Entering a timemachine and coming to Cuba

We were wondering a lot about what Cuba would be like and for us it turned out to be a very different and interesting part of our travels.. 

At the airport from Mexico there were no problems for Silje (brunette), but Silje (blonde) got  bodysearched. When we got to Cuba there was an extra check when we walked off the plane and we both got pulled a side for an extra check. Before this trip, Silje (brunette) took an audio-course in Spanish so that at least one could speak a little bit. So far, her knowledge had been well-used. However, in Cuba she felt that she hadn’t learned enough when the passport-control-lady started asking her questions in spanish about the police. She thought she needed a transcript of record from the police, which she didn’t have. The lady seemed annoyed and didn’t let her through and Silje (blonde) walked straight through. Silje (brunette) tried to ask if there was something she was missing, but the lady just told her to wait.. She waited and waited, and people passed her.. She was worried that she wouldn’t be let in to Cuba when a lady approached who talked english. “Policia” does not mean police, it means insurance, which we have of course, so it all worked out.

Our view from 13th floor

In Cuba you can stay in hotels, which is expensive, or at a “casa particulares”, which is a government approved family renting out a room in their home. We had booked a casa in Havana, so the first day we talked to the sister of the family who recommended us different things to do. Our first stop in Havana was the revolution museum. It was incredibly interesting to see, and we both realized that history is not one of our strong sides.

George Bush, Ronald Reagan and Baptista; "Thanks for helping us make the revolution"

We walked around downtown, the boardwalk and had lunch in Plaza Viaje. It was funny because the menu was pretty big, but when the server came he pointed to the items we could eat that day, depending on the food they receive, which was about 7 items. There was a band playing salsa, and people would get up and dance while eating. After that we went to the Malécon, which is the wall that rescues Havana from big waves. It is very important to the Cubans and they hang out there all the time, either just chatting or fishing.         

The Malecón

Everywhere we went there was some tagging on the wall, or a mural, or poster reminding people of the revolution, Castro and Che Guevara. We liked it a lot, it was very different and patriotic. We both got a little bit history-fanatic and started to look for special places which had a significance for the revolution and even decided to go to the city Santa Clara just to see where Che Guevara was buried.         

Revolution-poster in Calle 23, Havana

The next day we went to Plaza de la Revolucion, but unfortunately the tower was closed since it was Sunday. We decided to go to a famous ice-cream store, but we were not allowed to eat there because it was only for the Cubans, but we could buy from a little trailer outside. We found this very strange, since the store was written about in the book we were reading about Cuba. The girl from the Casa told us that this was because the ice-cream was very cheap inside the store and you could pay with the Cuban pesos, not the convertible “tourist” pesos. This was our first experience with the “divided” Cuba.         

Plaza de la revolucion

 The next day we took the bus to Trinidad, which is the second biggest tourist city in Cuba after Varadero. We were surprised by how little it was. It reminded us of one of the very small cities in Mexico or Guatemala. We went to the “Museo Romantico”, which was really a house full of antiques. We headed for the beach in a coco-taxi, which has the same speed as a moped, for 15 km, for 5 pesos, around 30 kr.         

Coco-taxi in Trinidad

On our way to the beach, there was of course a poster.         

Revolution-poster in Trinidad

Fader Pedro was incredible nice with us, showing us around the city and helping us with everything. He followed us to the bank because we had to withdraw money and there were no ATMs there. Everything seemed so difficult. The bank lady had to do everything on paper, unnecessary work. Pedro also made us breakfast and dinner with whatever we wanted. It was delicious! It was great because the restaurants all served the same food and we were getting pretty sick of eating the same things.         

The best breakfast in a long time

 We headed for Casa de la Musica, the biggest salsa “club”. It was an incredible atmosphere there. Absolutely everyone were dancing salsa,from the youth to the retired. We loved watching it, and wished we had more than one salsa-class in Mexico.         

Big crowd at Casa de la Musica

 The first day in Havana, we tried a fruit which looked a little bit like watermelon, but tasted differently. We have never eaten so much of a fruit before. It was our little treat for breakfast, lunch and dinner.         

Our new favourite fruit; Guayabe

 Before we went to Cuba other travelers told us that the internet was pretty slow, but we didn’t imagine how bad it was. Being used to having wifi everywhere, even in the beach in Thailand, we imagined that there was availability only that it was slow. However, to go to the internet in Cuba you have to go to a hotel or one of few internet-cafés, and it is expensive. We couldn’t skype, check our bank or even facebook most of the places because the internet was so slow. It is the same for the habitants of Cuba, they have to go to the hotels, none of the casas we stayed at had internet at home.         

We went to the beach Ancon a couple of days and it was nice. We took a 50’s car taxi for the first time.         

Taking a taxi in Cuba; 1950's-car

 We had heard that there were a lot of old cars in Cuba, but we didn’t know how much. We didn’t see many cars which looked like they had air-condition. There was a wide range of quality of the cars too. Some looked like they were glued together, neither the windows or the door could be opened, but occasionally there was a shiny and well-kept car driving around.         

One of many old cars in Cuba

 We couldn’t go to Cuba without going to a Cuban cigar factory. It was interesting to see how they made the cigar, we didn’t know it was actually made by leafs. Pedro and Carmen told us to not buy from the people in the street, because you could never know what they stuffed the cigars with.         

Watching the making of a Cuban cigar

We were recommended by Pedro and Carmen to only stay in Santa Clara one night, because there wasn’t much to see there. We imagined the memorial to be much bigger than it was, but it was a very small museum of Che Guevara’s life and we walked through in 30 minutes, and then we had read everything thoroughly. It was very interesting and definitely worth a visit, but we were happy we didn’t stay more nights here.         

Che Guevara's grave and monument

We talked a little bit with the son in the casa before leaving. He was going to the military in a month and wasn’t looking forward to it. We found it funny that the only reasons you don’t have to go to the military is if your feet is flat or you are crazy.         

Ravolution-poster in Santa Clara

 We decided to go to Varadero and have a little bit of luxury with a 4-star All Inclusive resort. It was low-season and a special offer so it wasn’t expensive. However, it wasn’t exactly a 4-star hotel. They had a lot of activities, e.g. dancing-lesson each day at 16, but they didn’t follow them through. They also had a lot of stuff, like tennis court, basketball court, but they didn’t have a basketball or tennis-balls. Also, if you wanted to do something, use the gym or sauna,everything closed at 17. It was too hot to do stuff in the day, we are talking 35 degrees and more plus humidity. In the night, there was supposed to be a different show every night, but instead they had bingo. Eventually, we found out that they were just lazy,when the power went out in the buffet, they didn’t even replace the cold food either..         

A little bit of luxury

We pushed the employees to actually do something and had merengue/mambo-lesson, played volleyball, borrowed basketballs and tennis balls.         

Playing volleyball in Varadero's 22 km long beach

Finally, our last night there was a great show with acrobats who were amazing. One jumped back-flip into a handstand  in the other persons arms.         

Sunset in Varadero

 

All in all, our trip to Cuba has been one big reality-check. People are poor, and have rarely traveled outside Cuba. One of the girls from the casa in Havana is actually living in Canada and was just visiting. She told us it was hard coming to Cuba from a place where you go to the supermarket and you get anything you want,you have cellphone reception everywhere and wifi a lot of places, like we do in Norway. One time Havana didn’t have butter for 2 weeks, eggs is a rare commodity along with soap and many other things. She also told us that it was just a couple of years since the Cubans weren’t allowed to stay in hotels in Varadero, it`s ridiculous!     

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Siljex2