Central American & Caribbean - Cuba, October 2016

 

Cuba, the seventieth country I have visited, and probably the most frustrating place I have experienced! Many of the simple things in life are not so simple here. Take easy internet access, for example. If you want to get online you must purchase a card to log into a single wifi provider, and this wifi is only located in hotels and occasionally public places. 1 hotel in town sells the card costing USD 5 for one hour, or you can go to a government building to buy them for USD 2. There we waited nearly an hour in a queue of 20 people as the sloth-like team of 5 staff served the customers, one every 5 minutes!! What's the incentive to work harder when your wage is about USD 20 per month (the same for everyone, regardless of profession)!? Logging on takes a few attempts entering the same two 12 digit codes. Be patient though, as the connection may cut out regularly and requires the codes to be entered again. So Cuba is definitely an opportunity to take an internet detox! This was fine for us, except that we were trying to apply for a dream job while here, and it took Raquel nearly an hour to send a single email!!

We managed to book our first accommodation in Habana through Airbnb, though the app didn't work in Cuba, but using an internet browser we could use it. We did have to fill in a form detailing our visit and giving a reason for coming. As tourism wasn't an option in the drop down menu, we went for 'helping the local people'! But strangely, even though there were loads of Airbnb listings in Cuba, once in the country we were unable to make bookings for anywhere else! As Airbnb is a US company, it wasn't strictly legal yet perhaps. Highly inconvenient for finding your next place to stay, especially for fans of Airbnb.

Before coming to Cuba we were excited at the thought of music everywhere, with live music on the streets and easily found at venues. This dream was dashed, as most bands played only at tourist bars and there was little evidence of authentic action. We asked one band of musicians where we could find the real deal, and they sent us to the famous Casa de la Musica, but when we got there it was shut for refurbishment! We went out a couple of nights in search of live music without success, and never quite found anything resembling the picture painted in the film Buena Vista Social Club.

Healthy and tasty food is a high priority for us and a major contributor to our daily happiness on the road! Food in Cuba is generally bland and boring. Again, there is no incentive to make it more exciting, as food ingredients are very limited (we failed in our search for peanut butter) and the same uniform low wages lead to minimal effort or customer service. Thankfully, after our opening night of greasy cheese pizza and a cheese and egg roll, we found two great restaurants which we returned to daily. These were Habana 61 and 5Esquinas Trattoria.

Our Airbnb hostess recommended visiting the beaches east of Habana, so we excitedly boarded the busy tourist bus there one day. As we neared the destination we passed mind boggling ghost resort towns with abandoned houses and overgrown gardens. We disembarked the bus at the most popular beach, passing through the premises of a tired looking hotel called Tropicoco, much in need of a lick of paint. The beach was littered with all sorts of rubbish, including cigarette butts, broken glass and lots of chicken bones!! We tiptoed our way across the sand to a quiet spot and made the most of the warm sunshine. Our peace was broken when a local couple scarring the beach with metal detectors had one almighty argument lasting half an hour! We decided to head back to town once we got our fill of vitamin D, not risking any of the uninvitingly empty food stalls. The last bit of 'fun' was waiting for the return bus, in front of Tropicoco hotel, where they dropped us and they said they'd pick us up. After a long wait, we missed the first bus, as it passed by at the back of the hotel, and we had to wait 40 minutes for the next one! We tried our best to explain to the bus staff how mentioning this bit of information might be useful for future clients!!

Enough of the negativity, time for the positives! My highlight was the colourful old American cars which have been lovingly maintained for the past half a century. They are everywhere, and have such wonderful beauty and charm. One evening we went to the National Theatre to watch a dance performance, by a Cuban group of about twenty. The incredible skill and positive energy was a delight to see, and we wondered how these talented individuals led this very different life path compared with other Cubans. On our final night we went out to an amazing place called Fabrica de Arte Cuba, which was converted from a factory to an art and music venue. This was a wonderful example of Urban Acupuncture, where we gazed at all kinds of photos and art, listened to live classical music, a Cuban rock band, watched a short movie, and ate and drank tasty and reasonably priced fare. Very funky spot, and great finale to our short but intense Cuban rollercoaster!

We originally planned to stay 3 ½ weeks in Cuba, but we changed our flights and escaped after a week, back to the freedom and ease of travel in Mexico. Cuba was an interesting experience, and a good example of how extreme left wing politics and economics works/doesn't work. Walking the streets of Habana, it was sad to see so many buildings crumbling and in disrepair. The few renovated and well looked after buildings belonged to hotels and the government. Change is happening in Cuba with more open thinking from its leaders (buying property is now possible for Cubans) and an influx of tourists. But the country has a very long way to go, to reduce the shocking poverty of its population and to provide the basic services that most westerners take for granted. We were the fortunate ones, being able to change our flights, and choose to leave.

Just in case you're thinking of visiting, here are the prices we faced, which were generally much more than those of Guatemala and Mexico. Prices are in CUC (the currency used by tourists, the Cuban Convertible Peso, different to that used by the locals), which has the same value as USD.

• Taxi from airport to town 20-25

• Airbnb double room including breakfast 25

• Meal for two 20-25

• Habana open top bus tour 10

• Return bus to the beach 5

• 5 litre bottle of water 1.90

• 500ml bottle of water at airport 1.50

• Night at the theatre 30

• Revolution museum 8

• 8 hour bus from Habana to Trinidad 25

• 6 bananas at local market 0.30

• Wifi internet access for 1 hour - 5 if you buy from hotel, 2 if you buy from government office (45-60 wait to be served)

• 5-10 minutes taxi journey 5-10

• Laundry wash 10