Havana

We arrived in Havana at night and were taken to our casa in a 1950s black BMW. Throughout Cuba the best options for accomm are the casas. Each casa is run out of a family’s home with a maximum of about 2-3 rooms and they cook you breakfast and dinner if you want it. Each casa is government approved and the government takes a certain amount from their business. On average people in Cuba earn about $25USD a month, and for one night at the casa it’s about 20USD each so these people are definitely the wealthier ones.

We arrived at our casa to super warm welcomes from our new little casa family and from our good friends from home, Guy and Emma, who we were really excited to see. Roly, the man of the house made us a few rounds of amazing mojitos (he had recently retired from 40 years at one of Havana’s best bars), and we headed out for dinner. Immediately we were harrassed by some locals who were far more in-your-face than anywhere Scott and I have been, not scary just a bit full on. We found a relatively good place for dinner, had some more drinks and then drove out to a club called Fabrica De Arte which is a really well known gallery/concert venue/bar/restaurant – so everything really. Unfortunately when we got there the line was wayyyy down the road and around the corner and we couldn’t be bothered waiting so we headed home.

The next day was all about exploring. Walking around Havana was probably my favourite parts of Cuba: neighbours hanging out of their windows chatting to each other, kids playing marbles on the street, men sucking on cigars, and that all too familiar reggaeton beat emanating from every second home. After a really nice and inexpensive lunch of pulled beef, salad, delicious croquettes and very strong $2 mojitos (the standard price) at El Chanchullero (recommended), we did the touristy thing and hired an old school car from an hour drive a around the city. As cliche as it was it was also awesome, and extremely hot.

After that, we got some ice cream – Nestle is the only brand and you can only buy it in tubs – okay, if I have to… We headed back to the casa for some time out of the insane heat and then went out for a surprisingly tasty dinner at El del Frente. The food in Cuba is rated very poorly so our expectations were low, but thanks to some good recommendations we actually enjoyed it. We spent a few hours here sipping on Negronis and Mojitos and eating yum tacos, and then went to watch some amazing live music in what felt like an old school hall. The musicianship was incredible and a few random people from the crowd got up to join – fun times.

Vinales

The next day we got a 4.5 hour taxi to Vinales. It was supposed to be 2 hours but our driver decided to stop randomly throughout the drive and have a smoke…yeh. This was the first time we experienced why, despite being beautiful, these old cars are not great. No air con and sticky leather seats aren’t that fun in the Cuba heat. We made it to Vinales and to our next casa where we were greeted by Osviel, our lovely host. He offered to make us dinner so after a walk around town and some drinks on the roof top, we enjoyed a massive dinner including a huge lobster tail each, for $10USD.

The next day we went horse riding through the stunning valley to a cave which we had a quick dip in. Now, if you have been reading this blog you’ll know bikes aren’t really my thing and yet I have found myself on them a few times. Well, horses are on a whole new level of ‘not my thing.’ Like, I reaaaaalllyyyy don’t like them. I have been on a horse maybe three times and every time I have been thrown off in some form. I appreciate they are beautiful but i’m good just looking from a distance, thanks. So I was feeling pretty queasy as we neared the start of the trek. I told the guide i didn’t like horses and so he gave me Fletcher, who he promised was the most ‘traquillo’…and he was! Good old Fletch looked after me and I actually managed to enjoy myself…for 5 minutes…when I could see the end of the trek. The landscape in Vinales is incredible. It’s so green and surrounded by crazy huge rock formations covered in the native flora. We stopped half way at a little shack for a drink and listened to an awesome local band. We also sat puffing away on a cigar while a local told us all about the making process. The swim in the cave was literally in a cave, like pitch black if not for headtorches, and the water was brown with mud, but it was fun! All in all it was a good day, Fletch was nice, but I still don’t like horses.

That night we had a great dinner at El Olivo, after which we sat up on the rooftop of our casa watching a dramatic thunderstorm roll in.

The next day we took a taxi to the second largest caves in Central America, and then on to Cayo Juntia for a bit of a beach day. This day was a bit average to be honest. I mean, caves are great and all, but if you’re not actually doing caving or something, they can get a bit boring. The beach was beautiful but because of insanely slow service, we spent 2.5 hours of the 3 hours we had waiting for food, and then it started raining. We did get some fun swims in though, and like I said, the beach was really nice.

Vinales was very pretty and very chill. Casa Osviel was awesome and the air con was prob the best we’ve had the whole time.

Trinidad

From Vinales it was back through Havana to Trinidad – about a 4.5 hour drive all up. They say Trinidad is like going even further back in time than Havana and I would agree. It was similar to a few of the cities we have seen so far, with the cobblestone streets and coloured buildings, but for me it lacked a little bit of interest. Though maybe that is just because of the fact we’ve seen a few similar already. We spent our two days there, walking around the city and visiting Playa Ancon – another beautiful beach. Once again the casa we stayed at was great as was the food.

After that it was back to Havana for another meal and drinks at El del Frente, before an early flight to Mexico the next morning.

Little Cuba tidbits:

• Because there is pretty much only one bus company (controlled by the government), transport is really expensive. You kind of only have that and the old cars to choose from which annoyingly actually makes Cuba slightly out of a standard backpacker budget if you want to explore.
• All along the motorways, there are people standing around holding out cash trying to hail taxis. I have no idea how long they stand there but there are a heap of them.
• Cuba is rather frustrating; it’s hard to buy anything really, apart from rum. And rum is about the same price, if not less, than water. Food is also hard to buy. We found Pringles, cocoa, milk powder and ham. That was about it. I still don’t know where the locals get their groceries.
• On Sunday everything is shut – which is worse than the south and central norm. Our casa family told us they shut because they don’t get power that day. Speaking of power…
• Their electricity comes from burning diesel they get from Venezuela. BURNING DIESEL! So good for the environment.
• There weren’t actually that many people around.The only time you saw a heap of people were in lines for ATMs, currency exchange places, and wifi cards and zones. This is because there were maybe one or two ATMs in the cities, or a few more but many didn’t work, and the only way to get internet access was to line up for a card and sit in a wifi zone.
• The beaches were full of locals getting wasted. They sit as a family in the water (not sure if they could actually swim) with bottles of rum. It wouldn’t be a big deal if they didn’t just leave these bottles to wash up onshore of these stunning beaches.
• There is a lot to do to prep for the direct USA flights. They will need to improve infrastructure, airports, money, supermarkets, and restaurants.
• Graffiti and billboard propaganda featuring Che Guevara and Fidel Castro is everywhere.

But with all this in mind, we wanted to visit before Cuba got easy, before it was made to ‘keep up’ with the rest of the world, before it got touristy. And 100% it was one of the most interesting countries I have ever visited.

It seems most Cuban people have a basic, happy life. Their homes open up onto the streets and it feels like the neighbours can just turn up to each other’s house without a reason. They don’t shut themselves off from each other like a lot of Western countries do. It is a serious step back in time, and some streets look like movie sets rather than reality. One of the things we noticed compared to where we have been is that there were no visible guns or obvious crime and kids were out and about at all times of the day and night. The Cuban people were really friendly and they all have a natural swagger money can’t buy. They seem happy, and I couldn’t help but wonder what they will have to sacrifice in this push to make their country more ‘user-friendly’.