Cuba Libre

Impression:

Cuba is a socialist country to the extreme. There is no real advertising, most things are a ‘set’ price, there is no access to internet and only government approved phone calls out of the country.  Everywhere there are statues of Fidel Castro and billetons about ‘the revolution always’ and ‘Cuba Libre’.  It is unlike anywhere. Everyone knows about the 1950’s cars on the roads but to be surrounded by vintage cars, old Spanish buildings, crazy salsa and blaring Cuban music is like being in a time-warp on acid...maybe...

Havana

After a crazy time in the airport I’m pleased to say Bernie and I got our visas sorted and made it on the plane, Bernie with 10 minutes to spare. I have to say the idea of a spontaneous trip to Cuba was so crazy I never thought I would make it so I was surprised. Havana is a beautiful, big old city with cobbled streets glowing in the golden lights of the old-fashioned lamps lining them. There is a beautiful, lush park at every corner and incredible, big old Spanish buildings. That is in the tourist area. The real Cuba, where us students stayed, is your usual developing country with beggars, dogs, fighting, dirty streets that you’re not too sure where to walk on and completely inaccessible shops and cafe’s so far removed from western society you don’t even know what you are looking at. This is one of the few cities I would recommend staying in the heart of tourist land(there aren’t enough tourists to be a turn off) because it is so incredibly beautiful and unique.

Our time in Havana we spent wandering the cobbled and less cobbled streets. We visited the oldest Cuban cigar factory(via horse and cart) and learnt how to roll cigars, decorate them and place them in  the beautifully handmade and decorated boxes. Each person can make about 60 cigars working at full capacity a day. We visited La Floridita, where Ernest Hemingway used to drink, for some inspiration and a mojito and then headed down the street to the museum of the revolution, an exercise in propaganda where the Cuban government has created a shrine to Fidel, Ernesto and Camilo. That night some local cubano chicos taught us salsa in Casa dela musica. The Cubans go out to salsa after work and finish at 9pm. The salsa is vibrant, sexy and fun with lots of little acrobatic moves mixed in to increase the enjoyment.

Our last night in Havana we spent wandering Viejo-the old Havana. It was like being on the movie midnight in Paris when he gets sent back to the 1930’s(but with 1950’s cars). It was so fun and beautiful, very European but with the lively salsa at every corner. We even watched the players at Buena Vista social club play(through the window as all good students do). We found a chocolate factory with the most incredible savoury, nutmeg hot chocolate like the Aztecs did it and I was in absolute heaven. Havana is amazing and the more time I spent there, the more I fell in love with it.

Vinales

After our time in the beautiful old Havana we took a luxury government owned bus to Vinales, a rural town in a national park with trekking, spelunking, horse riding and rock climbing. The ride was beautiful; past the tobacco plantations, hillside and farm houses. Vinales was one of those incredibly sleepy rural towns with bright casas, beautiful scenery, little pot-plants and rocking chairs on every verandah and street signs that included horses and carts and tractors into the road rules. When our casa owner didn’t collect us, we followed a woman to her apartment overlooking the valley where she rented us a little room with access to the rocking chairs and a balcony. They also cooked us dinners and hooked us up with locals for tours. We hired bicycles that first day and explored the winding back roads of the town, past the colourful rural houses, farms and through parts of the hillside. It was stunning. That day was the famous ‘day of love’ (Valentines day) which the Cubans take very, very seriously. The phone lines were all busy we were told, because of the lovers calling each other. That night was a big party with all the single mob dancing salsa or standing awkwardly in the square. It was hilarious and fun to watch. The next day we were collected for a hike in the park. We spent several hours going through the jungle and plantations, stopping at a lake for a swim before ending up at a farm with a bunch of itlaiano and cubano chicos. There, a very obliging farmer made us some mojitos, rolled us a cigar and had a spanglish chat. All in all, Vinales was very chilled and sleepy with many cheap mojitos to be drunk!

Trinidad

It was in Vinales that the cold reality of the embargo dawned on me. I had 50 euro, 100 ozzy and 200 US, plenty for 1 week in cuba with a budget of 250 a week right? Wrong. The embargo means bad US rates with 10% surcharge-don’t bother unless you like losing 25% of you money and no, no one has heard of Australia here and no one will exchange it. Australian money is actually worth nothing here. I had $110 for 4 days leading to some extreme budgeting and removal of non-essentials such as food. This is the reason I spent 9 hours on a bus with crackers and my trusty vegemite my wonderful mother gave me which has become an essential part of this trip! It’s also the reason I decided to push the ‘set’ prices of everything and managed to talk down accommodation and get some meals included(all in our collective Spanish as no one speaks English here-especially in the our casa). Desperate times.  Trinindad is a beautiful, colourful and lively city on the beach. The streets are cobbled with a good mix of horse and carts, bicycles and 1950’s cars. The first day we spent cycling to playa del ancun(18km one way through little beach towns, farm land and amazing coast), picnicking on our crackers, tomato and a coconut and wandering past some amazing resorts with tourists frying themselves. The Caribbean beaches are beautiful with powdery white sand, aqua water and a perfect temperature. The huts cost 1 CUC but the trees are free!! We raced back just in time for our salsa lesson with the Cubano Chicos. This was so fun, in a little colourful courtyard of someone’s house, under a tree with vibrant Cuban music playing. We aren’t quite experts yet but I loved it!. Every night we headed to the Casa de la musica to watch more amazing salsa and Cuban musicians. The rest of our days we wandered the cobbled streets and just soaked up to Cuban vibe.

Accommodation

In Cuba you can stay in Casa Particulars which basically is just a persons house where they rent you a room for the night. You never know what you’re going to get. Our first Casa was supposed to be with a paediatrician and his wife, prebooked. We got there and they were full so we got put in their neighbours room(3 blocks away). The next few casas were the same story-people were full so we got sent to neighbours. It is very community orientated, there is always people you don’t know coming in the house(neighbours, cousins, brothers etc.) and lots of sharing. It was amazing to stay in a real family’s home though in one house we awkwardly tried to ignore a domestic between people we’d never met. 

There were lots of religious paintings, plastic flowers and porcelain figurines. It wasn’t always up to normal standards. Our last casa our room didn’t have glass in the windows or doors, a basin, toilet seats, water after a certain time or a door that could close(the toilet wouldn’t flush after Bernie broke the string off). It was a single mother and son in a little apartment on the fourth floor of a building in the heart of one of the dodgier parts of Havana. Bernie sent me to look and I felt so bad I couldn’t say no. The room was the families and they slept on the couch...What we paid them for one night was more than what most Cuban families earn in a week so I think we did the right thing. We had actually run out of money by then so refused breakfast but she made it for us free anyways and it was the best cooked brekky I’d had all week. The casa’s were an interesting insight into how the Cuban people actually live and the food they cooked us was proper Cuban food-beef/pork/chicken/fish/rice/black beans and maybe vegetables if you are lucky.

Advertising in Cuba-Casa Particular

A typical Havana street

Cigar Factory

Ernest Hemingway and me chilling

Casa de la musica: mojitos

Our casa stair case

Vinales streets

Horse and cart traffic

Biking around Vinales

Our rocking chairs overlooking the valley

Cuban cigars in Vinales

Vinales

Propaganda

Trinidad

Biking to Playa Ancon

Cubanos Chilling at the beach

Trinidad streets

Our casa's breakfast

A church in Havana

Once again this blog is too long but Cuba is an insane and amazing country and half a page will never do it justice. It was unlike anywhere I’ve ever been and will ever go. In a couple of years when the embargo is lifted it will change in a way that is hopefully good for the people but sad for the place. I feel lucky to have seen this snapshot of a country that seems to be frozen in time.