ($27 CAD pp. for a 6 bed dorm), which we wouldn’t really recommend but unfortunately the H.I in Victoria has a couples dorm that excludes LGBT couples that meant we could not in good conscience support them. Victoria is a sweet little town to wander around. There is a floating market/community on the edge of town, which is really interesting and even has a few resident seals. Also of note is another microbrewery called Canoe Brew whish is a lovely bar to while away an afternoon. Victoria brought the end to our Canadian tour. Canada is a beautiful country with some very friendly and generous people. The thing about Canada though is it is really designed to cater to the outdoorsy types. As neither Dani nor I are in to hiking and we did not have a car a lot of Canada is inaccessible. What we were surprised by in Canada was their craft beer scene. You hear a lot about Portland, Oregon and Belgium and as a Kiwi expat living in Sydney I was aware of the developing scenes in New Zealand and Australia but Canada has some wonderful microbreweries from Nova Scotia to British Colombia. If you are in to craft beer I would seriously think about Canada on your list. Budget Time $$ What it actually cost: 42 days = $5803.23 Rail Passes: $1607.70 Food: $1419.30 Drinks: $568.55 Accomodation: $1406.46 Car Hire: $233.81 (including 1 prepaid tank of petrol/gas) Transport: $230.86 (tolls and public transport) Souvenirs: $190.59 Entertainment: $103.91 Miscellaneous: $42.02 Petrol/Gas: $28.07 From a budgeting point of view Canada was another interesting one for us. Having pre-bought our rail pass across the country and booked a number of AirBnBs we were again considering daily expenditures that were without two of the main daily budgeting considerations. Again though, we were pleasantly surprised by how much cheaper things in Canada could be with a little consideration and careful planning. A couple of little tips to keep costs down should you happen to do a trip that even vaguely resembles ours. 1) Never buy food on the train!! It is ridiculously expensive and often fairly poor quality. Yes, some of the journeys are unfeasibly long but just make a trip to a supermarket before you go and stock up on food and snacks that don't need refrigeration! (On a side note, we are actually those seriously weird backpackers that travel with a mini travel kettle and re-usable 'keep cups'. This may look and feel a bit strange at times but on the train this proved to be a life saver when we could have free tea and coffee whenever we wanted throughout many long journeys we took!) 2) Research public transport options and walking routes before you arrive in a new place. Everything in Canada is on a large scale and unless you plan really carefully you will often find that your accomodation isn't always close to train stations or major transport hubs. After a long and often uncomfortable journey on a train/bus it is incredibly tempting to just take the easy option! To avoid the urge to just 'jump in a cab' and waste $20-30 make sure you have an idea of means and routes to get to your final destination that do not involve this terrible money pit option! This piece of advice is a good one to follow in all countries and all cities! It also stops you getting ripped off by cab drivers if you do resort to a taxi as you'll have a good idea of how far you should be travelling and therefore how long it should take and how much it should cost! 3) If you are heading to Jasper or Banff for a short trip try to buy your groceries before you get there. Both of these National Parks are out of the way and therefore all of the supermarkets have extortionately high prices for everything! 4) Consider the different tax rates in each province. Alberta has the lowest tax rate of all of the provinces in Canada so if you need to buy electronics or anything expensive while you are in Canada and you are planning on going through Alberta then wait until you get there...you wouldn't believe how much you could save. (Avoid provinces like Nova Scotia, Québec and British Columbia for these kinds of things) Overall, Canada was definitely not as expensive as we thought it was going to be. This was partly because we made friends along the way who offered us places to stay meaning we saved on accomodation and transport in cities, but also just because good planning and organisation meant we didn't fall into evil money traps. We did not skimp in Canada (as you can see from the amount of beer that we drank) but we were careful not to waste our money in this relatively expensive North American destination. LGBT: Canada is an extremely LGBT friendly nation, having recently celebrated 10 years of marriage equality and having their prime minister march in pride. In most cities we visited there was a very large celebrated community and everywhere we went there were pride flags in windows and rainbow stickers on doors. This even extended to smaller places like Halifax, NS and Jasper, AB. The only places we heard of any major conservatism was in Alberta and even then everyone we met was lovely. Trains, New Friends and MicrobreweriesDuring our time in Canada the exchange rate was about dollar for dollar for CAD and AUD so I will only convert to USD from whatever currency we paid in. So, like Dani has a thing for universities I have dragged her to the corners of the earth in search of my family history. In all fairness, I do also have an interest in her family too, but in this quest yet again we were off to an obscure part of Canada to follow my ancestor’s path. This brought us to Nova Scotia, a beautiful part of Canada often left off people’s travel plans due to it’s perceived lack of visitor appeal. We had planned a few days in Halifax followed by a 3 day round trip of Cape Bretton Island. Due to the location of Nova Scotia and it's limited backpacker scene the cheapest way to explore is surprisingly to hire a car. This cost us $233.81 AUD/177.69 USD for 4 days. Tip: there are notice boards in all the hostels where you can join ride shares or advertise your car to share costs. We also found that the majority of hostels in the lesser-travelled destinations are Hostelling International (HI) hostels, meaning that a membership quickly becomes worth it. Membership cost varies from country to country but can end up saving you quite a lot. Also for Australian and New Zealand travellers your YHA membership entitles you to the same discounts. We stayed in the HI in Halifax, which cost us $30 CAD/22.80 USD per person with the discount for a 6-bed dorm. Halifax is a cute, small town with a great craft beer scene. Check out Garrison’s Brewery down by the ferry terminal with a sampler known in Canada as a ‘flight’ of beer and take home a growler (1.8lt) of your favourite. Canada is an expensive country to travel around; an easy cost saving method is cooking your own meals when in hostels. This may seem obvious to many of you but as foodies this is not something we do too often, as the food in a country/region is frequently a reason for our decision to visit. In Canada the majority of the country is famous for its produce (like the salmon in Nova Scotia) rather than specific dishes so buying local produce and cooking it ourselves seemed like a totally legitimate money saving choice! After a nice few days relaxing we were off around Cape Bretton. It’s a reasonably short drive from Halifax to Baddeck and we stayed at a nice social hostel called Bear on the Lake ($32 CAD/24.32 USD). This is some way from the nearest shops so make sure you arrive with supplies for meals. It is also close to a microbrewery called Big Spruce where you can pick up a growler (see picture above) for $26 CAD/19.76 USD and you get back $10 if you return the bottle to the brewery when you’re done. From here we made our way to Pleasant Bay along the Cabbot Trail stopping at some very picturesque towns along the way. If you’re anything like us (not many people are) you may want to stop at the Salmon Museum ($2 CAD/1.52 USD) in Margaree Harbour for an informative lesson on salmon, their life cycle and fly fishing. Dani and I are big fans of odd museums and Dani is an avid salmon eater so this seemed like the perfect stop (Dani was even able to pick up a souvenir patch for her backpack). The Cabbot Trail has some beautiful scenic spots and walking trails. We also heard about plenty of wildlife spotting however we weren’t lucky enough at this point to see a moose. Your entrance ticket entitles you to 24 hours in the National Park so you can take your time and stay along the trail like we did. We stopped at the only hostel in the park, which is another HI hostel in Pleasant Bay. We were pleasantly surprised when we were booking to find that a private double here costs the same as 2 beds in the dorm ($60 CAD/45.60 USD). This is another stop where you need to bring your supplies, as there is nothing around you. The next day we headed down to St Anns Bay (where my ancestors had settled) to see the museum they have there in the Gaelic College. This is honestly a bit of a let down but it’s good to see that the Gaelic community in the area is still thriving and speaking Gaelic. We wound back down to Bear on the Lake and then the next day on to Halifax. Tip: One thing that you should be aware of when hiring a car is that you should never prepay the tank of gas when you hire it. It seems like a very good idea at the time but it is a full tank. This means that unless you are going to make sure that the tank is on empty (ask Dani about how this almost cost her our marriage one month in) it is not worth it. From Halifax we were catching our first of 7 trains across Canada. Many Canadians we met were under the impression that the rail trip across Canada is very expensive but it doesn’t have to be. We paid $803.85 CAD ($610.54 USD) including tax (for non North Americans you have to watch this when checking prices as tax is rarely included) for a 7-journey pass. A journey consists of where you get on and off the train not the length of the journey. The pass lasts 60 days and the only condition is that you cannot go backwards. If you’ve been looking into travelling Canada you will probably be aware that it is one of the largest countries on earth. This means that what looks like a short trip may take you the better part of a day. Our first stop was Québec City, which was a mere 18 hours from Halifax. We were staying in an Air BnB property ($31.60 AUD/24.06 USD for a double room) just 1km from the centre. Québec is a beautiful walled city but I did have to disagree with the local who tried to compare the wall there to the Great Wall of China. We did a walking tour here as we find it the best way to see a city but we weren’t that impressed by the guide. A restaurant that is well worth checking out if you are looking to try local Arcadian (French) cuisine is Le Buffet De L’Antiquaire where a meal for 2 will cost you around $50.68 CAD ($38 USD). Also of note is the The Montmorency Falls which is an easy local bus trip from the city which costs $3.25 CAD. The next stop really was a quick journey (a mere 5 hours). We were staying with a friend of mine from NZ, which was great. I preferred Montréal as a city to Québec and it was full of funky little neighbourhoods. Each neighbourhood has something different to offer. Head to the Jewish neighbourhood for some amazing Montréal bagels at St Viateur Bagel or dance the night away in the gay district decorated for pride all year long. Whatever you’re in the mood for, you can probably find it here. One must try that wasn’t great for me (Riv the vegetarian) but was great for Dani (the omnivore) was Schwartz Deli. This Jewish Deli has been around since 1928 in the St Laurence neighbourhood. It is credited as the creators of Montréal smoked meat and is still “the” place to find it in the city. I can’t speak about the meat but Dani did look like she’d found heaven when she was tucking in to the sandwich (see food album for pictures). We also walked up to Plateau Mont Royal (the mountain the city is named for) for a pretty great view of the city (if you can appreciate it after a 2 hour zigzag walk up). From Montréal it was 7 hours to Toronto. Due to trains only leaving Toronto 3 times a week we planned six days here (which could easily be filled) but we were lucky enough to meet a lovely gentleman in Cape Bretton who had invited us to stay with him about an hour out of Toronto with his wife and daughter. Due to this we split our time between the city and our 3 glorious days in the country. In the city we were staying in an Air BnB ($46 AUD/34.96 USD), which was a short cable car ride from the centre, or a 7km walk. Toronto is a very flat city on a grid, which makes it very walkable. This gives you an opportunity to check out all the cool districts Toronto has to offer such as Little Italy, Little Portugal, Chinatown, Queen St West and Church and Wellesly (the latter two being LGBT districts). It is also a foodie city. The international flavours available are incredible and the quality is surprisingly good. There are also many all-you-can-eat places that are really cheap. Every backpackers dream!! Our favourite was an amazing Indian restaurant called Little India that cost $18 CAD/13.68 USD each for their lunch buffet. In the Distillery District make sure you check out the Mill Street Brewery. Not only is this district really interesting but also the flights are awesome (sensing a theme in Canada yet?!). After 3 days of wandering (including the obligatory walking tour) and eating we headed off to the countryside where our local hosts spoilt us. We were taken up to Lake Muskoka in Gravenhurst and on a steamboat to see the start of the famous Fall colours. Unfortunately we were a little early for most of the change but it was still a beautiful scenic trip and made all the better by the eccentric steamboat enthusiast who commentates the journey. Our wonderful host also drove us to see Niagara Falls, which is a site to behold. The thousands of litres cascading over the edge is something you can only really quantify by being there and allowing yourself to be drenched in the spray from the falls. We had actually researched how to get to Niagara from Toronto before meeting our host and found that the cheapest way to get there is via the Greyhound bus however there are trains/bus combinations you can take. (You might also want to consider hiring a car and driving down yourself. It’s worth noting though that the car parks right in front of the falls are $15-20USD for the day where as the ones a few minutes walk and a couple of streets back go as low as $5USD.) The Canadian side of the falls also has a lot of odd attractions and the usual tourist traps like Ripley’s Believe it or Not and Hard Rock Café. Dani and I have a secret liking for the overly tacky (see South of the Border in the USA road trip) so we had fun wandering past the dinosaur minigolf and Dracula themed restaurants!
We spent our last day with our host at a wonderful little community movie theatre where if you bring your own bowl they fill it for a dollar. From here we were off to Winnipeg but we’ll leave that for the second half. |
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