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
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