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...
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